Amos A. Lawrence

Amos Adams Lawrence (July 31, 1814 – August 22, 1886) was an American businessman, philanthropist, and social activist. He was a key figure in the United States abolitionist movement in the years leading up to the Civil War and the growth of the Episcopal Church in Massachusetts. He was instrumental in the establishment of the University of Kansas and Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Lawrence was born in Boston, Massachusetts on July 31, 1814. His father, Amos Lawrence, was a merchant, philanthropist, and member of the prominent Lawrence family.

He was educated at Groton Academy and was graduated at Harvard College in 1835.

Following his graduation from Harvard, Lawrence entered business for himself as a commission merchant and eventually became owner of Ipswich Mills, the largest producer of knit goods in the country.^{[citation needed]}

In 1858 and 1860, he was a candidate for governor of Massachusetts.

Lawrence financed the founding of the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, which was named after him.

In 1847, he founded a college that is today Lawrence University on 5,000 acres (20 km²) of land that he had purchased in 1844 in the Fox River Valley. Some of the land he purchased became Appleton, Wisconsin, named for his father-in-law.

His farm outside of Boston became the campus for Boston College. From 1857 to 1862 he was treasurer of Harvard College, and from 1879 to 1885 an overseer. Lawrence also contributed large sums of money to Harvard, the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Lawrence Academy, and Groton School.