Life By Faith - Alexander T. McGill (1807-1889)

Life By Faith - Alexander T. McGill (1807-1889)

The surnames of Alexander, Miller, Hodge, and Warfield represent familiar faculty from the history of Princeton Theological Seminary, but despite his having taught in the seminary for nearly thirty years, Alexander Taggart McGill is not very well known. He was born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, February 24, 1807, to his Scots-Irish parents, John, who was a weaver, and Mary Taggart. He grew up in the Associate Presbyterian Church. For his education he remained in Canonsburg attending Jefferson College’s preparatory school and then continued his studies in the college. He graduated first in his class of twenty six in 1826 and remained on campus for two additional years teaching Latin. At the same time he was studying Hebrew and theology in the Associate Theological Seminary in Canonsburg with the intention of entering the ministry. Because of health problems, he moved south to Milledgeville, Georgia. It appears he had decided not to become a minister, or at least not yet, because he worked in Georgia as the principal of Baldwin Academy. Income from his school work allowed him to study law under the tutelage of former Georgia Governor David B. Mitchell resulting in his admittance to the practice of law. Other work done by him in Georgia included a clerk’s position in the lower house of the state legislature and he was appointed the commissioner to survey the Cherokee Land Reservation within the state.