Biography

He was born in Manchester, Vermont in 1827 to John Aiken and Harriet Adams Aiken. He graduated from Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

 in 1846, and went on to Andover Theological Seminary, where he graduated in 1853. He married Sarah Noyes on October 17, 1854, and was ordained a pastor of the Congregational church

Congregational church

Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

 in Yarmouth, Maine

Yarmouth, Maine

Yarmouth is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, located approximately ten to fifteen miles north of Portland. Its population was 8,349 at the 2010 census....

, that same year. In 1858, he took the position of professor of Latin languages and literature at Dartmouth, remaining in that position through 1866. He left there to teach at the Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 then, and continued there through 1869. In 1869, he became the president of Union College

Union College

Union College is a private, non-denominational liberal arts college located in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents. In the 19th century, it became the "Mother of Fraternities", as...

. He left that position in 1871, to become the first Archibald Alexander

Archibald Alexander

Archibald Alexander was an American Presbyterian theologian and professor at the Princeton Theological Seminary...

 professor of Christian ethics and apologetics at Princeton Theological Seminary

Princeton Theological Seminary

Princeton Theological Seminary is a theological seminary of the Presbyterian Church located in the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey in the United States...

. He remained in that position until his death in 1892.