Lemuel Moss was born on December 27, 1829, in Bullittsville, Boone County Kentucky.

He was a clergyman, educator, editor, and author. A printer by trade, he worked in Cincinnati, Ohio until 1853. He graduated from the University of Rochester (B.A., 1858; an honorary D.D., 1868, and LL.D.; 1883). He also received a degree from the Rochester Theological Seminary in 1860 and served as the Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Worcester, Mass. (1860–1864) and in Woodbury, New Jersey (1864–1866). He also served as the secretary of the U.S. Christian Committee (1864–1865). In 1865, he became Professor of Theology at the University of Lewisburg (now Bucknell University) until 1868. In 1874, Moss accepted the position as President of the University of Chicago and in 1875, he became the 6th President of Indiana University until 1884 when a scandal with a female professor caused him to resign his post. After a few years away from academia, he returned as a lecturer of Christian Sociology at Bucknell University, where he remained until his death. He was a member of the National Council of Education (1880–1884), vice president of the American Baptist Missionary Union (1883–1884), president of the department of higher education, a part of the National Education Association (1883–1884), and president and vice president of the American Baptist Historical Society (1895-1904). He served as editor of the National Baptist (1868-1902), the Baptist and the Centenary (1876), The Examiner (1889-1893), and The Baptist Commonwealth (1897). He published "Annals of the Christian Commission" (8 vols, 1868).

In 1851, he married Harriet B. Bingham (1830-1910). He died on July 13, 1904, in New York City, New York.