The Biographical Dictionary of America/Bascom, Henry Bidleman

​BASCOM, Henry Bidleman, educator, was born at Hancock, N.Y., May 27, 1796. He received his license to preach in 1813, and for some years thereafter his work lay on the Ohio frontier. After serving in Tennessee and Kentucky, he was, in 1823, appointed chaplain to Congress, and in 1827 he was elected first president of Madison college, Pa., where he remained until 1829. From 1832 to 1841 he held the chair of moral science and belles lettres at Augusta college, and in 1842 became president of Transylvania university, which office he retained until his death. In 1845 he was a member of the Louisville convention which organized the Methodist church, south, and was the author of its report, and chairman of the reconciliation committee. From 1846 to 1850 he was the able editor of the Southern Methodist Quarterly Review. He was made bishop of the M.E. church, south, in May, 1850. His complete works were published after his death, which occurred at Louisville, Ky., Sept. 8, 1850.