Rev. George Junkin, D. D., LL. D., son of Joseph Junkin, and the sixth of fourteen children, was born in Cumberland county, Pa, November 1st, 1790. His earliest years were spent on his father's farm, where, by close application to study in the intervals of work, he prepared for college. He graduated at Jefferson in 1813. After studying theology privately for some time, he entered the Theological Seminary of the Associate Reformed Church, in New York City. Having completed his theological course, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Monongahela, September 13th, 1816. He was soon called to the charge of the United Congregations of Milton and McEwensville, Pa., where he remained about eleven years. In 1830 he became Principal of the Manual Labor Academy, at Germantown, one of the first institutions of the kind to go into operation in the United States-the Fellenberg Academy, in Massachusetts, being started about the same time and on the same plan by Prof. James H. Coffin, afterward an associate of Dr. Junkin in Lafayette College. Two years later he became the first President of Lafayette College. In 1841 he accepted the Presidency of Miami University, Ohio. remaining three years, when he again returned to Easton. He was Moderator of the General Assembly in 1844. In the fall of 1848 he again left his " lovely Lafayette," to accept the position of President of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University), Virginia. Here he remained until May, 1861, when he resigned the presidency and removed to Philadelphia. He was now seventy-one years of age, but with force unabated he filled up his remaining days with an activity almost past belief. Among the soldiers, in camp, field and hospital, as a colporteur, a preacher and a writer, he worked on with a marvelous zeal and vigor. He died in Philadelphia May 20th, 1868.
Dr. Junkin was a man of acknowledged ability, and profoundly learned, especially in theology and metaphysics. These were his favorite pursuits, in which he excelled both as a student and as a teacher. Men of eminence in Church and State, who sat at his feet during their educational career, give their cheerful testimony to his magnetic power over his students, and to his enthusiasm as well as his profound learning in the subjects which he taught. Of his powers, however, I cannot more fitly speak than in the words of Dr. Breed: "The mind of Dr. Junkin well harmonized with the material home in which it lodged--massive, compact and strong. To say that he was a man of talents-of talents of a very high order-is to say the truth, but only a part of the truth. He was a man of genius--with all the force, fire and originality of true genius." Of his qualities of heart Dr. Knox, with equal truth, says: " A man of greater magnanimity, of truer, deeper, tenderer affections, I do not believe ever lived."
