The Men of Lafayette, 1826-1893
Lafayette College, Its History, Its Men, Their Record
Selden J. Coffin 1891 
Easton 

Rev. William Cassady Cattell, D. D., LL. D., was born at Salem, N. J, August 30, 1827.  He graduated at the College of New Jersey in 1848, and pursued a four years' course in theology at Princeton, where he was Associate Principal of the Edgehill Academy from 1853 to 1855.  

He was ordained by the Presbytery of Newton in 1856.  On the resignation of Rev. Dr. Burrowes, in the spring of 1855, he was called to the chair of Latin and Greek in Lafayette, which he resigned in August, 1860, to accept the pastorate of the Pine Street Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg, where his labors were crowned with success, and he was greatly beloved by his congregation.  In 1863 he was elected President of Lafayette, which position he held for twenty years, until impaired health through overwork, obliged him to tender his resignation.  During this long period of assiduous service, besides contributing continually and liberally of his means, he gave his personal labor for a merely nominal salary.  Dr. Cattell is a member of numerous learned societies, a superior scholar, an accomplished and affable gentleman, of great energy of character and an excellent preacher.  Of recent years he has accomplished a great work as Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Relief for Disabled Ministers. (Nevin's Encyclopedia).