Holland Nimmons McTyeire

Holland Nimmons McTyeire (July 28, 1824 – February 15, 1889) was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, elected in 1866. He was a co-founder of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He was a supporter of slavery in the United States.

Early life Holland McTyeire was born on July 28, 1824, in Barnwell County, South Carolina. His parents, Capt. John McTyeire and Elizabeth Nimmons, were both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. His father was "a cotton planter and a slaveholder."

McTyeire attended the higher schools available at the time: first at Cokesbury, South Carolina, then Collinsworth Institute in Georgia. He graduated from Randolph-Macon College in Virginia (A.B. degree, 1844). This connection led to Vanderbilt giving McTyeire two $500,000 (~$ in ) gifts, which the bishop used to found Vanderbilt University.

Views on slavery McTyeire "fully supported slavery as part of human nature." In 1859, he published Duties of Christian Masters, where he opined that slavery was "God’s punishment and that he, as a follower of the faith, was bound to do all in his power to ensure this continued." Meanwhile, the McTyeire School for Girls, founded by Young John Allen and Laura Askew Haygood in Shanghai, China, is also named in his honor.