Grinnell, Josiah (Bushnell) (1821-1891)

US politician, abolitionist, and clergyman. A self-described pioneer, farmer, and radical, he did much to build Iowa agriculturally and through the introduction of the railroads. After being forced from his Congregational pulpit in Washington, DC, for delivering antislavery sermons, he followed the advice of his friend Horace Greeley to ‘go West’. Moving to Iowa, he was cofounder of the town of Grinnell (1854) and planned the future Grinnell College. He fought forcefully for temperance and against slavery. Representing Iowa as a Republican, he was elected to the US Congress (1863-67), where he vigorously supported Abraham Lincoln and suffrage. He lost the Republican nomination for governor in 1867. Grinnell was born in New Haven, Vermont.