Charles Samuel Cleland was born on December 17, 1863, in Owatonna, Minnesota. He graduated from Monmouth College in 1887 and later attended Xenia Seminary. He was ordained in 1890 and that year began to serve as pastor at LeClaire Prairie, Iowa; in 1893 he was moderator to the Iowa Synod. In 1894 he transferred to the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, where he would remain until 1935. In 1900 he was moderator to the New York Synod, and in 1932 he was General Assembly Moderator. In 1923-1924 he undertook a journey to mission fields in the Sudan, Egypt, Abyssinia, and India for the Board of Foreign Missions (UPCNA). He died September 22, 1944.