At the age of twenty, Deloss W. Minshall (1828-1901) moved from Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, to Terre Haute and distinguished himself as a clothier, financier, and philanthropist. A lifelong member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he gave $50,000 to DePauw University for a chemical and physical laboratory building, and on June 12, 1901 the cornerstone of Minshall Laboratory was laid. DePauw's benefactor could "converse with grasp of subject and luminous exposition upon topics that were scientific, speculative or metaphysical, historical or relating to general belles letters. We should make our lives so honorable that they should stand for something," according to Minshall.