Samuel Fallows (December 13, 1835 – September 5, 1922) was an English American immigrant, minister, lecturer, and author. He was the 9th Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisconsin and served as Presiding Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church for 30 years between 1877 and 1922. During the American Civil War he served as a chaplain and later as an officer in the Union Army, receiving an honorary brevet to Brigadier General after the war.

Fallows was born in Pendleton, Greater Manchester, in England, and emigrated to the Wisconsin Territory as a child in 1848.^[1] His family settled at Marshall (then called "Bird's Ruins") in eastern Dane County, and established a farm.^{[2]: 238 [3][4]: 231} He worked as a farm hand to pay for school, becoming a Methodist minister in 1858 and graduating from the University of Wisconsin (now University of Wisconsin–Madison) in 1859. He was elected Vice-President and principal of Galesburg University and served there for two years, then became minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.^{[4]: 231 [note 1][5]}

Colonel Fallows returned to his ministry after the war and was a pastor for two of the largest churches in Milwaukee, including three years (1865–1868) as pastor of Summerfield United Methodist Church.^[5] In 1866, Fallows was appointed to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents by Governor Lucius Fairchild, serving until 1874. In 1870, when the State Superintendent of Public Instruction Alexander J. Craig died in office, Fairchild appointed Fallows to fill that position. Fallows was subsequently elected in a special election for the remainder of the term in 1870 and re-elected to a full term in 1871, leaving office in January 1874.^[3][7] While serving as Superintendent, Fallows earned his Doctorate of Divinity (D.D.) from Lawrence University in Appleton.^[8] Throughout his postwar career, he was a public figure notable for his efforts in public education, prison reform, labor rights, and the temperance movement.^[7]

In 1874, he moved to Bloomington, Illinois, and was appointed President of Illinois Wesleyan University.^[2]: 239 The following year he joined the newly organized Reformed Episcopal Church and moved to Chicago, where he became Rector of St. Paul's Reformed Episcopal Church. In 1876, he became editor of the Appeal, the magazine of the church, and later that year, on July 15, he was elected Presiding Bishop of the new church.^[8] He subsequently served in that role for 30 of the next 50 years.^[9][10]

After his service in the war, Colonel Fallows became a companion of the Illinois Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States and was the chaplain of the Grand Army of the Republic. He also served as chaplain at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., just months before his own death in 1922.^[4]: 231

Fallows died after a bad case of influenza at his home in Chicago on September 5, 1922, with his daughter Alice at his bedside. He was cremated and his remains were sent to Massachusetts to be interred alongside his wife, Lucy, who had died in 1916.^[11] A memorial was erected to Fallows and his wife at Forest Home Cemetery, in Forest Park, Illinois.^{[4]: 231 [12]} At the time of his death, he was the oldest living alumni of the University of Wisconsin.^[10]

In 1860, Reverend Fallows married Lucy Bethia Huntington, a niece of Reverend Frederic Dan Huntington, of Massachusetts.^[13] Lucy died in 1916. They had at least four children together:

• Edward Huntington Fallows, an attorney who lived in New York
• Major Charles Samuel Fallows, lawyer, Saratoga, California
• Mrs. Helen Mayer Williams of San Francisco
• Alice Katherine Fallows

• List of bishops of the Reformed Episcopal Church