Edmund Burke Fairfield

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Edmund Burke Fairfield (August 7, 1821 in Parkersburg, Virginia (now West Virginia)–1904) was a U.S. pastor, politician, college president and chancellor. He was descended from a Frenchman by the name of Beauchamp, at some point the name was anglicised to Fairfield.

He graduated from Oberlin College in 1842 and became a tutor there.

He spent two years as a Christian minister in New Hampshire, and two in Boston as pastor of the Ruggles Street Baptist Church. Then, in 1848, he became President of the Michigan Central College, renamed Hillsdale College in 1853, and remained in this office until 1869.

During the years 1857-61 he was a Michigan state senator and Lieutenant-Governor, and made a widely-published speech on the "Prohibition of Slavery in the Territories".

He received a number of honors in the academic world, before, in 1876, being elected Chancellor of the University of Nebraska.

In the theological field, Fairfield, having been a Baptist pastor, became convinced that the doctrines of Baptists were without sufficient foundation for him to remain a minister in any Baptist denomination. He delineated his views in his Letters on Baptism (1893)