Alexander Winchell was born on December 31, 1824, in North East, Dutchess County, New York.

He was a geologist, educator, and author. He graduated from the Wesleyan University, Connecticut, in 1847. He taught at various schools in New Jersey, New York, and Alabama. He served as president of the Masonic University at Selma, Alabama, in 1853. In 1854, Winchell was appointed Professor of Physics and Civil Engineering at the University of Michigan, eventually becoming Professor of Geology and Paleontology. In 1859, he was appointed as State Geologist of Michigan. In 1863, he got a lease on a cotton plantation near Vicksburg, Mississippi, and organized the Ann Arbor Cotton Company. In 1864, he returned to Michigan and in 1865, he was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society. In 1872, he was appointed chancellor of Syracuse University, New York, but resigned in 1874. In 1875, he served as a Professor of Geology and Zoology at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee. There, his controversial views on evolution diverged from Biblical teaching (“inferiority of Negro”) and expressed in his book “Adamites and Preadamites: Or, A Popular Discussion” (1878), were not acceptable to the University administration. Winchell was obligated to resign in 1878. He then returned to the University of Michigan, where he was a Professor of Geology and Paleontology. In 1888, he founded the American Geological Society and The American Geologist.

In 1849, he married Julia Frances Lines (1825–1920). He died on February 19, 1891, in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, Michigan.