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BX9S(o7 
V.4 


HERALDS  OF  A  LIBERAL  FAITH 
Zi}t  pilots; 


HERALDS  OF   A   LIBERAL 


FAITH 


EDITED   WITH    AN    INTRODUCTION    BY 

SAMUEL  ATKINS  ELIOT 


ur   f^h'.'^/^ 


MAY  10  1954 


IV 


THE    BEACON    PRESS    •    BOSTON 


Copyright   1952 
The  Beacon  Press 


Library  of  Congress  Catalog  Card  Number:  A11-1203 
.     Printed  in  U.S.A. 


Qui  autem  docti  fuerint  fulgebunt  quasi  splendor  firmamenti 
et  qui  ad  justitiam  erudiunt  multos  quasi  stellae  in  perpeiuas 
aeternitates. 


They  that  be  wise  shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament 
and  they  that  turn  many  to  righteousness  as  the  stars  forever 
and  ever. 

DANIEL  XII :   3 


Charge  them  to  live  soberly,  righteously  and  godly.  Endeavor 
the  preventing  of  idleness,  pride,  envy,  malice  or  any  vice  what- 
soever. Teach  them  good  manners,  civil,  kind,  handsome  and 
courteous  behavior.  Render  them  truly  serviceable  in  their 
world. 

BENJAMIN  WADSWORTH,    1 725 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

FOREWORD.     Frederick  May  Eliot xiii 

INTRODUCTION XV 

William  Rounseville  Alger 3 

Charles  Gordon  Ames 7 

Abraham  Mitrie  Rihbany 

Wilson  Marvin   Backus 15 

John  Robert  Effinger 
Allen  Walton  Gould 
Fred  Vermilia  Hawley 

Henry  Hervey  Barber.     Clayton  R.  Bowen 19 

James  Thompson  Bixby 
Clayton  Raymond  Bowen 
Francis  Albert  Christie 
Frank  Carleton  Doan 
George  Rudolph  Freeman 
Nicholas  Paine  Gilman 
Robert  James  Hutcheon 
Abraham  Willard  Jackson 

William  Sullivan  Barnes.     Sydney  B.  Snow 27 

Samuel  June  Barrovv^s.     Richard   C.  Humphreys 30 

William  Henry  Spencer 

George  Murillo  Bartol.     Frederick  L.  Weis 32 

George  Sumner  Ball 
Chester  Covell 
Henry  Clay  De  Long 
James  Cameron  Duncan 
Milton  Jennings  Miller 
Joseph  Nelson  Pardee 
George  Stetson  Shaw 
Samuel  Barrett  Stewart 

George  Batchelor.     Samuel  M.  Crothers 38 

Charles  Elliott  St.  John 
Lewis  Gilbert  Wilson 


viif  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Seth  Curtis  Beach.     Reuel   W .  Beach 43 

Samuel  Collins  Beane.     Samuel  C.  Beane,  Jr 48 

Enoch  Powell 

Daniel  Webster  Morehouse 

Bradley  Oilman 

Antoinette  Brown  Blackwell 52 

Celia  Burleigh 
Mary  Hannah  Graves 
Mary  Augusta  Safford 
Marion  Murdoch 
Caroline  Bartlett  Crane 
Ida  C.  Hultin 
Helen  Grace  Putnam 
Eleanor  Elizabeth  Gordon 
Eliza  Tupper  Wilkes 
Mary  Leggett  Cooke 
Martha  Chapman  Aitkin 
Marie  Jenney  Howe 
Florence  Buck 
Anna  Garlin  Spencer 
Mary  TraflFern  Whitney 
Celia  Parker  Woolley 

Henry  Frederick  Bond.     Alfred  Manchester 59 

Alfred  Manchester 

Howard  Nicholson  Brown.     John  Carroll  Perkins 62 

William  Henry  Lyon 

Ellery  Channing  Butler.     Benjamin   R.   Bulkeley 66 

John  Calvin  Kimball 
Daniel  Munro  Wilson 

Samuel  R.  Calthrop.     John  H.  Applebee 69 

Norbert  Fabian  Capek.     Herbert  Hitchen 73 

John  White  Chadwick.     William   C.   Gannett 75 

James  Vila  Blake 

William  Ladd  Chaffin 82 

George  Leonard   Chaney.     Henry    Wilder   Foote 88 

Amory  Dwight  Mayo 
Pitt  Dillingham 

Elijah  Alfred  Coil.     Lewis  G.  Wilson 91 

Robert  Collyer.     John  Haynes  Holmes 94 


CONTENTS  ix 

PACB 

Moncure  Daniel  Conway 104 

Samuel  McChord  Crothers.     Frederick  May  Eliot 107 

Edward  Henry  Hall 

James  De  Normandie.     William  S.  Jones 1 1 1 

Alfred  Gooding 
John  Graham  Brooks 

George   Rowland    Dodson 114 

Charles  Fletcher  Dole.     Frank   O.  Holmes 116 

Jasper  Lewis  Douthit.     Frank  S.  C.  Wicks 120 

Stephen  Peebles 
Thomas  Grafton  Owen 
Jonathan  Christopher  Gibson 
Francis  M.  McHale 
William  H.  Cowan 

Hugo  Gottfried  Eisenlohr.     Julius  F.  Krolfifer 124 

Thomas  Lamb  Eliot.     Henry  Wilder  Foote 125 

William  Wallace  Fenn.     Charles  E.  Park 130 

David  Utter 

Elmer  Severance  Forbes 135 

John  Perkins  Forbes.     George  H.  Reed 137 

Paul  Revere  Frothingham 139 

William  Channing  Gannett.     Lewis  S.  Gannett 142 

Newton  Mann 

Austin  Samuel  Garver.     James  C.  -Duncan 147 

Calvin  Stebbins 

Edward  Everett  Hale.     Paul  Revere  Frothingham 1 50 

Edward  Hale 
Edward  Cummings 

Brooke    Herford.     Dana   McL.    Greeley 156 

Frederick  Lucian  Hosmer.     Henry  Wilder  Foote 161 

Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones.     Richard  D.  Jones 164 

Arthur  Markley  Judy.     Charles  E.  Snyder 174 

Thomas  Kerr.     Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones 175 


X  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Arthur  May  Knapp.     Clay  MacCauley 176 

Clay  MacCauley 

Augustus  Mendon  Lord.     Robert  H.  Schacht 183 

Loammi  Walter  Mason.     Frank  E.  Smith 184 

Joseph  May.     Frederick  R.   Griffin 186 

Joel  Hastings  Metcalf.     Elbridge  F.  Stoneham 189 

Amandus  Norman.     George  J.  M.   Walen 191 

Rognvaldur  Petursson 

Magnus  Josephsson  Skaptason 

Gudmundur  Arnason 

Frederick  William  Nicolaas  Hugenholtz 

Risto  Lappala 

Francis  Greenwood  Peabody.     Henry   Wilder  Foote 195 

Ulysses  Grant  Baker  Pierce 201 

Charles  Frank  Russell.     Palfrey  Perkins 204 

Minot  Judson  Savage.     Maxwell  Savage 206 

Rush  Rhees  Shippen.     Eugene  R.  Shippen 211 

Henry  Martyn  Simmons.     James  K.  Hosmer 214 

Joseph  Henry  Crooker 
Frank  Albert  Gilmore 
Jabez  Thomas  Sunderland 

Franklin  Chester  Southworth 220 

Sydney  Bruce  Snow 

Henry  George   Spaulding 225 

Edward  Augustus  Horton 
William  Irvin  Lawrance 

Carlton  Albert  Staples.     Charles  J.  Staples 230 

Reed  Stuart 233 

William  Laurence  Sullivan 235 

Addison  Moore 
Minot  Simons 

Francis  Tiffany.     James  De  Normandie 240 

Julian  Clifford  Jaynes 


CONTENTS  xi 

PAGE 

Charles  Richmond  Weld 242 

Charles  William  Wendte 244 

George  Augustine  Thayer 
Clarence  Reed 

Edwin  Miller  Wheelock 250 

William  Orne  White.     Frederick  M.  Eliot 251 

Theodore  Chickering  Williams.     Palfrey  Perkins 254 

Thomas  Roberts  Slicer 

Samuel  Hobart  Winkley.     Christopher  R.  Eliot 257 

Christopher  Rhodes  Eliot 
George  Charles  Wright 
William  Tait  Phelan 
Arthur  Gooding  Pettengill 

James  Edward  Wright.     Willam  S.  Nichols 263 

Merle  St.  Croix  Wright.     Charles  F.  Potter 265 

INDEX 268 


FOREWORD 

The  fourth  volume  of  "Heralds  of  a  Liberal  Faith"  is  pub- 
lished by  the  American  Unitarian  Association  not  only  to  continue 
the  series  as  originally  designed  by  its  editor  but  also  to  bear 
witness  to  the  affectionate  and  admiring  regard  in  which  Dr. 
Samuel  A.  Eliot  was  held  by  his  friends  and  colleagues  within 
the  Unitarian  fellowship. 

This  volume  is  a  memorial  to  its  editor;  and  it  is  important 
to  make  clear  that  it  was  brought  to  its  final  stage  of  prepara- 
tion for  the  printer  by  Dr.  Eliot  himself.  Except  for  this  brief 
word  of  introduction,  "The  Pilots"  reaches  its  readers  in  exactly 
the  form  in  which  it  came  from  the  editor's  desk.  Nothing 
has  been  added  to,  and  nothing  has  been  subtracted  from,  the 
manuscript  so  lovingly  and  meticulously  put  into  final  form  by 
Dr.  Eliot  himself.  It  is  in  every  detail  the  work  of  his  edi- 
torial hands. 

The  present  organization  and  resources  of  the  Unitarian  de- 
nomination are  chiefly  due  to  the  vision  and  effective  administra- 
tive enterprise  of  the  man  who,  with  indefatigable  industry  and 
devotion,  edited  the  four  volumes  of  the  "Heralds."  He  might 
easily  have  made  himself  an  historian  of  the  Unitarian  movement, 
had  he  not  chosen — or  been  chosen — to  be  its  pioneering  states- 
man. With  all  his  fidelity  to  the  basic  requirement  of  accuracy, 
he  possessed  the  true  historian's  ability  to  cut  through  a  mass  of 
detail  to  the  central  significance  of  a  movement;  and  he  had  the 
gift  of  summing  up  his  insights  in  short,  telling  phrases,  as,  for 
example,  when  he  epitomizes  the  Unitarian  fellowship  as  "content 
to  be  a  creative  minority." 

For  many  years  to  come,  this  series  of  volumes  containing 
some  five  hundred  brief  sketches  of  Unitarian  ministers,  covering 
a  period  of  two  hundred  years,  will  prove  useful  and  inspiring 


xiv  FOREWORD 

to  many  readers,  first  of  all  to  Unitarian  ministers,  and  then,  in 
a  special  degree,  to  young  men  preparing  to  enter  that  hazardous 
but  infinitely  rewarding  profession.  Their  gratitude  to  an  elder 
colleague  will  long  continue. 

Frederick  May  Eliot 


INTRODUCTION 

Significant  movements  of  thought  and  life  can  best  be  under- 
stood when  they  are  associated  with  the  persons  who  originated 
or  guided  them.  Progress  is  initiated  by  individuals.  It  is  pre- 
served by  institutions.  To  see  a  cause  embodied  in  men  and 
women  makes  it  come  ahve.  The  force  and  vahdity  of  the 
message  depends  on  the  messengers.  Principles  are  best  illus- 
trated by  personalities.  The  biographies  of  such  persons  may 
well  kindle  a  loyal  homage  and  give  the  readers  a  deepened 
respect  for  human  nature  and  a  new  hope  for  the  world. 

Without  such  pilots  the  record  of  religious  progress  in  America 
would  be  aimless  and  futile.  We  measure  them  not  by  their 
success  but  by  their  ingrained  human  worth  and  brave  old  wisdom 
of  sincerity.  They  reveal  to  us  the  sort  of  life  we  might  live. 
■  The  first  three  volumes  of  the  "Heralds  of  a  Liberal  Faith" 
were  published  in  1910  and  contained  biographical  sketches  of 
outstanding  leaders  of  the  Unitarian  movement  in  America  up 
to  the  year  1900.  The  first  volume  recalled  to  mind  the 
"Prophets"  and  contained  memoirs  of  sixty-nine  ministers  who 
were  the  progenitors  of  the  liberal  movement  and  whose  period 
of  activity  was,  in  general  terms,  from  1750  to  1825.  The 
second  volume,  the  "Pioneers^"  contained  sketches  of  ninety- 
eight  ministers  who  carried  the  movement  through  the  period 
of  controversy  and  separation  or,  roughly,  the  first  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  third  volume,  the  "Preachers,"  fol- 
lowed the  development  of  the  liberal  movement  through  the  last 
half  of  the  century  and  contained  memoirs  of  one  hundred  and 
thirty-four  standard  bearers  in  a  period  of  aflSrmation  and  ex- 
pansion. This  fourth  volume  contains  memoirs  of  the  Heralds 
of  a  Liberal  Faith  whose  work  was  done  in  the  last  decades  of 
the  nineteenth  and  the  earlier  decades  of  the  twentieth  centuries. 
This  has  been  for  me  a  peculiarly  grateful  task  for  I  personally 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

knew  all  but  six  of  the  more  than  two  hundred  men  and  women 
whose  careers,  in  articles  or  notes,  are  here  narrated.  My 
seniors  I  honored;  some  of  them  I  revered.  My  contemporaries 
were  well-beloved  and  trusted  fellow-workers.  My  juniors  were 
among  those  who  "being  made  perfect  in  a  short  time,  fulfilled 
a  long  time."  They  all  "rest  from  their  labors  and  their  works 
do  follow  them." 

As  in  the  preparation  of  Volume  III,  I  am  deeply  indebted  to 
the  friends  and  comrades  who  have  given  me  their  co-operation 
and  whose  contributions  are  sometimes  as  pleasantly  character- 
istic of  the  writers  of  the  biographical  sketches  as  of  the  subjects. 
No  less  than  thirty-two  of  the  men  who  contributed  articles  to 
Volume  III  are,  in  their  turn,  memorialized  in  this  Volume  IV. 
Where  no  author's  name  is  attached  to  a  memoir  in  the  Table 
of  Contents,  the  sketch  has  been  compiled  by  the  editor. 

As  in  the  earlier  volumes,  many  honored  names  which  might 
well  have  found  place  in  this  record  have  had  to  be  omitted,  and 
the  watchful  eyes  and  sensitive  hearts  of  descendants  or  living 
admirers  may  feel  that  the  careers  of  their  friends  and  guides 
deserved  to  be  called  to  remembrance  quite  as  much  as  those  of 
the  men  whose  names  appear  in  this  book.  I  have  obviously  been 
limited  by  the  restrictions  of  space,  and  I  have  therefore  tried 
to  select  types  rather  than  to  present  a  complete  survey.  From 
the  story  of  the  careers  of  these  representative  leaders  the 
motives  and  achievements  of  the  movement  they  impersonated 
may  be  rightly  judged. 

In  limiting  these  records  to  ministers  of  a  single  Christian 
fellowship,  I  would  not  seem  to  imply  that  liberalism  is  the 
possession  or  attribute  of  any  one  communion.  Liberalism  over- 
flows all  sectarian  boundaries  and  appears  sporadically  but  un- 
mistakably in  all  the  Protestant  Churches.  The  river  of  progress 
is  fed  by  many  tributaries  and  each  may  rightly  claim  its  share 
in  the  power  of  the  main  stream. 

I  have  rightly  called  these  men  Heralds.  They  had  no  sense 
of  belonging  in  any  "Apostolic  Succession"  and  their  orders  came 
from  within  rather  than  from  without.  Saints  and  heroes  were, 
indeed,  their  forerunners,  but  they  could  not  conceive  of  them- 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

selves  as  belonging  to  a  clerical  order  or  to  a  privileged  class 
invested  with  special  prerogatives.  But  they  did  belong  in  an 
authentic  "Prophetic  Succession."  They  were  something  more 
than  mere  transmitters  of  received  opinions  and  prescribed  usages. 
They  preferred  immediacy  to  tradition.  They  wanted  to  lib- 
erate men  from  the  burdens  of  dogma  and  sacerdotalism.  They 
were  engaged  in  the  never-ending  conflict  that  Carlyle  called  "the 
struggle  of  men  intent  on  the  real  essence  of  things  over  against 
men  intent  on  the  forms  and  semblances  of  things." 

To  a  marked  degree  these  men  were  self-reliant  and  self- 
directed  individuals.  They  were  able  to  make  up  their  own 
minds,  stand  on  their  own  feet,  move  on  their  own  initiative. 
They  were  not  built  on  one  model  or  patterned  from  one  design. 
They  yielded  no  docile  assent  to  arbitrary  and  external  controls 
or  to  ecclesiastical  regulations,  and  they  did  not  evade  the  ques- 
tionings that  the  spirit  of  truth  presses  upon  the  modern  mind. 
Their  independency  had,  of  course,  certain  natural  consequences. 
Faith  to  them  was  not  the  mechanical  use  of  a  creedal  chart  or 
the  observance  of  a  conventional  ritual  but  a  foray  of  the  spirit 
into  the  mysteries  of  life  and  death.  It  too  often  disqualified 
them  for  effective  team  play.  They  were  not,  however,  daunted 
by  hostility  on  the  one  hand  or  indifference  on  the  other.  They 
were  content  to  be  a  creative  minority,  prophets,  pioneers,  the 
advance  guard  of  the  Christian  forces.  Their  influence  eludes 
statistical  formulation  and  report,  but  their  experience  justifies 
confidence  in  the  possibility  and  eflSciency  of  a  bond  of  union 
which  is  not  a  body  of  beliefs  but  an  attitude  of  mind  and  spirit. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  how  very  diverse  these  men  were 
in  their  origins  and  cultural  backgrounds,  their  educational  oppor- 
tunities and  their  ecclesiastical  inheritances.  There  was  great 
diversity  in  their  national  origins.  Calthrop,  Collyer,  Herford, 
Powell,  and  Sunderland  were  born  in  England,  Duncan  and  Kerr 
in  Scotland,  Jones  in  Wales,  Hutcheon  and  Phelan  in  Canada, 
Lappala  in  Finland,  Hugenholtz  in  Holland,  Capek  in  Bohemia, 
Petursson  in  Iceland,  Norman  in  Norway,  Rihbany  in  Syria. 
Within  the  United  States  there  was  similar  variety  in  the  places 
of  their  birth.     As  was  natural,   for  the  Unitarian  movement 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

in  America  had  its  roots  in  New  England,  many  came  from 
that  part  of  the  country;  but  Conway  and  Stuart  were  Vir- 
ginians; Shippen,  De  Normandie,  Garver,  Mason,  Metcalf,  and 
MacCauley  were  Pennsylvanians ;  Hawley  was  a  country  boy 
from  Michigan;  Coil  and  Lawrance  were  born  in  Ohio,  Crothers 
and  Douthit  in  Illinois,  Slicer  and  Tiffany  in  Maryland,  Dodson 
and  the  Eliots  in  Missouri,  Backus  and  St.  John  in  Wisconsin, 
Lord  in  California.  More  than  half  of  the  States  of  the  Union 
are  represented  by  the  names  in  the  Table  of  Contents. 

Some  of  these  men,  like  the  Eliots,  Gannett,  Hall,  May,  Pea- 
body,  and  St.  John  were  the  sons  of  Unitarian  ministers;  and 
others  like  Bond,  Frothingham,  Hale,  and  Knapp  were  born  into 
the  heritage  of  a  liberal  Christianity  and  had  every  advantage 
of  education  and  social  relations.  But  Chadwick  was  the  son 
of  a  fisherman,  Alger  of  a  mill  mechanic,  Collyer  of  a  Yorkshire 
cotton  spinner,  Rihbany  of  a  Syrian  stonemason.  Dole  and 
Savage  were  reared  on  small  farms  in  the  State  of  Maine; 
Barber  and  Mayo  came  from  a  little  village  in  Western  Massa- 
chusetts; Beach,  Brown,  Butler,  Covell,  Russell,  and  Simmons 
were  country  boys  from  upstate  New  York. 

There  was  the  same  diversity  in  their  ecclesiastical  inheritances. 
Sullivan  was  born  and  reared  a  Roman  Catholic,  Calthrop  an 
Anglican,  Crothers,  Stuart,  Simmons,  and  MacCauley  were  Pres- 
byterians, Dole,  Garver,  and  Savage  were  Congregationalists, 
Barnes,  Barrows,  and  Pierce  were  Baptists,  Backus,  Collyer, 
Mason,  and  Slicer  were  Methodists. 

The  educational  opportunities  these  men  enjoyed  reveal  a 
similar  variety.  Nearly  half  of  them  received  their  training  for 
the  ministry  at  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  or  the  Meadville 
Theological  School,  but  Andover  trained  Dole  and  Garver, 
Bangor  trained  Savage,  and  Auburn  trained  Simmons.  Crothers 
and  MacCauley  were  graduates  of  the  Princeton  Theological 
School,  and  men  like  Ames,  Collyer  and  Peebles  went  neither 
to  college  nor  to  a  professional  school.  They  were  educated  by 
their  own  reading  and  experience. 

Some  of  these  men  were  scholars  of  renown;  some  were 
masters  of  eloquent  speech;  some  were  successful  administrators 


INTRODUCTION  xix 

of  useful  and  enduring  institutions;  some  were  beloved  parish 
pastors  endowed  with  talents  for  friendliness  and  neighborly 
good  cheer.  Some  were  ardent  reformers,  mihtant  In  spirit  and 
aggressive  in  speech.  Others  were  essentially  mystics,  possess- 
ing a  spiritual  awareness  less  clearly  apprehended  by  their  more 
explosive  associates.  Some  of  them  loved  order  and  time- 
honored  customs  and  beauty  in  art  and  literature.  Others  were 
impatient  with  usages  they  deemed  outgrown  and  with  termi- 
nologies and  titles  they  thought  misleading.  But  these  differ- 
ences in  temperament  were  more  in  modes  of  expression  than 
in  principles  of  action.  They  were  like  the  rapids  and  eddies 
that  diversify  the  surface  of  a  stream  whose  underlying  current 
is  strong  and  sure. 

Finally,  there  was  variety  in  their  posts  of  service.  The 
Unitarian  movement  has  been  predominantly  urban,  so  most  of 
these  men  were  identified  with  city  or  academic  institutions. 
Their  Influence  was  diffused  in  and  from  large  centers  of  popu- 
lation from  Portland,  Maine,  to  Portland,  Oregon.  But  men 
Hke  Bartol,  Chaffin,  Duncan,  Covell,  Miller,  Russell,  Shaw, 
and  J.  E.  Wright  served  long  pastorates  in  town  or  country 
churches  with  equal  efficiency  and  success.  Men  like  Douthit, 
Owen,  Gibson,  and  Peebles  were,  like  the  circuit  riders  of 
earlier  days,  rural  missionaries  beloved  in  the  country  districts 
of  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  Florida,  and  Colorado.  Capek,  Eisen- 
lohr,  Hugenholtz,  Lappala,  Norman,  and  Petursson  served  con- 
gregations of  the  foreign  born  and  preached  the  liberal  gospel 
in  Czech,  German,  Dutch,  Fmnish,  Norwegian,  and  Icelandic. 
C.  R.  EHot,  Pettengill,  Phelan,  Winkley,  and  G.  C.  Wright  were 
city  missionaries,  helpers  of  all  sorts  of  people  without  regard  to 
race  or  creed.  Chaney,  Dillingham,  and  Mayo  were  educational 
missionaries  in  the  Southern  States;  and  men  like  CoUyer,  Hale, 
Jones  and  Savage  roamed  the  country  speaking  on  themes  his- 
torical, Hterary  and  patriotic  as  well  as  religious.  Bond  was  a 
missionary  among  the  Indians.  Knapp,  MacCauley  and  Law- 
rance  carried  news  of  a  free  and  unsectarian  Christianity  to  Japan, 
and  Sunderland  and  Southworth  to  India. 

Most  of  these  men  were  preachers  of  exceptional  ability  and 


XX  INTRODUCTION 

their  persuasive  authority  was  widely  extended  by  the  printed 
word.  Their  literary  output  was  both  rich  and  abundant,  and 
their  books  included  durable  contributions  in  the  realms  of  poetry, 
history,  biography,  theology,  sociology.  Biblical  interpretation, 
and  devotional  literature.  In  the  last-named  field  let  it  be  re- 
membered that  Shippen,  Peabody,  Horton,  Spaulding,  Gannett, 
Hosmer,  Wendte,  and  Williams  compiled  and  edited  hymn- 
books — collections  noteworthy  for  high  standards  of  poetic 
merit,  catholic  comprehensiveness,  and  religious  significance. 
Brown,  C.  R.  Eliot,  Savage,  and  Shippen  published  service 
books  and  admirable  manuals  for  ministers.  Spaulding,  Horton, 
Lawrance,  and  Miss  Buck  wrote  excellent  textbooks  of  religious 
education.  Batchelor,  Bixby,  Crooker,  Dole  and  Gilman  wrote 
animating  manuals  of  good  citizenship  and  guides  for  daily  living. 
Ames,  Barrows,  Batchelor,  Douthit,  Hale,  Jones,  and  Sunderland 
were  editors  of  religious  periodicals. 

For  many  years  Dr.  Savage's  weekly  sermons  were  printed 
and,  in  pamphlet  form,  distributed  by  hundreds  of  thousands. 
Chadwick's  sermons  were  printed  in  monthly  series.  Often  these 
discourses  would  then  be  gathered  under  appropriate  titles  into 
volumes.  Savage's  sermons  were  thus  published  in  some  twenty 
volumes  and  Chadwick's  in  twelve.  Peabody's  sermons  and  his 
brief  homilies  gathered  in  "Mornings  in  the  College  Chapel"  and 
"Afternoons  in  the  College  Chapel,"  because  of  their  clarity  of 
thought,  aptness  of  illustration,  and  felicity  of  phrase,  set  the 
homiletical  standards  for  thousands  of  American  ministers. 
Probably  no  American  preacher  has  been  more  frequently  quoted 
in  sermons  of  ministers  of  many  different  denominations.  The 
spiritual  interpretation  of  Hfe  also  found  noteworthy  advocates 
in  books  like  Ames'  "As  Natural  as  Life,"  Collyer's  "The  Life 
that  Now  Is,"  Brown's  "The  Spiritual  Life,"  Gannett's  "Year 
of  Miracle,"  Herford's  "Courage  and  Cheer"  and  "Anchors  of 
the  Soul,"  Sheer's  "Great  Affirmations  of  Religion,"  Wilson's 
"Glimpses  of  a  Better  Life." 

Some  of  these  preachers  were  also  eminent  as  scholars  or  as 
interpreters  of  the  conclusions  of  more  erudite  students.  Bixby, 
Calthrop,  Mann,  Savage,  and  Simmons,  in  both  their  preaching 


INTRODUCTION  xxi 

and  their  books,  contributed  to  the  right  understanding  of  the 
principles  of  Evolution.  "The  Ethics  of  Evolution,"  "The  Reli- 
gion of  Evolution,"  "The  Morals  of  Evolution,"  "The  Unend- 
ing Genesis"  were  characteristic  titles  of  such  books.  Others 
were  eminently  useful  in  making  available  for  general  readers  the 
demonstrated  results  of  modern  study  of  the  Bible.  Books  like 
Chadwick's  "Bible  of  Today,"  Sunderland's  "The  Bible,  Its  Ori- 
gin,  Growth,  and  Character,"  Mann's  "Evolution  of  a  Great 
Literature,"  and  Savage's  "Beliefs  about  the  Bible"  had  a  very 
large  circulation.  Only  a  little  less  popular  were  Crooker's 
"New  Bible  and  Its  Uses,"  Peabody's  "Gospel  of  Paul,"  and 
Hall's  "Paul  the  Apostle." 

In  the  field  of  biography  these  ministers  were  very  active. 
Witness  such  books  as  Chadwick's  lives  of  Channing  and  Parker; 
Cooke's  "Emerson"  and  "J.  S.  Dwight" ;  Collyer's  "Conant"; 
Jackson's  "Martineau";  Hale's  "Lowell";  Tiffany's  "Dorothea 
L.  Dix";  Frothingham's  "Channing"  and  "Everett";  and  Gan- 
nett's  life  of  his  father  which  is  more  than  a  biography  and  the 
best  account  of  the  early  days  of  the  Unitarian  movement.  Then 
too,  Ames,  CoUyer,  Conway,  Douthit,  Rihbany  and  Sullivan 
wrote  autobiographies;  Barrows'  "Baptist  Meeting  House"  is 
an  account  of  his  own  spiritual  pilgrimage;  and  Peabody's  "Pres- 
ent Day  Saints,"  while  ostensibly  a  description  of  his  friends  and 
inspirers,  is  really  autobiographical. 

Most  significantly  of  all — and  most  characteristically — from 
this  company  of  liberal  preachers  there  sprang  a  stream  of  reli- 
gious poetry  which  has  refreshed  and  enriched  many  minds  and 
hearts.  The  hymns  of  Hosmer,  Gannett,  Chadwick  and  Wil- 
liams are  found  in  the  hymnbooks  of  churches  of  many  different 
names  and  allegiances,  and  in  smaller  quantity  but  almost  equal 
merit  are  hymns  written  by  Ames,  Barber,  Beach,  Blake,  Collyer, 
Hale,  Herford,  Horton,  Savage,  Wendte,  and  Wilson.  These 
men  were  outstanding  as  heralds  and  interpreters  of  a  lyric 
theism. 

I  have  made  note  of  the  fact  that  many  of  the  men  com- 
memorated in  this  book  were  preachers  of  exceptional  ability, 


xxii  INTRODUCTION 

and  it  is  to  be  observed  that  they  lived  in  an  era  when  the  method 
and  manner  of  preaching  were  being  profoundly  modified  in  most 
Protestant  Churches.  The  classic  type  of  pulpit  eloquence, 
massive  and  opulent,  was  being  displaced  by  brisker  and  sim- 
pler forms  of  expression.  Congregations  demanded  reasonable 
brevity,  definiteness  of  aim,  direct  and  incisive  personal  appeal. 
People  were  tired  of  having  things  merely  discussed  before  them. 
Some  revivalists  of  the  period  were,  indeed,  tempted  to  indulge 
in  undue  vehemence  and  in  "sensationalism."  But  the  liberal 
preachers  were  not  seduced  into  saying  the  things  that  are  strik- 
ing instead  of  the  things  that  are  true.  They  did  not  try  to 
establish  the  Kingdom  of  God  by  theatrical  devices.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  were  among  them  no  "wooden  priests,"  no 
narrow-minded  pedants.  They  had  no  use  for  either  facile 
platitudes  or  florid  oratory.  Their  sermons  steered  clear  of 
what  Dr.  Finney  called  "sanctimonious  starch."  They  assumed 
that  their  hearers  were  able  to  bear  the  pain  of  attention  and 
serious  consideration.  They  preached  to  people  rather  than  at 
people  and  so  their  preaching  liberated  and  encouraged  questing 
minds  and  kindled  resolute  wills.  Savage,  Crothers,  Pierce, 
Sullivan  and  others  used  free  speech  with  great  effect,  but  most 
of  these  men  wrote  and  then  read  their  sermons.  By  so  doing 
the  sermons  lost  some  of  the  force  of  direct  appeal,  but  they 
probably  gained  in  coherence,  in  compactness  of  thought,  and  in 
logical  sequence  and  development. 

In  their  conduct  of  public  worship,  most  of  these  men  were 
more  informal  than  is  the  custom  of  more  conservative  churches, 
but  there  was  nothing  cheap  or  undignified  in  their  informality. 
There  was  always  the  unmistakable  note  of  simplicity  and  sin- 
cerity and  never  anything  that  was  unctuous  or  pretentious.  For 
Scripture  readings  they  usually  selected  appropriate  passages 
from  the  Old  or  New  Testament,  but  not  infrequently  they  used 
excerpts  from  the  writings  of  modern  poets  and  seers.  Dr. 
Brown  in  Boston,  Dr.  Barnes  in  Montreal,  Dr.  Weld  in  Balti- 
more and  some  others  used,  with  entire  sincerity,  forms  of  litur- 
gical worship  that  retained  some  phrases  and  titles  which  some 
of  their  fellow  workers  could  not  honestly  employ;  but  most  of 


INTRODUCTION  xxiii 

these  ministers  were  accustomed  to  the  simple  forms  of  Congre- 
gational worship,  and  the  arciiitecture  of  their  meeting  houses 
was  not  well  adapted  to  more  ornate  usages. 

But  now  among  these  diversities  of  gifts  and  customs,  what 
were  the  principles  and  creative  ideals  that  bound  these  men  to- 
gether? What  were  the  distinctive  traits  they  all,  in  differing 
degree,  shared?  By  various  paths  they  did  attain  to  vitalizing 
agreements.  They  illustrated  the  unity  not  of  compromise  but 
of  comprehensiveness.     They  became,  as  one  of  them  wrote, 

One  in  the  freedom  of  the  truth, 
One  in  the  joy  of  paths  untrod, 
One  in  the  soul's  perennial  youth, 
One  in  the  larger  thought  of  God. 

First,  these  men  were  all  optimists,  seed-sowers,  believers  in 
growth  and  progress.  Their  optimism  was  not,  however,  just 
a  cheerful  assumption  that,  after  some  fashion,  everything  was 
going  to  come  out  all  right.  It  was  rather  a  disciplined  and 
rhatured  habit  of  mind — a  confidence  that  this  majestic  universe 
is  well  governed  and  that  humanity  is  headed  for  brighter  des- 
tinies and  more  abundant  life.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  these 
preachers  made  more  of  their  denials  than  of  their  affirmations 
and  that  the  movement  they  represented  was  primarily  one  of 
protest.  They  did  brush  away  a  lot  of  cobwebs.  They  did 
protest  against  the  awful  notions  of  "total  depravity"  and  "origi- 
nal sin"  and  a  cruel,  commercial  "atonement,"  against  a  view  of 
miracles  that  implied  the  suspension  of  natural  law,  against  the 
complicated  conception  of  a  Triune  God.  But  what  they  brought 
into  Christian  thought  was  vastly  more  important  than  what  they 
expelled.  Fundamentally  they  were  builders — bridge  builders — 
interpreting  the  new  to  the  old  and  the  old  to  the  new.  They 
were  more  eager  to  fulfill  than  to  destroy. 

It  follows  that  these  men  were  not  given  to  describing  them- 
selves as  "miserable  offenders"  or  as  "men  of  unclean  lips." 
They  never  grovelled  or  apologized  or  groped  about  in  a  fog 
of  defeatism.     While  they  were  able  to  practice  a  healthy  self- 


xxiv  INTRODUCTION 

criticism,  they  believed  in  their  ministry  and  magnified  their  office 
as  heralds  of  the  coming  Kingdom  of  God.  It  is  probable  that 
they  underestimated  the  positiveness  of  evil  and  overestimated 
man's  eagerness  for  freedom  and  truth.  Their  optimism  was 
the  product  of  their  expectation  of  good.  It  made  their  preach- 
ing predominantly  cheerful.  They  were  confident  that  truth 
would  prevail — their  faith  in  republican  principles,  their  confi- 
dence in  reason,  their  belief  in  the  integrity  and  dignity  of  human 
nature  and  the  sacredness  of  personality,  their  trust  in  the  sov- 
ereignty of  a  bounteous  and  benignant  God;  but  they  did  not 
mistake  restlessness  for  progress  or  the  removal  of  their  neigh- 
bors' landmarks  for  the  enlargement  of  their  own  territory. 
They  used  acquired  momentum  and  did  not  disdain  well-estab- 
lished footholds.  In  cultivating  new  harvests  they  used  the  seed 
saved  from  the  old  harvest.  They  worshipped  neither  antiquity 
nor  novelty,  but  coupled  stability  with  movement  and  reason  with 
reverence. 

Then,  in  their  persistive  and  distinctive  habits  of  mind  these 
men  were  tenacious  nonconformists.  They  were  not  captives  to 
any  "painful  antiquarianisms."  Most  of  them  were  essentially 
tomorrow-minded  men.  Accepting  the  truths  of  modern  scien- 
tific discovery,  they  could  not  honestly  repeat  the  ancient  and 
medieval  formulas  of  faith.  They  all  allied  religion  with  com- 
mon sense  and  with  the  best  instincts  of  human  hearts.  They 
dealt  with  the  primary  and  universal  elements  of  religion  rather 
than  with  what  is  secondary  and  fugitive.  They  distinguished 
between  the  permanent  and  the  transitory.  They  found  the  seat 
of  authority  in  religion  neither  in  an  infallible  church  nor  in  an 
infallible  book  but  in  the  reasoning  minds  and  the  spiritual 
experience  of  humanity.  For  them  Christianity  was  not  a  fixed 
doctrinal  system,  but  a  quality  of  life,  "not  a  way  of  talking  but 
a  way  of  walking."  It  had  in  itself  living  seeds,  a  power  of 
expansion  and  enlightenment  and  growth.  They  themselves 
changed  and  grew  in  knowledge  and  insight  and  sympathy,  so 
they  believed  in  an  evolutionary  religion  rather  than  in  a  religion 
of  finalities.  They  held  that  "through  the  ages  one  increasing 
purpose  runs,  and  the  thoughts  of  men  are  widened  with  the 


INTRODUCTION  xxv 

process  of  the  suns."  They  did  not  try  to  impose  opinions  upon 
people  but  helped  people  to  think  for  themselves  and  form  their 
own  judgments.  They  preached  interpretations  of  Christianity 
that  are  believable,  livable  and  lovable. 

Another  characteristic  common  to  these  men  was  their  inclu- 
siveness  and  their  hospitality  to  novel  and  differing  forms  of 
thought.  Having  discovered  for  themselves  that  the  principle 
of  unity  in  and  through  diversity  is  practical  and  productive,  they 
were  everywhere  the  champions  of  co-operative  rather  than  com- 
petitive methods  in  church  relations.  Though  they  were  some- 
times, because  of  their  inability  to  pronounce  some  of  the  ancient 
theological  shibboleths,  denied  the  fellowship  of  more  orthodox 
Christians,  they  remained  kindly  disposed.  If  some  of  their 
neighbors  drew  a  circle  that  shut  them  out,  they  were  the  more 
eager  to  draw  a  circle  that  took  their  critics  in.  They  rejoiced 
in  the  gradual  but  steady  decrease  in  sectarian  animosities  and 
in  the  increase  of  harmony  and  fraternal  goodwill  among  Chris- 
tians. So,  whenever  and  wherever  they  were  permitted  to  do  so, 
they  joined  in  endeavors  to  federate  the  Protestant  Churches  and 
to  promote  concord  and  good  understanding  among  them.  Their 
sympathies  and  explorations  extended  beyond  the  boundaries  of 
Christianity.  They  joined  hearts  and  hands  with  all  seekers 
after  truth  and  right  the  world  around  and  some  of  them  wel- 
comed the  thought  of  a  Universal  Church,  broad  as  humanity. 
They  honored  the  things  that  are  true  and  just  and  lovely  and 
of  good  report  wherever  found  and  held  that  "in  every  nation 
he  that  feareth  God  and  worketh  righteousness  is  accepted  of 
him." 

Another  characteristic  of  these  ministers  was  their  emphasis 
on  the  application  of  religious  principles  to  the  social  conditions 
and  moral  conscience  of  their  time.  They  all  shared  Channing's 
noble  "enthusiasm  for  humanity."  So  they  preached  the  ethical 
imperatives.  Almost  all  of  them  were  conspicuous  leaders  in 
the  everlasting  battle  against  poverty  and  ignorance,  intemper- 
ance and  race  prejudice.  They  strove  to  refashion  human  society 
on  a  basis  of  justice  and  goodwill.  They  did  not  confuse  religion 
and  ethics,  the  secular  and  the  sacred — they  fused  them.     They 


xxvi  INTRODUCTION 

joined  together  deep  religious  feeling  and  broad  public  spirit. 
They  taught  people  that  the  conception  of  the  Fatherhood  of 
God  carries  with  it  the  prophecy  of  the  possible  Brotherhood  of 
Man.  They  did  not  try  to  reconcile  people  to  misfortunes  and 
miseries  in  this  world  by  promises  of  comforts  and  rewards  in 
the  next  world.  They  did  not  think  of  this  world  as  a  mere 
vestibule  of  heaven,  but  demanded  a  fair  share  of  joys  and  satis- 
factions in  the  life  that  now  is.  They  set  Christian  principles  to 
work  not  only  in  the  church  but  also  in  the  realms  of  industry 
and  trade  and  politics  and  international  relations.  They  did  not 
just  draw  "blueprints  for  Utopia"  but  dealt  with  concrete  situa- 
tions and  did  not  evade  or  sidetrack  uncomfortable  issues.  They 
wanted,  on  the  one  hand,  to  see  all  social  work  permeated  and 
motivated  by  the  religious  impulses  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
religious  vitality  expressing  itself  in  various  forms  of  construc- 
tive community  service.  They  believed  that  "the  call  of  the 
social  conscience  is  not  only  a  call  to  man  but  also  a  call  from 
God." 

So  they  were  practical  and  creative  idealists.  Just  by  way 
of  illustration  one  recalls  the  leadership  of  Hale  and  Dole  in 
the  cause  of  peace,  of  Barrows  in  prison  reform,  of  Jones  and 
Gannett  in  establishing  Social  Settlements,  of  Mrs.  Crane  and 
Dr.  Sheer  in  City  Planning,  of  Mrs.  Blackwell  in  promoting 
Woman  Suffrage,  of  Frothingham  and  Wendte  in  encouraging 
international  understanding,  of  Christopher  Eliot  in  advancing 
the  cause  of  temperance  and  of  Thomas  Lamb  Eliot  in  founding 
schools  and  projecting  parks  and  playgrounds,  of  Garver  in  the 
administration  of  Art  Museums  and  Community  Centres,  of 
De  Normandie  and  Gooding  in  the  conduct  of  public  libraries. 
All  of  them,  in  greater  or  less  degree,  sought  to  direct  intel- 
lectual and  material  and  spiritual  resources  to  wise  human  uses. 
They  tried  not  only  to  mitigate  the  evils  and  wrongs  that  beset 
humanity  but  also  to  prevent  them;  and  they  were  happy  in  the 
fact  that,  vastly  out  of  proportion  to  their  numerical  strength, 
their  congregations  furnished  generous  supporters  and  competent 
administrators  for  all  sorts  of  charitable  and  educational  insti- 
tutions and  for  many  movements  of  social  reform. 


INTRODUCTION  xxvii 

Finally,  and  above  all,  these  men  were  prophets  of  the  present 
life  of  God  in  the  present  life  of  humanity.  They  proclaimed 
the  immanent  Deity,  a  progressive  revelation,  an  undiminished 
inspiration.  Delivered  from  all  baffling  metaphysics  and  the 
disciplines  of  priestly  orders  and  regulations,  they  were  free  to 
heed  immediate  precepts  and  behests.  They  lived  full,  varied 
and  bountiful  lives.  They  dealt  with  the  things  that  abide — 
faith  and  hope  and  love.  They  did,  indeed,  endeavor  to  give 
their  ideals  practical  effect  through  fruitful  and  enduring  insti- 
tutions, for  they  believed  that  the  best  use  of  life  is  to  spend  it 
for  something  that  outlasts  it,  but  they  exalted  the  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity above  the  letter.  All  their  varied  activities  were  ani- 
mated by  the  desire  to  expand  intelligence,  enrich  imagination, 
inspire  reverence  and  hope,  and  so  minister  directly  to  the  happi- 
ness and  welfare  of  people.  They  supplied  moral  motive  power 
and  communicated  heroic  ideals.  They  sought  to  upbuild  the 
higher  attributes  of  American  manhood  and  womanhood,  to 
guide  life  in  clean  and  kindly  ways,  and  to  nourish  and  transmit 
endowments  of  truth,  gentleness,  and  honor. 

Whatever  may  prove  to  be  the  final  influence  of  these  Heralds 
of  a  Liberal  Faith,  I  am  confident  that  they  will  hold  an  honor- 
able place  in  the  long  succession  of  the  prophets  of  freedom  and 
the  pioneers  of  the  reign  of  righteousness.  One  who  has  known 
such  men  can  never  believe  that  materialism  and  the  allurements 
of  financial  reward  or  selfish  pleasure-seeking  can  rob  American 
life  of  chivalry.  One  knows  that  life  can  be  lifted  into  enchant- 
ment and  irradiated  with  spirttual  power  and  charm. 

Samuel  A.  Eliot 


HERALDS  OF  A  LIBERAL  FAITH 


WILLIAM  ROUNSEVILLE  ALGER 

1822-1905 

In  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  might  often 
have  been  seen  upon  the  streets  of  Boston  an  elderly  man  of 
medium  height  and  slight  figure,  and  with  a  somewhat  abstracted 
manner.  Few  of  those  who  passed  him  on  his  customary  route 
from  the  Boston  Athenaeum  to  his  home  on  Brimmer  Street 
recognized  one  of  the  most  distinguished  preachers  of  the  Boston 
pulpit  of  an  earlier  time.  After  a  long  and  varied  career  in  the 
ministry,  he  had  made  his  home  in  Boston  where  he  passed  the 
last  twenty-three  years  of  his  life,  infirm  in  health,  but  devoted 
to  his  studies,  and  occasionally  appearing  at  a  ministers'  meeting 
with  a  paper  on  some  recondite  theme. 

The  Hfe  of  Mr.  Alger  recalls  in  some  degree  the  self-made 
men  his  cousin,  Horatio  Alger,  made  popular  in  his  stories  for 
boys.  He  was  born  in  Freetown,  Massachusetts,  December  28, 
1822,  the  son  of  Nahum  Alger  and  Catherine  Sampson,  daughter 
of  the  Rev.  William  Rounseville,  the  Baptist  clergyman  of  that 
place.  The  boy  William,  at  an  early  age,  went  to  work  in  the 
cotton  mills  at  Fall  River  and  then  at  Hooksett,  N.  H.  The 
family  records,  compiled  by  Mr.  Arthur  Martineau  Alger,  give 
us  a  picture  of  William's  eagerness  for  an  education.  "Fasten- 
ing pages  of  his  grammar  on  a  post  in  the  mill,  he  committed 
them  to  memory  as  he  tended  his  machines.  In  the  odd  moments 
of  rest  which  the  care  of  the  machinery  permitted  he  worked  out 
the  problems  in  arithmetic  and  algebra  with  a  bit  of  chalk  on  a 
strip  of  wood,  or  read  a  page  in  some  history  or  romance." 

After  five  years  of  this  sort  of  thing  he  was  able  to  enter  the 
Academy  in  Pembroke,  N.  H.,  where  he  spent  a  year;  thence  to 
the  Academy  at  Lebanon,  for  six  months;  and  finally  to  the 
Harvard  Divinity  School,  from  which  he  graduated  In  1847. 
Ambition  and  application  had  in  large  measure  compensated  for 


4  WILLIAM  ROUNSEVILLE  ALGER 

the  lack  of  college  training.  In  1847  Mr.  Alger  married  Anne 
Langdon  Lodge,  daughter  of  Giles  Lodge  of  Boston,  and  on 
September  8th  he  was  ordained  the  first  minister  of  the  new 
Mt.  Pleasant  Church  in  Roxbury,  John  Quincy  Adams  being  the 
Moderator  of  the  Council.  He  served  seven  years  in  the  Mt. 
Pleasant  Church,  eight  years  in  the  Bulfinch  Place  Church,  and 
ten  years  in  the  New  North  Church  in  Boston,  winning  fame  as 
a  radical  thinker,  a  popular  lecturer  and  an  erudite  man  of  letters. 
There  followed  short  and  unsuccessful  ministries  in  New  York 
and  in  Denver.  As  he  grew  old  Mr.  Alger's  preaching  grew 
meditative  and  contemplative.  The  sermons  became  long  and 
profoundly  philosophical.  It  was  style  unsuited  to  the  mood  of 
a  bustling  metropolis  like  New  York  or  of  a  boisterous  frontier 
town  such  as  Denver  was  in  the  1870's.  His  thoughts  seemed 
to  roam  familiarly  through  all  the  interstellar  spaces.  His  fa- 
miliar seat  was  on  the  tail  of  a  comet.  He  was  not  a  good 
listener  but  he  excelled  in  monologues,  facile  and  tireless.  He 
would  not  have  felt  at  home  in  a  Quaker  meeting  and  he  was  as 
eloquent  before  an  audience  of  one  as  before  a  congregation  of 
one  thousand. 

The  dramatic  event  of  Mr.  Alger's  career  was  in  1857,  when 
he  was  invited  to  give  the  Fourth  of  July  oration  before  the  city 
authorities  of  Boston.  The  pro-slavery  feeling  of  certain  com- 
mercial elements  of  the  community,  together  with  the  wish  not 
to  imperil  the  Union  by  Civil  War,  was  then  at  its  height.  A 
tactful  man  could  easily  have  dodged  the  dangerous  issues,  but 
Mr.  Alger  was  characterized  by  audacity  rather  than  by  tact. 
Not  content  with  high  praise  of  American  ideals  and  achieve- 
ments, Mr.  Alger,  as  behooved  a  preacher  of  righteousness, 
warned  against  certain  dangerous  tendencies  of  the  time,  such 
as  raids  upon  the  weaker  nations  south  of  us,  the  inflammatory 
speeches  of  labor  demagogues  kindling  class  distrust,  and  the 
waxing  arrogance  of  the  Slave  Power.  What  made  the  welkin 
ring  on  this  occasion  was  Mr.  Alger's  reference  to  the  invitation 
extended  to  Senator  Mason  of  Virginia  to  deliver  the  Bunker  Hill 
oration,  for  Senator  Mason  was  the  man  who  had  recently  in 
his  own  state  praised  the  brutal  attack  of  Preston  Brooks  upon 


WILLIAM  ROUNSEVILLE  ALGER  5 

Charles  Sumner  in  the  United  States  Senate.  Mr.  Alger  char- 
acterized this  invitation  to  Senator  Mason  as  an  act  of  "con- 
temptible flunkeyism,"  and  intimated  that  "large  numbers  of  men 
who  stand  high  in  the  community  deserve  the  epithet  flunkey  for 
their  cowardly  silence  and  contemptible  servility  before  the  Slave 
Power  of  the  South."  A  sentence  from  the  address  will  illus- 
trate the  severity  of  his  criticism  as  well  as  the  ornate  oratorical 
style  of  that  period.  "We  cannot  let  it  [slavery]  tramp  over  its 
sectional  bounds  with  obscene  hoof  to  befoul  the  fountain  heads 
of  new'  states,  and  soil  the  silver  spring  where  our  national  eagle 
drinks."  We  may  smile  at  the  florid  rhetoric  but  recognize  that 
such  trenchant  speech  showed  the  quality  of  the  man.  Mr.  Alger 
vigorously  denounced  the  spirit  of  compromise.  "That  ostrich 
policy  which,  amidst  thickening  sounds  of  combat  and  signs  of 
dissolution,  hides  its  head  in  sandy  generalities,  and,  quietly 
ignoring  the  facts,  babbles  of  peace  and  union,  is  neither  manly 
nor  useful.  .  .  .  Far  nobler  is  it,  and  better,  to  open  the  eyes, 
summon  intellect,  heart  and  conscience  to  their  work,  and  submit 
your  conclusions  with  direct  candor  to  the  wholesome  agitation 
of  criticism  and  argument."  The  Board  of  Aldermen  refused  to 
pass  the  customary  vote  of  thanks,  and  Mr.  Alger  at  once  found 
himself  the  object  of  a  fierce  attack,  but  it  is  pleasant  to  read  that 
seven  years  later,  in  1864,  the  belated  vote  of  thanks  was  passed 
and  in  1868  Mr.  Alger  was  chosen  Chaplain  of  the  Massachu- 
setts House  of  Representatives.  At  the  request  of  the  House, 
his  "Prayers  for  the  Legislature"  were  gathered  in  a  volume  and 
published. 

Like  his  great  predecessors,  Channing  and  Parker,  Mr.  Alger 
was  interested  in  questions  of  social  and  political  reform.  "The 
Facts  of  Intemperance,"  "The  Charities  of  Boston,"  "Public 
Morals  as  the  True  Glory  of  a  State"  were  noteworthy  utterances. 
In  the  period  1851-1868  he  published,  too,  various  volumes  of 
scholarly  importance,  "A  History  of  the  Cross  of  Christ," 
"Poetry  of  the  Orient,"  and  the  most  enduring  of  his  books, 
"A  Critical  History  of  the  Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life."  As  in 
all  Mr.  Alger's  writing  the  subject  is  carefully,  almost  minutely, 
subdivided,  even  including  a  chapter  upon  "The  Critical  History 


6  WILLIAM  ROUNSEVILLE  ALGER 

of  Disbelief  in  a  Future  Life,"  and  ends  with  a  cliapter  upon 
"The  Morahty  of  the  Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life."  In  1874  the 
seventh  edition  was  printed.  Two  other  volumes  published  in 
this  period  attained  a  wide  circulation :  "The  Genius  of  Solitude" 
(1866)  and  "The  Friendships  of  Women"  (1867).  There  is 
a  great  deal  of  "preaching"  in  these  essays  and  the  moral  aspect 
is  always  to  the  front,  but  the  seven  and  eight  editions  of  these 
books  indicate  their  popularity.  They  revealed  a  scholar's  dili- 
gence, the  critic's  penetration,  the  creative  artist's  imagination. 

Mr.  Alger  had  a  keen  and  increasing  interest  in  Oriental  lit- 
erature and  in  occult  inquiries.  His  mind  dwelt  more  and  more 
on  mystical  matters  and  his  writing  became  intricate  and  enig- 
matical. Science  made  little,  if  any,  appeal  to  him.  In  1891, 
he  wrote  in  an  "Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Greek  Philosophy," 
"the  study  of  philosophy  is  an  employment  without  any  com- 
promises either  of  modesty,  refinement  or  aspiration.  No  per- 
ishable tools  are  needed,  no  filthy  experiments  with  furnaces  or 
earth  or  smuts  and  moulds  and  rots  are  called  for."  "Divine 
Philosophy"  was  the  thing  really  worth  thinking  about.  "The 
material  is  spirit,  the  labor  is  silence,  the  course  is  intelHgence 
and  affection,  the  product  is  wisdom  and  character,  the  path  of 
advancement  is  infinity,  the  goal  is  God.  And  if  the  goal  be  a 
retreating  one  the  pursuer  carries  at  every  step  a  substantial 
reflex  of  it  in  his  own  breast." 

Mr.  Alger's  last  years  were  clouded  by  an  illness  that  required 
seclusion  from  books  as  well  as  friends,  and  he  died  in  Boston 
February  7,  1905. 

This  account  of  Mr.  Alger  was  compiled  by  the  editor  from  various  sources, 
including  his  own  memories,  but  chiefly  from  a  manuscript  sent  him  by  the  Rev. 
George  D.  Latimer. 


CHARLES  GORDON  AMES  7 

CHARLES  GORDON  AMES 

1828-1912 

Charles  Gordon  Ames  was  born  in  Dorchester,  Mass.,  in  1828. 
Left  an  orphan,  he  was  adopted  in  infancy  by  Thomas  Ames  of 
Canterbury,  N.  H.,  and  had  his  "rearing"  on  a  New  Hampshire 
farm.  At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  entered  the  printing  office  of 
the  Morning  Star,  the  organ  of  the  Free  Baptists  in  Dover, 
N.  H.,  and  four  years  later  he  was  licensed  "to  improve  his  gift" 
as  a  preacher.  His  early  years  were  those  of  hardship,  but  of 
the  sort  to  prepare  him  for  the  resolute  lifework  that  came  after. 
In  1899,  when  he  was  seventy-one  and  had  been  fifty  years  a 
minister,  he  wrote  of  that  early  experience: 

"My  preparation  for  the  ministry  was  scanty.  I  dare  not  say 
it  was  superficial,  except  to  the  shallow  capacity  of  youth.  I 
meditated  much  on  the  lives  and  words  of  the  prophets,  apostles, 
and  famous  evangelists.  I  pondered  Paul's  letters  to  Timothy 
and  Titus,  and  I  tried  to  get  inside  the  words  and  spirit  of  Jesus. 
I  know  now  that  deeper  foundations  had  been  laid  in  child- 
hood. .  .  .  There  were  germs  of  reverence,  dependence,  mys- 
tery and  trust." 

There  was  also : 
".  .  .  contact  with  nature  in  the  unspoiled  country  life,  'bird 
and  bush  and  flowing  water,'  orchards  and  old  woods,  with 
the  processes  of  ploughing,  planting,  tending,  and  harvesting, 
with  industrial  discipline,  the  feeling  of  tools,  the  handling 
of  wood,  stone,  iron  and  brick,  with  the  innocent  stupidity  of 
domestic  animals,  with  hard  rubs  against  the  rough  men  on  the 
farm  and  the  comradeship  or  rivalry  of  schoolmates.  Then 
there  was  ever  the  march  of  the  seasons,  'the  everlasting  great- 
ness of  the  sky,'  and  on  summer  and  winter  nights  the  tracing 
of  the  constellations  by  help  of  a  map  of  the  heavens.  I  could 
not  foresee  that  in  time  all  this  was  to  yield  parables  which  would 
make  it  easier  to  understand  the  wandering  teacher  of  Galilee, 
whose  name  we  all  use  with  more  familiarity  than  insight.  Two 
forces  were  at  work  to  make  me  a  preacher — interest  in  religion 


8  CHARLES  GORDON  AMES 

and  interest  in  mankind,  both  blending  in  a  spiritual  interpreta- 
tion of  the  world." 

At  the  age  of  twenty-one,  Mr.  Ames  was  ordained  into  the 
Free  Baptist  ministry,  and  shortly  after,  in  185  i,  was  sent  to 
what  was  then  the  Territory  of  Minnesota  as  a  home  missionary, 
preaching  to  the  frontiersmen,  talking  temperance  and  anti- 
slavery,  editing  and  often  setting  the  type  of  a  newspaper,  taking 
an  active  part  in  politics — while  he  wrestled  meanwhile  with  doc- 
trinal difficulties  and  doubts  until  at  last  he  was  obliged  by  his 
convictions  to  withdraw  from  the  Free  Baptist  communion.  He 
went  for  a  while  into  journalism,  becoming  editor  of  the  Repub- 
lican; but  by  1859  he  had  found  a  welcome  among  the  Unitarians 
and  was  commissioned  to  gather  a  society  in  Bloomington,  Illi- 
nois, which  has  shown  persistent  vitality.  His  pungent  utterances 
on  public  matters  in  the  "days  that  tried  men's  souls"  attracted 
wide  attention.  A  happy  chance  brought  him  into  personal  touch 
with  Abraham  Lincoln.  They  were  almost  neighbors,  so  near 
were  Bloomington  and  Springfield.  Mr.  Ames  followed  the 
Lincoln  and  Douglas  debates  with  ardent  sympathy,  and  for  a 
fleeting  hour  Lincoln  was  his  guest,  when,  significantly,  they 
talked  of  religion  rather  than  politics. 

Mr.  Ames  was  an  ardent  anti-slavery  man.  He  rejoiced  in 
Lincoln's  Emancipation  Proclamation  and  in  a  ringing  address, 
"Stand  by  the  President,"  gave  voice  to  his  conviction  so  force- 
fully that  the  address  was  often  repeated,  and  printed  copies  were 
scattered  not  only  over  the  United  States  but  found  their  way 
abroad,  to  help  to  a  better  understanding  of  Lincoln's  states- 
manship. 

After  a  brief  pastorate  in  Cincinnati,  where  he  followed  Mon- 
cure  D.  Conway,  Mr.  Ames  held  for  two  years  the  pulpit  of  the 
church  in  Albany.  While  there,  during  the  second  Lincoln  cam- 
paign, he  made  forty-four  open-air  speeches  through  New  York 
State.  The  long  strain  of  the  war,  his  public  work,  and  the 
shock  of  Lincoln's  death  left  Mr.  Ames  with  broken  health. 
He  went  to  Boston  and  to  a  friendly  conference  with  the  Rev. 
Charles  Lowe,  Secretary  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association. 
Through  Mr.  Lowe's  kindness  he  was  offered  the  opportunity  of 


CHARLES  GORDON  AMES  9 

a  change  of  climate  and  scene  and  the  restorative  conditions  of 
a  long  sea  voyage.  He  was  to  go  to  California  as  a  sort  of 
assistant  to  tiie  Rev.  Horatio  Stebbins  *  who  was  occupying 
the  pulpit  made  famous  by  the  ministry  of  Thomas  Starr  King. 

The  journey  to  California  was  by  sea  to  Colon,  eleven  days 
from  New  York,  across  the  Isthmus  to  Panama,  and  then  up  the 
coast  thirteen  days  to  San  Francisco.  In  California  Mr.  Ames 
passed  seven  happy  years  of  varied  activity.  Congregations 
were  gathered  in  Santa  Cruz,  San  Jose,  and  Sacramento,  and  for 
thirty  successive  Sundays  he  lectured  to  large  audiences  in  San 
Francisco  on  moral  and  religious  subjects.  Dr.  Stebbins'  wel- 
come and  many  kindnesses  helped  him,  as  much  as  did  the  climate, 
to  a  physical  restoration.  Out-of-doors  was  always  beckoning, 
and  the  human  world  included  "all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men." 
There  was  a  Texan  bully,  Harry  Love,  famous  as  a  slayer,  who, 
surprisingly,  became  one  of  Mr.  Ames'  hearers  at  Santa  Cruz. 
There  came  a  day  when  the  preacher's  outspoken  condemnation 
of  some  public  act  offended  the  hearer  and  he  stalked  out  with 
noisy  demonstration.  The  next  day  Love,  meeting  his  minister 
on  the  street,  marched  up  to  him  and  shaking  a  big  fist  in  his 
face  roared,  "I'd  lick  you  for  a  cent!"  "I  won't  give  itl"  said 
Mr.  Ames  promptly;  which  so  tickled  the  bully  that  he  ended  his 
threat  with  a  laugh.  There  were  other  affiliations  of  profounder 
nature.  William  D.  Whitney,  who  was  State  Geologist,  and 
Mrs.  Whitney,  Edward  Rowland  Sill,  Bret  Harte,  and  others 
were  guests  at  the  modest  little  house  at  Santa  Cruz.  Bret 
Harte  was  just  starting  the  Overland  Monthly,  and  Mr.  Ames 
was  one  of  the  earlier  though  infrequent  contributors. 

In  1872  Mr.  Ames  accepted  a  call  to  the  church  in  German- 
town,  which  had  recently  become  the  twenty-second  ward  of 
Philadelphia,  but  which  retained  many  of  its  borough  institu- 
tions, among  them  its  administration  of  the  care  of  the  poor. 
During  the  first  winter  in  Germantown  came  the  financial  panic, 
closing  many  of  the  small  factories  of  the  borough  and  throwing 
a  number  of  employees  out  of  work.  Mr.  Ames  had  just  come 
from  California  where,  while  there  might  be  poverty,  there  was 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  348. 


10  CHARLES  GORDON  AMES 

no  pauperism;  but  now  personal  experience  not  only  brought  him 
into  contact  with  real  need,  but  brought  a  realization  of  the  shirk- 
ing and  trickery  which  was  nurtured  by  indiscriminate  charity. 
Mr.  Ames  put  himself  to  studying  public  relief  as  administered 
at  home  and  abroad.  It  was  just  about  this  time  that  Octavia 
Hill  was  at  work  among  the  poor  of  London  and  the  town  of 
Elberfeld  in  Germany  had  set  a  notable  example  of  civic  wis- 
dom. Following  these  precedents,  Mr.  Ames  drew  up  a  plan  of 
action  for  consideration  at  a  meeting  held  at  the  house  of  Samuel 
Emlen,  a  Friend,  and  one  of  Germantown's  best  citizens,  to 
which  were  invited  all  interested  in  the  solving  of  the  critical 
situation  confronting  the  ciitzens.  Mr,  Ames  was  a  newcomer 
and  almost  unknown  to  the  company  assembled,  but  anyone  with 
a  plan  had  a  hearing,  and  Mr,  Ames'  proposition  won  immedi- 
ate approval.  It  was  voted  to  call  a  public  meeting  and  lay 
the  plan  before  it.  This  was  the  first  systemized  Charity  Or- 
ganization of  the  United  States,  but  was  almost  immediately 
followed  by  similar  organizations  in  other  cities, 

Mr.  Ames'  pamphlet,  "Wisdom  in  Charity,"  had  a  wide  cir- 
culation throughout  the  United  States,  and  brought  appreciative 
recognition  from  lands  beyond  the  seas.  The  wise  administra- 
tion of  charity;  the  removing  of  children  from  almshouses;  the 
placing  of  dependent  children  in  families  instead  of  in  institu- 
tions; the  introduction  of  kindergartens  into  public  schools;  all 
these  were  part  of  the  activities  of  these  busy  years.  Not  only 
were  his  services  as  speaker  at  meetings  demanded,  but  his  pen 
was  devoted  to  spreading  the  urgent  need  of  a  more  enlightened 
public  spirit  and  wiser  methods.  The  little  pamphlets  on  "Set- 
ting the  Solitary  in  Families,"  "Dependent  Children,"  and  "Kin- 
dergartens" became  classics  to  many  workers  in  other  cities. 

After  five  years'  exhilarating  service  in  Germantown,  at  the 
death  of  his  friend,  Thomas  J.  Mumford,  editor  of  the  Christian 
Register,  Mr.  Ames  was  called  to  Boston  to  fill  the  vacancy  thus 
occasioned — a  service  which  he  always  regarded  as  most  useful 
and  important.  But  by  occasional  visits  to  Philadelphia,  he  kept 
burning  a  little  fire  kindled  in  his  Germantown  days,  and  in  1880 
he  was  established  in  a  "ministry  of  Sunday  evening  preaching 


CHARLES  GORDON  AMES  ii 

and  lecturing"  witli  a  following  that  crystallized  into  the  Spring 
Garden  Unitarian  Society.  This  church,  which  for  more  than  a 
score  of  years  stood  as  a  distinctive  factor  in  the  religious  life 
of  Philadelphia,  though  unhappily  it  has  since  passed  out  of  ex- 
istence, survives  in  one  imperishable  expression  of  its  life — the 
Covenant  first  adopted  by  it,  which  has  later  met  the  needs  of  a 
large  number  of  Unitarian  churches.  Unitarians  have  always 
been  shy  of  any  formal  statement  of  belief  lest  it  harden  into 
creedal  form.  Yet  the  impulse  to  share  intimately  with  others 
in  a  common  religious  expression  is  native  to  us  all,  and  is  indeed 
itself  an  instinct  of  essential  religion.  When  the  Spring  Garden 
Church  was  in  process  of  organization,  Mr.  Ames  was  ponder- 
ing some  unifying  expression  of  a  common  purpose  that  might 
draw  together  the  differing  elements  which  made  up  the  nascent 
society.  He  was  sitting  at  a  desk  in  the  library  of  the  American 
Philosophical  Society  in  old  Independence  Hall.  Mary  Lesley, 
daughter  of  Professor  Peter  Lesley,  the  librarian,  and  his  assist- 
ant, sat  near.  All  at  once  Mr.  Ames  looked  up  and  said,  "Mary, 
I  have  it !" — and  read  to  her  : 

In  the  freedom  of  truth,  and  the  spirit  of  Jesus, 

We  unite  for  the  worship  of  God  and  the  service  of  Man, 

The  two  clasped  hands  as  the  first  covenant-members  of 
the  church.  In  adopting  the  Covenant  several  churches  have 
changed  the  words,  "freedom  of  truth"  to  "love  of  truth,"  but 
Mr.  Ames  always  preferred  the  original  form. 

After  eight  laborious  years  in  Philadelphia,  Mr.  Ames  had 
the  unhappy  embarrassment  of  deciding  between  the  unanimous 
urgency  of  his  people  that  he  should  remain  with  them,  and  the 
equally  unanimous  call  to  the  Church  of  the  Disciples  in  Boston; 
but  there  was  a  powerful  pull  in  the  repeated  assurance  of  James 
Freeman  Clarke: — "I  have  chosen  7ny  successor."  Besides, 
there  was  a  challenge  in  the  widely  expressed  opinion  that  a 
society  like  the  Church  of  the  Disciples  could  not  survive  its 
founder.  Dr.  Clarke  died  In  June,  1888;  at  the  opening  of  the 
next  year  Mr.  Ames  received  such  generous  welcome  as  the  sor- 
rowing people  could  give.     He  was  already  sixty,  but  into  his 


12  CHARLES  GORDON  AMES 

Boston  work  he  threw  new  zest  and  eagerness  of  service.  He 
said,  "If  I  can  serve  the  Church  of  the  Disciples  for  ten  years, 
I  shall  be  glad."     He  was  given  twenty  years  to  do  so. 

Mr.  Ames  won  his  way  through  the  genial  insistence  of  a 
personality  that  was  not  Dr.  Clarke's,  nor  very  much  like  it — 
but  his  own;  yet  singularly  comprehensive  of  the  best  and  rich- 
est of  his  predecessor's  peculiar  gifts.  The  democracy  of  the 
Church  of  the  Disciples,  its  free  pews,  its  congregational  sing- 
ing, its  simple  and  sincere  forms  of  worship  were  of  his  own 
native  air,  and  he  breathed  freely  as  among  his  own. 

Dr.  Ames'  personality  was  unique.  A  virile  If  not  sturdy 
form;  a  buoyant  and  almost  boyish  love  of  fun;  a  resolute  and 
often  vehement  ethical  passion;  a  pithy  staccato  manner  of  dic- 
tion, and  with  it  all  a  warm  and  luminous  genius  for  spiritual 
prophecy  free  from  all  cant — these  were  the  salient  characteris- 
tics of  the  man.  In  lyric  utterance  he  bore  witness  to  "the  light 
that  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  Into  the  world."  "His 
mind,"  as  he  said  of  Dr.  Bartol,  "was  like  a  mint  continually 
striking  off  bright  coins  of  thought  and  speech."  He  was  a 
master  of  epigrammatic  and  picturesque  expression.  Like  Chan- 
ning,  he  was  "always  young  for  liberty." 

Many  of  Dr.  Ames'  sermons  were  printed  In  pamphlet  form 
and  others  were  gathered  into  volumes  bearing  the  titles  of  "As 
Natural  as  Life,"  "Sermons  of  Sunrise,"  "Five  Points  of  Faith," 
and  "Hidden  Life."  The  "Book  of  Prayers,"  recorded  by  a 
friend  without  the  speaker's  knowledge,  contains  the  spontaneous 
utterances  of  a  man  at  home  with  the  Father  God,  and  his  "Spir- 
itual Autobiography"  tells  the  story  of  the  theological  crisis 
through  which  he  passed  In  leaving  the  communion  in  which  he 
had  been  reared  and  finding  freedom  and  opportunity  for  thought 
and  creative  work  among  the  Unitarians. 

Dr.  Ames  was  twice  married.  In  1850  to  Sarah  Jane  Daniels, 
who  died  in  1861,  and  then  to  Fanny  Baker  who  was  for  fifty 
years  his  gifted  partner  In  all  his  work  for  the  church  and  the 
community.  He  died  April  15,  19 12,  the  day  the  S.S.  Titanic 
met  her  tragic  fate.  The  newspapers  of  the  next  morning  in 
announcing  his  death  found  In  more  than  one  Instance  peculiar 


CHARLES  GORDON  AMES  13 

fitness  in  adding  to  their  announcement  a  verse  from  his  poem, 
"Athanasia." 

The  ship  may  sink 

And  I  may  drink 
A  hasty  death  in  the  bitter  sea ; 

But  all  that  1  leave 

In  the  ocean  grave 
Can  be  slipped  and  spared,  and  no  loss  to  me. 

Dr.  Ames  was  succeeded  at  the  Church  of  the  Disciples  by  Abraham 
MiTRiE  RiHBANY,  who  was  born  in  El-Schweir,  Mount  Lebanon,  Syria, 
August  27,  1869,  the  son  of  a  stonemason.  He  was  trained  to  that  occupa- 
tion and  in  his  later  preaching  found  many  illustrations  in  his  knowledge 
of  the  builder's  craft.  As  people  met  Dr.  Rihbany  in  after  years  they  were 
eager  to  have  him  narrate  the  dramatic  story  of  his  life  and  his  early  adven- 
tures in  America.  His  story  of  those  years  makes  delightful  reading  in  his 
first  book,  "A  Far  Journey,"  issued  in  1914. 

His  boyhood  education  in  his  uncle's  school  was  continued  at  an  Ameri- 
can Missionary  College  and  awakened  in  his  eager  mind  a  passionate  desire 
for  more  knowledge  and  a  wider  experience.  He  landed  in  New  York  on 
October  7,  1891,  at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  with  nine  cents  in  his  pocket 
and  a  debt  of  forty  dollars  for  steerage  passage,  and  found  lodgings  and 
various  types  of  employment  in  the  Syrian  colony  in  the  city.  However, 
desiring  to  know  more  of  America  and  her  ways,  he  soon  ventured  forth 
on  his  own,  going  to  Ohio  as  a  salesman  of  silks. 

He  was  not  an  outstanding  success  as  a  salesman  and  decided,  notwith- 
standing the  myriad  difficulties  of  the  English  language,  to  fulfill  his  desire 
for  more  education.  Having  secured  some  meager  funds  by  lecturing  on 
Palestine  and  Syria,  he  matriculated  at  the  Ohio  Wesleyan  University, 
selecting,  with  one  exception,  courses  offered  for  the  Junior  and  Senior 
classes  and,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  college  authorities,  making  good. 

From  the  University  he  went  to  Morenci,  Michigan,  to  visit  some  friends 
he  had  made  earlier  in  Wauseon,  Ohio.  In  this  delightful  home  he  had 
become  acquainted  with  the  niece,  a  school  teacher.  Miss  Alice  May  Seigle, 
and  on  November  15,  1894,  married  her.  Dr.  Rihbany  forgave  the  editor 
of  a  newspaper  who  had  the  audacity  to  print  as  a  heading  for  the  marriage 
notice,  "An  Ohio  School  Teacher  Has  Poor  Taste."  Nearly  fifty  years  of 
wedded  bliss  disproved  the  editor's  statement.  To  this  marriage  there  were 
born  two  children.  Marguerite  Rose,  who  died  in  early  womanhood,  and 
a  son,  Edward  Herbert. 

At  Morenci  he  was  invited  to  speak  at  a  union  service  in  the  Congrega- 
tional church.     The  members  of  the  church  were  impressed  by  his  simple 


14  CHARLES  GORDON  AMES 

faith  and  evident  ability  and  asked  him  to  become  their  minister.  It  soon, 
however,  became  clear  that  the  congregation  and  the  young  minister  did 
not  coincide  in  their  theological  beliefs.  Accordingly,  he  withdrew  and, 
upon  the  advice  of  an  understanding  friend,  entered  into  communication 
with  Unitarian  headquarters  in  Boston.  For  two  years  he  served  the  Uni- 
tarian church  in  Mount  Pleasant,  Michigan,  and  then  received  a  call  to 
the  church  in  Toledo,  Ohio,  where  he  had  a  happy  and  successful  ministry 
of  nine  years. 

On  the  suggestion  of  the  Rev.  Lewis  G.  Wilson,  Secretary  of  the  Ameri- 
can Unitarian  Association,  the  Rihbanys  spent  the  summer  months  of  1908 
at  Ocean  Point,  Maine.  It  was  at  a  Sunday  service  at  Ocean  Point  that 
Mr,  Rihbany's  preaching  attracted  the  attention  of  the  Secretary  of  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Church  of  the  Disciples  in  Boston  to  call  an  associate  for 
Dr.  Ames.  An  invitation  followed  and  on  May  18,  191 1,  Mr.  Rihbany 
was  duly  installed  at  the  Church  of  the  Disciples. 

Building  a  summer  home  at  Ocean  Point,  he  spent  fifteen  summers  there, 
summers  that  were  rich  in  happy  family  life  and  joyous  associations  with 
congenial  friends  and  neighbors.  In  Boston,  Mr.  Rihbany  soon  became 
widely  known  as  preacher,  author  and  lecturer.  As  he  was  reared  in  the 
Holy  Land,  his  books  and  his  lectures  glow  with  an  intimate  and  thorough 
understanding  of  its  people  and  their  customs.  His  book,  "The  Syrian 
Christ,"  had  a  large  circulation  and  gives  a  clear  vision  of  the  relation  of 
Jesus  to  the  region  in  which  he  lived  and  labored.  His  sermons  on  varied 
topics  were  clear,  direct  and  forceful.  His  sermon  notes  were  always  writ- 
ten in  Arabic  on  one  folded  sheet  of  paper. 

In  1919  the  newly  organized  Syrian  National  League  appointed  Dr. 
Rihbany  as  its  delegate  to  the  1919  Peace  Conference  in  Paris,  where  he 
served  also  as  correspondent  to  the  Christian  Register.  The  results  of 
this  experience  are  recounted  in  his  "Wise  Men  from  the  East  and  the 
West." 

The  final  years  at  Longwood  Towers  were  clouded  by  serious  illness, 
and  this  messenger  from  the  Holy  Land  died  at  Nestleton,  Connecticut, 
July  5,  1944. 

The  memoir  of  Dr.  Ames  was  derived  from  his  own  "spiritual  autobiography," 
especially  from  the  "Epilogue"  written  by  his  daughter,  Alice  Ames  Winter.  The 
editor  has  added  some  sentences  from  his  own  tributes  to  Dr.  Ames.  The  Note  on 
Dr.  Rihbany  was  contributed  by  Miss  Margaret  B.  Beatley. 


WILSON  MARVIN  BACKUS  15 

WILSON  MARVIN  BACKUS 

1865-1945 

The  outstanding  characteristic  of  Wilson  Marvin  Backus  was 
the  constructive  independency  of  his  thinking.  He  was  always 
exploring  new  paths  and  creating  or  nurturing  unconventional 
and  self-reliant  institutions.  He  was  born  at  Prairie  du  Chien, 
Wisconsin,  on  February  11,  1865.  His  parents  soon  removed 
to  Independence,  Iowa,  and  there  the  son  received  his  early 
education.  He  wanted  to  become  a  teacher  and  in  preparation 
studied  for  three  years  at  Iowa  State  College.  He  had  been 
reared  in  the  Methodist  Church  and  the  Methodists  have  a  way 
of  recognizing  and  claiming  young  men  who  appear  to  be  en- 
dowed with  "the  gifts  of  the  spirit."  It  had  always  been  his 
mother's  desire  that  he  should  be  a  minister  so  he  was  readily 
persuaded  to  take  charge  of  a  group  of  Methodist  churches  in 
Central  Iowa.  It  soon  became  apparent,  however,  that  he  could 
not  honestly  preach  the  orthodox  ideas  about  the  Bible  and  hu- 
man destiny  and  he  withdrew  from  the  pulpit  and  became  princi- 
pal of  the  high  school  in  the  town  of  Viola.  As  yet  he  knew 
nothing  of  organized  liberalism  but  by  his  own  study  and  reflec- 
tion he  developed  a  philosophy  of  religion  of  his  own  that  he 
found  satisfying  and  trustworthy.  He  fought  out  in  his  own 
soul  the  issues  of  supernaturalism  and  miracles  and  early  became 
a  pioneer  in  the  humanistic  interpretations  of  religion.  For  a 
time  he  found  himself  sufficiently  at  home  in  the  Universalist 
fellowship  and  served  two  short  pastorates  in  that  communion, 
but  in  1892  he  accepted  a  call  to  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Alton, 
Illinois,  and  entered  on  a  fruitful  and  ever-widening  career.  He 
never  concealed  his  own  convictions  but  his  preaching  had  a  warm, 
human  quality,  a  depth  of  sincere  feeling  and  a  poetic  insight 
that  endeared  him  to  the  congregations  he  served.  He  was  al- 
ways intellectually  a  radical  but  he  had  a  genuine  understanding 
of  those  who  did  not  share  his  views  and  a  kindliness  of  spirit 
which  was  inclusive  and  beneficent. 

After  five  years'  service  at  Alton  and  a  brief  pastorate  at 


i6  WILSON  MARVIN  BACKUS 

Streator,  Illinois,  he  took  charge  of  the  Third  Unitarian  Church 
in  Chicago  and  in  1904  he  was  elected  to  the  important  post  of 
Secretary  of  the  Western  Unitarian  Conference.  For  this  posi- 
tion of  responsible  leadership  he  was  exceptionally  well-fitted. 
Many  of  the  Unitarian  churches  in  the  Middle  West  were 
founded  by  people  Avho  had  been  associated  with  liberal  churches 
in  New  England  and  New  York  but  others  were  indigenous. 
They  were  established  by  groups  of  independent  thinkers  who, 
like  Mr.  Backus,  had  had  no  connection  with  the  Unitarians  in 
the  older  parts  of  the  country.  They  had  passed  through  the 
same  evolution  that  Mr.  Backus  had  experienced.  He  under- 
stood them  and  they  understood  him.  He  had  traveled  the  road 
they  were  feeling  their  way  along  and  so  he  was  a  discern- 
ing counselor  and  guide.  At  the  same  time  he  had  the  genial 
breadth  of  sympathy  that  enabled  him,  without  compromising 
any  of  his  principles,  to  work  heartily  and  co-operatively  with 
people  of  more  conservative  inheritances.  As  an  administrative 
officer  he  had  great  capacity  for  making  and  keeping  friends. 
He  had  a  wholesome  sense  of  humor  and  a  simple,  straightfor- 
ward habit  of  speech.  For  five  years  he  was  indefatigable  in 
the  service  of  the  churches  in  the  wide  area  of  the  Western  Con- 
ference and  participated  in  the  national  councils. 

In  1909  Mr.  Backus  withdrew  from  the  Secretaryship  and 
accepted  a  call  to  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Minneapolis.  There 
he  worked  for  eight  years  building  up  the  numerical  and  finan- 
cial strength  of  the  society  and  increasing  its  reputation  and  in- 
fluence in  the  city.  Then  his  bodily  vigor  began  to  fail  and  he 
retired.  Despite  the  handicap  of  poor  health  he  supplied  a 
number  of  pulpits  and  finally  spent  eight  contentful  years  as 
minister  of  the  church  in  Lawrence,  Kansas.  In  1932  he  be- 
came minister  emeritus  and  made  his  home  at  Birmingham, 
Michigan,  where  he  died  on  September  4,  1945. 

The  office  of  Secretary  of  the  Western  Unitarian  Conference  has  been 
held  by  a  succession  of  outstandino;  leaders.  Memoirs  of  Jenkin  Lloyd 
Jones,  Frederick  L.  Hosmer  and  Franklin  C.  Southworth  are  contained 
in  this  volume.     Among  the  other  predecessors  of  Mr.  Backus  were: 

John  R.  Effinger  who  was  born  at  Harrisburg,  Va.,  October  22,  1835. 


WILSON  MARVIN  BACKUS  17 

He  graduated  at  Dickinson  Colleji;e  in  1855,  and  at  once  began  work  as 
an  itinerant  Methodist  minister  in  the  mountains  of  Virginia,  but  was  soon 
transferred  to  Baltimore,  where  he  remained  several  years.  Then  he  had 
charge  of  Waugh  Chapel,  and  later  of  the  Foundry  Church,  both  of  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.  There  he  remained  until  near  the  close  of  the  Civil  War — 
a  strong  supporter  of  the  Union.  He  then  found  that  his  growing  thought 
of  religion  and  life  was  out  of  harmony  with  his  church,  so  with  kindly 
feeling  he  left  his  Methodist  friends,  and  for  a  short  time  supplied  the  pulpit 
of  the  First  Unitarian  Church  in  Chicago.  Then  for  three  years  he  was 
pastor  of  the  Unitarian  Church  at  Keokuk,  Iowa.  A  year  later  he  estab- 
lished the  Unitarian  Church  at  St.  Paul.  After  a  pastorate  of  a  few  years 
he  returned  to  Iowa,  with  others  formed  the  Iowa  Unitarian  Association, 
and  was  its  secretary,  with  headquarters  at  Des  Moines,  where  he  estab- 
lished a  church.  From  1880  to  1886  he  was  pastor  at  Bloomington,  111. 
From  1886  to  1892  he  was  secretary  of  the  Western  Unitarian  Conference. 
Then  impaired  health  compelled  him  to  give  up  his  active  work,  although 
he  remained  on  the  Western  Conference  Board  until  he  died,  March  13, 
1902,  at  his  home  in  Chicago. 

He  was  succeeded  by  Allen  Walton  Gould  who  was  born  at  Athens, 
Maine,  November  21,  1847.  He  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1872 
and  was  instructor  in  French  at  the  college  for  two  years,  then  studied  at 
Leipzig  and  Heidelberg,  and  returned  to  resume  work  as  a  tutor  at  Har- 
vard. From  1883  to  1888  he  was  professor  of  Latin  at  Olivet  College. 
He  was  ordained  to  the  Unitarian  ministry  at  Manistee,  Michigan,  in 
1888,  and  remained  there  till  1891.  He  was  then  called  to  Hinsdale, 
Illinois,  and  served  for  two  years.  From  1893  to  1901  he  was  Secretary 
of  the  Western  Conference  and  in  1894  he  was  chosen  president  of  the 
Western  Sunday  School  Society.  He  died  at  Chicago,  Illinois,  March  30, 
1901. 

Mr.  Backus'  immediate  predecessor  in  the  Secretaryship  was  Fred 
Vermilia  Hawley  who  was  born  in  Bath,  Mich.,  on  November  2,  1862. 
He  was  country-bred  and  had  a  pioneer  spirit.  He  had  to  work  hard  to 
get  an  education  but  he  earned  his  way  through  Hillsdale  College  and  in 
1891  was  ordained  in  the  Baptist  ministry.  In  the  same  year  he  married 
Mary  Washburn.  Two  daughters  were  born  to  them.  Soon  he  found 
even  the  comparatively  broad  limits  of  his  inherited  Baptist  faith  too 
cramping  for  his  adventurous  spirit.  He  withdrew  and  went  out  "not 
knowing  whither  he  went."  At  Brooklyn,  Mich.,  he  gathered  about  him 
a  little  group  of  "come-outers"  of  all  sorts  and  began  to  get  acquainted 
with  the  Unitarian  habit  of  mind.  The  Unitarian  Church  in  Jackson, 
Mich.,  discovered  him  and  he  served  that  society  for  several  years  steadily 
winning  an  enlarging  reputation  for  forthright  speech  and  kindly  humor. 
Then  the  church  in  Louisville,  Ky.,  invited  him  to  its  pulpit.  He  wrote 
them,  "If  you  can  put  up  with  a  fellow  like  me  I  will  come.     But  if  you 


i8  WILSON  MARVIN  BACKUS 

find  that  I  am  darkening  the  way  for  you  or  your  children,  or  if  I  find 
that  you  hamper  my  freedom,  our  relations  will  end."  He  did  not  darken 
anybody's  way  and  his  light  shone  in  widening  circles.  In  1902  his  elec- 
tion to  the  Secretaryship  of  the  Western  Conference  seemed  to  promise 
broader  spaces  to  roam  over.  He  proved  himself  a  pioneer  prophet  and 
ventured  into  new  and  uncharted  lands  of  the  spirit  but  administrative 
duties  irked  him  and  when  Unity  Church  in  Chicago  called  him  he  ac- 
cepted with  alacrity.  He  faced  there  a  difficult  situation  and  that  was 
just  what  he  liked.  Through  several  brief  pastorates  Unity,  once  one  of 
the  largest  churches  in  the  city,  had  declined  in  numbers  and  resources. 
The  future  was  questionable.  But  in  a  twenty-year  pastorate  he  saw  the 
church  reanimated  and  established  in  new  surroundings.  He  carried  on 
vigorously  until  his  death  on  November  15,  1927. 

Hawley  was  ever  a  lover  of  new  paths  and  welcomed  newly  discovered 
truths.  Life,  death,  and  eternity  were  scenes  for  the  adventures  of  man's 
spirit.  At  the  same  time  he  had  the  feel  for  things  inclusive  and  universal. 
While  respecting  differences  he  cherished  agreements  and  loved  the  things 
that  unite.  He  detested  heresy-hunting  and  abhorred  shams  and  conven- 
tional phrases.  To  movements  that  widened  the  reaches  of  men's  minds 
he  made  quick  response.  He  liked  the  Free  Religious  Association  and  he 
gave  loyal  allegiance  to  the  National  Federation  of  Religious  Liberals. 
He  believed  mightily  in  human  brotherhood  and  in  world-wide  co-opera- 
tion.    His  goodwill  included  all  nations,  all  races,  all  religions. 

At  the  same  time  Hawley  had  a  remarkable  capacity  for  friendship  with 
individuals.  He  made  a  friend  of  every  person  who  came  his  way.  To 
personal  problems  and  griefs  he  listened  compassionately.  To  the  chal- 
lenge of  people  burdened  with  responsibility  for  reform  movements  of  all 
sorts  and  to  pleas  for  unpopular  causes  he  listened  earnestly.  He  did  more 
than  listen — he  felt  with  those  who  came  to  him  and  gave  sensible  and 
kindly  counsel,  often  seasoned  with  shrewd  humor.  He  was  very  human, 
very  direct,  and  utterly  democratic. 

Above  all  and  through  all  he  said  and  did  was  his  passion  for  freedom. 
The  rattle  of  chains,  whether  forged  by  state  or  church  or  custom,  roused 
him  to  pointed  speech  and  energetic  action.  The  mind  of  man  must  be 
free.  The  soul  must  not  be  bound.  He  thought  freedom,  he  preached 
freedom,  he  prayed  freedom. 

The  Note  on  Mr.  Hawley  was  contributed  by  one  of  his  successors  in  the  secre- 
taryship, the  Rev.  Curtis  W.  Reese. 


HENRY  HERVEY  BARBER  19 

HENRY  HERVEY  BARBER 

1835-1923 

Few  men  represented  more  adequately  in  personality  and  in 
"walk  and  conversation"  the  qualities  which  are  most  character- 
istic of  the  adherents  of  the  free  Christian  churches. 

Henry  Hervey  Barber  was  born  on  a  farm  in  the  little  hilltown 
of  Warwick,  Massachusetts,  on  December  30,  1835,  the  son  of 
Hervey  Barber  and  Hannah  Leland.  Warwick  lies  in  a  land- 
scape of  singular  beauty,  little  altered  by  the  hand  of  man.  The 
village  center  is  small,  and  the  farms  are  scattered.  About  the 
whole  countryside  lies  an  air  of  quiet  and  remoteness,  as  of  a 
place  largely  untouched  by  the  busy  activities  of  the  world.  The 
village  is  no  larger  than  it  was  a  century  ago;  no  railway,  no 
electric  tramline,  no  great  highroad  has  ever  reached  it.  Here 
Henry  Barber  grew  up,  imbibing  in  his  earliest  years  a  serenity, 
a  simplicity,  a  genial  and  catholic  friendliness,  which  were  to  be 
his  outstanding  characteristics  through  life.  As  a  boy,  too,  he 
acquired  a  love  of  nature,  of  the  hills  and  valleys  and  streams, 
especially  of  the  wild  flowers  and  the  birds,  which  was  one  of  his 
strongest  passions  till  the  end.  His  father,  of  a  family  resident 
in  the  town  almost  from  its  settlement,  was  one  of  Warwick's 
most  respected  citizens.  A  farmer  by  occupation,  for  six  years 
he  served  as  selectman,  and  for  eighteen  years  as  a  member  of 
the  School  Committee.  He  was  commonly  called  Deacon  Her- 
vey Barber,  from  his  official  position  for  many  years  in  the  First 
Congregational  Parish.  Long  before  1835  ^^e  church  had  defi- 
nitely ranged  itself,  under  the  leadership  of  Rev.  Preserved 
Smith  (minister  18 14— 1844),  with  the  group  of  liberal  churches 
known  as  Unitarian. 

The  influence  of  this  church  and  of  its  excellent  Sunday  School 
were  strong  upon  the  growing  boy,  and  his  entrance  into  the 
ministry  was  the  inevitable  issue.  When  the  village  had  given 
him  what  it  could  of  education,  and  he  was  thirsting  for  more, 
it  seemed  that  he  must  begin  earning  his  own  way.  For  a  short 
time  he  worked  in  a  shoeshop  in  Athol,  but  his  father,  knowing 


20  HENRY  HERVEY  BARBER 

the  boy's  deep  desire,  soon  found  a  way  to  make  further  school- 
ing possible.  The  institution  chosen  was  the  fine  old  academy 
at  Deerfield,  Massachusetts,  founded  in  1797,  which  had  been 
brought  to  a  leading  position  under  the  preceptorship  of  Edward 
Hitchcock,  later  President  of  Amherst  College.  It  had  to  be 
academy,  college  and  university  in  one  for  Henry  Barber  and 
no  school  could  have  served  the  purpose  better. 

He  became  very  much  attached  to  Deerfield,  which  remained 
while  he  lived  a  second  home.  There  he  married,  on  June  30, 
1857,  Eliza  Hapgood  Pratt,  one  of  his  fellow  students.  Thus 
began  a  rarely  perfect  union  of  kindred  souls.  Both  had  been 
teaching  in  the  interval  between  graduation  and  marriage,  and 
continued  this  congenial  work  in  their  earliest  years  together. 
A  fellow  student  at  the  academy,  Walter  Stevens,  had  with  his 
wife  gone  to  Newark,  Ohio,  to  teach,  and  soon  sent  for  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Barber  to  join  them  in  their  work.  Both  young  men  were 
already  thinking  of  the  ministry,  both  were  warmly  encouraged 
by  their  wives,  and  after  the  teaching  had  enabled  them  to  lay 
by  a  little  money,  both  entered  in  1858  the  Meadville  Theologi- 
cal School,  then  in  its  fourteenth  year. 

Graduating  in  1861,  he  returned  to  New  England  and  on 
October  twenty-fourth  of  that  year  he  was  ordained  and  installed 
as  minister  of  the  First  Congregational  Church  of  Harvard, 
Massachusetts.  Here  passed  five  happy  years.  The  influence 
of  the  Harvard  ministry  is  best  reported  in  a  memorial  tribute 
adopted  by  the  church  shortly  after  his  death.  Here  are  some 
of  its  words:  "In  meeting  assembled  this  Sunday,  the  twenty- 
first  of  January,  1923,  we,  the  members  of  the  Unitarian  Church 
of  Harvard,  in  which  Mr.  Barber  was  ordained  and  installed  as 
Pastor  more  than  sixty  years  ago,  place  on  record  the  loving  joy 
and  pride  we  cherish  in  the  long  life  of  devoted  and  blessed  serv- 
ice whose  public  ministry  began  with  us  .  .  .  We  recall,  with 
tender  appreciation,  his  warmhearted  interest  in  our  Church,  our 
School,  and  our  Homes,  an  interest  that  never  failed  .  .  .  He 
leaves  to  us  an  unmeasured  influence  for  good." 

In  Harvard  a  devoted  parishioner  and  friend  was  Mrs.  Mar- 
garet Bromfield  Blanchard,  widow  of  the  Rev.  Ira  H.  T.  Blan- 


HENRY  HERVEY  BARBER  21 

chard,  a  former  minister  of  the  church.  After  counsel  with  her 
pastor,  her  not  inconsiderable  means  were  left  for  the  estab- 
lishment at  Harvard  of  the  Bromfield  School,  of  which  Mr. 
Barber  was  for  his  lifetime  an  active  trustee,  and  for  some 
years  the  president  of  the  governing  board.  To  the  School 
he  gave  unstinted  service  in  many  ways,  and  it  was  fitting 
that  the  sixtieth  anniversary  of  his  ordination  should  be  cele- 
brated at  Harvard,  with  school  and  church  uniting  to  do  him 
honor. 

Only  a  strong  call  to  a  field  of  service  promising  larger  tasks 
could  win  him  from  his  much-loved  Harvard.  But  in  1866  he 
was  induced  to  remove  to  Somerville.  Here  for  eighteen  years, 
as  minister  of  the  First  Unitarian  Church,  he  exercised  a  power- 
ful and  growing  influence.  Not  only  was  he  the  wise  preacher 
and  the  untiring  pastor,  but  he  was  always  at  the  call  of  every 
good  cause  in  the  city.  The  help  of  the  freedmen,  the  organ- 
ization of  charity  and  education,  the  stimulation  and  direction  of 
libraries,  the  cause  of  temperance,  equality  of  rights  for  women 
and  for  all  peoples  and  classes,  the  cause  of  peace  (nothing  was 
.nearer  his  heart  than  this),  and  every  form  of  social  justice— 
these  claimed  and  received  generously  of  his  time  and  energies. 
The  fellowship  of  churches,  too,  found  him  an  enthusiastic  helper. 
Sunday  afternoons  or  evenings  he  would  preach  for  churches 
without  pastors,  or  at  mission  points;  almost  always  he  had  a 
secondary  "preaching  station"  besides  his  regular  parish.  As 
a  contributor  to  the  Unitarian  Review  he  attracted  attention  and 
in  1875  he  was  asked  to  becojne  its  editor.  The  acceptance  of 
this  task  added  to  his  labors,  but  he  carried  on  with  fidelity  and 
skill  for  nine  years. 

But  again  a  larger  work  called  him.  A  man  of  just  his  type 
—scholar,  preacher,  wise  counselor,  and  spiritual  guide— was 
needed  in  the  divinity  school  that  had  trained  him.  Since  1881 
he  had  been  a  trustee  of  the  Meadville  Theological  School,  and 
now  he  was  summoned  to  join  its  teaching  staff.  In  1884  he 
began  at  Meadville  as  professor  of  the  history  and  philosophy 
of  religion,  and  at  one  time  or  another  he  gave  instruction  in 
almost  every  department  of  the  School.     He  taught  psychology 


22  HENRY  HERVEY  BARBER 

and  in  1885  he  was  instrumental  in  organizing  the  department 
of  sociology,  then  a  novelty  in  Divinity  Schools. 

The  best  account  of  what  he  was  at  Meadville  is  given  in  the 
words  of  one  who  was  for  many  years  his  colleague.  At  a  me- 
morial service  in  the  School  Chapel  on  January  24,  1923,  Profes- 
sor Francis  A.  Christie  spoke  of  Mr.  Barber  as  one  whose  con- 
nection with  the  School  bound  its  whole  history  together.  First 
as  student,  then  as  teacher,  he  had  known  and  worked  with  all 
those  who  had  created  and  developed  its  institutional  life. 
"When  he  rejoined  the  School,"  continued  Dr.  Christie,  "the 
School's  financial  resources  were  meager,  its  equipment  inade- 
quate. From  a  worldly  point  of  view  it  was  a  sacrifice  on 
his  part.  The  curriculum  provided  not  only  treatment  of  all 
branches  of  theological  science  but  also  courses  intended  to  sup- 
ply deficiencies  in  general  culture.  This  meant  a  necessity  for 
each  member  of  the  staff  to  conduct  classes  in  varied  subjects 
and  with  such  expenditure  of  time  that  the  life  of  a  specialist 
in  research  was  not  possible.  For  this  situation  Mr.  Barber, 
by  virtue  of  his  talent  and  experience,  and  his  large  resources, 
was  eminently  fitted.  He  brought  to  his  students  a  remarkable 
knowledge  of  literature  and  history,  and  apart  from  all  the  pro- 
gramme of  classroom  duty  he  roused  an  interest  in  the  poets  of 
the  Victorian  era,  and  especially  in  Browning.  In  the  informal 
moments  of  incidental  meeting  and  conversation  he  was  always 
the  well-furnished  man  of  extensive  culture,  ready  with  anec- 
dote and  quotation,  so  that  the  contact  with  him  was  not  only 
the  opportunity  of  feeling  his  sympathetic  personal  interest  in 
one's  lot  but  an  event  to  remember  with  pleasure  and  profit." 

From  1885  to  1890,  in  addition  to  his  work  at  the  School, 
Mr.  Barber  served  as  pastor  in  charge  of  the  Meadville  Uni- 
tarian Church.  He  soon  made  a  place  for  himself  in  the  life 
of  the  community  and  became  in  time  one  of  Meadville's  most 
honored  citizens.  The  charities  of  the  city  found  in  him  a  wise 
counselor  and  untiring  worker;  he  was  largely  instrumental  in 
establishing  the  Free  Public  Library  in  Meadville,  and  by  a 
printed  pamphlet  on  "The  Free  Public  Library  in  Pennsylvania" 
he  exercised  a  wide  influence  throughout  the  state.     In  civic  and 


HENRY  HERVEY  BARBER  23 

social  circles  like  the  Literary  Union  and  the  Round  Table  he 
was  one  of  the  most  valued  members  and  contributors.  With 
a  remarkably  retentive  memory,  he  had  stored  his  mind  with 
great  passages  from  writers  ancient  and  modern,  especially  from 
Scripture,  hymnody  and  modern  poetry. 

He  himself  possessed  literary  gifts  of  no  mean  order,  espe- 
cially as  a  writer  of  ballads  and  hymns.  One  of  his  hymns,  "Far 
Off,  O  God,  and  Yet  Most  Near,"  has  had  a  wide  use.  His 
prose  writings  consist  of  published  sermons  and  articles,  either 
in  pamphlet  form  or  in  the  columns  of  the  Unitarian  Review,  the 
Christian  Register,  or  other  journals. 

In  1904,  at  the  age  of  sixty-eight,  Mr.  Barber,  whose  sight  had 
become  impaired,  became  professor  emeritus,  but  he  remained  in 
close  touch  with  the  School  and  its  life.  At  the  Commencement 
of  191 1,  the  School  honored  him  with  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Divinity.  His  three  daughters  married  graduates  of  the  School 
who  became  active  ministers.  In  19 16  Mrs.  Barber  died  at 
Meadville,  mourned  by  the  whole  community  and  by  many 
throughout  the  land  who  in  student  days  had  known  the  hospi- 
tality of  her  home.  From  that  time  on,  though  keeping  his  home 
in  Meadville,  Dr.  Barber  made  extended  visits  in  New  England 
and  elsewhere,  frequently  preaching  and  speaking  at  conferences 
and  other  meetings. 

In  the  autumn  of  1922  he  went  to  Jacksonville,  Florida,  to 
spend  the  winter  with  his  second  daughter  and  her  husband.  Rev. 
Albert  J.  Coleman.  There  after  a  brief  illness,  he  died  on 
January  18,  1923,  less  than  a  month  after  his  eighty-seventh 
birthday. 

The  Meadville  Theological  School  has  enjoyed  the  leadership  of  many- 
distinguished  scholars.  Its  first  three  Presidents  are  commemorated  in 
Volume  III — Rufus  Phineas  Stebbins  (1844-1856)  on  page  353,  Oliver 
Stearns  (i  856-1 862)  on  page  344,  Abiel  Abbot  Livermore  (i  862-1 890) 
on  page  2iO.  Biographical  sketches  of  Presidents  Southworth  and  Snow 
are  contained  in  this  volume.  Among  the  notable  teachers  in  the  School 
who  are  held  in  grateful  remembrance  were: — 

James  Thompson  Bixby  w^ho  was  born  in  Barre,  Mass.,  on  July  30, 
1843,  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1864  and  from  the  Divinity  School  in  1870. 
He  was  minister  at  Watertown  for  four  years,  at  Belfast,  Me.,  for  five 


24  HENRY  HERVEY  BARBER 

years  and  then  became  Professor  of  Philosophy  at  Meadville,  serving  at 
the  same  time  as  minister  of  the  Meadville  Church.  He  was  a  learned 
scholar,  a  wise  counselor,  a  loyal  friend.  He  consecrated  voice  and  pen 
to  vindicating  the  supremacy  of  the  spirit.  Books  defining  and  interpret- 
ing the  relationship  of  science  and  religion  came  steadily  from  his  study — 
"The  Crisis  in  Morals,"  "The  Ethics  of  Evolution,"  "Religion  and  Sci- 
ence as  Allies,"  "The  New  World  and  the  New  Thought,"  "The  Open 
Secret."  The  compact  reasoning  of  these  essays  was  matched  by  their 
theoretical  power.  On  leaving  Meadville  he  served  for  sixteen  years  and 
until  increasing  blindness  necessitated  his  retirement,  as  minister  of  the 
church  in  Yonkers,  N.  Y.     He  died  at  Yonkers  on  Dec.  26,  192 1. 

Clayton  Raymond  Bowen  was  born  in  Wellsboro,  Pa.,  on  November 
25,  1877.  He  graduated  at  Franklin  College  in  1898  and  from  Meadville 
in  1901.  As  a  Perkins  Fellow  he  studied  for  two  years  at  the  Univer- 
sities of  Berlin  and  Marburg  and  then  for  a  year  at  the  Harvard  Divin- 
ity School.  For  two  years  he  ministered  at  Charlestown,  N.  H.,  and  in 
1905  was  called  to  Meadville  as  Instructor  in  New  Testament  Interpre- 
tation. He  was  promoted  to  Assistant  Professor  in  1907  and  to  full  Pro- 
fessor in  191 1.  He  ranked  as  an  outstanding  interpreter  of  the  New 
Testament  and  was  a  frequent  contributor  to  theological  journals.  His 
critical  and  constructive  scholarship  was  united  with  religious  ardor  and 
his  buoyant  vivacity  and  gift  of  humor  won  many  devoted  friends.  His 
books,  "The  Gospel  of  Jesus,"  and  "The  Resurrection  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment," were  authoritative  utterances  in  the  field  of  Biblical  scholarship. 
Dr.  Bowen  married  Margaret,  the  daughter  of  Dr.  Barber,  and  their  home 
in  Meadville  was  a  happy  center  of  social  life  for  the  school  and  the  com- 
munity until  her  health  failed.  When  the  Meadville  School  moved  to 
Chicago  in  1927  Dr.  Bowen  was  welcomed  as  a  stimulating  teacher  and 
an  eminent  New  Testament  scholar.  He  was  chosen  President  of  the 
Chicago  Society  of  Biblical  Research  and  of  the  New  Testament  Club, 
In  1934  Dr.  Bowen  went  to  Europe  as  a  delegate  to  an  International  Con- 
vention at  Prague  and  he  died  in  London  on  October  17,  1934. 

Francis  Albert  Christie  was  born  at  Lowell,  Mass.,  in  1858  and  died 
there  on  August  3,  1938.  He  graduated  at  Amherst  College  in  1881  and 
then  studied  for  two  years  at  Johns  Hopkins  and  at  German  universities 
and  after  a  period  of  teaching  at  the  Roxbury  Latin  School  became  an 
Instructor  at  the  Harvard  Divinity  School.  In  1893  he  went  to  Mead- 
ville as  Professor  of  Church  History  and  served  for  thirty  happy  and 
fruitful  years,  an  erudite  scholar,  a  convincing  teacher  and  to  many  stu- 
dents a  lifelong  friend.  In  1909  Amherst  made  him  a  Doctor  of  Divinity. 
His  contributions  to  the  periodicals  in  his  field  established  his  own  standing 
in  the  profession  and  added  to  the  prestige  of  the  Meadville  School.  He 
wrote  fifteen  biographies  for  the  "Dictionary  of  Biography"  and  contrib- 
uted many  articles  to  the  American  Historical  Review  and  the  "Dictionary 


HENRY  HERVEY  BARBER  25 

of  Religion  and  Ethics."  In  1926  he  retired  from  teaching;  and  became 
Professor  Emeritus.  Dr.  Christie  never  married.  His  students  and  his 
friends  and  associates  made  a  family  for  him. 

Frank  Carleton  Doan  was  born  of  Quaker  stock  at  Nelsonville, 
Ohio,  in  February  23,  1877.  He  was  a  graduate  of  the  Ohio  State  Uni- 
versity in  1898  and  then  pursued  advanced  studies  at  Harvard  taking  the 
degrees  of  A.M.  and  Ph.D.  In  1900  he  became  Professor  of  Psychology 
at  the  Ohio  State  University  and  four  years  later  was  called  to  Meadville 
as  Professor  of  the  Philosophy  of  Religion.  After  nine  years  of  animating 
work  in  study  and  classroom  he  decided  to  become  a  minister  and  was  or- 
dained at  Summit,  N.  J.,  in  1914,  serving  there  for  six  years.  There 
followed  brief  pastorates  at  Iowa  City,  Iowa,  and  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  when 
baffling  illness,  borne  with  cheerful  fortitude,  brought  his  active  ministry 
to  a  close.  He  was  the  author  of  a  book  called  "Religion  and  the  Modern 
Mind"  and  of  a  book  of  devotional  readings  and  meditations  which  was 
issued  after  his  death  under  the  title  "The  Eternal  Spirit  and  the  Daily 
Round."     Dr.  Doan  died  on  May  14,  1927. 

George  Rudolph  Freeman  was  born  at  Hunterstown,  Pa.,  on  Sep- 
tember 20,  1850.  He  graduated  at  Pennsylvania  College  in  1876.  For 
several  years  he  taught  school  at  Gettysburg  and  Bethlehem,  Pa. ;  then  he 
betook  himself  to  the  Yale  Divinity  School  where  he  won  the  Hooker 
Fellowship  and  graduated  in  1885.  He  remained  studying  at  New  Haven 
for  another  year  and  then  married  and  with  his  wife  went  to  the  Univer- 
sity of  Berlin.  For  two  years  he  gave  himself  to  studies  in  the  Bible  lit- 
erature. In  the  spring  of  1888  he  returned  to  America  and  soon  enrolled 
at  the  Harvard  Divinity  School.  He  was  made  a  Williams  Fellow  and 
for  a  time,  in  addition  to  his  studies,  was  pastor  of  the  Unitarian  Church 
in  Wayland,  Mass.  He  took  the  Harvard  degree  of  S.T.B.  and  in  1890, 
after  this  prolonged  preparation,  was  called  to  Meadville  to  teach  the  Old 
Testament.  Soon  he  was  promoted  to  the  Wilder  Professorship,  adding 
to  his  courses  in  the  Bible  a  leadership  in  the  field  of  Comparative  Reli- 
gion. It  was  a  tragic  loss  to  American  scholarship  when  he  died  suddenly 
on  April  10,  1898.  His  teacher  at  Harvard,  Professor  Toy,  wrote  of  his 
"happy  combination  of  traits  not  often  found  together — large  intelligence, 
unfeigned  modesty  and  critical  acumen  .  .  .  He  was  clearheaded,  impar- 
tial and  impersonal."  His  students  found  in  him  a  sure  guide  and  a  sym- 
pathetic understanding  of  their  needs  which  simplified  and  animated  his 
vast  learning. 

Nicholas  Paine  Gilman  was  born  at  Quincy,  111.,  December  21, 
1849,  and  graduated  at  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  in  1871.  He  was 
minister  for  four  years  at  Bolton,  Mass.,  and  then  took  to  teaching  and 
editing.  For  three  years  he  was  Professor  of  Ethics  and  English  Litera- 
ture at  Antioch  College  and  then,  after  a  short  pastorate  at  Wayland,  Mass., 
became  editor  of  the  Literary  World  and  later  of  the  New  World.     In 


26  HENRY  HERVEY  BARBER 

1895  he  became  Professor  of  Sociology  at  Meadville  and  served  until  his 
death  on  January  23,  1912.  He  was  the  author  of  many  books  of  out- 
standing merit;  among  the  titles  should  be  mentioned  "Profit  Sharing" 
(1889),  "Conduct  as  a  Fine  Art"  (1891),  "Socialism  and  the  American 
Spirit"  (1893),  "A  Dividend  to  Labor"  (1899),  and  "Methods  of  Indus- 
trial Peace"  (1904). 

Robert  James  Hutcheon  was  born  in  Seymour,  Ontario,  on  Octo- 
ber 22,  1869.  He  graduated  at  Queen's  University  in  1892  and  from  its 
Theological  School  in  1895.  He  was  then  ordained  in  the  ministry  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  and  for  six  years  served  Presbyterian  Churches  in 
Canada.  Then  he  became  a  Unitarian,  studied  for  a  year  at  the  Harvard 
Divinity  School  and  was  minister  of  the  Unitarian  Churches  in  Ottawa 
(1902-1905)  and  at  Toronto  (1906-1913).  In  1913  Dr.  Hutcheon 
joined  the  Meadville  Faculty,  succeeding  Professor  Oilman  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  Sociology  and  Ethics.  After  twenty-seven  years  of  successful 
teaching,  molding  the  thought  of  a  generation  of  Unitarian  ministers,  he 
retired  and  went  to  Florida  where  he  had  charge  of  the  church  at  Orlando 
until  his  death  on  December  18,  1940. 

Abraham  Willard  Jackson  was  born  at  Portland,  Me.,  on  April  7, 
1852.  He  entered  Colby  College  but  almost  at  once  enlisted  in  the  army 
and  in  the  service  rose  to  be  a  Captain  in  Col.  T.  W.  Higginson's  Colored 
Regiment.  Returning  to  Colby  he  graduated  in  1869  and  from  the  Har- 
vard Divinity  School  in  1872,  In  the  same  year  he  married  Caroline 
Bigelow  of  Livermore,  Me.,  and  three  children  blessed  their  union.  Mr. 
Jackson  served  pastorates  of  eight  years  each  at  Peterborough,  N.  H.,  and 
Santa  Barbara,  California,  and  in  1894  became  Professor  of  Philosophy 
at  Meadville.  Increasing  deafness  obliged  him  to  withdraw  from  active 
service  and  he  lived  at  Concord,  Mass.,  engaged  in  literary  work.  His 
books,  "James  Martineau,  a  Biography,"  "The  Immanent  God  and  Other 
Sermons,"  and  "Deafness  and  Cheerfulness"  bear  witness  to  his  thorough 
scholarship  and  buoyant  spirit.  Colby  gave  him  his  doctorate  in  1901. 
He  died  on  April  24,  191 1. 

These  teachers  and  scholars  transmitted  to  succeeding  generations  the 
gifts  of  intellectual  freedom  and  in  their  devout  and  serviceable  lives  they 
illustrated  the  higher  uses  of  that  freedom. 


WILLIAM  SULLIVAN  BARNES  27 

WILLIAM  SULLIVAN  BARNES 

1841-1912 

It  is  given  to  few  men,  by  the  unconscious  force  of  personal 
character,  to  attain  the  influence  in  a  community  which  was  gained 
by  the  Rev.  William  Sullivan  Barnes  during  his  thirty  unbroken 
years  as  minister  of  the  Church  of  the  Messiah  in  Montreal. 

Mr.  Barnes  was  called  to  the  church  in  1879,  at  the  age  of 
thirty-eight,  as  colleague  of  the  Rev.  John  Cordner,*  the  first 
minister,  whose  period  of  service  had  covered  more  than  thirty- 
five  years.  Dr.  Cordner,  an  Irishman  of  high  intellectual  gifts 
and  great  dignity  of  character,  had  built  up  a  strong  Unitarian 
Church.  The  institution  was  respected  because  of  the  quality  of 
the  membership,  but  was  nevertheless  looked  at  askance  by  the 
great  orthodox  churches  of  the  city.  It  was  Dr.  Barnes'  work 
not  only  to  conserve  and  extend  the  church's  influence  among  a 
growing  body  of  adherents,  but  to  win  for  it  a  genuine  recogni- 
tion as  a  Christian  force  in  the  community  at  large. 

His  previous  experience,  during  which  he  had  thought  him- 
self away  from  an  orthodox  background,  particularly  fitted  him 
for  this  task  of  winning  a  place  for  liberal  religious  thought  in 
a  city  dominated  by  both  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant  con- 
servatism. He  was  born  and  trained  in  the  Baptist  fold,  or- 
dained as  a  Baptist  minister,  and  served  for  three  years  ( 1864- 
67)  a  Baptist  congregation  in  Melrose,  Mass.  From  this 
church  he  was  asked  by  the  older  members  to  resign,  because  of 
his  giving  an  open  invitation  to  communion.  The  younger  peo- 
ple, however,  supported  him;  and  for  a  year,  unwilling  to  desert 
them,  he  carried  on  services  in  a  hall,  where  the  high  qualities 
of  his  preaching  soon  attracted  the  attention  of  Unitarians.  As 
a  result  of  their  interest,  and  because  he  felt  that  his  work  ought 
to  be  linked  up  with  an  organization,  he  accepted  a  call  to  the 
Unitarian  Church  in  Woburn,  Mass.,  from  which,  after  ten  years 
of  a  highly  successful  pastorate,  he  went  to  Montreal.  His 
withdrawal  from  the  Baptist  Church  caused  no  little  stir  in  that 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  75. 


28  WILLIAM  SULLIVAN  BARNES 

body  and  old  friends  and  even  relatives  turned  against  him.  He 
acted,  however,  in  accordance  with  two  dominant  traits  of  his 
character — courage,  which  enabled  him,  although  of  unusually 
sensitive  disposition,  to  stand  firm  against  adverse  criticism;  and 
sincerity,  which  made  right  thinking,  whatever  the  consequences 
to  himself  or  his  position,  a  necessity  of  action. 

His  long  ministry  in  Montreal  was  marked  by  two  outstanding 
features,  his  preaching  and  his  personality.  His  preaching,  in  a 
city  which  has  always  been  notable  for  its  preachers,  commanding 
the  services  of  able  men  from  England  and  Scotland  in  both  the 
Anglican  and  Presbyterian  Churches,  was  early  recognized  as  of 
exceptional  quality.  He  had  the  natural  gifts  of  a  good  preacher. 
To  a  studious  habit  and  wide  reading  he  added  ordered  thought 
and  unusual  beauty  of  diction.  Under  the  stimulus  of  his  preach- 
ing not  only  did  his  congregation  grow,  but  many  from  other 
churches,  especially  when  he  announced  a  series  of  Sunday  eve- 
ning discourses,  came  to  hear  him.  During  the  height  of  his  In- 
tellectual activity  many  of  the  members  of  the  faculty  of  McGIll 
University  were  regular  or  occasional  attendants;  and  many  stu- 
dents at  that  institution  found  in  his  preaching  a  bridge  from  the 
old  conceptions  of  Christianity  to  the  new.  His  great  service  to 
the  community  was  recognized  by  the  University  at  the  close  of 
his  ministry,  by  the  conferment  of  the  honorary  degree  of  LL.D, 

Dr.  Barnes  was  early  interested  In  scientific  thought,  and  was 
among  the  first  to  accept  and  interpret  the  doctrine  of  evolution 
in  its  bearing  on  theology.  In  his  later  preaching,  however.  Dr. 
Barnes  laid  greater  emphasis  on  the  poetic  and  mystical  aspects 
of  religion.  He  was  dismayed  at  the  hard  rationalism  of  some 
scientific  thought,  and  at  the  materialism  of  the  age;  against 
these  he  emphasized  the  beauty  and  the  poetry  of  life.  These 
two  aspects  of  his  thinking  are  reflected  in  the  careers  of  his  sons 
— that  of  the  elder,  as  a  distinguished  investigator  In  physics  on 
the  faculty  of  McGIll  University;  that  of  the  younger,  as  a 
painter  and  teacher  of  art  in  Montreal. 

As  a  background  to  Dr.  Barnes's  preaching  was  his  personality. 
In  addition  to  his  gifts  of  mind,  he  had  a  nature  of  especial  gen- 
tleness and  charm.     Every  good  man  has  a  hero  whom  he  rev- 


WILLIAM  SULLIVAN   BARNES  29 

erences  and  tries  to  follow.  Dr.  Barnes's  hero  was  the  highest, 
for  he  found  in  Jesus  his  pattern  and  exemplar;  and  so  success- 
fully did  he  mold  his  life  on  that  example  that  "Christlike"  is  the 
word  oftenest  used  to  describe  his  spirit  and  character.  This 
impression  was  made  not  only  upon  those  of  his  own  family  and 
church,  but  upon  those  outside  this  intimate  circle  as  well.  It 
is  said  that  Father  McShane,  Priest  of  the  largest  English-speak- 
ing Roman  Catholic  Church  of  the  city,  always  greeted  him  with 
lifted  hat,  as  "my  Christian  brother." 

Besides  these  impressions  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  knew  him, 
Dr.  Barnes  left  an  enduring  monument  of  his  spirit  in  the  present 
building  of  the  Church  of  the  Messiah.  When  he  first  went  to 
Montreal  his  ideas  as  to  public  worship  were  puritanical,  with 
the  main  emphasis  on  the  sermon.  One  of  his  first  acts  in  the 
old  church  was  to  have  the  pulpit  removed  in  order  that  he  might 
have  a  platform  from  which  to  preach.  During  his  years  in 
Montreal,  however,  he  modified  these  views.  He  made  fre- 
quent visits  to  Europe,  and  there  specialized  in  the  study  of  art 
and  architecture.  These  studies  bore  their  fruit  in  the  beautiful 
church  whose  building  was  the  crowning  achievement  of  his  min- 
istry. Through  his  efforts  the  building  is  adorned  with  carved 
woodwork  and  windows  of  stained  glass  (the  windows  being 
accounted  among  the  best  in  America),  memorials  to  some  of 
those  who  founded  and  sustained  the  church.  The  large  window 
in  one  of  the  transepts  is  a  memorial  to  Dr.  Barnes  himself, 
placed  there  after  his  death  by  a  grateful  congregation;  and 
very  appropriately  it  pictures  the  nativity  and  some  of  the  inci- 
dents in  the  life  of  Christ. 

In  order  that  exact  data  may  be  found  in  this  little  memoir, 
the  following  record  is  appended.  Dr.  Barnes  was  born  in  Bos- 
ton, June  16,  1 841,  the  son  of  the  Rev.  William  H.  Barnes  of 
that  city  and  Lydia  Ann  Yeaton  of  Durham,  N.  H.  His  mid- 
dle name  was  given  in  honor  of  the  connection  through  his  moth- 
er's family  with  General  John  Sullivan  of  Revolutionary  fame. 
He  was  educated  In  Boston  and  was  married  there  In  1864  to 
Mary  Alice  Turner.  He  was  ordained  to  the  ministry  during 
the  same  year  In  Melrose,  and  after  serving  there  and  In  Woburn, 


30  SAMUEL  JUNE  BARROWS 

went  to  the  Church  of  the  Messiah,  Montreal,  in  1879.  He 
was  retired  as  pastor  emeritus  in  1909,  and  died  in  Montreal, 
April  3,  1912. 


SAMUEL  JUNE  BARROWS 

1845-1909 

A  remarkable  diversity  of  gifts  and  occupations  marked  the 
character  and  career  of  Samuel  J.  Barrows.  He  was  minister, 
journalist,  author.  Member  of  Congress,  penologist,  musician, 
social  reformer — and  in  all  these  fields  of  service  he  was  a  leader. 
"Few  men  have  known  so  many  things  worth  knowing  and  have 
done  so  many  things  worth  doing."  His  versatility  was  marvel- 
ous. He  was  equally  at  home  in  the  editor's  chair,  in  the  pul- 
pit, in  the  halls  of  legislation,  at  the  Peace  Congress  arguing  for 
international  arbitration,  at  Lake  Mohonk  pleading  for  the 
rights  of  the  Indian,  singing  in  oratorio,  making  expert  sten- 
ographic reports,  writing  hymns  or  composing  music.  He  was 
an  interpreter  of  Greek  art  and  poetry.  His  book  entitled  "The 
Isles  and  Shrines  of  Greece,"  with  illustrations  reproduced  from 
photographs  taken  with  his  own  camera,  is  in  some  respects  a 
unique  volume  as  he  was  the  only  American  who  accompanied 
Dr.  Dorpfeld  in  his  successful  explorations  and  excavations  at 
Troy  in  1893.  His  beautiful  illustrated  volume,  published  by 
the  United  States  Treasury  Department,  giving  a  very  full  rec- 
ord of  the  journey  of  the  Interparliamentary  Union  through  the 
East,  South,  and  West,  when  its  members  were  the  guests  of  the 
Nation,  is  also  a  remarkable  book. 

He  was  born  in  New  York  on  May  26,  1845,  ^nd  was  reared 
in  the  faith  and  fellowship  of  the  Baptists.  The  story  of  his 
religious  evolution  he  later  told  in  a  little  book,  "A  Baptist 
Meeting-house:  The  Stairway  to  the  Old  Faith;  the  Open  Door 
to  the  New."  The  spirit  of  that  book  might  be  defined  in  the 
words  of  Paul,  "If  that  which  was  done  away  was  glorious,  even 
more  that  which  remaineth  is  glorious  "     He  had  hard  work 


SAMUEL  JUNE  BARROWS  31 

in  gaining  an  education,  and  he  was  twenty-seven  years  old  when 
he  finally  entered  the  Harvard  Divinity  School,  where  he  gradu- 
ated in  1875. 

Meanwhile,  he  had  served  for  a  time  In  Washington  as  Secre- 
tary to  the  Hon.  William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State,  and  in 
1867  he  married  Isabel  Hayes  Ciiapln,  who  to  a  marked  degree 
matched  him  In  ability  and  versatility  and  became  herself  a 
notable  speaker,  writer,  and  executive  manager.  In  the  School 
he  supported  himself  by  writing  and  reporting  for  newspapers 
and  learned  as  much  about  contemporary  journalism  as  he  did 
about  ancient  Scriptures.  His  vacations  were  spent  as  a  corre- 
spondent of  the  New  York  Tribune,  one  with  General  Stanley  In 
the  Yellowstone  region,  and  one  with  General  Custer  in  the 
Black  Hills.  On  November  2,  1876,  he  was  ordained  minister 
of  the  old  First  Parish  of  Dorchester  and  held  that  honorable 
post  for  five  fruitful  years.  Until  he  went  to  New  York  In  1900, 
Dorchester  remained  his  home.  For  sixteen  years  he  was  the 
Editor  of  the  Christian  Register,  then  a  weekly  journal  with  a 
large  circulation.  In  1897  he  was  elected  a  Member  of  Con- 
gress from  the  Tenth  Massachusetts  District,  and  though  he  at 
once  proved  himself  a  man  of  Influence,  he  did  not  care  to  be  re- 
elected but  in  1900  accepted  appointment  as  Executive  Secretary 
of  the  Prison  Association  of  New  York.  In  that  oflUce  he  la- 
bored, in  season  and  out  of  season,  for  the  reform  of  our  penal 
laws  and  became  an  authority  in  penology.  He  was  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  International  Prison  Congress,  and  he  was  chosen  by 
Congress  a  Commissioner  to  represent  the  United  States  at  the 
meetings  of  that  Association  in  foreign  countries.  For  such 
work  he  was  well  fitted  for,  among  his  other  accomplish- 
ments, he  was  a  remarkable  linguist  speaking  and  writing  five 
languages.  On  several  occasions  he  delivered  extemporaneously 
two  addresses  in  one  day  in  different  languages  on  dissimilar 
subjects. 

Dr.  Barrows — Harvard  University  gave  him  the  doctorate  in 
1897 — was  an  uncompromising  advocate  of  civic  righteousness. 
He  championed  many  a  good  cause  and  exemplified  his  belief 
in  the  Brotherhood  of  Man  by  espousing  the  cause  of  unpopular 


32  GEORGE  MURILLO  BARTOL 

or  oppressed  minorities.  In  every  relation  of  life  he  was  coura- 
geous, humane,  and  faithful.  He  died  in  New  York  on  April 
21,  1909. 

Associated  with  Dr.  Barrows  in  the  work  of  Prison  Reform  was  Wil- 
liam Henry  Spencer,  who  was  born  in  Wisconsin  while  it  was  still  a 
territory,  and  graduated  from  the  University  of  Wisconsin  in  1866,  and 
from  Harvard  Divinity  School  in  1869.  He  served  in  the  Civil  War  in 
the  40th  Wisconsin  Regiment,  enlisting  while  a  student  in  college.  He 
was  settled  over  the  Unitarian  parish  at  Haverhill,  Mass.,  for  ten  years. 
In  1878  he  married  Anna  Garlin  (see  page  58),  and  together  they  served 
many  good  causes.  Mr.  Spencer's  other  pastorates  were  at  Troy,  N.  Y., 
at  Florence,  Norwell,  and  South  Scituate,  Mass.,  and  at  South  Providence, 
R.  I.  Then  he  joined  Dr.  Barrows  in  the  work  of  the  New  York  Prison 
Association,  which  he  served  as  Chief  Parole  Officer.  He  died  in  New- 
York,  August  22,  1923. 


GEORGE  MURILLO  BARTOL 

1820-1906 

George  Murillo  Bartol,  son  of  George  and  Anna  (Given) 
Bartol,  was  born  at  Freeport,  Maine,  September  18,  1820,  and 
he  died  at  Lancaster,  Massachusetts,  June  20,  1906.  An  older 
brother.  Dr.  Cyrus  Augustus  Bartol,*  was  for  many  years  min- 
ister of  the  West  Church  in  Boston.  The  family  removed  to 
Portland,  Maine,  in  1824,  where  the  father  was  a  merchant  and 
an  honored  member  of  the  First  Parish  Church. 

Mr.  Bartol  prepared  for  college  at  Phillips  Exeter  Academy, 
graduated  from  Brown  University  in  1842,  and  from  the  Har- 
vard Divinity  School  in  1845.  Brown  University  honored  him 
in  1892  with  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity.  He  was  or- 
dained and  installed,  August  4,  1847,  as  minister  of  the  First 
Church  in  Lancaster,  Massachusetts.  Here  he  ministered  to  the 
church  and  community,  preaching  in  the  beautiful  Bulfinch  meet- 
ing house,  for  fifty-nine  years — a  distinguished  pastorate  termi- 
nated only  by  his  death  at  the  age  of  eighty-five. 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  17. 


GEORGE  MURILLO  BARTOL  33 

Lancaster  is  a  community  embodying  some  of  the  best  tradi- 
tions of  New  England  history.  It  is  lovely  in  its  location;  the 
merits  and  attainments  of  its  citizens  have  been  equally  conspicu- 
ous. The  Lancaster  church,  gathered  in  1653,  the  first  to  be  es- 
tablished in  Worcester  County,  has  held  a  leading  place  among 
the  churches  of  the  region. 

Dr.  Bartol  exemplified  the  usefulness  and  worth  of  a  long  min- 
istry such  as,  in  former  days,  was  not  unusual  in  New  England. 
Frequent  opportunities,  including  urgent  calls  to  several  impor- 
tant city  parishes,  were  firmly  declined  because  he  felt  that  the 
Lancaster  parish  was  worthy  of  a  lifetime  of  devoted  service. 
A  modest  man,  he  persistently  refused  to  publish  his  sermons 
which  were  of  a  high  order,  always  interesting,  and  productive 
of  a  fine  type  of  character  among  his  hearers.  But  he  believed, 
no  doubt,  that  "of  the  making  of  books  there  is  no  end,"  that 
a  prodigious  amount  of  such  material  already  existed,  and  he 
forbore  to  increase  it. 

Dr.  Bartol  became  identified  with  the  town,  a  friend  and  pro- 
moter of  its  highest  welfare.  Sympathetic  and  unselfish  in 
spirit,  his  sermons  disclosed  a  thoughtful  and  cultured  mind,  and 
they  dwelt  for  the  most  part  on  the  practical  and  constructive 
themes  of  religion.  Though  strong  in  personal  convictions.  Dr. 
Bartol  ever  sought  to  increase  fraternity  among  all  faiths.  Like 
a  true  shepherd  of  his  flock,  his  desire  was  to  lead  by  affection, 
by  sway  of  character,  by  service.  Considerate  in  judgment,  he 
was  always  congenial  with  younger  clergymen.  He  was  wise  in 
experience;  increase  of  years  found  him  beloved  alike  by  old  and 
young.  "He  was  a  supporter  of  public  improvements,  a  wise 
counselor,  a  steadfast  honor  to  the  town."  He  had  originality 
of  thought  and  expression,  made  honorable  and  successful  use 
of  life's  opportunities,  and  was  the  acknowledged  and  revered 
dean  of  the  ministers  of  Worcester  County. 

In  1862,  Dr.  Bartol  founded  the  Lancaster  Town  Library 
and  was  chairman  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  until  his  death,  a 
period  of  forty-four  years,  and  for  the  same  period  was  chair- 
man of  the  Cemetery  Committee.  He  served  on  the  Lancaster 
School  Committee  for  twenty-four  years.     He  was  moderator 


34  GEORGE  MURILLO  BARTOL 

of  the  Worcester  Association  of  Ministers  for  thirty-three  years. 
He  was  long  a  member  of  the  Society  for  Promoting  Theological 
Education  in  Harvard  University;  president  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Evangelical  Missionary,  1 894-1 906;  and  president  of  the 
Society  for  Ministerial  Relief,  1 897-1904. 

Dr.  Bartol  was  married  in  June,  1856,  to  Elizabeth  Kimball, 
daughter  of  John  Marshall  and  Harriet  Webster  (Kimball) 
Washburn,  and  sister  of  the  gallant  Civil  War  soldiers.  Gen- 
eral Francis  Washburn  and  Captain  Edward  Washburn,  who 
died  in  the  service  of  their  country.  Mrs.  Bartol  had  the  re- 
spect and  affection  of  the  whole  town,  and  her  part  of  the  parish 
work  was  done  in  the  same  quiet,  friendly  way  as  that  of  her 
husband.  Continuously,  by  unanimous  choice  of  the  members 
for  a  hundred  years,  Mrs.  Bartol,  her  mother,  two  of  her  daugh- 
ters and  a  granddaughter  have  been  the  presidents  of  the  Lan- 
caster Female  Charitable  Society. 

At  a  time  when  the  majority  of  the  members  wished  to  divide 
the  church  auditorium  into  two  floors.  Dr.  Bartol  threatened  to 
resign  if  that  were  done.  It  was  due  to  him  that  the  church  in 
Lancaster  has  retained  its  original  beauty  and  dignity.  The 
twenty-fifth,  fortieth  and  fiftieth  anniversaries  of  his  settlement, 
his  silver  and  golden  wedding  anniversaries,  and  the  250th  anni- 
versary of  the  church  gave  opportunity  for  his  parishioners  and 
neighbors  to  demonstrate  their  appreciation  of  his  character  and 
service.  A  parishioner  wrote  of  him :  "His  was  a  useful  and  beau- 
tiful lifetime  spent  in  the  service  of  one  New  England  village. 
Without  doubt  he  was  the  most  loved  man  in  town.  If  a  man 
continues  to  be  loved,  increasingly,  for  over  fifty  years,  what 
more  need  be  said?" 

The  love  of  Christ,  with  his  apostles  twelve, 
He  taught,  but  first  he  practiced  it  himself. 

The  church  in  Lancaster  has  a  remarkable  record  for  long  pastorates. 
John  Prentice  was  minister  for  forty-three  years  (i  705-1 748),  Timothy 
Harrington  for  forty-seven  years  (i  748-1 795)  and  Nathaniel  Thayer  for 
forty-seven  years  (1793-1840)  but  Dr.  Bartol's  fifty-nine  years  surpassed 
all  of  them.  For  other  pastorates  exceeding  forty  years  see  the  memoirs 
in  this  volume  of : — 


Page 

69 

Page 

75 

Page 

82 

Page 

III 

Page 

116 

Page 

120 

Page 

124 

Page 

125 

Page 

113 

Page 

150 

Page 

186 

Page 

195 

Page 

261 

Page 

201 

Page 

242 

Page 

257 

Page 

261 

Page  263 

GEORGE  MURILLO  BARTOL  35 

S.  R.  Calthrop  Forty-nine  years  at  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

J.  W.  Chadwick  Forty  years  at  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

W.  L.  Chaffin  Fifty  years  at  North  Easton,  Mass. 

J.  De  Normandie  Forty-one  years  at  Roxbury,  Mass. 

C.  F.  Dole  Fifty-two  years  at  Jamaica  Plain,  Mass. 

J.  L.  Douthit  Fifty-four  years  at  Shelbyville,  111. 

H.  G.  Eisenlohr  Fifty-four  years  at  Cincinnati,  Ohio 

T.  L.  Eliot  Sixty-eight  years  at  Portland,  Ore. 

A.  Gooding  Fifty  years  at  Portsmouth,  N.  H. 

E.  E.  Hale  Fifty-three  years  at  Boston,  Mass. 
J.  May  Forty-two  years  at  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

F.  G.  Peabody  Fifty-five  years  at  Harvard  Divinity  School 
W.  T.  Phelan  Forty-two  years  at  Portland,  Me. 
U.  G.  B.  Pierce  Forty-two  years  at  Washington,  D.  C. 
C.  R.  Weld  Forty-five  years  at  Baltimore,  Md. 
S.  H.  Winkley  Sixty-five  years  at  Boston,  Mass. 

G.  C.  Wright  Forty-four  years  at  Lowell,  Mass. 
J.  E.  Wright  Forty  years  at  Montpelier,  Vt. 

In  addition  there  follow  here  notes  on  other  holders  of  pastorates  of 
long  duration  and  faithful  service. 

George  Sumner  Ball  was  minister  for  forty  years  at  West  Upton 
and  for  ten  years  more  a  notable  citizen  of  the  town.  He  was  born  at 
Leominster,  Mass.,  May  22,  1822.  He  was  educated  in  the  schools  of 
that  town  and  at  an  early  age  began  teaching  in  the  district  schools  of  the 
neighborhood.  At  the  age  of  twenty-two  he  entered  Meadville  Theologi- 
cal School  and  graduated  with  its  second  class  in  1847.  He  was  ordained 
at  Ware,  Mass.,  and  remained  there  for  exactly  two  years.  Then  he  ac- 
cepted the  call  to  Upton  and,  save  for  two  short  periods,  stayed  there  for 
the  rest  of  his  life.  For  two  years  (1855-57)  he  served  as  colleague  to 
Dr.  Kendall  in  the  old  First  Parish  in  Plymouth  and  in  1861-62  he  was 
chaplain  of  the  21st  Massachusetts  Regiment,  seeing  service  at  the  front 
in  the  battles  of  Chantilly,  Second"  Bull  Run,  South  Mountain,  Antietam 
and  Fredericksburg.  Upon  his  return  from  these  duties  he  was  chosen 
Chaplain  of  the  Massachusetts  House  of  Representatives.  Besides  his  min- 
isterial duties  Mr.  Ball  was  for  many  years  a  member  of  the  School  Com- 
mittee and  in  1853  he  was  a  delegate  to  the  Massachusetts  Constitutional 
Convention.  He  served  four  years  in  the  General  Court,  two  in  the 
House  and  two  in  the  Senate.  Being  a  minister  meant  to  him  taking 
every  opportunity  of  serving  the  public  good.  He  was  a  strong,  helpful, 
uplifting  influence.     He  died  on  September  6,   1902. 

Chester  Covell  was  for  forty-five  years  minister  at  Buda,  Illinois. 
He  was  born  at  Ogden,  N.  Y.,  on  June  18,  181 7,  and  died  at  Buda,  Au- 
gust 5,   1903.     He  began  to  preach  when  he  was  twenty-three  years  old 


36  GEORGE  MURILLO  BARTOL 

in  the  Freewill  Baptist  Church  and  for  twelve  years  was  an  evangelist 
in  New  York  State.  In  1851  he  married  Harriet  Hilton  Morrison  who 
was  his  comrade  for  nearly  fifty  years.  Finding  himself  more  and  more 
in  sympathy  with  Unitarian  principles,  he  moved  to  Illinois  and  in  1858 
took  charge  of  the  little  church  in  Buda.  As  he  grew  old  he  was  gener- 
ally known  as  Father  Covell.  He  was  in  many  ways  a  remarkable  man, 
physically  large  and  impressive,  fine  in  head  and  features,  brave,  kindly, 
and  with  a  rare  power  and  grace  of  utterance.  All  the  region  round  about 
Buda  felt  his  influence  and  recognized  his  leadership. 

Henry  Clay  De  Long  was  for  forty-five  years  minister  of  the  First 
Parish  of  Medford,  Mass.  He  was  born  at  Binghamton,  N.  Y.,  and  died 
at  Medford,  January  10,  1916.  He  was  the  son  of  a  Universalist  min- 
ister and  educated  at  St.  Lawrence  University.  His  first  charges  were  in 
the  Universalist  churches  at  Weston,  N.  Y.,  and  Danvers,  Mass.  In  1869 
he  vyas  installed  at  Medford  and  remained  there  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 

James  Cameron  Duncan  was  born  in  Rothes,  Morayshire,  Scotland, 
on  July  8,  i860.  He  came  to  America  in  1879  and  soon  after  began  to 
study  at  Meadville  where  he  graduated  in  1885.  He  took  one  year  of 
study  at  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  and  then  was  installed  minister  of 
the  church  in  Clinton,  Mass.,  where  he  remained  until  his  death  on  Febru- 
ary 8,  1938,  a  pastorate  of  fifty-two  years.  In  1928  Meadville  gave  him 
his  Doctorate  of  Divinity.  For  thirty  years  Mr.  Duncan  was  the  diligent 
and  trusted  secretary  of  the  Worcester  County  Conference,  a  sort  of  un- 
mitred  bishop  for  all  central  Massachusetts.  For  four  years  he  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association  and 
for  a  longer  period  he  administered  with  rare  sympathy  and  skill  the  distri- 
bution of  aid  to  poor  or  invalid  ministers.  Dr.  Duncan  was  a  genial  and 
canny  Scot  who  assimilated  the  shrewd  humor  and  practical  common  sense 
of  his  Yankee  associates.     In  all  the  relations  of  life  he  rang  true. 

Milton  Jennings  Miller  was  born  at  Springfield,  Ohio,  on  Decem- 
ber 28,  1 83 1,  and  died  at  Geneseo,  111.,  on  September  10,  1919.  He  grad- 
uated from  Antioch  College  in  1859  and  from  the  Harvard  Divinity 
School  in  1863.  He  married  Hannah  Dean  Allen  of  Scituate  and  was 
ordained  in  the  Christian  Connection  at  Troy,  Ohio,  on  February  12, 
1864.  Within  a  few  months  he  was  commissioned  Chaplain  in  the  iioth 
Ohio  Regiment,  saw  service  with  Sheridan's  corps  in  the  campaign  in  the 
Shenandoah  Valley  and  was  present  at  the  surrender  of  General  Lee. 
Upon  discharge  he  returned  to  the  Troy  pastorate  but,  finding  himself 
out  of  place  in  a  conservative  church,  in  1868  he  accepted  a  call  to  the 
newly  organized  Unitarian  Church  in  Geneseo,  111.,  and  there  for  fifty- 
one  years  he  and  his  gifted  wife  were  leaders  in  all  the  humanitarian  and 
patriotic  and  religious  activities  of  the  community. 

Joseph  Nelson  Pardee  was  born  at  Oriskany  Falls,  N.  Y.,  Octo- 
ber 4,  1847,  and  died  at  Bolton,  Mass.,  on  January  2,  1944,  in  his  ninety- 


GEORGE  MURILLO  BARTOL  37 

seventh  year.  He  graduated  at  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  in  1872  and 
was  ordained  at  Dubuque,  Iowa,  on  Jan.  4,  1873,  so  that  at  the  time  of 
his  death  he  had  been  a  minister  for  71  years  lacking  one  day.  For  eight 
years  he  served  as  a  missionary  preacher  in  Illinois  and  Michigan  and  then 
had  brief  pastorates  at  Medfield,  Mass.,  and  Laconia,  N.  H.  In  1887, 
because  of  poor  health,  he  bought  a  farm  at  Billerica,  Mass.,  and  worked 
it  for  twelve  years.  He  took  charge  of  the  First  Parish  in  Bolton  in  1901 
and  remained  there,  first  as  active  minister  and  then  as  minister  emeritus 
for  forty-two  years.  For  many  years  he  was  also  Chaplain  of  the  State 
Industrial  School  for  Girls.  Mr.  Pardee  was  the  leader  in  many  endeavors 
for  the  welfare  of  the  town.  He  was  foremost  in  securing  the  introduc- 
tion first  of  a  telephone  system  and  then  in  getting  the  town  supplied  with 
electric  light  and  power.  During  his  pastorate  two  tragedies  occurred. 
The  first  was  the  burning  of  his  parsonage  with  everything  in  it.  Four- 
teen years  later  the  meeting  house,  built  in  1790,  burned  to  the  ground. 
Four  days  after  the  fire,  under  Mr.  Pardee's  inspiring  leadership,  the 
Parish  voted  to  rebuild.  Again  he  was  instrumental  in  persuading  the 
three  Protestant  churches  of  the  town  to  unite  and  form  one  Federated 
Church.  In  his  study  he  became  the  recognized  authority  on  the  intricate 
legal  relationships  of  parish  and  church  in  Massachusetts  and  his  publica- 
tions are  still  the  last  word  on  that  subject.  For  forty-three  years  Mr. 
Pardee  was  a  beloved  member  of  the  Worcester  Association  of  Ministers, 
becoming,  after  Dr.  Bartol's  death,  the  "grand  old  man"  of  that  body. 
In  his  character  Mr.  Pardee  united  a  genuine  humility  with  a  bold  self- 
confidence  tempered  with  a  shrewd  sense  of  humor. 

George  Stetson  Shaw  came  of  a  good  Cape  Cod  family  stock  and  was 
born  on  April  8,  1837.  At  an  early  age  he  went  to  work  in  his  father's 
shipyard  at  New  Bedford.  He  was  twenty-one  years  old  before  he  could 
give  much  attention  to  an  education  and  then  by  four  years  of  hard  study 
he  put  himself  through  Meadville  Theological  School,  graduating  in  1862. 
He  was  Chaplain  of  the  135th  Colored  Troops  and  then  served  a  brief 
pastorate  at  Sheboygan,  Wis.  On  July  18,  1868,  he  preached  at  Ashby, 
Mass.,  and  there,  without  any  formal  installation,  he  stayed  for  the  rest 
of  his  life.  In  1870  he  married  Mary  Gates,  a  daughter  of  one  of  the 
leading  families  of  the  town.  He  started  the  Town  Library,  served  for 
many  years  on  the  School  Committee  and  took  an  active  part  in  all  com- 
munity interests — a  long,  faithful  and  honorable  ministry.  He  died  at 
Ashby  on  February  i,  1909. 

Samuel  Barrett  Stewart  was  born  in  Farmington,  Me.,  on  June  9, 
1839,  and  died  at  Schenectady  on  February  13,  1927.  He  graduated  at 
Bowdoin  College  in  1857  at  the  age  of  eighteen.  For  two  years  he 
taught  at  Francestown  Academy  in  New  Hampshire  and  then  entered  the 
Harvard  Divinity  School,  graduating  in  1862.  His  first  settlement  was  in 
Nashua,  N.  H.  (1863-1865)  and  while  there  he  married  Annie  O.  Bixby 


38  GEORGE  BATCHELOR 

of  Francestown.  In  1865  he  was  called  to  the  church  in  Lynn,  Mass., 
and  there  he  served  for  sixty-two  years,  forty  years  in  active  charge  of  the 
church  and  twenty-two  years  as  minister  emeritus.  He  was  for  many 
years  a  trustee  of  the  Public  Library,  a  member  of  the  School  Committee 
and  a  leader  in  all  community  activities,  a  vigorous  and  scholarly  preacher 
and  a  good  citizen  and  neighbor. 


GEORGE  BATCHELOR 

1836-1923 

George  Batchelor  was  born  In  Southbury,  Conn.,  on  July  3, 
1836.  He  was  the  son  of  a  very  orthodox  Baptist  minister  and 
was  reared  in  an  atmosphere  of  fervent  evangelical  faith  tinged 
with  the  belief  that  the  end  of  the  world  was  close  at  hand. 
When  he  came  to  maturity,  he  rejected  the  "Millerlte"  ideas 
with  which  he  had  been  indoctrinated  and  with  them  the  whole 
plan  of  salvation  with  which  they  were  connected.  He  became 
a  pronounced  liberal  though  he  retained  a  devout  spirit.  He 
betook  himself  to  the  Meadvllle  Theological  School,  earned  his 
way  through  the  school,  and  graduated  in  1863.  He  then 
joined  the  staff  of  the  U.  S.  Sanitary  Commission  and  served 
until  the  end  of  the  Civil  War.  Desiring  further  education,  he 
was  admitted  to  the  Senior  Class  in  Harvard  College  and  gradu- 
ated with  the  Class  of  1866,  being  then  thirty  years  old.  On 
October  3,  1866,  he  was  ordained  as  Minister  of  the  Barton 
Square  Church  In  Salem,  Mass.,  and  had  there  an  eminently  suc- 
cessful ministry  of  sixteen  years.  In  1865,  under  the  inspiring 
leadership  of  Henry  W.  Bellows,*  there  had  been  organized  the 
National  Conference  of  Unitarian  and  Other  Christian  Churches. 
Mr.  Batchelor  was  soon  chosen  Executive  Secretary  of  the  Con- 
ference, and  to  its  work  he  gave  many  years  of  diligent  service. 
It  was  his  function  to  promote  an  efficient  unity  of  the  spirit 
among  the  liberal  churches  of  the  United  States,  to  upbuild  co- 
operative goodwill,  and  to  give  larger  scope  to  a  movement  of 
religious  thought  and  action  that  had  been  largely  centered  in 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  23. 


GEORGE  BATCH ELOR  39 

eastern  Massachusetts.  For  this  service  he  was  admirably  fit- 
ted for  in  his  own  personality  there  were  united  spiritual  fervor 
and  intellectual  freedom.  He  was  a  preacher  of  more  than 
average  ability,  a  counselor  whose  advice  was  in  rare  degree 
wise  and  dispassionate,  a  man  of  perfect  integrity  and  personal 
charm. 

It  has  been  said  that  institutions  of  human  devising  have  their 
beginners,  their  continuers  and  their  destroyers.  The  founders 
and  the  despoilers  seem  to  make  the  most  stir  in  the  world  but 
progress  depends  on  the  patient  continuers.  Mr.  Batchelor  was 
neither  a  reactionary  nor  a  radical.  He  was  pre-eminently  a 
reconciler.  He  believed  in  liberty  and  union,  "one  and  insep- 
arable." He  affirmed  that  individual  independence  is  the  best 
basis  for  hearty  co-operation.  He  brought  together  conserva- 
tives and  reformers  in  the  service  of  the  ideals  they  all  held  in 
common.  He  was  never  impatient  or  irritable  or  hasty.  He 
steadfastly  emphasized  the  things  that  unite.  He  guarded  the 
freedom  of  individual  thought  and  expression  but  insisted  upon 
fellowship  and  togetherness.  He  was  the  man  to  whom  his  asso- 
ciates turned  whenever  people  got  disputatious  or  contentious 
and  he  always  found  a  way  to  compose  differences  and  harmon- 
ize disagreements.  There  is  great  work  to  be  done  by  begin- 
ners. There  is  an  equally  great  work  to  be  done  by  continuers. 
George  Batchelor  was  the  sort  of  continuer  who  began  where 
his  predecessors  had  stopped. 

In  1882  Mr.  Batchelor  was  called  to  Unity  Church  in  Chicago, 
but,  after  three  years  of  faithful  service,  ill  health  obliged  him 
to  relinquish  that  difficult  post  of  service.  From  1889  to  1895 
he  had  a  happy  and  successful  pastorate  at  Lowell,  Mass.  He 
was  elected  to  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  American  Unitarian 
Association  and  took  an  increasingly  active  part  in  its  proceed- 
ings so  that  in  1894  he  was  chosen  to  be  Secretary  of  the  Associ- 
ation. He  guided  denominational  affairs  for  four  years  and  re- 
linquished his  office  to  become  in  1898  the  editor  of  the  Christian 
Register.  He  retired  from  active  service  on  his  seventy-fifth 
birthday,  July  3,  191 1,  and  died  at  his  home  in  Cambridge  on 
June  21,  1923. 


40  GEORGE  BATCHELOR 

Mr.  Batchelor  was  succeeded  in  the  Secretaryship  of  the  Association 
first  by  the  Rev.  Samuel  A.  Eliot,  who  served  for  two  years  and  then  was 
President  of  the  Association  for  twenty-seven  years,  and  in  1900  by 
Charles  Elliott  St.  John,  who  filled  this  important  position  from 
May,  1900,  until  September,  1907.  He  was  the  son  of  the  Rev.  Thomas 
E.  St.  John,  a  Universalist,  later  a  Unitarian,  minister,  and  he  was  born 
at  Prairie  du  Chien,  Wisconsin,  December  19,  1856.  He  prepared  for 
college  at  the  Worcester  High  School  and  graduated  at  Harvard  with  the 
class  of  1879. 

In  April,  1882,  he  wrote  in  his  class  report:  "My  record  for  the  last 
three  years  will  be  a  short  one.  Ill  health  forced  me  to  postpone,  for  a 
year,  my  entrance  into  professional  studies,  and  I  found  an  opportunity 
to  go  to  Colorado  and  'rough  it.'  I  engaged  myself  as  a  day  laborer  in 
a  saw  mill  near  Boulder,  Colo.,  and  for  three  months  and  a  half  I  earned 
my  'dollar  a  day  and  board.'  Late  in  January  I  went  to  Jamestown,  and 
worked  with  pick  and  shovel  in  a  gold  mine.  I  saw  a  good  deal  of  rough 
life,  but  it  restored  my  health  and  gave  me  some  invaluable  lessons.  I  en- 
tered the  Harvard  Divinity  School  in  the  fall,  with  my  health  fully  re- 
stored." 

Three  years  later  he  wrote:  "I  graduated  from  the  Divinity  School  in 
1883,  after  an  uneventful  course.  During  the  last  vacation  I  went  to 
North  Woodstock,  N.  H.,  as  a  missionary.  I  preached  there  three  months 
in  a  vacant  Baptist  meetinghouse  with  decidedly  forlorn  results.  In  Octo- 
ber, 1883,  I  received  and  accepted  a  call  to  become  the  pastor  of  the  Second 
Congregational  (Unitarian)  Society  of  Northampton,  Massachusetts,  and 
I  was  ordained  and  installed  November  i.  Since  that  date  the  usual 
duties  of  a  'country  parson'  have  fallen  upon  me.  I  have  found  my  par- 
ish a  very  pleasant  one.  It  is  not  large,  and  my  audiences  are  not  over- 
whelming in  size,  but  the  people  receive  kindly  what  I  say  to  them,  and 
have  not  yet  asked  for  my  resignation."  He  was  married  June  26,  1888, 
to  Martha  Elizabeth  Everett,  a  graduate  of  Smith  College. 

In  September  of  1891  he  was  invited  to  undertake  the  work  of  build- 
ing up  a  new  church  in  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania,  and  he  was  installed  as 
pastor  of  the  First  Unitarian  Church  October  6,  1891.  The  society, 
which  had  been  in  existence  a  little  over  a  year,  was  worshiping  in  a  pub- 
lic hall  in  the  crowded  business  section  of  the  city.  A  new  church  building 
was  dedicated  in  October,  1893,  on  the  second  anniversary  of  his  settle- 
ment. He  had  done  all  of  the  executive  work,  having  been  financial  man- 
ager and  chairman  of  the  building  committee. 

Mr.  St.  John  became  increasingly  active  in  the  denominational  interests, 
speaking  often  at  conferences  and  similar  gatherings.  He  served  on  com- 
mittees of  both  The  National  Conference  and  The  Middle  States  Confer- 
ence, was  from  1895  to  1898  a  Director  of  the  Unitarian  Sunday  School 
Society,  and  a  Trustee  of  the  Meadville  Theological  School.     At  the  an- 


GEORGE  BATCHELOR  41 

nual  meeting  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association,  held  May  22,  1 900, 
he  was  elected  to  be  its  Secretary,  and  moved  to  Boston.  He  soon  won 
the  respect  and  confidence  of  ministers  and  laymen  and  his  forceful  utter- 
ances carried  conviction  to  the  minds  and  hearts  of  his  audiences  all  over 
the  country.  They  knew  him  to  be  sincere,  loyal  to  his  ideals  and  thor- 
oughly practical  in  his  work  as  an  executive  officer.  The  following  quota- 
tion from  his  second  annual  report  may  serve  to  show  the  extent  of  his  work: 

"I  have  during  the  year  visited  ninety-five  churches  scattered  over  this 
country  and  Canada.  I  have  preached  seventy-four  times,  delivered  forty- 
eiyht  other  addresses,  taken  part  in  six  installation  services,  two  church 
dedications,  ten  conferences,  and  seventy-four  meetings  of  boards,  commit- 
tees, and  other  special  meetings." 

The  task  was,  however,  too  strenuous  and,  needing  a  prolonged  rest, 
he  went  abroad  accompanied  by  his  wife  in  July  of  1905  and  in  August  took 
part  at  Geneva  in  the  meetings  of  the  International  Council  of  Religious 
Liberals.  He  also  officially  visited  the  Unitarian  churches  in  Hungary 
and  was  made  an  honorary  member  of  the  chief  consistory.  Conclud- 
ing at  last  that  a  change  of  occupation  was  absolutely  necessary,  he  re- 
signed and  accepted  a  call  to  the  First  Unitarian  Church  of  Philadelphia, 
where  he  had  a  successful  pastorate  of  eight  years.  In  19 10  he  went 
again  to  Europe  with  his  family,  taking  part  in  the  International  Council 
of  Religious  Liberals  at  Berlin  and  going  to  Kolozsvar  and  Deva  to  join 
in  the  celebration  of  the  four-hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Francis 
David,  the  Founder  of  Unitarianism  in  Hungary.  He  died  in  Philadelphia, 
February  25,  1916. 

After  his  death  Mrs.  St.  John  gathered  selections  from  his  writings  for 
each  day  of  the  year  and  published  them  under  the  appropriate  title,  "Living 
in  Earnest."  A  translation  of  his  earlier  book,  "The  Religion  of  the 
Dawn,"  was  published  in  the  Hungarian  language. 

Mr.  St.  John  was  succeeded  in  the  Secretaryship  by  Lewis  Gilbert 
Wilson,  who  was  born  in  Southboro,  Mass.,  on  February  19,  1858.  He 
was  the  descendant  of  early  New  England  Puritans  as  well  as  of  Plymouth 
Pilgrims.  He  graduated  from  the  Southboro  High  School  and  attended 
Chauncy  Hall  School  in  Boston  and  Worcester  Academy.  He  entered 
Dartmouth  but  was  forced  to  leave  for  lack  of  funds.  Later  he  attended 
classes  at  Harvard  University.  He  then  went  to  Meadville  Theological 
School  and  in  1883  was  ordained  and  installed  minister  of  the  church  in 
Leicester,  Massachusetts.  In  the  same  year  he  married  his  boyhood  sweet- 
heart, Janet  Maria  Cook,  a  direct  descendant  of  Elder  Brewster  of 
Plymouth.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wilson  had  five  children,  two  of  whom  lived 
to  maturity. 

In  1885  they  went  to  Hopedale,  where  Mr.  Wilson  became  minister 
of  the  Unitarian  Church.  Adin  Ballou,  the  Christian  Socialist  and  founder 
of  the  Hopedale  Community,  was  then  a  very  old  man.     He  had  been  the 


42  GEORGE  BATCHELOR 

family  pastor  of  the  Cook  family  and  had  married  Mr,  and  Mrs.  Wilson 
as  well  as  her  parents.  Lewis  Wilson  had  a  share  in  an  extensive  corre- 
spondence between  Mr.  Ballou  and  Leo  Tolstoi.  It  was  during  Mr.  Wil- 
son's incumbency  that  the  beautiful  memorial  church  was  built  at  Hopedale. 

In  1901  the  first  of  the  severe  attacks  of  nervous  prostration  came  upon 
Mr.  Wilson  and  forced  him  to  retire  to  the  farm  in  Mendon  upon  which 
his  wife  had  been  born.  In  1901,  and  in  the  succeeding  years,  he  bought 
land  and  built  cottages  at  Ocean  Point,  Boothbay,  Maine,  and  until  his 
death  in  1928  he  never  passed  a  year  without  spending  some  vacation  time 
there. 

But  his  eager  spirit  could  not  brook  retirement.  After  a  brief  recupera- 
tion he  started  across  the  continent  as  Billings  Lecturer  of  the  American 
Unitarian  Association,  and  in  1907  he  succeeded  Mr.  St.  John  as  secre- 
tary. He  continued  in  this  office  until  1915  when,  after  the  sudden  death 
of  Mrs.  Wilson  at  Ocean  Point,  he  gave  up  the  Secretaryship  and  became 
Editorial  Secretary  of  the  Association.  That  meant  supervising  the  edito- 
rial work,  reading  manuscripts  for  publication,  editing  the  Year  Book, 
presiding  at  all  meetings  of  standing  committees,  writing  reports  and  keep- 
ing up  an  extensive  correspondence,  preaching  on  Sundays  and  going  on 
long  journeys  for  conferences  and  the  settlement  of  local  parish  difficulties. 
A  weak  heart  sometimes  prostrated  him,  but,  though  never  sure  of  seeing 
tomorrow's  sunrise,  he  cheerfully  put  his  hand  to  the  day's  work  with  a 
strong  will,  a  resolute  purpose,  in  the  spirit  of  his  fine  hymn, 

O  God,  our  dwelling  place. 
Our  times  are  thine. 

Then  the  Westboro  Society  needed  him,  and  from  1920  to  1924  he  did 
a  constructive  work,  reorganizing,  revising  methods,  remodeling  the  meet- 
inghouse, stimulating  the  morale  and  retiring  at  last  with  the  honorary 
title  of  minister  emeritus. 

Henceforth,  life  meant  living  quietly,  in  touch  with  old  associates, 
enjoying  sea  breezes  in  the  summertime,  Florida  sunshine  through  the 
winters,  with  spring  and  autumn  at  home  among  friendly  neighbors,  under 
the  careful  supervision  of  his  second  wife,  the  former  Miss  Sarah  Wonson 
of  Gloucester,  until  the  heart  that  had  beaten  fitfully  for  seventy  years 
ceased  to  beat  in  1928. 

The  last  decade  of  his  life  was  far  from  idle,  however.  Poems,  hymns, 
prayers  came  from  his  pen.  The  beautiful  chapel  at  Ocean  Point,  built 
by  him  as  a  memorial  to  the  first  Mrs.  Wilson,  was  erected  under  his  lov- 
ing care  and  shows  his  practical  judgment  and  artistic  taste.  Mr.  Wilson 
was  an  artist.  When  the  tired  heart  demanded  rest,  the  brush  and  palette 
gave  peace  to  his  spirit. 

He  was,  as  a  lifelong  associate  testified,  a  "preacher  that  congregations 


SETH  CURTIS  BEACH  43 

of  all  kinds  liked  to  hear,  a  writer  that  all  were  pleased  to  read,  a  poet  of 
spiritual  feeling."  "The  Voice  of  the  Spirit,"  "The  Uplifted  Hands," 
"Glimpses  of  a  Better  Life,"  "One  Hundred  Minute  Sermons,"  and 
three  fine  hymns  complete  the  list  of  his  publications. 

The  memoir  of  Mr.  Batchelor  was  compiled  by  the  editor,  who  succeeded  him  in 
the  Secretaryship  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association,  partly  from  his  own 
recollections  and  partly  from  a  memorial  sermon  preached  by  Dr.  Samuel  M. 
Crothers.  The  Note  on  Mr.  St.  John  was  contributed  by  his  classmate,  Prescott 
Keyes,  and  the  Note  on  Mr.  Wilson  by  his  son,  the  Rev.  John  Henry  Wilson. 


SETH  CURTIS  BEACH 

1837-1932 

Seth  Curtis  Beach  was  born  on  a  farm  about  five  miles  from 
the  village  of  Marion,  in  Wayne  County,  New  York,  on  Au- 
gust 8,  1837.  His  father  had  migrated  into  western  New  York 
from  New  Ashford,  Mass.,  in  1821.  He  bought  fifty  acres  of 
primeval  forest,  cleared  it  for  a  farm,  and  built  a  log  cabin, 
in  which  his  children  were  born.  Of  this  log  cabin  Dr.  Beach 
wrote,  many  years  later: — 

"It  was  20  by  26  feet,  I  believe,  and  all  in  one  room.  The 
family  regularly  consisted  of  my  father  and  mother,  my  two 
sisters  and  myself.  In  one  corner  was  my  father's  and  mother's 
bed,  and  under  it  was  mine,  a  trundle  bed  on  wheels.  There  was 
often  another  bed  in  the  opposite  corner,  a  spare  bed  for  com- 
pany. The  beds  were  separated  from  each  other  and  the  rest 
of  the  house  by  'valances.'  A  third  corner  was  occupied  by  a 
ladder  to  a  chamber,  curtained  off  in  cold  weather  by  a  bed  quilt, 
where  my  sisters  slept,  close  against  the  roof.  .  .  .  Outside  the 
house  was  a  framed  barn,  with  half  a  dozen  cows,  a  pair  of 
horses,  and  to  me,  innumerable  sheep,  hogs,  hens  and  geese." 

Although  the  boy  had  farm  chores  to  do  at  an  early  age,  by 
the  time  he  was  sixteen  he  had  shown  that  his  chief  interest  was 
to  get  an  education. 

"It  was  much  more  to  my  taste  to  read  a  newspaper  when  I 
could  get  hold  of  one  than  to  pull  weeds,  pick  stones,  or  hoe  corn, 


44  SETH  CURTIS  BEACH 

especially  alone.  The  Christian  Messenger,  printed  at  Albany, 
was  my  weekly  resource.  My  sister  Julia,  who  taught  school 
summers,  bought  me  Robbin's  'Ancient  and  Modern  History,' 
out  of  which  I  got  most  of  the  history  I  know.  I  also  had  a 
small  volume  of  Locke  'On  the  Conduct  of  the  Understanding,' 
with  Bacon's  'Essays,'  which  I  fear  I  may  be  said  to  have  stolen 
from  the  School  Library  in  the  'Simmon's'  District.  It  prob- 
ably was  not  felt  as  a  loss  to  the  Library,  and  why  it  should  have 
attracted  me  at  that  age  I  cannot  say,  but  I  read  it  and  read  it." 

To  further  his  desire  for  an  education,  his  mother  (his  father 
died  in  1845)  gave  up  her  home,  auctioned  off  her  belongings, 
and  moved  to  Palmyra,  a  larger  community  than  Marion,  where 
Seth  attended  the  Palmyra  Union  School,  preparatory  to  going 
to  college.  The  illness  and  death  of  his  sister  Mary  deferred 
this  project  for  five  years.  His  mother  returned  to  Marion. 
Seth  went  to  school  for  two  years,  and  then  taught  school  for 
three  years. 

At  this  time  he  "experienced  religion"  in  a  great  "revival," 
a  series  of  meetings  held  every  day  at  the  Baptist  Church  in 
Marion.  It  was  not  his  first  experience  with  religious  revivals, 
for  as  a  boy  of  twelve  or  thirteen  he  had  attended  a  series  of 
similar  meetings  conducted  by  a  revivalist  called  Brother  Gallo- 
way, who  was 

"...  a  famous  singer  in  those  days,  and  had  the  rare  gift  of 
talking  and  weeping  all  together,  which  made  his  exercises  very 
effective,  especially  upon  the  more  susceptible  of  his  audience. 
I  was  one  of  them.   .  .  . 

"It  so  happened  that  my  first  attendance  upon  the  meetings  in 
1856-7  was  one  Saturday  afternoon  when  I  had  no  school  to 
teach.  ...  At  the  end  of  the  sermon  a  hymn  was  sung,  during 
which  a  call  was  made  for  those  to  come  forward  who  wanted 
prayers.  I  was  looking  about  with  the  rest  to  see  who  the 
'inquirers'  or  'anxious'  or  'candidates'  might  be.  At  that  mo- 
ment the  old  evangelist,  'Brother  Galloway,'  with  whom  I  had 
had  experience  as  a  boy,  whom  I  had  not  observed  before,  but 
who  was  seated  in  the  row  of  seats  behind  me,  threw  his  arms 
around  me  and  began  to  sob.     I  was  shattered  in  a  moment. 


SETH  CURTIS  BEACH  45 

All  the  old  magic  which  he  had  been  wont  to  exercise  over  me 
returned.  ...  I  had  just  will  enough  to  disengage  myself  and 
go  out  through  the  crowd  of  sobbing  spectators.  Once  in  the 
open  air  the  spell  was  broken. 

"After  this  beginning  I  attended  revival  meetings  with  a  good 
deal  of  regularity,  and  tried  to  profit  by  them.  I  was  prayed 
for  often  till  near  midnight.  I  tried  hard  to  give  myself  away, 
but  I  could  neither  feel  as  I  supposed  I  ought  to  feel  about  my 
sins,  nor  experience  the  sense  of  a  'change'  which  I  was  taught 
to  expect.   .   .   . 

"Notwithstanding  this  discouragement  I  continued  to  attend 
prayer  meetings,  in  which  I  spoke  and  prayed,  and  I  read  reli- 
gious books  in  which  replies  to  infidels  preponderated.  ...  I 
remember  I  thought  the  infidels  had  the  best  of  it." 

In  the  fall  of  1859,  Mr.  Beach  entered  Antioch  College  at 
Yellow  Springs,  Ohio,  made  famous  by  the  presidency  of  Horace 
Mann.  There  he  remained  until  the  fall  of  1862,  when  he  trans- 
ferred to  Union  College  at  Schenectady,  N.  Y.,  where  he  gradu- 
ated in  1863  and  was  elected  to  give  the  commencement  oration. 
Fifty  years  later.  Union  gave  him  the  honorary  degree  of  D.D. 

At  Antioch  Unitarianism  was  in  the  air,  while  Union  was 
Presbyterian.  This  conflict  in  religious  views  further  stimulated 
his  interest  in  theology,  and  led  him  to  enter  the  Harvard  Divin- 
ity School.  He  must  have  approved  himself  there,  for  in  1865 
he  was  chosen  by  vote  of  the  two  higher  classes,  as  the  custom 
was,  to  preach  the  Christmas  sermon  in  Divinity  Chapel.  In 
the  "Order  of  Exercises  at  the  Fiftieth  Annual  Visitation  of  the 
Divinity  School,  July  17,  1866,"  which  were  his  graduation  ex- 
ercises, appears  his  hymn  "Mysterious  Presence  I  Source  of  all," 
and  the  title  of  his  "part,"  a  paper  on  "Christ's  Conception  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God." 

Mr.  Beach  preached  here  and  there  without  receiving  a  call 
until  March  31,  1867,  when  he  preached  for  the  first  time  in 
Augusta,  Me.  He  records  that  the  people  "took  to  me  with 
surprising  kindness  and  favor."  That  became  his  first  parish, 
and  there  he  met  his  future  wife,  Frances  Hall  Judd,  a  daugh- 
ter of  a   former  minister  of  the  church  there.   Rev.   Sylvester 


46  SETH  CURTIS  BEACH 

Judd.*  But  in  1869,  111  health  forced  him  to  resign.  He  went 
to  Minnesota,  where  Miss  Judd's  brother-in-law,  Henry  Hall, 
had  a  farm  In  which  he  bought  a  share  and  where  he  speedily 
regained  health  and  weight.  He  returned  to  Boston,  married 
Miss  Judd  in  the  old  Tremont  House  on  November  17,  1869, 
and  took  his  young  bride  to  Minnesota.  He  bought  140  acres 
of  wild  prairie  and  undertook  to  farm  for  himself,  building  a 
stable  which  they  first  used  as  a  dwelling.  But  the  life  of  a 
pioneer  farmer's  wife  was  too  severe  for  his  wife,  and  a  six 
weeks'  Illness  left  her  in  poor  health.  Accordingly,  he  sold  the 
farm  and  returned  East. 

In  1873  he  was  called  to  the  First  Parish  In  Norton,  Mass. 
There  he  determined  to  try  the  "old  method  of  instituted  reli- 
gion" and  he  was  Installed  "in  the  ancient  and  accepted  way." 
He  "talked  church"  to  his  young  people  and  had  a  service  of 
admission  into  membership  In  the  church  which  had  a  notable 
success.  This  was  followed  by  a  communion  service,  a  service 
which  "in  my  youth  had  affected  me  like  a  funeral,"  but  which 
he  now  looked  upon  as  something  which  "the  church  could  do 
together  as  a  sign  of  their  fellowship." 

In  1875  he  left  Norton  and  went  to  Dedham,  Mass.  High- 
light of  that  pastorate  was  a  temperance  sermon,  preached  in 
1876  from  the  text,  "The  Son  of  Man  came  eating  and  drinking," 
in  which  he  "gave  great  offense  to  the  radical  Total  Abstinence 
men  and  women  of  the  town."  He  became  secretary  of  the 
Ministerial  Union  and  a  member,  the  first  In  Dedham,  of  the 
Civil  Service  Reform  Association,  and  started  an  agitation  for 
a  "working  conference  of  churches  in  the  State  under  an  able, 
well-paid  leader." 

From  1889  until  1891,  Dr.  Beach  was  Superintendent  of  Mis- 
sionary Work  for  Northern  New  England  and  was  active  In 
organizing  new  churches,  but  In  1891  he  was  called  simultane- 
ously to  Lawrence,  Mass.,  and  to  Bangor,  Me.,  and  he  chose 
the  latter  parish. 

"I  went  to  Bangor  with  my  head  teeming  with  plans  for  the 
organization  of  the  parish  and  for  pushing  It  to  the  fore.      I 

*  See  Volume  II,  p.  301. 


SETH  CURTIS  HEACH  47 

would  make  the  Sunday  School  over  new,  would  baptize  and  con- 
firm all  the  children  as  I  had  done  in  Dedham,  would  organize 
a  young  people's  society  and  a  men's  club,  and  would  fill  all  the 
church  windows  with  memorials  and  hang  pictures  on  the  walls. 
Of  all  this,  and  much  more  of  which  I  fondly  dreamed,  it  has  to 
be  said  that  very  little  was  accomplished,  except  to  leave  the 
Sunday  School  somewhat  better  than  I  found  it." 

It  may  have  been  Mrs.  Beach  who  developed  the  rule  not  to 
stay  in  a  parish  longer  than  ten  years.  At  any  rate,  that  was  his 
practice.  He  believed  that  within  that  period  he  could  accom- 
plish all  that  lay  within  his  power  and  that  he  could  leave  with 
the  genuine  regret  of  his  parishioners.  Of  his  work  in  Bangor 
he  afterward  wrote: 

"As  I  review  my  work  in  Bangor,  I  see  that  much  of  my  ser- 
monizing had  been  giving  reasons  for  the  faith  that  was  in  me. 
Why  do  we  say  God,  and  what  do  we  mean  by  the  word?  Why 
do  right,  or  what  is  the  basis  of  morality?  The  value  of  ideals 
and  their  meaning,  and  the  persuasions  to  belief  in  immortality. 
Besides  these  recurring  topics — God,  duty,  immortality — I  con- 
sidered myself  a  missionary  to  the  unbelieving  upon  independ- 
ence in  politics,  the  iniquity  of  a  protective  tariff  (upon  which  I 
never  directly  preached,  but  which  I  often  hit),  the  proved 
absurdity  of  prohibition  as  a  temperance  measure,  and,  when  it 
came,  the  wickedness  of  the  war  with  Spain.  I  fought  the  war 
until  it  was  declared  and  then  I  let  it  alone." 

He  left  Bangor  in  1901  with  retirement  in  view,  but  time  hung 
heavily  on  his  hands,  and  after  a  year  in  Cambridge  he  became 
minister  of  the  old  First  Parish  in  Wayland,  Mass.  There  he 
remained  very  happily  for  nearly  ten  years,  when  he  really  re- 
tired in  191 1,  nearly  seventy-five  years  of  age.  The  remaining 
twenty  years  of  his  life  were  spent  in  Watertown,  where  he  died 
on  January  30,  1932.  At  the  time  of  his  death,  nearly  ninety- 
five  years  of  age,  he  was  the  oldest  living  Unitarian  minister,  and 
the  oldest  graduate  of  the  Harvard  Divinity  School.  A  son, 
Reuel  W.  Beach,  and  a  grandson,  Curtis  Beach,  both  became 
Unitarian  ministers. 


48  SAMUEL  COLLINS  BEANE 

SAMUEL  COLLINS  BEANE 
1835-1916 

It  was  a  magnetic,  optimistic,  missionary  spirit  behind  the 
spoken  word  which  accounted  for  an  uninterrupted  ministry  of 
fifty-four  years  of  more  than  average  influence. 

Samuel  CoUins  Beane  first  saw  sunlight  on  a  bitterly  cold  day 
December  19,  1835,  at  Beane's  Island  in  the  town  of  Candia, 
New  Hampshire.  His  early  religious  instruction  from  pulpit 
and  book,  and  by  no  means  contradicted  by  family  teaching,  was 
entirely  in  accordance  with  the  orthodox  system,  the  fall  of  man, 
the  sinfulness  of  human  nature,  the  doom  of  every  human  crea- 
ture to  punishment,  and  one's  exceptional  release  from  that  doom 
on  condition  that  when  one  came  to  "the  years  of  understanding" 
one  should  become  "converted." 

When  about  fifteen  years  old,  he  heard  his  brother  Joseph 
and  a  hired  man  in  the  hayfield  talking  on  religious  matters.  The 
latter  was  saying  that  he  was  a  Unitarian,  and  in  a  simple  and 
ungrammatical  way  he  was  telling  his  brother  what  Unitarians 
believed.  Samuel  caught  at  his  words.  They  were  a  godsend 
to  him.  He  said  to  himself,  "This  orthodoxy,  which  is  such 
a  burden  and  nightmare  to  me,  may  not  be  true.  At  all  events 
I  will,  as  soon  as  opportunity  offers,  examine  into  this  new  faith 
that  seems  so  reasonable  and  see  what  it  is." 

The  opportunity  came  the  following  year,  when  he  was  six- 
teen, and  from  that  time  he  became  an  unwavering,  happy,  and 
thankful  Unitarian.  The  world  was  a  different  world  to  him, 
life  became  richer,  the  skies  were  brighter,  man  became  nobler, 
heaven  was  nearer  and  more  homelike.  It  was  in  the  Unitar- 
ian Church  at  Concord,  New  Hampshire,  that  he  heard  the 
good  news  and  destiny  decreed  that  in  the  same  church  he  was, 
in  future  years,  to  achieve  the  greatest  success  of  his  own  min- 
istry. 

The  District  School,  Pembroke  Academy,  Yale,  Dartmouth 
College,  and  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  were  the  scenes  of 
his  mental  and  spiritual  training.     Later  he  was  the  first  Uni- 


SAMUEL  COLLINS  BEANE  49 

tarian  to  be  honored  with  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  by 
Dartmouth  College. 

Mr.  Beane  was  ordained  at  Chlcopee,  Massachusetts,  Janu- 
ary 15,  1862,  the  sermon  being  preached  by  Edward  Everett 
Hale.  George  Dexter  Robinson,  then  principal  of  the  town 
High  School,  and  later  a  member  of  Congress  and  Governor  of 
Massachusetts,  was  one  of  his  parishioners,  and  George  M. 
Stearns,  the  ablest  lawyer  in  western  Massachusetts,  another  of 
his  congregation. 

Three  years  later,  on  New  Year's  Sunday,  1865,  Mr.  Beane 
was  settled  over  the  Second,  or  East,  Church  in  Salem,  Massachu- 
setts. This  was  a  very  interesting  and  stimulating  congregation 
for  the  young  minister,  there  being  thirty-five  sea  captains  in  the 
parish.  These  shipmaster  parishioners  were  men  of  experience 
and  ability.  Each  was  in  most  respects  unlike  all  the  rest,  though 
they  resembled  each  other  in  personal  independence  and  power 
of  command.  They  were  men  of  wide  outlooks,  generous  and 
public  spirited. 

Dexter  Clapp  was  Mr.  Beane's  predecessor  in  the  East  Church 
pulpit  and  he  lived  about  two  years  to  be  a  friend  and  helper. 
The  traditions  of  his  predecessor  and  senior  colleague.  Dr. 
James  Flint,  were  still  fresh  and  Dr.  Flint's  wife  and  three 
daughters  were  still  members  of  the  parish.  But  the  most  nu- 
merous and  luxuriant  traditions  pertained  to  Dr.  William  Bent- 
ley,*  Dr.  Flint's  predecessor — the  philosopher,  scholar,  historian, 
and  pioneer  of  liberal  thought.  Mr.  Beane  was  minister  of  the 
Second  Church  just  thirteen  years,  but  in  a  sense  his  Salem  min- 
istry was  never  completed  until  the  end  of  his  life,  as  he  was 
repeatedly  called  back  to  the  old  parish  on  various  missions. 

In  January,  1878,  Dr.  Beane  began  what  proved  to  be  the 
most  notable  work  of  his  career  at  Concord,  New  Hampshire. 
No  other  congregation  in  the  city  contained  so  many  of  Con- 
cord's distinguished  citizens  or  leaders  In  the  legislature  as  It 
met  at  the  state  capital.  The  congregations  steadily  increased 
and  a  beautiful  chapel  or  Parish  House  was  added  to  the  church 
building.     The  minister  was  prominent  and  influential  in  all  civic 

*  See  Volume  I,  p.  149. 


50  SAMUEL  COLLINS  BEANE 

and  state  assemblies,  preaching  the  sermon  at  a  union  serv- 
ice at  the  time  of  the  death  of  President  Garfield  and  active  in 
prison  reform  and  in  the  cause  of  suffrage  for  women. 

Dr.  Beane  was  instrumental  in  having  the  New  Hampshire 
Unitarian  Association  incorporated  and  was  one  of  two  persons, 
Rev.  Enoch  Powell  being  the  other,  who  instituted  the  Summer 
Grove  Meetings  at  the  Weirs  that  were  popular  and  effective  for 
more  than  twenty  years.  Dr.  Beane  started  the  project  of  having 
a  Unitarian  School  in  New  Hampshire  and  was  very  influential 
in  the  upbuilding  of  Proctor  Academy  at  Andover.  For  some 
years  he  preached  as  Chaplain  on  Sunday  afternoons  at  the  State 
Asylum  for  the  Insane,  besides  officiating  at  two  services  in  the 
Unitarian  Church  and  leading  the  Sunday  School. 

After  an  attack  of  nervous  prostration,  and  resignation  from 
the  Concord  Church,  three  years  and  four  months  were  spent  as 
Superintendent  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association  for  Maine, 
New  Hampshire,  and  Vermont.  A  goodly  number  of  old  par- 
ishes were  restored  to  life  during  this  period  and  several  new 
churches  were  organized.  Many  individuals  in  Northern  New 
England  were  won  to  the  liberal  cause  through  the  straightfor- 
ward and  winsome  preaching  of  this  apostle  of  the  faith. 

A  Newburyport  pastorate,  over  the  First  Religious  Society, 
began  in  the  spring  of  1888,  and  continued  for  seventeen  years. 
The  large  number  of  weddings  and  funerals  and  public  addresses 
again  testify  to  the  popularity  and  usefulness  of  his  ministry. 
Four  years  at  Lawrence,  Massachusetts,  and  six  at  Grafton, 
Massachusetts,  rounded  out  the  fifty-four  years  of  active  min- 
istry without  a  day  or  gap  between  settlements.  Quietly  and 
naturally  his  earthly  life  came  to  an  end  on  May  16,   1916. 

Dr.  Beane  was  survived  by  two  children,  Elizabeth  S.  Beane, 
of  Concord,  Massachusetts,  and  the  Rev.  Samuel  C.  Beane,  Jr. 
It  is  to  the  mother  of  these  children  that  Dr.  Beane  owed  much 
of  his  success.  No  minister's  wife  was  ever  more  democratic  or 
beloved  than  Harriet  Cook  Gray,  his  co-worker  and  inspiration 
during  the  days  of  his  chief  success. 

One  of  Dr.  Beane's  latest  utterances  was,  "I  have  been  happy, 
have  worked  with  all  the  strength  and  talent  there  was  in  me, 


SAMUEL  COLLINS  BEANE  51 

have  credited  myself  with  httle  wisdom  and  httle  virtue,  have 
cast  my  efforts  into  the  treasury,  and  leave  divine  law  and  provi- 
dence to  make  out  of  it  what  they  can.  If  I  were  to  choose  a 
profession  again,  it  would  be  the  same  one." 

Enoch  Powell  was  born  in  Birmingham,  England,  on  February  18, 
1844.  Early  apprenticed  to  an  upholsterer,  he  had  few  educational  ad- 
vantages. Fortune-hunting,  he  drifted  to  Australia  and  there  made 
acquaintance  with  the  liberal  interpretations  of  Christianity.  He  came  to 
America  in  1866  and,  supporting  himself  by  his  trade,  studied  so  hard  and 
successfully  that  he  gained  admission  to  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  and 
graduated  in  1871.  He  was  ordained,  married,  and  at  the  end  buried 
at  Valparaiso,  Ind.  He  served  brief  pastorates  at  Monroe,  Wis.,  and 
LaPorte,  Ind.  Then,  for  twelve  years  he  was  employed  as  a  minister-at- 
large  in  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  establishing  churches  and  preaching  stations 
and  invigorating  conferences.  Then  followed  a  seven  3'ears'  settlement  at 
Nashua,  N.  H.,  and  his  final  work  was  at  Ord,  Neb.  He  died  on  No- 
vember 6,  1904.  Mr.  Powell  was  a  man  of  big,  sturdy  frame,  strong, 
homely  and  rugged  in  speech,  earnest  and  sincere.  Often  he  worked 
with  his  own  hands  on  the  buildings  for  the  churches  he  helped  to  create. 
He  was  ever  a  faithful  and  convincing  advocate  of  a  liberal  faith. 

At  Newburyport,  Dr.  Beane  succeeded  Daniel  Webster  Morehouse, 
who  was  born  February  4,  1844,  Knowlesville,  Orleans  County,  N.  Y.  He 
was  the  youngest  child  of  Daniel  and  Polly  Jane  Morehouse.  The  par- 
ents settled  when  this  son  was  one  year  old  upon  a  farm  near  Westport, 
and  remained  there  until  the  boy  was  fifteen  years  of  age.  Here  he  at- 
tended the  common  school.  The  family  next  removed  to  Niagara  County, 
N.  Y.  This  gave  the  boy  better  opportunities  for  education  at  the  Lock- 
port  Union  School,  and  he  later  graduated  from  Eastman's  Business  Col- 
lege at  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y. 

His  father  had  meantime  become  a  manufacturer  of  wagons  and  car- 
riages, and  the  son  worked  with  him  at  this  occupation  for  ten  years.  But 
in  1877  Mr.  Morehouse  was  able  to  enter  upon  a  preparation  for  the 
the  ministry,  which  he  had  long  desired  to  make  his  lifework.  He  en- 
tered the  Meadville  Theological  School  and  graduated  in  1880.  He  al- 
ways maintained  his  interest  in  Meadville  and  was  for  several  years  a 
member  of  the  Board  of  Trustees. 

He  was  called  to  the  ministry  of  the  First  Religious  Society  in  New- 
buryport, Mass.,  in  1881,  and  he  spent  six  happy  and  useful  years  with 
this  church.  In  1887  he  began  the  work  for  which  he  is  best  remembered, 
as  secretary  of  the  Conference  of  the  Middle  States  and  Canada,  and  rep- 
resentative in  that  territory  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association.  To 
this  work  Mr.  Morehouse  brought  not  only  religious  devotion  but  gifts 


52  ANTOINETTE  BROWN  BLACKWELL 

of  a  high  order  as  an  administrator  and  adviser  of  the  churches.  His  early 
training  gave  him  habits  of  accuracy  and  order  in  administering  the  finan- 
cial side  of  his  work,  and  his  business  sagacity  made  him  a  good  adviser 
of  the  ministers  and  trustees  both  of  the  established  churches  and  those 
which  owed  their  existence  to  his  initiative.  His  tact  and  Christian  kindli- 
ness smoothed  away  difficulties,  and  in  the  sixteen  years  during  which  Mr. 
Morehouse  was  secretary  of  the  Conference  many  new  churches  came  into 
being.  For  ten  of  these  years  he  also  served  as  secretary  of  the  National 
Conference. 

Mr.  Morehouse  was  a  modest  pioneer  whose  effectiveness  was  out  of 
all  proportion  to  his  own  estimate  of  his  powers.  His  industry  was  un- 
abated, his  stores  of  knowledge  were  always  at  command,  his  single- 
hearted  devotion  elevated  duty  to  an  enthusiasm,  and  his  power  of  clear 
statement  gave  to  each  community  to  which  he  addressed  himself  a  just 
and  persuasive  exposition  of  the  liberal  faith. 

In  1903  Mr.  Morehouse  resigned,  and  he  died  at  West  Springfield, 
Mass.,  on  October  3,  1904. 

At  Concord  Dr.  Beane  was  succeeded  by  Bradley  Oilman,  who  was 
born  in  Boston,  January  22,  1857.  He  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1880 
and  from  the  Divinity  School  in  1885.  He  was  ordained  at  Belmont, 
Mass.,  October  25,  1884,  and  there  followed  six  years  at  Concord,  N.  H., 
twelve  years  at  Springfield,  Mass.,  and  twelve  years  at  Canton,  Mass. — 
all  fruitful  and  successful  pastorates.  His  last  charge  was  at  Palo  Alto, 
Cal.  (1917-1919),  where  he  also  served  as  Chaplain  at  Camp  Fremont. 
Mr.  Oilman  was  a  man  of  refined  tastes,  broad  culture,  and  marked 
literary  gifts.  He  wrote  many  books  and  articles  in  periodicals  and  news- 
papers. He  was  twice  interim  editor  of  the  Christian  Register  and  a 
frequent  contributor  to  the  Boston  Journal  and  the  Transcript.  He  pub- 
lished biographies  of  Robert  E.  Lee  and  of  his  classmate  Theodore  Roose- 
velt. His  children's  stories  were  issued  under  the  pseudonym  of  Walter 
Wentworth.     He  died  in  Boston,  June  19,  1932. 


ANTOINETTE  BROWN  BLACKWELL 

1825-1921 

Antoinette  Brown  came  of  New  England  stock,  sturdy  and 
long-lived  pioneers  in  Connecticut.  Her  grandfather,  Joseph 
Brown  of  Thompson,  Conn.,  served  in  the  army  all  through  the 
Revolutionary  War  and  her  father,  another  Joseph  Brown,  was 
in  the  War  of  18 12.     Antoinette  was  a  typical  daughter  of  the 


ANTOINETTE  BROWN  BLACKWELL  53 

line,  energetic,  resourceful  and  thrifty,  with  a  keen  sense  of  humor 
and  a  capacity  to  shoulder  responsibility.  The  family  moved  in 
a  wagon  from  the  Connecticut  farm  to  Henrietta,  near  Rochester, 
N.  Y.,  and  there  Antoinette  was  born  in  a  log  cabin  on  May  20, 
1825.  She  was  one  of  ten  children  and  the  seventh  child  of  a 
seventh  son  of  a  seventh  son.  The  surroundings  of  her  child- 
hood were  those  of  many  another  pioneer  family.  There  were 
no  stoves,  lamps  or  matches.  Fire  was  kindled  from  a  tinder- 
box,  candles  were  "dipped"  in  the  home  kitchen,  baking  was  done 
in  the  great  oven  and  meat  roasted  on  the  spit.  Wool  was 
sheared,  spun,  woven  and  made  into  garments  by  the  industrious 
household.  When  she  was  nine  years  old  Antoinette  joined  the 
Congregational  Church,  speaking  of  her  religion  with  such  elo- 
quence that  one  of  the  deacons  rose  and  said,  "Out  of  the  mouths 
of  babes  and  sucklings  the  Lord  hath  perfected  his  praise." 

At  an  early  age,  too,  Antoinette  began  to  teach  school,  being 
determined  to  get  an  education  and  become  a  minister.  She  paid 
her  own  way  to  and  through  Oberlin,  then  the  only  college  open 
to  women.  There  she  formed  a  lifelong  friendship  with  Lucy 
Stone  and  later  they  married  brothers,  Henry  and  Samuel  Black- 
well.  She  graduated  in  1847  ^"d  went  on  to  study  at  the  Theo- 
logical School,  graduating  there  in  1850.  With  Lucy  Stone  she 
attended  and  spoke  at  the  first  National  Woman's  Rights  Con- 
vention at  Worcester,  Mass.,  and  she  also  plunged  into  work  for 
temperance  and  for  the  antislavery  cause.  In  a  letter  to  Lucy 
Stone  she  wrote,  "I  believe  there  is  soon  to  be  a  new  era  in 
woman's  history  and  the  means  to  effect  this  must  be  truth 
wielded  in  firmness,  gentleness,  and  forbearance." 

In  1856,  after  some  experience  as  a  lecturer  and  evangelist, 
she  was  ordained  and  installed  in  the  Congregational  Church  in 
South  Butler,  N.  Y.,  the  first  woman  in  America  to  be  regularly 
ordained  and  the  first  to  perform  a  marriage  ceremony.  In  the 
same  year  she  was  herself  married  to  Samuel  C.  Blackwell, 
another  pioneer  abolitionist  and  suffragist.  Their  married  life 
extended  through  forty-five  years  and  they  taught  and  worked 
together  in  complete  harmony.  All  the  Blackwells  were  advo- 
cates  of  progressive   causes.     Henry   Blackwell,   who   married 


54  ANTOINETTE  BROWN  BLACKWELL 

Lucy  Stone,  had  another  working  partnership  with  his  wife,  and 
a  sister,  EHzabeth  Blackwell,  was  the  first  American  woman  to 
graduate  in  medicine  and  she  was  followed  five  years  later  by 
her  sister  Emily.  The  pioneer  spirit  continued  also  in  the  Brown 
family.  Antoinette's  brother,  William  Brown,  was  the  minister 
of  the  Congregational  Church  in  Newark,  N.  J.  He  married 
Charlotte  Emerson  and  she  originated  the  idea  of  a  General 
Federation  of  Woman's  Clubs  and  was  the  first  president  of 
that  organization. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  with  all  these  associations  with  progres- 
sive causes  the  Blackwells  found  themselves  outgrowing  the  theo- 
logical orthodoxy  of  their  youth.  After  a  few  years  Mrs.  Black- 
well  resigned  from  her  church  and  she  and  her  husband  entered 
the  Unitarian  fellowship.  They  became  social  workers  in  New 
York  City,  lecturing,  preaching,  organizing  and  writing  for  news- 
papers and  periodicals.  They  lived  successively  in  several  New 
Jersey  towns  and  finally  settled  in  Somerville.  Six  children,  all 
girls,  were  born  to  them.  Much  of  their  time  was  given  to  the 
"Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Women."  Mrs.  Black- 
well  wrote  nine  books,  among  them  "The  Philosophy  of  Individ- 
uality," "The  Social  Side  of  Mind  and  Action,"  and  a  novel 
called  "The  Island  Neighbors"  and  a  poem  called  "Sea-Drift." 
She  was  keenly  interested  in  the  World's  Parliament  of  Religions 
held  in  Chicago  in  1893  and  spoke  there  on  "Women  in  the  Pul- 
pit." In  the  eighteen  seventies  the  Blackwells  established  a 
summer  home  on  Martha's  Vineyard  and  there  Mrs.  Blackwell 
planted  trees  and  was  as  busy  with  hoe  and  rake  as  with  voice 
and  pen.  After  her  husband's  death  in  1901  she  took  up  resi- 
dence in  Elizabeth,  N.  J.  There,  being,  as  was  written  of  her, 
still  "full  of  spice  and  vigor,"  she  organized  and  ministered  to 
"All  Souls  Unitarian  Church."  She  gave  the  land  for  the 
church  building  and  a  study  for  her  was  attached  to  it  where 
she  gathered  her  books  and  memorabilia.  Her  own  college, 
Oberlin,  gave  her  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity.  She  en- 
joyed life  to  the  last,  preached  her  last  sermon  on  Easter  Sun- 
day when  she  was  ninety  years  old  and  she  died  on  November  5th, 
1 92 1,  in  her  ninety-sixth  year. 


ANTOINETTE  BROWN  BLACKWELL  55 

Mrs.  Blackwell  was  the  first  American  woman  to  be  ordained  to  the 
Christian  ministry  but  the  first  woman  to  be  ordained  in  a  Unitarian 
Church  was : — 

Celia  Burleigh  (Airs.  William  H.  Burleigh)  who  was  an  active 
member  of  the  Second  Unitarian  Society  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  She  was 
a  leader  in  many  forms  of  community  service,  President  of  the  Brooklyn 
Woman's  Club  and  President  of  the  Woman's  Suffrage  Association.  She 
was  ordained  and  installed  at  Brooklyn,  Conn.,  on  October  5,  1871,  her 
minister,  Mr,  Chadwick,  preaching  the  sermon  and  Mrs.  Julia  Ward 
Howe  giving  the  charge  to  the  people.  Mrs.  Burleigh  preached  the 
Channing  Conference  sermon  at  Fairhaven  on  April  29,  1872,  the  first 
woman  to  have  that  distinction.  Her  career  was,  however,  unfortunately 
brief  for  she  died  at  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  on  July  25,  1875. 

She  handed  on  her  torch  to  Mary  Hannah  Graves  who  was  ordained 
at  Mansfield,  Mass.,  on  December  14,  1871,  Rev.  Warren  Cudworth 
preaching  the  sermon  and  Mrs.  Burleigh  giving  the  right  hand  of  fellow- 
ship, and  served  there  for  two  years.  Her  physical  strength  proved  insuffi- 
cient for  a  minister's  tasks  but  through  a  long  life — she  died  at  91 — she 
was  busy  with  literary  work  and  in  genealogical  researches. 

In  the  succeeding  sixty  years  some  threescore  consecrated  women  en- 
tered the  Unitarian  ministry.  Their  records  have  been  compiled  by  the 
Rev.  Clara  C.  Helvie  and  the  following  notes  have  been  chiefly  derived 
from  her  manuscript  volume  in  the  Historical  Library.  Twenty  of  these 
•women  married  ministers,  sometimes  men  who  had  been  their  fellow  stu- 
dents, and  they  worked  in  partnership.  Several  married  outside  of  the 
profession  and  disappeared  from  ministerial  ranks.  Others  found  the  go- 
ing hard,  for  comparatively  few  churches  were  ready  to  welcome  women 
to  their  pulpits,  and  withdrew.  A  goodly  number  persevered  and  ren- 
dered a  rich  service.  Eight  of  them  were  found  worthy  to  be  included 
in  "Who's  Who  in  America"  and  of  the  forty-five  women  ministers  in  the 
"Women's  Who's  Who"  of  191 5,  fifteen,  or  one-third  of  the  entire  num- 
ber, were  Unitarians.  Among  those  worthy  of  remembrance  and  grateful 
praise  were: — 

Mary  Augusta  Safford,  who  was  born  at  Quincy,  111.,  December  23, 
1 85 1.  She  was  ordained  at  Humboldt,  Iowa,  in  1880  and  served  there 
and  at  Algona  until  1885  when  she  was  succeeded  by  Marion  Murdoch. 
Then  came  fourteen  productive  and  successful  years  at  Sioux  City  where 
she  was  assisted  for  seven  years  by  Eleanor  Gordon  and  for  two  years  by 
Marie  Jenney  (Howe)  who  went  on  to  take  charge  of  the  church  at  Des 
Moines.  Miss  Safford  succeeded  her  there  in  1899  and  served  for  eleven 
years,  and  again  Miss  Gordon  was  her  associate  for  part  of  the  time.  As 
Secretary  of  the  Iowa  Association  Miss  Safford  exercised  a  stimulating 
influence  in  all  the  churches  of  the  state  and  was  especially  instrumental 
in  organizing  the  church  at  Iowa  City.     She  also  served  as  a  member  of 


56  ANTOINETTE  BROWN  BLACKWELL 

the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association.  In  1910 
she  retired  and  bought  a  house  at  Orlando,  Florida,  where  she  took  part 
with  Miss  Gordon  in  the  organization  of  the  Unitarian  Church.  She  died 
at  Orlando,  October  25,  1927.  Miss  Safford  combined  to  a  remarkable 
degree  personal  charm,  pulpit  ability,  enthusiasm  and  practical  common 
sense. 

It  was  under  the  inspiration  of  Miss  SafiEord's  example  and  persuasion 
that  a  number  of  able  women  enlisted  in  the  Unitarian  ministry  and  most 
of  them  worked  under  her  supervision  in  Iowa  and  the  adjoining  states. 

Marion  Murdoch  was  born  at  Garnavillo,  Iowa,  October  9,  1855. 
She  studied  at  Boston  University  and  graduated  at  Meadville  in  1885.  On 
September  i  of  that  year  she  was  ordained  at  Humboldt,  Iowa,  succeeding 
Miss  Safford.  She  ministered  for  a  year  (1890-91)  at  Kalamazoo,  Mich., 
where  she  followed  Caroline  Bartlett  Crane,  and  then  returned  to  Mead- 
ville for  a  graduate  course  of  study.  In  association  with  Florence  Buck 
she  served  the  Church  of  the  Unity  in  Cleveland  for  six  prosperous  years 
(1893-1899)  and  then,  save  for  one  year  at  Geneva,  111.,  retired,  making 
her  home  first  in  Boston  and  then  in  California.  She  died  at  Santa  Monica 
on  January  28,  1943,  in  her  ninety-fifth  year. 

Caroline  Bartlett  Crane  was  born  in  Hudson,  Wis.,  in  1858.  After 
graduating  at  Carthage  College  in  Illinois  she  took  up  teaching  and  news- 
paper work,  becoming  city  editor  of  the  paper  in  Oshkosh,  Wis.  Coming 
under  the  influence  of  Miss  Safford  she  was  ordained  in  1886  as  the  first 
minister  of  the  church  in  Sioux  Falls,  N.  D.,  and  on  October  18,  1889,  she 
was  installed  at  Kalamazoo,  Mich.  Save  for  a  year  of  study  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago  she  remained  at  Kalamazoo  for  the  rest  of  her  life.  On 
December  31,  1896,  she  was  married  to  Dr.  Augustus  W.  Crane.  In  1899 
she  relinquished  charge  of  the  church  and  devoted  herself  to  social  service, 
becoming  an  expert  in  the  problems  of  housing  and  sanitation.  Under  the 
auspices  of  State  Boards  of  Health  she  made  health  surveys  of  sixty  cities 
in  fourteen  states  and  became  widely  known  as  the  "municipal  house 
cleaner."  Several  colleges  gave  her  honorary  degrees  and  in  1934  she  was 
voted  to  be  "Kalamazoo's  first  woman  citizen."  She  was  active  in  the 
American  Civic  Association,  the  Municipal  League  and  similar  organiza- 
tions. Her  books,  "Everyman's  House"  and  "U.  S.  Inspected  and  Passed," 
had  the  authority  of  experience,  sound  judgment  and  constructive  sugges- 
tion.    She  died  at  Kalamazoo  on  March  24,  1935. 

Ida  C.  Hultin  was  another  of  the  pioneer  group  of  women  ministers 
who  organized  and  served  Unitarian  churches  in  Iowa  under  Miss  Safford's 
direction.  She  was  a  graduate  of  the  University  of  Michigan.  In  1884 
she  relieved  Miss  Safford  of  the  charge  of  the  church  in  Algona,  Iowa,  and 
two  years  later  she  was  ordained  and  installed  in  Des  Moines  where  she 
served  for  five  years.  Her  later  pastorates  were  at  Moline,  111.  (1891- 
1900),  Allston,  Mass.   (1900-1903),  and  then  for  thirteen  years  at  the 


ANTOINETTE  BROWN  BLACKWELL  57 

First  Parish  in  Sudbury,  Mass.  In  1916  she  retired  and  died  at  Lincoln, 
Mass.,  on  December  27,  1938. 

Helen  Grace  Putnam  was  born  in  Dorchester,  Mass.,  May  20,  1840. 
She  entered  the  ministry  in  middle  life,  studied  for  two  years  at  Meadville 
and  was  ordained  at  Luverne,  Minn.,  on  October  18,  1889,  and  later  served 
missionary  posts  at  Huron,  Jamestown,  and  Fargo,  N.  D.  She  died  at 
Fargo,  November  28,  1895. 

Eleanor  Elizabeth  Gordon  was  born  at  Hamilton,  111.,  Oct.  i,  1852. 
She  studied  at  the  University  of  Iowa  and  at  Cornell.  She  became  a 
teacher  and  was  ordained  at  Sioux  City  on  May  8,  1889.  There  she  was 
associated  with  Miss  Safford  and  the  partnership  was  later  continued  at 
Des  Moines.  For  six  years  (1896-1902)  she  was  minister  at  Iowa  City, 
and  for  two  years  at  Fargo,  N.  D.  In  1912  she  joined  Miss  SafFord  at 
Orlando,  Florida,  and  she  organized  and  led  the  Unitarian  Church  there. 
She  retired  in  191 8  and  died  at  Keokuk,  Iowa,  on  January  6,  1942,  in  her 
ninetieth  year, 

Eliza  Tupper  Wilkes  began  work  in  the  Universalist  fellowship  and 
was  ordained  at  Sioux  Falls,  N.  D.,  on  May  2,  1871,  thus  antedating  by 
six  months  the  Unitarian  ordination  of  Mrs.  Burleigh.  She  ministered  to 
the  Unitarian  churches  in  Luverne  and  Adrian,  Minnesota,  and  for  two 
years  at  Santa  Ana,  Calif.  In  1895  she  was  assistant  to  Dr.  Wendte  at 
Oakland,  Calif. 

Mary  Leggett  Cooke  was  born  in  Moravia,  N.  Y.,  in  1856  and  studied 
at  Cornell.  She  was  ordained  in  1888  and  for  three  years  served  the  church 
in  Beatrice,  Neb.  She  then  went  east  and  had  pastorates  at  Green  Harbor, 
Mass.  ( 1 891-1894),  and  Dighton  (i 894-1 897).  She  then  enlisted  in 
Settlement  House  work,  including  a  residence  at  Hull  House  in  Chicago. 
Later  pastorates  were  at  Wolfeboro,  N.  H.,  Ord,  Neb.,  and  Revere,  Mass. 
On  April  12,  1922,  she  was  married  to  the  Rev.  George  Willis  Cooke, 
eminent  as  an  author,  biographer,  and  historian.  She  died  at  Brookline, 
August  4,  1938. 

Martha  Chapman  Aitkin  was  born  near  Montpelier,  Vt.,  on  March 
25,  1843,  and  died  at  Wollaston,  Mass.,  on  January  15,  1913.  She  studied 
for  three  years  at  Meadville  and  then  did  missionary  work  in  Wisconsin 
and  Iowa,  serving  especially  a  church  in  Cedar  Falls.  Later  she  was  min- 
ister in  the  First  Parish  in  Pembroke,  Mass.  A  unique  event  in  her  experi- 
ence was  her  officiating  at  the  marriage  of  her  daughter  to  the  Rev.  Carl  G. 
Horst  (February  18,  1896),  probably  the  only  instance  when  a  mother  was 
the  minister  at  a  daughter's  wedding. 

The  youngest  of  this  noteworthy  Iowa  band  was : 

Marie  Jenney  Howe.  A  native  of  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  she  graduated  at 
Meadville  in  1897.  She  was  ordained  in  her  home  church  at  Syracuse  on 
June  28,  1898,  and  went  to  Iowa  where  for  two  years  she  was  assistant  to 
Miss  Safford  at  Sioux  City  and  then  for  four  years  was  minister  at  Des 


58  ANTOINETTE  BROWN  BLACKWELL 

Moines.  She  there  married  Frederick  C.  Howe,  a  distinguished  author, 
reformer  and  Commissioner  of  Immigration,  and  was  associated  with  him 
in  social  work  and  in  the  preparation  of  his  books. 

In  addition  to  the  members  of  the  Iowa  Band  several  other  women 
rendered  notable  service  in  the  ministry. 

Florence  Buck  was  born  at  Battle  Creek,  Mich.,  July  19,  i860,  and 
graduated  at  Meadville  in  1894.  She  was  ordained  in  All  Souls  Church, 
Chicago,  and  in  association  with  Marion  Murdoch  served  the  church  in 
Cleveland  for  six  fruitful  years.  There  followed  brief  pastorates  at 
Manistee,  Mich.,  Kenosha,  Wis.,  and  Alameda,  Calif.,  and  then,  having 
achieved  remarkable  success  as  an  organizer  and  director  of  Sunday  Schools, 
she  became  Associate  Director  of  the  Department  of  Religious  Education 
of  the  American  Unitarian  Association.  In  that  capacity  she  wrote  or 
edited  manuals  and  textbooks  of  enduring  value  and  traveled  far  and  wide 
organizing  and  vitalizing  the  Church  Schools.  She  compiled  and  edited 
the  "Beacon  Hymnal"  and  in  1919  published  "Religious  Education  for 
Democracy."  In  1920  Meadville  gave  her  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divin- 
ity.    She  died  at  Boston  on  October  12,  1925. 

Anna  Garlin  Spencer  was  born  at  Attleboro,  Mass.,  on  April  17, 
1 85 1,  and  died  at  New  York  on  February  12,  1931.  She  married  the  Rev. 
William  H.  Spencer  and  worked  with  him  in  his  parishes  at  Haverhill 
and  Florence,  Mass.,  and  Troy,  N.  Y.  She  was  ordained  in  the  Bell  Street 
Chapel  in  Providence  on  April  19,  1889,  and  became  a  noted  teacher, 
preacher,  and  author.  She  gave  courses  of  lectures  at  the  University  of 
Wisconsin,  at  the  Meadville  Theological  School,  and  at  the  Teachers  Col- 
lege of  Columbia  University.  She  was  a  delegate  and  speaker  at  many 
conventions,  at  home  and  abroad,  in  the  interest  of  social  reform  and 
religious  progress.  Her  books,  "The  Social  Ideals  of  a  Free  Church," 
"Woman's  Share  in  Social  Culture,"  "The  Family  and  Its  Members," 
had  a  wide  circulation.  In  all  she  was  one  of  the  outstanding  American 
women  of  her  generation. 

Mary  Traffern  Whitney  was  born  at  Alder  Creek,  N.  Y.,  February 
28,  1852,  and  died  at  Weare,  N.  H.,  on  March  8,  1942.  In  1872  she 
graduated  at  St.  Lawrence  University.  The  next  year  she  married  the 
Rev.  Herbert  Whitney  and  served  with  him  in  several  Universalist  and 
then  in  Unitarian  pulpits.  Her  independent  pastorates  were  at  Millbury 
(1889-1892),  West  Somerville  ( 1 892-1 896),  Green  Harbor  (1899-1906) 
and,  with  her  husband,  at  Bernardston  (1912-1916).  Mrs.  Whitney  was 
much  interested  in  social  reforms  and  was  in  demand  as  a  speaker  for  tem- 
perance and  woman's  suffrage.  Later  she  was  a  pioneer  in  the  cause  of 
planned  parenthood  and  in  the  principles  of  eugenics. 

Celia  Parker  Woolley  was  born  at  Toledo,  Ohio,  June  14,  1848,  but 
her  girlhood  was  spent  in  Coldwater,  Mich.  There,  on  December  29, 
1868,  she  was  married  to  Dr.  J.  H.  Woolley.     Eight  years  later  they  moved 


HENRY  FREDERICK  BOND  59 

to  Chicago  and  Mrs.  Woolley  soon  became  active  in  the  civic  and  literary 
life  of  the  city.  She  became  a  member  of  the  Chicago  Woman's  Club  and 
was  soon  its  president.  In  1884  she  became  a  member  of  the  editorial  staff 
of  Unity  and  maintained  connection  with  the  paper,  in  one  office  or  another, 
for  thirty-four  years.  On  October  21,  1894,  she  was  ordained  minister 
of  the  church  in  Geneva,  111.,  and  served  for  three  years.  In  1 904  she 
and  her  husband  organized  the  Frederick  Douglas  Centre,  a  Settlement 
House  serving  the  colored  people  in  South  Chicago.  There  she  died  on 
March  9,   191 8. 

Besides  their  pioneer  and  constructive  work  and  their  interest  in  social 
reforms,  two  things  are  notable  about  these  women  ministers.  A  consid- 
erable proportion  of  them  entered  the  ministry  in  middle  life.  Mrs.  Aitkin 
was  51  when  she  was  ordained,  Mrs.  Spencer  was  38,  Mrs.  Woolley  was 
46,  Mrs.  Whitney  was  42.  They  were  also  exceptionally  long-lived. 
Mrs.  Blackwell  died  at  96,  Miss  Murdoch  at  95,  Miss  Graves  at  91, 
Mrs.  Whitney  and  Miss  Gordon  at  90,  Mrs.  Cooke  at  82,  Mrs.  Spencer 
at  80,  Mrs.  Crane  at  77,  Miss  Safford  at  76.  It  is  evident  that  the  interest 
of  women  in  the  ministry  was  highest  in  the  years  between  1880  and  1900, 
and  there  was  an  obvious  connection  between  the  agitation  for  woman 
suffrage  and  the  entrance  of  women  into  the  ministry.  When  the  suffrage 
was  won,  the  profession  did  not  have  the  same  appeal  for  women  of  talent. 
In  the  Unitarian  Year  Book  of  1900  there  were  enrolled  the  names  of 
twenty-nine  women  ministers.  In  the  Year  Book  of  1948  twelve  were 
listed.  Of  these,  two  were  in  active  and  independent  charge  of  churches, 
one  was  associated  with  her  husband  in  a  joint  pastorate,  six  had  retired, 
and  three  were  engaged  in  social  work  or  secular  pursuits. 

These  pioneer  preachers  established  the  right  of  women  to  be  ministers. 
They  encountered  criticism  from  conservative  observers  and  the  admoni- 
tion of  St.  Paul  about  women  keeping  silence  and  wearing  hats  in  church 
was  frequently  hurled  at  them.  They  met  such  taunts  with  calm  reason- 
ableness or  lively  humor.  They  proved  that  a  woman's  insight  and  sym- 
pathetic understanding  are  as  needed  in  the  pulpit  as  in  the  home  and  in 
social  relations. 


HENRY  FREDERICK  BOND 

1820-1907 

Abundant  testimony  is  offered  in  the  biographical  sketches  in 
this  book,  and  in  the  earlier  volumes,  to  the  interest  and  activity 
of  Unitarians  in  many  forms  of  humanitarian  service  and  in  so- 


6o  HENRY  FREDERICK  BOND 

cial  reforms.     The  intelligent  application  of  Christian  principles 
to  community  life  has  been  an  outstanding  contribution  of  Uni- 
tarians throughout  the  progress  of  the  movement.     What  the 
Unitarians  did  for  the  antislavery  cause,   for  temperance,   for 
woman's  suffrage,  for  education,  for  the  care  of  the  insane,  for 
civil  service  reform,  for  peace  and  for  international  good  will 
is  written  large  in  the  nation's  history.     There  is,  however,  one 
of  these  humane  endeavors  that  had  but  little  dramatic  appeal 
and  that  has  been  too  soon  forgotten.     That  was  the  modest 
contribution  made  to  the  education  of  the  American  Indians  and 
the  help  given  to  them  on  their  arduous  way  out  of  barbarism 
into  self-respect  and  self-support.     That  work  finds  illustration 
in  the  career  of  Henry  Frederick  Bond  who  was  born  in  Boston 
on  May   12,    1820.      His  father  was  a  prosperous  commission 
merchant.      Henry  had  a  healthy  social  environment,  the  best 
academic  training  and  every  advantage  that  an  honorable  fam- 
ily connection  could  give  him.     He  graduated  at  Harvard  in 
1840  and  was  long  the  popular  secretary  of  his  class.     Then 
he  went  on  his  travels  seeking  both  health  and  wider  acquaint- 
ance with  other  lands  and  peoples.      His  voyaging  took  him  as 
far  as  India  and  gave  him  firsthand  acquaintance  with  people 
living  under  very  different  climatic  and  cultural  conditions.      In 
1845  he  graduated  at  the  Harvard  Divinity  School.      He  was 
ordained  at  Barre,  Mass.,  on  January  6,   1846,  and  served  the 
First  Parish   for  four  years.     Then   followed  brief  pastorates 
at  Dover,  N.  H.,  and  Sudbury,  Mass.,  and  in  1869  he  went  as 
a  pioneer  minister  to  Omaha,  Nebraska,  then  still  a  frontier  but 
fast-growing    community.     There,    besides    ministering    to    the 
newly  organized  Unitarian  Church,  and  securing  the  erection  of 
its  first  church  building,  he  learned  something  about  the  condition 
and  need  of  the  remnants  of  the  Indian  tribes  still  living  or  wan- 
dering in  the  Missouri  Valley  and  became  deeply  interested  in  the 
problems  connected  with  their  adaptation  to  civilized  life.      In 
1874  he  accepted  appointment  as  United  States  Indian  Agent 
among  the  Utes  at  Los  Pinos  agency  in  Colorado.      He  threw 
himself  ardently  into  the  work  of  improving  the  condition  of  his 
charges,  building  schools,  breaking  out  farms,  constructing  irri- 


HENRY  FREDERICK  BOND  61 

gation  ditches,  adjusting  quarrels,  preaching  morality  and  the 
simplest  forms  of  Christianity.  It  was  tough  pioneer  labor 
without  much  response  or  co-operation  from  a  rather  sullen  band 
of  Indians  just  emerging  from  barbarism  and  without  much  help 
or  recognition  from  the  Indian  Office  in  Washington.  Two 
years  of  such  labor  was  all  that  his  always  frail  body  could  stand 
and  he  returned  to  Massachusetts  and  to  quiet  pastorates  at 
Northboro  and  Nantucket. 

In  1886  his  compassion  and  zeal  for  the  Indians  flamed  up 
again.  The  American  Unitarian  Association  undertook  to  con- 
struct and  open  a  Mission  School  on  the  Crow  Reservation  in 
Montana  and  Mr.  Bond,  then  in  his  sixty-seventh  year,  eagerly 
accepted  the  superintendency.  With  his  devoted  wife  he  went 
out  to  Montana,  rallied  a  small  company  of  teachers  and  car- 
penters and  farmers  and,  on  a  hillside  overlooking  the  bleak 
prairie  and  not  very  far  from  where  the  disastrous  battle  of 
the  Big  Horn  had  taken  place  only  a  few  years  before,  built  a 
log  schoolhouse  and  some  rude  dwellings.  In  a  springless  wagon 
and  with  only  an  Indian  boy  as  companion  he  drove  far  and  wide 
over  the  great  Reservation  making  friends  with  the  Indians  and 
enlisting  pupils  for  his  school.  It  was  a  strange  adventure  for 
a  man  of  gentle  breeding  and  delicate  constitution  but  the  rug- 
ged winters  of  the  comfortless  northland  could  not  chill  his  en- 
thusiasm. He  was  a  born  mechanic,  and  devised,  and  with  his 
own  hands  contrived  a  number  of  tools  and  gadgets  that  made 
life  on  the  Reservation  more  endurable.  The  cream-separator 
and  the  hay-tedder  he  invented  came  into  wide  use.  The  Mon- 
tana Industrial  School  filled  up  with  eager  pupils  and,  though 
in  plant  and  equipment  it  was  very  plain  and  bare,  it  soon  was 
setting  a  standard  in  its  teaching  and  its  adaptation  to  the  needs 
of  the  people  for  the  Indian  schools  in  other  parts  of  the  country. 
The  eastern  Unitarians  gave  it  steady  and  reliable  support  and 
the  Boston  office  under  the  direction  of  Rev.  Alfred  Manchester 
saw  to  it  that  everything  possible  was  done  to  uphold  the  Super- 
intendent's hands.  All  friends  of  the  Indians  honored  Mr. 
Bond's  practical  ability,  sound  common  sense,  and  zeal  for  jus- 
tice for  the  original  Americans.      Finally  the  Government  took 


62  HOWARD  NICHOLSON  BROWN 

over  the  operation  and  administration  of  the  School  and  Mr. 
Bond  retired  to  spend  a  genial  old  age  in  the  comfortable  house 
he  bought  in  West  Newton.  He  died  at  Bethlehem,  N.  H., 
August  22,  1907,  in  his  eighty-eighth  year. 

Alfred  Manchester  was  born  at  Portsmouth,  R.  I.,  November  16, 
1849.  He  graduated  at  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  in  1872  and  was 
ordained  at  Fairhaven,  Mass.,  on  January  9,  1873.  His  later  pastorates 
were  at  Providence,  R.  I.  (i 878-1 893),  and  at  the  Second  Church  in  Salem 
from  1893  until  his  death  on  June  13,  1926 — completing  fifty-three  years 
of  uninterrupted  service  in  the  ministry — ever  a  diligent  pastor,  a  wise 
administrator  and  a  sincere  and  cheerful  friend.  Besides  conducting  the 
home  office  of  the  Indian  School  he  was  for  twenty-five  years  the  tactful 
and  sympathetic  Secretary  of  the  Committee  of  Pulpit  Supply. 


HOWARD  NICHOLSON  BROWN 

1849-1932 

Dr.  Brown  was  born  in  Columbia,  New  York,  on  May  11, 
1849,  the  son  of  a  Baptist  minister.  Rev.  M.  C.  Brown,  and 
Sarah  A.  (Nicholson)  Brown.  His  father  came  to  hold  liberal 
Christian  views,  was  subjected  to  a  heresy  trial,  and  became  a 
Unitarian.  Without  a  college  training  young  Brown  entered 
the  Harvard  Divinity  School,  class  of  1871,  remaining  a  year 
and  a  half.  He  was  then  ordained  in  Ilion,  New  York,  on 
May  8,  1872;  and  in  the  same  year  he  married  Inez  A.  Wicks 
of  Trenton,  now  Barneveld,  New  York.  There  were  three  chil- 
dren, Mary  Louise,  Sarah  Nicholson,  Howard  W.  Brown.  A 
year  later  he  was  called  to  the  First  Parish  in  Brookline,  Massa- 
chusetts, was  installed  in  September,  1873,  as  the  successor  to 
Dr.  Frederic  Hedge  *  and  had  there  a  markedly  successful  and 
happy  pastorate  for  twenty-five  years.  In  1895,  King's  Chapel 
in  Boston  called  him  and  on  September  10  installed  him  as  the 
minister  of  that  ancient  church.  There  he  had  another  success- 
ful pastorate  that  ended  with  his  death  on  December  16,  1932, 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  158. 


HOWARD  NICHOLSON   BROWN  63 

having  been  minister  emeritus  after  1923.  In  1913  the  Mead- 
ville  Theological  School  gave  him  the  honorary  degree  of  Doc- 
tor of  Sacred  Theology, 

At  Brookline  Dr.  Brown  entered  intimately  into  the  town 
life.  Many  of  the  people  of  his  church  were  the  descendants  of 
the  founders  of  the  town  or  members  of  kindred  families  who 
had  moved  out  of  Boston.  Dr.  Brown's  story  of  his  pastorate, 
"The  Brookline  First  Parish  in  My  Time,"  is  a  striking  docu- 
ment of  pastoral  sympathy  and  personal  insight. 

As  his  pupil  in  the  Divinity  School  and  as  his  successor  in  the 
Brookline  parish,  Dr.  Brown  was  deeply  influenced  by  the  intel- 
lect and  character  of  Dr.  Hedge.  With  his  tutor,  George  Ban- 
croft, Dr.  Hedge  had  spent  five  years  in  German  schools.  To 
Harvard,  as  teacher  of  Ecclesiastical  History  and  as  Professor 
of  German  from  1 872-1 881,  he  brought  a  new  method  of  his- 
torical instruction,  and  an  idealistic  philosophy;  and,  as  some 
believe,  his  was  the  original  inspiration  of  the  "Transcendental" 
movement.  All  these  traits  of  Dr.  Hedge  were  cherished  by 
the  young  minister,  who  once  wrote :  "I  entered  into  the  inher- 
itance of  his  wise  and  fruitful  labors  and  his  example  was  to  me 
a  model,  which  I  strove  to  imitate,  so  far  as  my  feeble  powers 
would  permit." 

In  1886  the  American  Unitarian  Association,  hitherto  a  so- 
ciety of  public-spirited  individuals,  first  invited  delegates  from  the 
churches  to  their  counsels  and  a  "tendency  to  adopt  a  more  social 
and  a  more  aesthetic  form  of  worship  began  to  assert  itself." 
In  this  movement  Dr.  Brown  was  one  of  the  leaders.  In  1891 
the  American  Unitarian  Association  published  a  small  volume  of 
services,  largely  the  work  of  Dr.  Brown,  with  the  intention  of 
unifying  and  also  making  more  dignified  and  more  devotional 
the  worship  of  the  Unitarian  churches.  He  became  the  fore- 
most student  of  liturgical  forms  of  worship  among  his  fellow 
ministers. 

After  coming  to  Boston  Dr.  Brown  became  one  of  the  marked 
personalities  of  the  city,  where  he  was  often  seen  walking  slowly 
over  Beacon  Hill  from  his  church  to  his  home,  or  with  arms  full 
of  books  from  the  Athenaeum.     Old  books  he  read  again  and 


64  HOWARD  NICHOLSON  BROWN 

again;  and  the  hazard  of  new  books  with  novel  ideas  and  theories 
had  for  him  a  constant  fascination. 

Dr.  Brown  served  long  and  faithfully  as  a  Director  of  the 
American  Unitarian  Association  and  on  many  denominational 
committees.  He  was  for  many  years  on  the  Board  of  the  Chris- 
tian Register.  His  interest  in  the  Unitarian  students  in  the  Har- 
vard Divinity  School  was  keen  and  for  several  years  the  desire 
of  many  students  was  to  be  ordained  in  King's  Chapel  as  if,  per- 
chance, some  virtue  of  his  ministry  might  pass  over  to  them. 

In  November  i8,  1923;  a  service  was  held  in  King's  Chapel 
under  the  auspices  of  the  First  Parish  of  Brookline  and  of  King's 
Chapel.  It  commemorated  "Fifty  Years  in  Two  Parishes," 
twenty-two  in  one  and  twenty-eight  in  the  other.  Devotional 
services  were  conducted  by  the  ministers,  Dr.  Abbot  Peterson  of 
Brookline  and  Dr.  H.  E.  B.  Speight  of  Boston.  Addresses  fol- 
lowed by  Dr.  George  A.  Gordon  of  the  Old  South  Church,  and 
Dr.  Francis  G.  Peabody  of  the  Harvard  Divinity  School.  Dr. 
Brown  then  spoke  of  his  two  parishes  thus: — 

"At  Brookline  the  congregation  was  largely  composed  of  old 
families,  which  had  been  in  possession  of  wealth  and  culture  for 
many  generations.  .  .  .  When  I  came  to  King's  Chapel  it  was 
a  transfer  to  exactly  the  same  mental  and  social  atmosphere. 
The  two  churches  were  tied  together  by  many  bonds  of  kindred. 
In  Brookline  the  chairman  of  the  Parish  Committee  was  Judge 
John  Lowell;  at  King's  Chapel  Mr.  Arthur  T.  Lyman,  his 
brother-in-law,  was  Senior  Warden." 

Dr.  Brown  was  endowed  with  a  profoundly  spiritual  nature. 
He  had  a  mind  strikingly  balanced  between  the  religious  treas- 
ures of  the  past  and  the  ever  fresh  promises  of  progress.  His 
studies  in  liturgical  literature  led  to  the  rediscovery  and  preserva- 
tion of  much  that  possessed  universal  and  permanent  worth  for 
Christian  worship.  He  was  a  preacher  of  conspicuous  power  and 
beauty.  In  form  and  substance  his  many  printed  sermons  add 
much  to  the  interpretation  of  Christian  doctrine  and  the  art  of 
preaching,  and  the  titles  of  the  books  he  published  indicate  their 
purport  and  significance — "The  Spiritual  Life,"  "Freedom  and 
Truth,"  "Words  in  Season,"  and  a  "Life  of  Jesus  for  Young 


HOWARD  NICHOLSON  BROWN  65 

People."  "I  believe,"  he  once  said,  "for  the  church  the  life  of 
Christ  is  its  one  jewel  of  great  price,  which  it  might  sell  all  other 
possessions  to  retain.  It  is  the  deep  well  out  of  which  Its  Inspira- 
tion and  its  wisdom  are  chiefly  drawn.  It  is  the  bond  of  its 
organization  and  its  power,  without  which  religious  institutions 
have  no  continuance  or  strength." 

At  Brookline  Dr.  Brown  was  succeeded  by  William  H.  Lyon  who 
was  of  Scotch  descent,  his  first  American  ancestor  being  a  Royalist  who  took 
refuge  in  the  colonies  during  the  troublous  times  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
He  was  born  December  23,  1846,  in  Fall  River,  Mass.,  the  son  of  Henry 
and  Julia  Ann  (Wilbur)  Lyon.  His  family  were  Unitarians  and  his 
father,  an  engraver  in  the  American  Print  Works,  was  a  trustee  for  many 
years  of  the  Fall  River  Public  Library.  After  his  graduation  from  high 
school  in  1864,  he  entered  Brown  University,  where  for  a  year  he  was  presi- 
dent of  his  class.  At  the  Commencement  exercises  on  his  graduation  in 
1868,  he  was  Valedictorian. 

Desiring  to  earn  enough  money  for  his  professional  training,  Lyon  spent 
the  next  two  years  in  teaching,  first  as  principal  of  the  high  school  in 
Holliston,  Mass.,  and  later  as  assistant  to  his  old  master,  C.  B.  Goff,  in 
Providence,  R.  I.  In  the  fall  of  1870  he  entered  the  Harvard  Divinity 
School,  and  having  completed  his  course  in  February  of  his  senior  year, 
used  the  remaining  months  before  graduation  for  a  voyage  to  the  West 
Indies.  Receiving  his  degree  of  B.D.  in  September,  1873,  he  was  immedi- 
ately called  to  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Ellsworth,  Maine,  where  he  was 
ordained  the  following  month.  This  pastorate  lasted  until  November  1878, 
and,  in  May  1879,  Lyon,  accompanied  by  John  Graham  Brooks,  sailed  for 
Europe,  where  fifteen  months'  wanderings  took  him  as  far  afield  as  Con- 
stantinople. 

On  his  return  in  1880,  he  was  invited  to  become  minister  of  Mt.  Pleasant 
Church,  Roxbury,  and  was  installed  November  20th,  1881.  In  1887, 
owing  to  the  gradual  change  in  population  in  the  Mt.  Pleasant  section,  it 
was  proposed  to  build  a  new  church  in  the  Elm  Hill  district  of  Roxbury. 
On  the  occupation  of  this  new  building  in  October  1889,  the  society 
changed  its  name  to  All  Souls  Unitarian  Church.  This  busy  and  fruitful 
pastorate  lasted  sixteen  years. 

On  April  5th,  1893,  Mr.  Lyon  married  Louise  Dennison  of  Boston, 
Their  three  children  were  a  son,  William  Dennison,  Ensign  U.  S.  Navy, 
accidentally  killed  at  New  London,  Conn.,  May  21st,  191 8,  while  on  duty 
as  Executive  Officer  of  Scout  Cruiser  320,  and  two  daughters,  Ruth  and 
Mary, 

In  1896,  Mr.  Lyon  was  called  to  the  First  Parish  in  Brookline,  as  the 
successor  of  Dr.  Brown,  where  he  remained  until  his  death  on  December 


66  ELLERY  CHANNING  BUTLER 

20th,  191 5.  While  a  student  in  the  Divinity  School,  he  had  been  superin- 
tendent of  the  Brookline  Sunday  School,  and  at  his  installation  he  was 
welcomed  by  many  old  friends,  as  well  as  by  former  parishioners  who  had 
moved  to  Brookline  from  Roxbury.  In  July  1896  he  received  the  honorary 
degree  of  D.D.  from  Brown  University. 

Dr.  Lyon's  public  and  denominational  offices  were  many  and  varied. 
He  was  a  councilor  of  the  Hungarian  Unitarian  Synod,  president  of  the 
Unitarian  Sunday  School  Society  and  secretary  of  the  National  Conference, 
president  of  the  Brookline  Education  Society,  member  of  the  Brookline 
School  Board,  and  trustee  of  the  Brookline  Public  Library.  Besides  many 
published  sermons  and  tracts,  he  wrote  "A  Study  of  the  Sects,"  "Early  Old 
Testament  Narratives,"  and  "Later  Old  Testament  Narratives." 

Dr.  Lyon's  personality  was  many-sided.  He  was  that  very  rare  com- 
bination— a  minister  who  was  a  genuinely  spiritual  leader  of  his  people  and 
at  the  same  time  an  extraordinarily  good  businessman.  He  could  not  only 
preach  eloquently,  but  also  administer  the  affairs  of  a  large  parish  capably, 
raise  money  successfully,  and  plan  and  carry  out  wise  expansion  of  church 
activities.  He  was  an  accomplished  musician  and  occasionally  composed 
for  his  own  pleasure. 


ELLERY  CHANNING  BUTLER 
1842-1912 

Those  who  knew  Mr.  Butler  recall  a  genial  presence  and  a 
stimulating  influence.  His  personal  attachments  were  strong 
and  he  fitted  equally  the  pulpit  and  the  pastoral  requirements  of 
his  calling;  but  it  was  easy  for  him  to  enjoy  the  occasions  of  re- 
laxation and  he  seldom  missed  a  chance  for  the  exercise  of  a  rare 
gift  of  humor.  His  wit  was  a  significant  element  in  a  ministry  of 
over  forty  years.  He  lightened  the  trying  routine  and  the  seri- 
ous experiences  of  life  with  the  good  spirit  of  laughter. 

EUery  Channing  Butler  was  born  in  Otego,  N.  Y.,  Novem- 
ber 4,  1842,  and  died  in  Quincy,  Mass.,  May  10,  1912.  His 
parents  were  of  the  Baptist  connection  but  it  may  be  inferred 
that  they  had  leanings  towards  the  liberal  interpretations  of 
Christianity  because  they  named  their  boy  Ellery  Channing,  and 
later  they  sent  him  for  his  education  to  Antioch  College.  Either 
while  there  or  a  little  later  he  came  under  the  influence  of  Sam- 


ELLERY  CHANNING  BUTLER  67 

uel  J.  May,  and  that  was  a  deciding  influence  in  his  career  for  it 
led  him  to  the  Meadville  Theological  School  and  to  his  entrance 
into  the  Unitarian  ministry. 

Mr.  Butler  had  three  pastorates,  all  in  eastern  Massachusetts. 
The  first,  at  F'airhaven,  Mass.,  was  comparatively  brief  but  his 
ministry  at  Beverly  covered  over  twenty-two  years;  and  the  clos- 
ing pastorate  at  Quincy  attained  the  span  of  eighteen  years. 
Mr.  Butler  was  married  to  Mary  Adelaide  Cary,  a  sister  of 
Professor  Cary  of  the  Meadville  Theological  School,  whose 
English  ancestor,  John  Cary,  came  to  Plymouth  in  1634.  To 
them  came  one  child,  born  during  the  Beverly  pastorate.  The 
son  grew  up  to  be  a  youth  of  exceptional  talents  and  charm  but 
he  died  just  before  the  time  of  his  expected  graduation  at  Har- 
vard. This  loss  was  a  great  blow  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Butler  and 
their  work  during  the  closing  years  at  Quincy  lost  something  of 
its  buoyancy. 

Mr.  Butler's  long  ministry  in  Beverly  led  to  many  strong  and 
enduring  friendships.  His  sermons  were  very  human  in  their 
quality  and  delivered  with  vivacity.  His  style  of  preaching  was 
direct,  colorful  and  personal.  He  was  not  a  radical  searching 
for  some  new  way  of  utterance  but  rather  a  minister  who  ac- 
cepted life  in  all  heartiness  and  found  the  preponderating  con- 
cerns of  his  life  in  the  twofold  office  of  preaching  the  word  in 
season  and  in  sharing  joys  and  sorrows  and  extending  a  natural 
good  fellowship  among  all  types  of  people.  He  had  a  taste  for 
outdoor  recreations  and  for  camping;  and  his  office  as  Chaplain 
of  the  Salem  Cadets  and  the  occasion  of  the  annual  muster  found 
him  ready  to  enjoy  that  special  opportunity  for  human  inter- 
course. 

The  Quincy  pastorate  was  one  that  brought  him  honor  as  the 
minister  of  a  church  which  had  known  the  two  Presidents  of  the 
Adams  name,  and  of  other  persons  of  high  import  in  the  annals 
of  state  and  nation.  Mr.  Butler  was  appreciative  of  these  hon- 
orable associations  and  inheritances.  He  was  beloved  in  his 
parish  and  popular  with  his  fellow  ministers  and  was  often  called 
upon  for  denominational  service,  notably  as  a  member  of  the 
Board  of  Directors  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association. 


68  ELLERY  CHANNING  BUTLER 

In  a  sermon  which  was  preached  at  Quincy,  October  30,  1901, 
and  which  was  printed  with  the  title  "Go  Quickly,"  he  said — 
and  it  was  his  characteristic  utterance — "There  is  no  time  like 
the  present,  for  no  one  can  tell  what  the  future  will  be.  Now 
is  the  only  time  for  anything.  Take  the  next  thing,  the  duty 
that  lies  near  at  hand,  'go  quickly  to  its  performance  and  stay  not 
upon  the  order  of  thy  going.'  Only  so  will  thy  accomplishment 
be  rich  and  various." 

At  Beverly  Mr.  Butler  succeeded  John  C.  Kimball  who  was  born  at 
Ipswich,  Mass.,  May  23,  1832,  and  died  at  Greenfield,  February  16,  1910. 
He  graduated  at  Amherst  in  1854  and  from  the  Harvard  Divinity  School 
in  1859.  He  was  ordained  and  installed  at  Beverly  December  29,  1859, 
and  worked  there  for  eleven  years,  a  service  interrupted  by  a  year  in  the 
army  as  Chaplain  of  the  Eighth  Massachusetts  Regiment.  His  later  pas- 
torates were  at  Newport,  R.  I.  (1873-1878),  Hartford,  Conn.  (1878- 
1888),  and  Sharon,  Mass.  (1900-1904).  Mr.  Kimball  was  a  vigorous 
and  trenchant  preacher  and  an  untiring  pleader  for  social  justice.  His 
aversion  to  Calvinism  was  indicated  when  he  secured  the  permission  of  the 
Court  to  drop  his  middle  name,  Calvin,  and  use  just  the  initial  C.  He  was 
an  early  and  ardent  exponent  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution  and  was  keenly 
interested  in  all  reforms,  speaking  his  mind  freely  and  forcibly  and  without 
fear  of  the  consequences.  He  enjoyed  a  good  fight  and  finished  his  course 
with  joy.  His  books,  "The  Romance  of  Evolution"  and  "The  Ethical 
Values  of  Evolution,"  have  an  enduring  efficacy. 

At  Quincy  Mr.  Butler  succeeded  Daniel  Munro  Wilson  who  was 
born  in  Paisley,  Scotland,  April  24,  1848.  He  graduated  at  the  Harvard 
Divinity  School  in  1872  and  was  ordained  at  Melrose,  Mass.,  on  Novem- 
ber 15th  in  that  year.  He  served  there  and  at  Maiden  for  seven  years 
and  at  Quincy  from  1880  to  1892  when  he  became  the  New  England 
Superintendent  of  the  work  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association.  His 
later  pastorates  were  at  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  (Third  Church),  1 898-1904, 
Northfield,  Mass.,  1904-1909,  Kennebunk,  Me.,  1909-1915,  Dover,  Mass., 
1916  until  his  death  on  October  10,  1936.  He  wrote  two  books,  a  "Life 
of  John  Quincy"  and  a  history  of  the  city  of  Quincy  published  under  the 
title  "Where  American  History  Began." 


SAMUEL  R.  CALTHROP  69 

SAMUEL  R.  CALTHROP 

1829-1917 

Samuel  R.  Calthrop  was  one  of  the  most  unique  and  vital  per- 
sonalities in  the  Unitarian  Fellowship  during  the  latter  half  of 
the  nineteenth  and  the  first  years  of  the  twentieth  centuries.  He 
was  born  on  October  9,  1829,  at  Swineshead  Abbey,  Lincoln- 
shire, the  family  home  of  the  Calthrops  for  many  generations. 
He  came  of  sturdy  English  stock,  and  was  nurtured  amid  all  that 
is  finest  and  best  in  English  rural  life. 

He  received  his  early  education  at  home,  chiefly  under  the 
guidance  of  his  elder  sister  Elizabeth,  of  whom  he  always  spoke 
with  loving  gratitude.  "I  was  about  eight  years  old  when  I 
began  Latin,"  he  wrote;  and  from  that  time  his  mind  was  steeped 
in  classic  literature.  It  became  as  familiar  to  him  as  his  native 
tongue.  When  he  was  nine  years  old  he  entered  St.  Paul's 
School,  London,  and  there  his  gift  for  thorough  scholarship 
had  a  broad  and  deep  foundation.  He  was  a  natural-born  stu- 
d-ent  and  took  high  rank,  becoming  at  last  "Captain"  of  the 
school,  a  position  of  honor  and  responsibility.  Yet  with  it  all 
he  was  no  mere  grind.  He  was  as  good  on  the  playing  fields  as 
in  the  classroom.  Once,  with  indignant  fists,  he  taught  a  salutary 
lesson  to  the  bully  of  the  school.  He  was  always  an  expert  boxer 
and  once  in  his  old  age  knocked  down  an  insolent  fellow  on  the 
city  street. 

At  nineteen  he  entered  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  as  "Paul- 
ine Exhibitioner."  He  had  early  in  life  felt  the  call  to  preach 
and  he  hoped  to  prepare  himself  for  the  ministry  of  the  Church 
of  England.  But  this  was  not  to  be.  He  completed  the  five 
years'  course  in  Trinity  College  with  honors  and  prizes;  but  re- 
fused to  graduate.  At  that  time  no  degrees  were  given  at  Cam- 
bridge unless  the  recipient  signed  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  the 
Church  of  England.  He  could  not  conscientiously  sign  them,  and 
gave  up  his  cherished  ambition.  Of  this  incident  he  said  later 
in  life,  "It  seems  hardly  possible  that  such  folly  could  have  been 
in  full  power  within  the  span  of  one  man's  life  when  contrasted 
with  the  freedom  of  today.      Sometimes  I  think  I  will  go  back 


70  SAMUEL  R.  CALTHROP 

and  get  my  degree."  Then  came  the  crisis  of  his  spiritual  life. 
"When  I  was  twenty-two,"  he  wrote,  "I  went  through  a  very 
searching  religious  experience.  It  was  no  sense  of  my  own  sin 
that  led  to  this.  It  was  a  deep  sense  of  the  exceeding  sinfulness 
of  a  bad  God."  He  won  his  way  out  of  that  darkness  into  the 
light  of  the  Unitarian  faith.  It  brought  him  peace  and  a  great 
assurance.  Henceforth  his  faith  never  wavered.  But  he  was 
alone.      "My  little  church  had  only  one  member,  myself." 

He  came  to  America  in  1853,  landing  in  New  York.  While 
he  was  in  the  very  act  of  delivering  a  letter  of  introduction  to  a 
family  friend  there,  word  was  received  that  a  church  in  the  town 
of  Southold,  Long  Island,  was  without  a  preacher  for  the 
next  Sunday.  Would  he  go?  He  most  certainly  would.  He 
preached  In  Southold  the  following  Sunday  and  the  church  asked 
him  to  remain.  He  agreed  to  do  so  for  a  while,  on  the  one  con- 
dition that  the  church  pay  his  board,  three  dollars  a  week.  He 
preached  in  Southold  for  three  months.  "And  that,"  he  was 
wont  to  say,  "was  the  cheapest  preaching  that  ever  was  preached." 

Obviously  preaching  was  to  be  his  vocation.  He  must  tell  the 
good  news  of  the  love  of  God  manifested  throughout  the  uni- 
verse. But  he  felt  that  he  could  not  preach  effectively  to  Ameri- 
cans until  he  knew  them  better.  And  it  seemed  to  him  that  the 
best  way  to  understand  "big"  Americans,  as  he  called  them,  was 
to  understand  "little"  Americans.  Many  parents  had  already 
noted  his  unusual  gifts  as  a  teacher,  and  at  their  solicitation,  and 
in  order  to  know  Americans  better,  he  opened  a  boys'  school  at 
Bridgeport,  Connecticut.  He  understood  boys.  He  lived  with 
them,  shared  their  sports  and  their  enthusiasms,  refereed  their 
fights,  gave  them  of  his  rare  scholarship,  and  nurtured  their 
finest  ambitions.  Many  a  man  who  has  made  his  mark  in 
American  life  got  his  unforgettable  training  and  inspiration  in 
that  unique  school  in  Bridgeport. 

In  1857  he  married  Elizabeth  Primrose,  whom  he  had  met  in 
Canada,  and  who,  for  more  than  fifty  years,  was  his  loyal  and 
loving  companion  and  helpmeet.  Three  daughters  and  two  sons 
were  added  to  a  cheerful  and  hospitable  family  circle. 

After  teaching  American  boys  for  six  years,  he  felt  that  he 
was  prepared  to  gratify  his  ambition  to  preach  to  American  men 


SAMUEL  R.  CALTHROP  71 

and  women.  He  was  ordained  to  the  Unitarian  ministry  in 
i860;  and  accepted  a  call  to  the  church  in  Marblehead,  Mass. 
In  1868  he  was  called  to  succeed  Samuel  J.  May  in  the  Unitarian 
Church  of  Syracuse,  N.  Y.  He  was  installed  on  April  29,  1868; 
and  for  forty-three  years  was  the  active  minister  of  the  church. 

It  was  the  time  of  the  bitter  theological  controversies  follow- 
ing on  the  publication  of  Darwin's  "Origin  of  Species"  and  "De- 
scent of  Man."  Dr.  Calthrop  was  a  leader  among  the  Unitar- 
ian ministers  who  accepted  the  newly  discovered  truth  gladly; 
and  showed  that  so  far  from  destroying  religion  it  deepened  and 
broadened  religion  and  gave  it  firmer  foundations.  It  was  inti- 
mated to  him  that  it  would  be  expedient  if  he  did  not  lay  so  much 
stress  on  this  new  theory  of  evolution.  But  he  declared  that  he 
must  speak  the  truth  as  God  gave  it  him  to  speak. 

Technically  he  was  minister  of  May  Memorial  Church,  but 
actually  the  whole  community  was  his  parish.  He  became  an 
institution  of  the  city.  In  his  old  age  he  was  known  as  "The 
Grand  Old  Man  of  Syracuse."  His  home  on  Primrose  Hill, 
named  after  his  beloved  wife,  and  overlooking  the  beautiful  val- 
ley of  the  Onondaga,  became  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  center 
of  the  city.  It  was  a  home  of  generous,  open-hearted  hospitality. 
There  the  children  and  young  folks  loved  to  go  and  play  all  sorts 
of  games  with  him,  who  was  always  young.  And  there  he 
would  give  freely  to  groups  of  eager  listeners  of  his  wisdom  and 
his  knowledge  of  men  and  things,  brightened  by  touches  of  kindly 
humor  and  flashes  of  sparkling  wit. 

All  the  interests  of  the  city  were  his  interests.  He  organized 
and  fostered  the  Syracuse  Boys'  Club,  now  housed  in  a  splendid 
building,  fit  monument  to  his  love  for  boys.  He  was  instrumen- 
tal in  establishing  the  first  playgrounds  of  the  city.  In  1900 
Syracuse  University  conferred  on  him  the  degree  of  L.H.D.  On 
January  ist,  191 1,  he  became  pastor  emeritus  of  the  church;  and 
on  May  nth,  1917,  he  quietly  died.  Many  of  his  sermons  and 
articles  on  religious  and  scientific  subjects  were  published  during 
his  life;  and  he  wrote  three  books  of  enduring  value:  "God  and 
His  World,"  "The  Supreme  Reality,"  and  a  little  volume  of 
poems  revealing  his  love  for  nature  and  the  beauty  of  his  reli- 
gious faith. 


72  NORBERT  FABIAN  CAPEK 

Dr.  Calthrop  was  an  Impressive  figure  of  a  man,  over  six  feet 
tall,  broad-shouldered  and  with  vigor  written  in  every  line  of  his 
figure.  He  wore  a  square-cut  beard  and  had  a  mass  of  curly 
hair.  His  keen  eyes  twinkled  behind  gold-rimmed  glasses.  He 
was  amazingly  many-sided.  Nothing  of  human  concern  was 
foreign  to  him.  His  fund  of  general  information  was  inexhaust- 
ible and  there  was  nothing  about  which  he  had  not  some  inter- 
esting and  stimulating  comment.  He  was  a  great  preacher  and, 
perhaps,  even  a  greater  teacher.  He  was  a  profound  classical 
scholar  and  a  scientist  deeply  versed  in  geology,  botany  and 
astronomy.  He  needed  no  text  when  teaching  Homer  and  Vir- 
gil for  he  knew  almost  all  of  the  Iliad  and  the  Aeneid  by  heart. 
For  years  he  was  the  chess  champion  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
the  sort  of  player  who  could  be  blindfolded  and  then  successfully 
carry  on  half  a  dozen  games  at  one  time.  He  was  a  skillful 
player  of  whist  and  billiards  and  all  his  life  a  master  at  tennis. 
He  once  coached  a  discouraged  crew  to  victory  and  many  were 
the  stories  told  of  his  prowess  as  a  fisherman.  Though  a  very 
outspoken  Unitarian  he  was  welcome  in  all  churches  and  in  many 
college  pulpits.  At  a  Catholic  fair  he  was  voted  the  most  popu- 
lar man  in  the  city  and  when  the  Jews  had  some  special  celebra- 
tion it  was  to  Calthrop  they  turned  for  a  speaker. 

All  of  these  manifold  abilities  and  interests  found  their  focus, 
however,  in  his  passion  to  "preach  the  truth  as  God  gives  it  to 
me  to  preach"  and  in  his  determination  to  practice  the  presence 
of  God. 

This  sketch  was  contributed  by  Dr.  Calthrop's  successor  at  Syracuse,  the  Rev. 
John  H.  Applebee,  supplemented  from  the  reminiscences  of  one  of  his  grateful  pupils, 
Dr.  William  Sydney  Thayer. 


NORBERT  FABIAN  CAPEK 

1870-1942 

Norbert  Fabian  Capek  was  one  of  the  martyrs  of  the  free  faith. 
Because  he  was  an  uncompromising  foe  of  tyranny  and  a  daunt- 
less champion  of  freedom,  he  had  to  die.     The  Third  Reich  saw 


NORBERT  FABIAN  CAPEK  73 

to  that,  for  he  and  his  religion  were  too  dangerous  to  be  toler- 
ated. The  method  of  extinction  was  bacteriological  murder. 
His  last  six  months  were  spent  in  the  infamous  concentration 
camp  at  Dachau — that,  superimposed  on  a  year  of  imprison- 
ment in  Prague,  Budejovlce,  and  Dresden.  The  judges  at  his 
trial  dismissed  the  charge  of  high  treason  and  imposed  a  sen- 
tence of  one  year  for  listening  to  the  radio — a  sentence  already 
expiated  by  the  thirteen  months  he  had  been  in  custody.  Instead 
of  being  set  free,  however,  he  was  sent,  on  the  personal  order  of 
a  Gestapo  chief,  to  Dachau,  with  a  note  marked  "return  un- 
wanted." 

It  would  be  easy  to  dwell  on  his  sufferings,  to  tell  of  the  horrors 
to  which  he  was  subjected.  The  writer  has  visited  the  rooms 
where  he  was  first  questioned  and  seen  the  diabolical  instruments 
that  were  used  without  mercy,  and  he  has  been  in  barracks  and 
dungeons  similar  to  those  where  he  drew  his  last  breath,  and 
they  were  veritable  hells  on  earth.  But  no  good  purpose  would 
be  served  by  concentrating  on  his  closing  days.  For  if  life 
brings  to  our  ears  "tlie  still,  sad  music  of  humanity,"  it  also 
brings  a  music  that  is  neither  still  nor  sad,  but  active  and  exult- 
ant. And  that  is  thrillingly  heard  through  Dr.  Capek's  whole 
life,  and  particularly  in  the  last  months. 

Dr.  Capek  was  born  in  Radomysl,  Czechoslovakia,  in  1870, 
It  is  not  without  significance  that  one  of  his  ancestors  was  Colonel 
Capek  of  the  Hussite  movement,  who  wrote  the  famous  march- 
ing song,  "The  Lord's  Warriors."  The  fierce  blood  of  libera- 
tors flowed  in  his  veins  and  caused  him  to  set  himself  against  the 
enemies  of  man's  spirit — not  only  the  physical,  visible  foes,  but 
those  unseen  adversaries — superstition  and  ignorance.  He  was 
a  valiant  soldier  of  liberty  who  marched  under  the  banner  of 
truth.  Cradled  in  Catholicism,  he  quested  for  a  larger  and 
wider  truth,  and  for  a  while  he  discovered  that  in  Orthodox 
Protestantism.  While  working  with  his  uncle  in  Vienna,  he  later 
said,  "there  were  two  possibilities  open  before  me,  for  I  met 
two  young  men  there.  One  wanted  me  to  go  with  him  to  a 
tavern,  the  other  to  a  Baptist  meeting.  I  chose  the  latter  way 
and  never   regretted   it,    for   my   eyes   and   heart   were    opened 


74  NORBERT  FABIAN  CAPEK 

at  that  meeting."  He  studied  for  the  ministry  in  the  Bap- 
tist College  and  Divinity  School  in  Hamburg,  was  ordained  in 
1895,  and  held  pastorates  in  Saxony  and  Moravia  for  nineteen 
years. 

Then,  in  19 10,  he  had  a  long  conversation  with  Professor 
Thomas  G.  Masaryk,  who  was  later  to  become  the  President 
of  Czechoslovakia,  and  after  listening  to  his  views  and  beliefs, 
the  great  liberal  thinker  and  statesman  said  to  him,  "You  are  a 
Unitarian."  In  191 1  Dr.  Capek  and  his  wife  came  to  America 
and  served  a  Baptist  church  in  Newark,  N.  J.,  and  for  a  time 
edited  a  Slovak  paper  in  New  York.  During  the  first  World 
War  when  he  and  his  family  were  living  in  Orange,  N.  J.,  Dr. 
Capek  discovered  through  personal  contact  with  Unitarianism 
how  true  Masaryk's  words  were.  Here  was  the  gospel  for 
which  he  had  been  searching.  So,  in  1921,  he  returned  to 
Prague  with  a  commission  from  the  American  Unitarian  Asso- 
ciation, and,  with  a  glowing  fervor  that  carried  conviction,  pro- 
claimed his  good  news.  He  drew  great  congregations  and  soon 
established  a  church  of  2,800  members,  with  eight  mission  sta- 
tions in  other  towns  and  cities.  He  had  a  sturdy  body,  an  alert 
appreciation,  a  well-stored  mind,  a  vehement  eloquence.  Dr. 
Capek  and  his  people  were  powers  to  be  reckoned  with  in  the 
life  of  the  brave  little  republic.  They  supplied  the  basic  spir- 
itual foundations  of  democracy.  That  is  why  they  were  "a  dan- 
ger to  the  Third  Reich." 

His  work  was  not  over  when  the  prison  doors  closed  on  him. 
Like  the  alchemists  of  ancient  Prague  who  sought  to  turn  base 
metals  into  gold,  so  he  took  pain,  frustration  and  defeat  and 
fashioned  out  of  them  a  shining  glory.  From  his  pen  came 
mighty  hymns  of  freedom — the  bulk  of  them,  it  is  true,  destroyed 
by  the  Nazis,  but  some  ten  preserved,  and  sung  with  a  fervor 
such  as  Americans  give  to  "The  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic." 
Nor  was  his  tongue  silent.  Surviving  fellow  prisoners  tell  in 
glowing  words  of  the  magnificence  of  his  witness  to  the  truths 
he  proclaimed.  By  what  he  said  and  what  he  was  he  fortified 
and  uplifted  those  among  whom  he  dwelt.  As  one  Catholic 
priest  who  was  with  him  bore  witness,  "He  achieved  his  great- 


JOHN  WHITE  CHADWICK  75 

est  ministry  there — among  the  despairing,  who  lived  In  the  very 
shadow  of  death.  Without  him,  we  could  not  have  endured." 
He  was  put  to  death  early  in  November,  1942. 


JOHN  WHITE  CHADWICK 
1 840-1914 

Where  did  he  get  the  sturdy  truthfulness,  the  brave  and  loyal 
will,  the  tender  reverential  heart,  the  laughing,  lyric  quality  of 
his  mind?  The  rocks  and  sea  winds  of  his  birthplace  had  some- 
what to  do  with  it.  He  dearly  loved  all  things  in  Marblehead. 
The  lichened  ledges,  the  beach,  the  harbor  lights,  the  gulls,  the 
barnacles,  the  sliding  dories,  the  storms  and  sea-toss,  the  sunlit 
peace  of  summer  seas,  all  lie  mirrored  in  his  verse.  But  more, 
no  doubt,  it  came  as  a  birthright  from  the  plain-featured  and 
plain-mannered  parents,  both  of  them  compact  of  honesties  and 
self-forgettings  and  the  silent  sort  of  tenderness.  In  the  quiet 
of  the  old  town  they  lived  the  humble  epic  which  their  boy  trans- 
lated afterwards  to  rhythmic  sermon-ethics  in  a  city  pulpit.  She 
was  of  the  kind  that  "mothers"  anyone  in  need — he  a  "captain 
courageous"  on  the  Grand  Bank  of  Newfoundland.  In  the  win- 
tertime, between  fares,  he  made  shoes.  By  dint  of  the  codfish 
and  the  "ankle-ties"  he  brought  up  their  little  family  of  three, 
two  girls  and  John.  In  later  years  he  kept  a  tiny  grocery — his 
heart  scarce  licensing  him  to  take  advantage  of  a  rising  market 
when  he  happened  to  have  stock  on  hand,  and  in  "crash"  times 
obliging  him  to  trust  poor  neighbors  out  of  work  till  he  lost  full 
half  his  modest  substance.  "A  man  of  most  incorrigible  and 
losing  honesty,"  wrote  his  son,  "it  was  inconceivable  that  he 
could  do  any  deliberate  wrong  or  vary  by  a  hair's  breadth  from 
the  line  of  perfect  honesty  and  truth."  As  others  hang  a  father's 
sword,  he  hung  his  father's  quadrant,  "homesick"  for  the  sea,  in 
the  hallway  of  his  city  home. 

Nobly  born,  then,  was  John  Chadwick,  at  Marblehead  on  Oc- 


76  JOHN  WHITE  CHADWICK 

tober  19,  1840.  Well-trained,  too,  by  hardships  and  economies. 
At  thirteen  he  was  leaving  school  to  sell  buttons  in  a  drygoods 
store.  Then  he  learned  shoemaking.  Things  were  still  primi- 
tive in  that  art,  and  little  shoeshops,  antedating  factories,  perched 
everywhere  among  the  village  rocks.  And  then  a  great  hope 
kindled.  Some  older  townsboy  whom  he  knew  had  escaped  into 
the  outside  world  and  come  home  with  a  trailing  glory  of  books 
and  education.  Why  should  not  another  boy  of  Marblehead 
aspire  and  do  as  well?  Somehow  it  was  managed — "Sister  Jen- 
nie" being  urgent  for  it,  and  helping  from  her  pittance  of  $150 
a  year  for  teaching  school.  First  he  went  to  the  Bridgewater 
Normal  School  for  two  years;  then  to  Phillips  Exeter  Academy 
a  little  while;  and  then — no  possibility  of  college  opening  be- 
tween— pressed  on  into  the  Divinity  School  at  Harvard,  attain- 
ing it  in  the  fall  of  1861.  This  time  the  new  hope  kindled  from 
a  falling  spark.  While  at  the  Normal  School  a  sermon  with 
which  Samuel  Longfellow  *  had  just  dedicated  the  "New 
Chapel"  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  chanced  into  Chadwick's  hands. 
That  sermon  gave  the  boy  a  vision  of  all  that  a  religious  society 
might  be.  As  he  read,  the  thought  burned  in  him,  "I  will  be  a 
minister!"  And  a  strange  dream  drifted  after,  "What  if,  some 
day,  I  were  to  be  minister  of  that  very  society!" 

And  the  dream  came  true;  but  only  by  incessant  overwork 
and  a  meager  diet,  doubly  necessitated  by  the  struggle  of  a 
moneyless  youth  for  an  education  and  by  his  passion  for  the 
ownership  of  books.  They  were  glowing  years,  however,  for  his 
mind,  the  diet  royal  and  eagerly  assimilated.  His  exceptional 
powers  were  quickly  recognized  and  his  wide  reading  and  brilliant 
written  work  brought  him  high  reputation  in  the  little  cloister- 
world  of  the  School.  Besides  his  theological  comrades  several 
of  Agassiz's  students  roomed  in  Divinity  Hall  and  high  debate 
about  "Darwinism"  was  always  going  on.  "I  was  an  early  con- 
vert to  that  hypothesis,"  wrote  Chadwick  at  a  later  date. 

It  was  Dr.  Hedge  who  suggested  him  to  the  Brooklyn  people 
as  their  prophet  who  might  be.  "Give  him  a  three-months' 
trial,"  was  his  wise  counsel  to  ears  wise  enough  to  take  it.     Sam- 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  216. 


JOHN  WHITE  CHADWICK  77 

uel  Longfellow  had  withdrawn;  "his  ministry  by  our  contempo- 
rary standards  of  numbers,  bigness,  and  shouting,  of  but  small 
account — tried  by  the  highest  standards,  a  success  but  seldom  par- 
alleled in  the  religious  life  of  nineteenth-century  communities." 
And  Nahor  Staples  had  flamed  out  in  two  swift  years  his  ardent 
soul.  It  was  a  church  without  a  creed;  with  a  pledge  to  Truth- 
seeking,  instead.  Over  the  door  of  the  quaint,  low-roofed  struc- 
ture Samuel  Longfellow  had  inscribed  in  golden  letters,  "The 
Truth  Shall  Make  You  Free."  The  constitution  read,  "No  sub- 
scription or  assent  to  any  formula  of  faith  shall  be  required  as 
a  qualification  for  church  membership."  The  congregation  was 
small  but  of  shining  quality,  bound  together  by  strong  ties  of 
affection  and  common,  dearly-loved  ideals,  with — this,  of  course 
a  record  later  earned — "never  one  parish  quarrel  in  all  its  fifty 
years."  In  the  great  "City  of  Churches,"  "New  Chapel"  was 
as  a  little  child  set  in  the  midst;  a  child  with  a  strange  light  in 
its  eyes,  hearing  and  asking  questions. 

Chadwick  was  ordained  at  Brooklyn  on  December  21,  1864. 
Robert  CoUyer's  sermon  showed  by  "Enoch's  walk  with  God" 
that  religion  is  as  ancient  as  the  soul  of  man.  Samuel  Long- 
fellow charged  him  to  make  his  message  "the  gospel  of  the  im- 
mediateness  of  the  spirit"  and  Octavius  Frothingham  offered  the 
ordaining  prayer.  Soon,  too,  another  dream  came  to  blessed 
fulfillment;  for  when  June  roses  next  were  red  he  married  Annie 
Hathaway  of  Marblehead  and  she  it  was  who,  for  forty  years 
brightened  his  home,  guarded  his  working  hours  and  shared  his 
hopes.  Three  children  were,  born  to  them  and  in  due  time, 
besides  the  parsonage  in  Brooklyn,  there  was  a  summer  home  on 
a  western  Massachusetts  hilltop. 

Happy  the  Unitarian  minister  whose  service  synchronized 
with  the  last  third  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Bliss  was  it  in  that  dawn  to  be  alive, 
But  to  be  young  was  very  heaven ! 

Chadwick  in  1864  was  all  three,  very  much  alive,  and  young, 
and  eager  for  the  things  of  morn.  In  the  early  century  science 
had  been  vastly  widening  man's  ideas  of  Time  and  Space,  and 


78  JOHN  WHITE  CHADWICK 

revealing  Law  as  regnant  everywhere  In  Nature;  in  its  noon,  the 
vision  of  the  "forces"  correlating  with  each  other  had  given 
to  the  terms  "Unity"  and  "Universe"  intensity  of  mystic  mean- 
ing; and  now  the  theory  of  Evolution  was  making  the  heavens, 
the  earth,  and  everything  within  them,  the  long  history  of  man, 
the  very  atoms,  one  great  Growth,  one  Life,  As  a  result  of 
science  so  transformed,  everything  connected  with  religion — phi- 
losophy, ethics,  psychology,  theology,  Bible  criticism — was  show- 
ing signs  of  April  change.  In  such  a  period,  to  a  minister  able 
to  divine  and  to  reveal  the  religious  bearings  of  the  new  thought 
is  assigned  a  lofty  function.  Not  quite  Prophet,  but  Interpreter, 
his  name.  To  this  function  Chadwick's  nature  seemed  to  sum- 
mon him.  "To  reconceive  the  Bible,  to  reconceive  the  life  and 
character  of  Jesus,  to  reconceive  the  universe  and  man  and  God, 
not  with  my  own  poor  strength,  but  with  the  help  of  all  the 
deepest,  highest,  noblest  philosophical  and  critical  and  scientific 
thinking  of  the  time — these  are  the  tasks,"  he  wrote,  "which  I 
have  laid  upon  myself,  and  they  have  been  worthy  of  my  utmost 
consecration." 

It  was,  indeed,  a  time  when  thoughtful  men  were  struggling 
with  what  seemed  to  be  the  materialistic  complications  of  science. 
That  gave  Chadwick  constant  opportunity  to  "translate  Darwin, 
Huxley  and  Spencer  into  the  language  of  religion,"  and,  an  early 
and  confident  herald,  to  set  forth  "the  essential  piety  of  modern 
science."  This  last  phase  was  the  title  of  his  noble  sermon  be- 
fore the  National  Unitarian  Conference  in  1876.  Piety  he  there 
defined  as  "man's  sense  of  relation  to  the  Universal  Life,  the 
infinite,  informing  Life  of  everything  that  is,  for  which  we  have, 
and  need  to  have,  no  better  name  than  'God'  ";  and  he  showed 
how  under  the  greatening  revelations  of  the  age  this  sense  was 
growing  to  be  an  ever  deeper  awe  and  thankfulness  and  trust,  a 
more  humble  and  delighted  loyalty.  Another  time:  "I  have 
valued  science  most  for  its  aid  to  worship,  for  those  wonders 
of  the  Known  it  has  revealed  to  us,  that  make  the  great  Un- 
known kindle  for  our  imagination  with  splendors  of  incalculable 
good."  However  recondite  the  sermon  the  poet  in  Chadwick 
guaranteed  that  there  would  be  no  lack  of  emphasis  on  worship. 


JOHN  WHITE  CHADWICK  79 

His  prayers  were  tender,  instinctive  and  unforced  and  the  ser- 
mons always  flowered  into  psalms. 

His  ardent  faith  and  constant  theme  might  well  be  defined  as 
Cosmic  Theism.  It  is  best  set  forth  in  his  book,  "The  Faith  of 
Reason,"  which  was  published  in  1879.  Then,  with  more  and 
more  distinctness  Jesus  took  his  place  "within  the  human  order 
and  with  a  great  access  of  delight  in  him  and  love  for  him  as  very 
man  of  very  man."  Witness  to  this  his  volume,  "The  Man 
Jesus,"  printed  in  1881.  With  growing  confirmation  from  his 
studies  of  the  great  religions  of  the  world  he  set  forth  the  value 
of  the  Bible.  The  "higher  criticism"  was  the  joy  of  his  most 
studious  hours,  and  in  sermon,  lecture,  book,  he  hastened  to  con- 
dense its  most  significant  results  from  the  language  of  the  spe- 
cialists into  that  of  the  plain  man.  Few  preachers  in  America 
were  earlier,  bolder,  gladder,  so  prophetic  and  so  useful,  in  this 
fundamental  work;  the  witness  here,  his  "Bible  of  To-day," 
printed  as  early  as  1878.  And  finally,  the  dignity  of  human  na- 
ture, at  first  apparently  so  challenged  by  the  theory  of  Darwin, 
he  soon  came  to  see,  stood  not  in  any  method  of  its  origin  but 
in  its  reach  and  measure  of  attainment;  man's  slow  process  of 
development  attesting  the  greatness  of  his  worth,  and  "the  long 
way  he  has  come  a  longer  way  to  go."  A  longer  way  to  go  upon 
the  earth — and  off  of  it.  Like  preachers  all,  Chadwick  returned 
often  to  the  major  themes;  but,  to  judge  from  printed  sermons, 
it  would  seem  as  if  no  word  of  his,  except  that  which  aflSrmed 
the  Life  of  God,  was  quite  so  reiterant  with  him  as  that  with 
which  he  faced  the  mystery  of  the  Future  Life. 

For  forty  years  John  Chadwick  preached  this  glowing  faith 
amid  his  people.  He  knew  well  his  limitations  as  their  minister. 
He  was  "no  organizer"  and  he  seldom  ventured  to  offer  pulpit 
counsel  on  the  social  problems  of  the  day.  There  were  two  ex- 
ceptions to  this  abstinence,  however.  Against  the  evils  of  the 
"spoils"  system  and  of  partisanship  in  politics  he  let  loose  his 
utmost  soul;  and  if  his  people  did  not  know  his  politics,  it  was 
because  they  were  not  in  their  pews  on  Sunday  mornings.  Be- 
tween minister  and  people  the  Chapel  grew  somewhat  distin- 
guished for  its  contribution  to  the  cause  of  righteousness  and 


8o  JOHN  WHITE  CHADWICK 

for  other  betterments  in  Brooklyn  life;  several  of  the  city's  help- 
ful institutions,  kindergartens,  the  Flower  Mission,  Boys'  Guilds, 
were  born  and  cradled  in  the  Chapel  precincts,  and  then  "col- 
onized" abroad.  In  all  such  betterments  its  minister  rejoiced, 
but  his  part  was  that  of  inspiration  rather  than  administration. 

In  a  way  the  very  excellence  of  his  thought  and  statement  lim- 
ited his  popular  success.  He  seldom  trusted  himself  to  spontane- 
ous speech,  but  read  his  careful  sermon — read  it  too  with  a  cer- 
tain monotony  of  style  and  voice.  He  was  an  artist  bringing 
in  his  hand  a  sensitively  wrought  picture  from  his  studio  or  a 
scholar  thinking  thoughts  aloud.  The  texture  of  his  thought  was 
delicate  and  there  was  a  rich  broidery  of  literary  allusion.  So 
his  regular  congregation  was  small  but  all  were  closely  united 
in  mutual  confidence  and  goodwill  and  most  of  all  in  pride  and 
joy  in  their  preacher.  "I  am  only  a  writer  of  sermons,"  he  wrote 
in  one  of  his  anniversary  discourses,  "which  I  hardly  preach  to 
you  at  all,  but  READ  in  a  monotonous  and  sometimes  abominable 
manner.  .  .  .  But  of  one  thing  I  am  sure — that  I  have  had  a 
conscience  for  the  Word  preached.  Good,  bad  or  indifferent, 
it  has  been  as  good  as  I  could  make  it  from  week  to  week,  from 
month  to  month,  from  year  to  year.  I  have  permitted  nothing 
to  interfere  with  it,  no  pleasure,  and  no  other  work.  I  have 
given  to  it  ample  time  and  preparation,  writing  much  more  slowly 
and  carefully  than  is  the  average  custom  of  my  ministerial  breth- 
ren, reserving  for  the  writing  of  each  sermon  three  days  of  per- 
fect disengagement  from  all  meaner  things;  doing  everything  I 
could  to  enrich  my  sermons  with  the  spoils  of  science,  literature 
and  art,  asking  first,  last,  and  always,  how  I  might  make  them 
helpful  to  your  thought  and  life;  and  to  the  end  that  I  might 
bring  them  home  to  your  experience,  drawing  them  forth  out  of 
my  own,  and  preaching  to  myself  much  more  directly  and  more 
consciously  than  to  any  one  of  you." 

After  a  few  years  his  people  bethought  themselves  to  share 
their  feast  with  others,  and  began  (1875)  to  print  one  of  his  ser- 
mons monthly,  eight  a  year.  Thenceforth  he  had  two  congrega- 
tions, his  little  one  at  home,  the  other  far  larger  and  scattered 
in  many  lands.     This  Church  Invisible,  whose  gratitude  reached 


JOHN  WHITE  CHADWICK  8i 

him  In  letters  by  the  hundred,  was  a  great  dehght.  It  gave  him 
a  sense  of  "mission"  and  cooperation.  From  Australia,  New 
Zealand,  India,  from  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  he  heard 
that  his  word  was  light  to  men — men  often  that  had  broken 
with  the  popular  theology  and  reacted  so  far  as  to  distrust  all 
religion.  To  such  minds  he  made  it  clear  that  the  science 
which  had  undermined  the  popular  theology  had  made  religion 
a  more  vital  substance,  a  more  living  joy,  than  ever.  Two  hun- 
dred and  forty  sermons  were  thus  published  in  his  thirty-pam- 
phlet series. 

His  sermons  (the  last  one  numbered  1249)  with  their  inter- 
pretation of  the  Living  God  within  the  freshening  Universe, 
their  glow  of  reverent  joy,  their  many-colored  illustrations  from 
science,  history,  poetry,  and  life — these  sermons  were  his  chief 
deliverance  of  himself  to  men.  But  they  were  but  one  of  the 
four  or  five  staples  in  his  harvest.  Book  reviews  were  another. 
It  seems  incredible  but  "nearly  two  thousand"  was  his  count  of 
these  for  his  first  twenty  years  of  ministry!  In  1895  he  wrote 
two  hundred  and  fifty-eight  reviews  for  the  New  York  Evening 
•Post,  the  New  York  Times,  the  Brooklyn  Eagle,  the  Christian 
Register,  and  Unity.  Men  heard  his  frank  opinion,  wincing 
sometimes,  at  other  times  admiring  his  gentle  stroke  of  death; 
but  they  learned  to  trust  his  summaries  and  welcome  the  sure- 
footed guide.  Add  to  these  his  longer  magazine  articles,  many 
in  the  course  of  forty  years,  and  his  books,  not  less  than  twenty- 
eight.  Thirteen  of  these,  to  be  sure,  are  but  the  monthly  ser- 
mons under  various  titles.  Of  the  four  upon  theology,  three 
have  been  already  named,  the  other  will  be.  There  were  five 
biographies — "Nahor  Staples"  ;  a  short  sketch  of  his  noble  friend, 
"George  William  Custis" ;  "Sallie  Holley's  Life  for  Liberty"; 
and  his  two  best,  and  each  perhaps  the  best  about  its  subject, 
"Theodore  Parker,  Preacher  and  Reformer,"  and  "William  El- 
lery  Channing,  Minister  of  Religion."  Two  books  of  poems, 
and  three  more  of  his  "collecting,"  with  his  wife  for  comrade  in 
the  search — "The  Two  Voices,"  poems  of  the  mountain  and  the 
sea;  "Out  of  the  Heart,"  for  lovers  young  and  old;  "Through 
Love  to  Light,"  songs  of  good  courage.      Now  add  to  these  his 


82  WILLIAM  LADD  CHAFFIN 

letters — "two  to  three  thousand  every  year,"  and  we  have  the 
picture  of  a  modern  minister,  busy  all  his  days,  abounding  in  his 
harvest — yet  one  who  made  few  parish  calls  and  organized  no 
charities!  Verily  there  are  "diversities  of  gifts,  differences  of 
ministration,  but — the  selfsame  Spirit." 

Throughout  his  life  Chadwick  was  a  steadfast  and  consistent 
Unitarian  but  he  emphasized  not  so  much  the  changing  elements 
of  doctrine  as  the  essential  and  abiding  principles — Freedom  the 
method  in  religion;  Character  its  test;  Service  its  expression. 
These  were  the  things  supreme,  ever  to  be  cherished  and  guarded. 
He  set  forth  these  principles  explicitly  in  his  book,  "Old  and 
New  Unitarian  Belief,"  which  he  pubhshed  at  the  time  of  the 
thirtieth  anniversary  of  his  ordination.  It  is,  too,  a  careful 
history  of  the  evolution  of  thought  in  the  Free  Churches  con- 
cerning Man,  God,  Jesus  and  the  Future  Life. 

The  angel  of  death  came  to  him  suddenly  and  just  before  the 
church  service  of  December  ii,  19 14. 

James  Vila  Blake  was  active  in  the  ministry  for  fifty  years  and  the 
writer  of  a  number  of  good  hymns.  He  was  born  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y., 
January  21,  1842,  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1862  and  from  the  Divinity 
School  in  1866.  He  was  minister  at  Haverhill,  Mass.,  at  Quincy,  111.,  and 
for  fifteen  years  at  the  Third  Unitarian  Church  in  Chicago.  While  in 
Chicago,  he  established  a  preaching  station  at  Evanston,  organized  a  church, 
built  a  chapel,  and  then  for  twenty-five  years  served  as  its  minister.  He 
wrote  and  published  nearly  twenty  volumes  of  essays,  poetry  and  drama. 
He  died  in  Chicago,  April  27,  1925. 


WILLIAM  LADD  CHAFFIN 

1837-1923 

Mr.  Chaffin's  life  was  at  once  rich  and  uneventful.  Its  in- 
fluence was  pervasive  and  cumulative  through  fifty-five  years  in 
one  community.  The  power  of  the  man  was  not  in  what  he  said 
or  did,  but  in  what  he  was.  It  was  the  man  behind  the  sermon 
or  the  pastoral  call  that  gave  both  their  peculiar  value.     He 


WILLIAM  LADD  CHAFFIN  83 

was  not  only  the  minister  of  his  church  but  for  a  long  period  of 
years  minister-at-large  for  the  whole  countryside.  The  fact 
that  he  was  as  much  respected  and  loved  by  Catholics  as  by 
Protestants,  by  foreign-born  as  by  American-born,  testifies  to 
his  quality.  Here  again,  however,  many  of  his  most  revealing 
acts  and  words  were  of  so  intimate  and  personal  a  nature  that 
they  cannot  be  recorded  here.  Gentle  as  he  was,  he  was  at  the 
same  time  upright  and  downright.  When  asked  on  behalf  of  a 
committee  to  send  an  unpleasant  notification  to  a  neighbor,  he 
refused  to  do  it  by  mail,  but  went  in  person.  He  hated  mean- 
ness and  cruelty,  and  here  his  indignation  was  quickly  kindled. 
It  is  significant  that  while  children  loved  him  and  high-minded 
men  and  women  honored  him,  the  selfish  and  egotistical  avoided 
him. 

This  record  of  his  life  will  fail  if  it  does  not  disclose  as  well 
how  many-sided  was  his  nature.  No  one  could  tell  a  story  bet- 
ter than  he,  especially  when  it  was  at  his  own  expense.  He  had 
a  keen  sense  of  humor.  When  he  fell  into  the  town  reservoir 
in  the  month  of  February  and  was  pulled  out  by  an  attendant, 
-he  said,  "Hold  on,  while  I  go  back  and  get  my  hat."  An  Irish 
friend,  hearing  of  the  mishap,  said,  "We  won't  have  to  send  to 
the  Pope  of  Rome  any  more  for  holy  water,  for  now  we  have 
it  on  tap."  As  a  youth  he  excelled  in  outdoor  sports  and  in 
later  years  he  was  an  expert  chess  player,  and  only  one  bil- 
liard player  in  town  could  cope  with  him.  It  was  character- 
istic of  the  man  that  whatever  he  attempted,  he  did  thoroughly 
and  well.  He  was  always  trying  to  improve  a  sermon  up  to 
the  moment  of  its  delivery.  His  other  literary  work,  his  "His- 
tory of  Easton"  and  his  genealogies,  disclose  the  same  painstaking 
habit. 

Chaffin  was  born  on  August  16,  1837,  in  Oxford,  Maine.  He 
was  named  William  after  his  father,  but  his  middle  name,  Ladd, 
came  to  him  in  this  fashion.  William  Ladd,  "the  Apostle  of 
Peace,"  had  lectured  in  Oxford  the  evening  before  the  baby  was 
born.  The  baby's  aunt,  Phebe  Shattuck,  suggested  that  he  be 
named  after  this  man,  and  so  it  was.  William's  father  died 
when  the  boy  was  eight  months  old.     His  mother  was  a  helpless 


84  WILLIAM  LADD  CHAFFIN 

invalid,  and  he  was  cared  for  at  Oxford  by  his  aunt  Phebe  until 
he  was  two  years  old,  when  he  was  taken  to  Concord,  N.  H.,  to 
the  home  of  Mrs.  Nancy  Fessenden,  his  father's  sister,  who 
adopted  the  boy  and  brought  him  up  with  her  own  son  of  about 
the  same  age.  He  graduated  from  the  high  school  at  sixteen, 
and  was  intending  to  enter  Dartmouth  College.  This,  however, 
became  impossible  when  the  Fessenden  home  and  shop  were  de- 
stroyed by  fire.  Instead  he  went  to  work  in  his  father  Fes- 
senden's  trunk  and  harness  shop,  which  had  been  set  up  in  another 
place. 

When  William  was  nearly  nineteen,  he  became  a  clerk  in  the 
office  of  The  Northern  Railroad.  Later  he  was  promoted  to  be 
an  assistant  paymaster.  In  the  meantime  he  was  a  regular  at- 
tendant at  the  Unitarian  Church.  He  was  fascinated  by  the  elo- 
quent preaching  of  Rev.  Augustus  Woodbury  *  and  never  missed 
a  sermon  of  his.  Thus  were  his  thoughts  turned  toward  the  min- 
istry and  in  1857  at  the  age  of  twenty  he  made  his  decision. 
However,  he  had  no  money.  Seven  men  in  the  Concord  Church 
promised  to  contribute  each  fifty-five  dollars  a  year  for  three 
years  to  enable  young  Chaffin  to  go  to  Meadville.  He  secured 
passes  by  rail  most  of  the  way,  and  one  day  arrived  in  Meadville 
and  was  directed  to  what  the  lady  he  enquired  of  described  as 
"Huidekoper's  Mill."  Young  Chaffin  was  soon  singing  bass  in 
the  choir  of  the  Meadville  Church  where  Miss  Rebecca  H. 
Bagley,  who  later  became  Mrs.  Chaffin,  was  organist.  He  was 
also  made  sexton  of  the  church  and  superintendent  of  the  Sunday 
School.      He  graduated  in  June,  1861. 

After  graduating,  Chaffin  preached  for  a  month  at  Detroit  and 
once  in  Chicago,  where  he  stayed  with  Robert  Collyer.  In  the 
autumn  he  returned  to  New  England  "by  way  of  Meadville,  of 
course,  to  see  Rebecca."  After  preaching  in  several  places,:  he 
was  engaged  to  supply  the  church  in  Manchester,  N.  H.,  during 
the  absence  of  its  minister  who  was  a  chaplain  in  the  army. 
After  several  months,  Chaffin  accepted  a  call  to  the  Spring  Gar- 
den Society  in  Philadelphia  and  there  he  was  ordained  on  Oc- 
tober 17,  1862.      In  the  meantime,  on  August  12,  he  had  married 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  387. 


WILLIAM  LADD  CHAFFIN  85 

Rebecca  Baglcy  at  Meadville,  thus  acquiring  a  mate  who  was  to 
be  his  strength  and  stay  through  sixty  years. 

The  work  in  Philadelphia  was  attended  with  many  difficulties. 
The  Civil  War  absorbed  the  thoughts  and  energies  of  everyone. 
An  effort  to  raise  money  to  build  a  church  proved  unsuccessful. 
Twice  Mr.  Chaffin  recommended  that  the  enterprise  be  aban- 
doned, and  finally  in  October  1865  the  Society  acquiesced  in  his 
recommendation  and  disbanded.  Chaffin  returned  to  New  Eng- 
land and  was  soon  called  to  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Fitchburg, 
his  engagement  to  begin  on  January  i,  1866.  He  rented  a 
house  and  had  his  books  and  furniture  sent  on  from  Philadelphia. 
He  began  his  ministry  in  the  Fitchburg  Church  on  January  7, 
1866,  preaching  at  two  services,  but  was  almost  immediately 
prostrated  by  a  serious  illness  which  frustrated  all  his  plans. 
The  Fitchburg  Church  waited  for  six  months  and  then  at  last 
accepted  his  withdrawal.  The  Chaffins  spent  a  year  at  his  old 
home  in  Concord,  N.  H.,  and  then — but  let  him  tell  it  in  his  own 
words : 

"I  was  one  day  in  the  A.  U.  A.  rooms,  when  Rev.  Rush  R.  Ship- 
pen,  then  the  Secretary  of  the  Association,  said  to  me,  'Do  you 
not  feel  sufficiently  recovered  to  settle  over  a  small  church  in  the 
country  where  you  would  have  but  one  service  a  Sunday  and  not 
many  people  to  visit?'  I  answered  that  I  would  like  to  try 
it,  but  said,  'W^here  is  there  such  a  church?'  He  replied,  'North 
Easton.'  I  went  down  a  Sunday  in  October  and  preached  in  the 
little  church,  so  small  that  a  classmate  in  describing  it  afterwards 
said  the  minister  in  the  pulpit  could  shake  hands  with  the  chorister 
at  the  other  end  of  the  church." 

After  preaching  several  Sundays,  he  accepted  a  call  to  settle 
as  minister  at  a  salary  at  $1,200  with  house  rent.  So  on  Jan- 
uary I,  1868,  began  a  ministry  which  was  destined  to  last  until 
his  death  on  January  7,  1923. 

The  story  of  these  fifty-five  years  reveals  the  cumulative  value 
of  unselfish  service  in  a  small  community  through  a  long  period 
of  years.  First  of  all,  he  gathered  the  people  of  the  village 
about  him  in  the  work  and  worship  of  the  little  church.  In 
1874,  Oliver  Ames,  the  second  of  that  name,  began  the  erec- 


86  WILLIAM  LADD  CHAFFIN 

tion  of  a  beautiful  stone  church,  and  it  is  no  exaggeration  to 
speak  of  it  as  a  memorial  to  Mr.  Chaffin  inasmuch  as  it  was  his 
successful  ministry  that  made  a  larger  church  necessary,  and  the 
confidence  and  affection  he  inspired  that  prompted  the  generos- 
ity of  Mr.  Ames.  This  church  was  dedicated  on  August  26, 
1875,  Rev.  Rush  R.  Shippen  preaching  the  sermon.  Every  sit- 
ting in  the  church  was  immediately  taken.  Mr.  Chaffin  during 
his  long  ministry  saw  many  memorials  placed  in  this  building, 
including  two  La  Farge  windows.  Later  Mr.  Ames  bequeathed 
money  for  the  erection  of  a  parsonage  which  was  completed  in 
1878  and  stands  beside  the  church. 

In  1869  Mr.  Chaffin  was  chosen  a  member  of  the  Easton 
School  Committee  and  served  continuously  thereafter  for  twenty- 
eight  years.  For  most  of  this  time  he  was  secretary  of  the  Com- 
mittee and  wrote  the  annual  reports.  As  the  other  members 
were  generally  businessmen,  most  of  the  work  fell  on  him  and 
he  was  really  superintendent  of  schools  until  1885,  when  that  office 
was  created  and  filled  for  the  first  time.  A  recent  superintendent 
of  schools  has  summarized  Mr.  Chaffin's  accomplishments  for  the 
public  schools  as  follows:  "Easton  can  thank  him  for  his  pioneer 
work  in  building  up  a  high  school,  enriching  its  course  of  study, 
employing  trained  teachers  in  the  grades,  visiting  the  schools 
regularly  and  procuring  the  first  superintendent  of  schools — 
truly  an  admirable  record  in  the  interest  of  education." 

Another  service  Mr.  Chaffin  rendered  his  town  was  the  writ- 
ing of  a  "History  of  Easton."  He  spent  altogether  between  five 
and  six  years  in  gathering  material  and  writing  the  book,  which 
was  published  in  1886.  Rev.  James  De  Normandie  said,  "You 
have  written  the  best  town  history  that  has  appeared  in  this 
country." 

While  working  on  the  "History  of  Easton,"  he  became  inter- 
ested in  genealogy,  and  having  gathered  much  material  he  wrote 
the  "Biographical  History  of  Robert  Randall  and  his  Descend- 
ants," of  which  there  were  many  in  Easton.  Still  later  he  wrote 
"The  Chaffins  in  America." 

Active  as  he  was  in  his  church  and  in  town  affairs,  Mr.  Chaffin 
still  found  time  for  wider  interests.     In  188 1  he  was  elected  a 


WILLIAM  LADD  CHAFFIN  87 

trustee  of  the  Meadville  Theological  School  and  served  in  this 
capacity  until  1908.  During  this  time  he  visited  Meadville 
every  year.  He  also  served  as  secretary  of  the  committee  that 
raised  $50,000  to  establish  the  James  Freeman  Clarke  Professor- 
ship. In  1892  the  Meadville  Alumni  Association  was  formed 
and  Mr.  Chaffin  was  chosen  as  its  first  secretary  and  treasurer. 
He  at  once  began  to  gather  information  about  the  alumni  of 
the  School,  and  thus  laid  the  foundation  for  the  first  general  cat- 
alogue, which  was  published  in  19 10. 

Mr.  Chaffin  always  labored  under  the  physical  handicap  of  an 
unsound  heart.  Several  times  he  was  obliged  to  go  away  for 
complete  rest.  At  last  in  1905,  he  felt  that  he  "must  be  re- 
lieved of  the  strain  of  work  and  responsibility  of  the  active  min- 
istry" and  he  presented  his  resignation.  The  church  voted  unan- 
imously "that  the  resignation  be  not  accepted,  that  Mr.  ChaflSn 
be  retained  as  Senior  Minister  of  the  Society  and  retain  and 
occupy  the  parsonage  during  his  senior  pastorate."  His  salary 
was  continued  as  before  and  an  Associate  Minister  chosen  to 
carry  the  burden  of  the  church  work. 

In  May,  19 15,  Meadville  Theological  School  conferred  upon 
Mr.  Chaffin  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity.  This  he  at  first 
declined  on  the  ground  that  he  had  rendered  no  service  adequate 
to  such  an  honor.  However,  the  Meadville  alumni  were  unani- 
mous and  Insistent  that  he  should  accept.  One  said  this  was  the 
first  thing  Mr.  Chaffin  had  done  in  fifty  years  of  which  he  disap- 
proved. Thus  persuaded,  he  went  to  Meadville  and  received  the 
degree,  which  was  conferred  In  the  following  words:  "William 
Ladd  Chaffin  :  alumnus  of  the  School  of  fifty-four  years'  standing ; 
accurate  and  painstaking  historian ;  devoted  to  the  Interests  of  the 
School  as  student,  secretary  of  the  Alumni  Association,  lecturer, 
and  trustee;  surpassing  all  your  contemporaries  in  length  of  con- 
tinuous active  service  to  a  single  parish;  loved  as  few  men  have 
been  loved  by  your  fellow  ministers  and  the  people  of  your 
church." 


88  GEORGE  LEONARD  CHANEY 

GEORGE  LEONARD  CHANEY 

1836-1922 

George  Leonard  Chaney,  son  of  James  and  Harriet  (Webb) 
Chaney,  was  born  in  Salem,  Massachusetts,  on  December  24, 
1836,  the  descendant  of  family  stocks  long  settled  in  Essex 
County.  He  was  educated  at  the  Salem  High  and  Latin  Schools 
and  at  Harvard  College,  from  which  he  received  his  bachelor's 
degree  in  1859.  He  belonged  to  a  number  of  college  societies, 
including  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Fraternity.  After  graduation  he 
went  to  Meadville,  Pennsylvania,  as  a  tutor  in  the  family  of  Mr. 
Edward  Huidekoper  and,  a  little  later,  he  entered  Meadville 
Theological  School,  from  which  he  graduated  in  1862.  On 
October  5  of  the  same  year  he  was  settled  as  minister  of  the 
Hollis  Street  Church  in  Boston,  the  successor  in  that  pulpit  of 
Starr  King,*  who  had  resigned  nearly  two  years  before  to  go  to 
San  Francisco. 

The  position  was  a  difficult  one  for  a  young  and  inexperienced 
minister.  Starr  King  had  been  a  notable  preacher  and  man 
of  letters,  and  it  was  no  easy  task  to  stand  in  his  place.  The 
church  had  an  honorable  history  covering  nearly  a  century  and 
a  half,  but  it  was  in  a  part  of  Boston  where  the  population  was 
changing  rapidly  and  from  which  a  large  proportion  of  the 
parishioners  had  already  removed.  While  the  Civil  War  lasted, 
Mr.  Chaney  preached  frequently  upon  national  and  political 
issues,  and  after  the  Battle  of  Fredericksburg  he  served  for  a 
while  in  the  army  hospitals  there.  After  the  War  he  took  a 
keen  interest  in  the  Freedman's  Aid  Society;  was  one  of  the  earli- 
est supporters  of  Hampton  Institute;  and  visited  and  spoke  on 
behalf  of  other  educational  enterprises  in  the  South.  Under  his 
leadership  his  own  church  was  active  in  various  social  service 
activities  in  Boston.  He  helped  to  establish  the  Associated 
Charities.  He  was  for  twelve  years  a  member  of  the  Boston 
School  Committee,  and  was  instrumental  in  introducing  manual 
training  into  the  public  schools,  for  that  sort  of  training  in  Bos- 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  191. 


GEORGE  LEONARD  CHANEY  89 

ton  was  the  outgrowth  of  work  started  by  Mr.  Chaney  in  the 
"Hollis  Street  Whittling  School"  connected  with  his  church. 

In  1877  he  resigned  the  Hollis  Street  pastorate,  spent  a  year 
in  Hawaii  and  California,  traveled  widely,  and  wrote  two  popu- 
lar books  for  boys.  In  1884  he  went  to  Atlanta,  Georgia, 
where,  in  the  face  of  great  discouragements,  he  succeeded  in 
establishing  a  Unitarian  congregation  in  a  church  built  and  paid 
for  in  two  years'  time.  He  there  applied  the  same  educational 
methods  which  he  had  used  in  Boston  and  began  an  "Artisans' 
Institute"  in  connection  with  his  church.  This  was  the  seed  from 
which  sprung  the  Georgia  School  of  Technology  in  Atlanta.  He 
was  also  a  director  and,  for  a  time,  president  of  the  Young  Men's 
Library,  which  was  later  merged  in  the  Carnegie  Library.  He 
was  a  trustee  of  Atlanta  University,  and  for  about  twenty  years 
a  trustee  of  Tuskegee  Institute,  serving  for  some  time  as  presi- 
dent of  the  board.  He  dedicated  the  first  building  of  the  Insti- 
tute, and  was  a  wise  adviser  in  the  development  of  Booker  Wash- 
ington's plans  for  that  great  school. 

In  1890  he  became  Southern  Superintendent  for  the  American 
Unitarian  Association,  residing  in  Richmond,  Virginia,  from 
1893  to  1896.  He  traveled  widely  in  the  southern  states, 
gathering  societies  at  Chattanooga,  Richmond,  Memphis,  and 
other  centers,  and  inaugurating  circuit  preaching  in  northern 
Florida  and  eastern  North  Carolina.  Two  books  containing 
his  sermon-essays  were  published,  and  from  1893  to  1895  he 
edited  the  Southern  Unitarian.  He  resigned  from  active  serv- 
ice in  1896  on  reaching  the  age  of  sixty.  His  work,  and  that 
of  his  wife,  is  commemorated  in  the  Founders'  Window  in  the 
present  building  of  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Atlanta. 

After  his  retirement  from  active  service  he  lived  for  the  most 
part  in  Salem,  although  he  commonly  spent  a  part  of  each  winter 
in  Florida  or  Jamaica,  and  his  summers  at  Leominster,  Massa- 
chusetts, on  the  farm  which  belonged  to  his  wife,  the  former 
Caroline  Carter.  He  died  in  Salem  in  his  eighty-sixth  year,  on 
April  19,  1922,  in  the  house  in  which  he  had  been  brought  up. 

His  career  as  a  minister  was  marked  by  self-sacrificing  devo- 
tion to  professional  tasks  of  an  exceptionally  difficult  character, 


90  GEORGE  LEONARD  CHANEY 

and  by  a  keen  sense  of  the  obligations  of  the  church  to  serve 
the  community  in  the  development  of  a  better  social  order.  But 
he  never  forgot  his  primary  duty  as  preacher  and  leader  in  wor- 
ship. His  literary  gift  was  considerable,  showing  itself  not 
only  in  his  sermons  and  books  but,  most  of  all,  in  the  exceptional 
charm  of  his  letters.  That  charm  was  but  the  expression  of  his 
whole  personality,  compounded  of  warm  affections,  humane  in- 
terests, self-effacing  devotion  and  farsighted  wisdom,  making 
him  a  delightful  companion  and  a  beloved  minister. 

Associated  with  Mr.  Chaney  in  educational  work  in  the  South  was 
Amory  D,  Mayo,  son  of  Amory  and  Sophronia  (Cobb)  Mayo,  who  was 
born  January  31,  1823,  in  Warwick,  Mass.,  and  at  the  age  of  eighty-four 
died  suddenly  April  8,  1907,  in  Washington,  D.  C. 

Educated  at  the  Deerfield  Academy,  he  taught  country  district  school 
from  the  age  of  sixteen  to  twenty.  After  one  year  at  Amherst  College  he 
studied  for  the  ministry  under  Dr.  Hosea  Ballou,  having  Thomas  Starr 
King  as  companion  and  for  many  years  his  most  intimate  friend.  In  later 
days  Amherst  honored  him  with  the  degree  of  A.M.,  and  Berea  College 
with  LL.D. 

In  July,  1846,  ordained  to  the  ministry  in  School  Street  Universalist 
Church,  Boston,  he  settled  in  Gloucester,  Mass.  In  the  first  month  of  his 
ministry  he  married  Sarah  Carter  Edgarton,  who  lived  but  two  years. 
Before  leaving  Gloucester,  in  June,  1853,  he  married  Lucy  Caroline  Clarke, 
and  their  wedded  life  lasted  for  fifty-four  years. 

After  eight  years  in  Gloucester  (1846  to  1854),  Mr.  Mayo  was  settled 
as  minister  in  Cleveland  (1854  to  1856)  ;  in  Albany  (1856  to  1863)  ;  in 
Cincinnati  (1863  to  1872)  ;  in  Springfield,  Mass.  (1872  to  1880).  These 
five  successive  pastorates  cover  thirty-four  years  of  continuous,  active,  and 
successful  ministerial  service  in  important  cities. 

During  this  period  Mr.  Mayo  was  for  twenty  years  a  nonresident  pro- 
fessor in  the  Meadville  Theological  School,  making  annual  visits  and  giv- 
ing courses  of  lectures  on  Ecclesiastical  Polity  and  Church  Organization. 
From  the  time  of  the  Presidential  campaign  in  1856  he  became  a  frequent 
writer  and  lecturer  upon  political,  social,  and  educational  questions.  In 
Cincinnati  and  Springfield  he  was  an  active  and  deeply  interested  member 
of  the  School  Boards,  always  a  loyal  advocate  and  defender  of  the  American 
common  school  system. 

As  his  interest  in  education  grew  warmer,  in  1880  he  left  the  Springfield 
church,  and  devoted  himself  wholly  to  this  cause,  fitly  called  his  ministry 
of  education.  For  five  years  he  was  associate  editor  of  the  New  England 
Journal  of  Education^  writing  its  editorials.     Under  the  auspices  of  the 


ELIJAH  ALFRED  COIL  91 

National  Bureau  of  Education,  and  supported  by  the  American  Unitarian 
Association,  he  made  annual  missionary  tours  through  the  South,  his  field 
extending  from  the  Ohio  River  to  the  Gulf  and  from  the  Atlantic  into 
Texas.  Favored  by  friendly  commendation  of  President  Hayes  and  the 
Commissioners  of  Education,  he  found  ready  access  to  schools,  academies, 
colleges,  conventions,  and  even  to  State  legislatures,  cooperating  with  lead- 
ing educators  for  all  people,  white  and  colored.  In  this  service  he  is  re- 
ported to  have  traveled  two  hundred  thousand  miles.  As  an  able  and 
interesting  speaker,  with  hearty  love  and  warm  enthusiasm  for  his  work 
and  amply  equipped  for  it,  he  was  ever  welcome  on  platforms  and  in  many 
pulpits. 

He  printed  many  sermons  and  addresses,  especially  many  pamphlets  on 
education,  issued  by  the  National  Bureau.  Invited  by  Commissioner  Harris 
in  1893,  his  later  years  were  devoted  to  preparing  a  full  and  complete 
history  of  the  Public  Schools. 

Another  leader  of  educational  work  in  the  South  was  Pitt  Dillingham, 
who  was  born  at  Norridgewock,  Maine,  on  October  16,  1852.  He  grad- 
uated at  Dartmouth  in  1873  and  from  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  in  1876. 
He  was  ordained  in  the  Harvard  Church  in  Charlestown  on  October  4, 
1876,  and  served  there  for  twelve  years.  Then  followed  brief  pastorates 
at  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  and  at  Uxbridge  and  Brockton,  Mass.  His  interest 
turned  more  and  more  to  the  work  of  educational  and  social  reform.  His 
sister  had  been  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Calhoun  Colored  School  in 
Alabama,  and  in  1895  Mr.  Dillingham  went  thither  to  become  the  principal 
and  chaplain  of  the  school.  He  was  also  soon  the  director  of  social  settle- 
ment work  in  Lowndes  County  and  there  established  a  number  of  self- 
supporting  Negro  colonies.  This  was  a  pioneer  work  of  educational  and 
industrial  significance.  In  1909  Mr.  Dillingham  returned  to  Boston  but 
continued  to  be  active  in  the  education  of  the  colored  people  and  in  the 
work  of  the  Robert  Gould  Shaw  House.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Child  Labor  Committee  and  for  thirteen  years  he  was  secretary  of 
the  Harvard  Divinity  School  Alumni  Association,  He  died  in  Boston, 
April  2,  1926. 


ELIJAH  ALFRED  COIL 

1858-1918 

Elijah  Alfred  Coil,  son  of  Jesse  and  Margaret  (Berry)  Coil, 
was  born  on  a  farm  near  Spencerville,  Allen  County,  Ohio, 
May   2,    1858.     This   territory,   which   was   called   the    "Black. 


92  ELIJAH  ALFRED  COIL 

Swamp,"  was  the  last  section  of  Ohio  to  be  settled.  From  the 
rugged  home  life  of  his  progenitors  he  inherited  the  true  pioneer 
spirit.  He  remained  on  the  farm  until  he  was  twenty-one  years 
of  age,  and  then,  responding  to  an  early  desire  to  enter  the  min- 
istry, he  enrolled  at  Union  Christian  College  in  Indianapolis. 
Later  he  went  to  Antioch  College  at  Yellow  Springs,  Ohio,  and 
having  identified  himself  with  the  Christian  Disciples,  on  Sep- 
tember I,  1885,  he  took  charge  of  the  Disciples  Church  at  that 
place. 

Here  he  served  as  pastor  until  1887  when,  finding  himself 
unable,  conscientiously,  to  promote  the  theological  tenets  of  his 
Church,  he  entered  the  Unitarian  fellowship,  and  on  September 
15  of  that  year  accepted  the  pastorate  of  the  First  Congrega- 
tional (Unitarian)  Society  of  Westborough,  Massachusetts, 
where  he  served  until  September  i,  1891,  when  he  returned  to 
Ohio  in  answer  to  a  call  from  Unity  Church  in  Cincinnati. 
While  there  his  health  failed  and  he  removed  to  Marietta  with 
the  idea  of  remaining  there  a  year  or  two  to  recuperate.  His 
association  with  the  Unitarian  Church  of  that  city,  however, 
proved  so  satisfactory  that  he  was  prevailed  upon  to  assume  the 
pastorate,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  was  in  his  twenty-third 
year  of  service. 

Several  small  Universalist  churches  were  scattered  over  the 
county,  and  most  of  the  time  these  churches  were  without  lead- 
ership, so  it  often  fell  to  Mr.  Coil  to  preach  in  their  pulpits  and 
serve  them  as  pastor.  Thus  gradually  he  became  the  religious 
instructor,  counsellor  and  friend  of  a  large  and  scattered  parish. 
By  his  broad  sympathies,  ready  wit,  and  fine  tact,  Mr.  Coil  was 
soon  recognized  as  the  leader  of  the  liberal  cause  in  the  southern 
part  of  Ohio. 

A  few  years  after  taking  up  his  residence  in  Marietta  he  allied 
himself  with  the  Knights  of  Pythias.  His  ability  as  a  promoter 
of  fraternalism  was  soon  recognized,  and  he  was  inducted  into 
the  office  of  Grand  Chancellor  of  the  Grand  Domain  of  Ohio. 
He  became  sponsor  of  the  principle  that  the  fraternal  orders 
have  a  unique  opportunity  to  advance  the  religious  life  of  hu- 
manity,   regardless    of    creedal    distinctions.      In    his    journeys 


ELIJAH  ALFRED  COIL  93 

about  the  State  he  always  laid  the  emphasis  on  the  hlp;her  phases 
of  fraternity  in  their  relation  to  life  and  to  the  fundamental 
principles  of  the  liberal  faith.  Thus  he  was  able  to  carry  the 
cause  which  he  had  most  at  heart  to  the  thousands  of  men  with 
whom  his  State  work  brought  him  in  contact.  His  address  on 
"Secret  and  Fraternal  Orders  as  Constructive  Religious  Agen- 
cies" had  a  wide  circulation. 

Later,  a  sermon  before  the  Masonic  body,  of  which  he  was 
also  a  member,  was  printed  and  not  only  received  commendations 
from  all  parts  of  the  country,  but  from  India,  Italy  and  France, 
An  address  before  the  Meadville  Conference  on  "The  Relation 
of  Liberal  Religion  to  the  Fraternal  Orders"  so  deeply  impressed 
the  Conference  that  it  became  one  of  the  publications  of  the 
American  Unitarian  Association. 

As  an  interpreter  of  Liberalism  Mr.  Coil  had  few  equals. 
He  always  regarded  himself  as  a  convert  to  Unitarianism  through 
the  teachings  of  Minot  J.  Savage,  calling  himself  one  of  "Sav- 
age's boys."  However,  Mr.  Coil  always  spoke  with  great 
affection  of  his  former  connection  with  the  Christian  Disciples 
and,  while  his  interpretations  of  the  liberal  faith  were  fearless 
and  consistent  throughout,  he  always  referred  to  the  more  con- 
servativ^e  forms  of  Christianity  with  respect. 

His  power  as  a  preacher  and  as  a  genuine  Herald  of  the  Lib- 
eral Faith  also  grew  out  of  his  understanding  of  and  sympathy 
with  the  people  of  his  native  state  to  whom  his  message  was 
given.  With  rare  facility  he  translated  the  common  experiences 
of  life  Into  the  language  of  religion.  Anecdote,  reminiscence, 
and  vivid  illustrations  drawn  from  the  incidents  of  the  street, 
the  farm,  the  home  and  the  market  place,  made  him  an  excep- 
tionally acceptable  and  effective  preacher.  He  died  at  Athens, 
Ohio,  on  January  14,  1918. 


94  ROBERT  COLLYER 

ROBERT  COLLYER 

1823-1912 

Robert  Collyer  was  born  December  8,  1823,  in  Keighley, 
England.  His  father,  Samuel,  was  an  orphan  who  had  been 
snatched  out  of  an  asylum  in  the  south  of  England  in  the  days 
before  the  Factory  Acts,  and  set  to  work  as  a  mere  lad  in  a  mill 
in  the  town  of  Fewston  in  Yorkshire;  his  mother,  Harriet,  was 
an  orphan  child  from  Norwich,  brought  north  in  the  same  way 
and  set  to  work  in  the  same  mill.  Here  the  two  children  grew 
up  side  by  side,  and  "it  came  to  pass  in  due  time  that  they  fell  in 
love  with  each  other."  On  a  winter  day  in  January,  1823,  when 
the  snow  lay  so  heavy  upon  the  ground  that  they  had  to  walk  a 
part  of  the  way  on  the  top  of  the  stone  walls,  the  lad  and  the 
lassie  trudged  two  miles  to  the  Parish  Church  and  were  married. 
A  few  days  later  the  newly  wedded  pair  removed  to  Keighley, 
where  the  husband  had  found  work  in  a  machine  shop.  In  the  case 
neither  of  his  father  nor  of  his  mother  was  Robert  CoUyer  able 
to  trace  his  family  line  beyond  a  grandfather,  and  so,  as  he  put 
it  in  his  charming  autobiography,  "we  have  no  family  tree  to 
speak  of,  only  this  low  bush." 

Yet  he  was  "well-born,"  as  he  always  insisted.  His  father 
was  a  strong,  hard-working.  God-fearing  man — a  blacksmith  by 
trade,  of  whom  it  was  said  throughout  the  countryside  that  if 
there  was  anything  to  be  done  with  iron,  he  was  the  man  to  do  it. 
He  had  little  education,  but  was  able  to  read  from  the  Bible 
and  the  Psalm  Book.  Collyer's  mother  could  hardly  read  or 
write.  In  the  parish  church  where  Collyer  was  christened,  the 
parish  register  bears  her  "mark"  in  place  of  her  name.  But 
"she  was  a  woman  of  such  faculty,"  wrote  her  son  in  later  years, 
"that  I  believe  if  she  had  been  ordered  to  take  charge  of  a 
seventy-gun  ship  and  carry  it  through  a  battle,  she  would  have 
done  it.  She  had  in  her  also  wells  of  poesy,  and  laughter  so 
shaking  that  the  tears  would  stream  down  her  face,  and  a  deep 
abiding   tenderness    like    that   of   the    saints."      Many    of   Dr. 


ROBERT  COLLYER  95 

Collyer's  strongest  qualities  and  all  of  his  loveliest  ones  came 
from  this  woman. 

The  home  was  a  poor  one — Samuel  Collyer  earned  only  four 
dollars  and  a  half  a  week,  even  when  business  was  at  its  best. 
The  house  was  a  two-room  cottage  with  a  low  attic  or  loft  over- 
head. In  front  was  a  stretch  of  greensward,  with  a  great  rose- 
bush in  the  center.  Life  was  spent  pretty  much  in  the  open  air, 
where  the  boy  could  race  and  romp  over  the  nearby  moors. 

During  his  early  years  at  home  Collyer  received  all  the  edu- 
cation he  ever  had — a  few  months  at  a  dame's  school  in  the  vil- 
lage, a  few  months  more  at  a  master's  school  a  half-mile  away, 
and  a  little  while  with  a  Master  Hardie  two  miles  over  the  moor, 
who  was  remembered  as  "a  good  teacher."  This  was  scanty 
training  but  it  was  enough  to  open  the  boy's  heart  to  that  love 
of  books  which  remained  throughout  his  long  life  a  perpetual 
source  of  delight  and  inspiration.  There  is  a  familiar  story, 
which  Dr.  Collyer  always  loved  to  tell,  which  illustrates  perfectly 
his  early  predilection  for  reading.  One  happy  day,  "some  good 
soul"  had  given  the  little  boy  "a  big  George  the  Third  penny," 
and  he  must  needs  go  and  spend  it  forthwith  for  a  stick  of  candy 
at  the  store.  There  the  sticks  were,  in  a  beautiful  glass  jar  in 
the  window;  but  right  close  to  the  jar,  as  he  now  discovered,  was 
a  tiny  book,  with  the  fascinating  inscription,  "The  History  of 
Whittington  and  His  Cat,  William  Walker,  Printer.  Price,  One 
Penny."  Instantly  the  choice  was  made,  and  it  was  not  the  candy 
for  which  the  big  penny  was  exchanged  !  "I  gave  up  the  candy," 
he  tells  us,  "and  bought  the  book  .  .  .  and  in  that  purchase  lay 
the  spark  of  a  fire  which  has  not  yet  gone  down  to  white  ashes — 
the  passion  which  grew  with  my  growth,  to  read  all  the  books 
in  my  early  years  I  could  lay  my  hands  on."  The  only  books 
in  the  home  were  "Pilgrim's  Progress,"  "Robinson  Crusoe," 
Goldsmith's  "England,"  and  a  great  Bible  illustrated  with  pic- 
tures, and  a  few  others  not  recorded.  Robert's  father  was  an 
observing  man  who  appreciated  his  son's  love  of  reading,  and 
every  now  and  then  he  managed  to  borrow  a  book  or  two  for 
the  boy;  and  memorable  were  the  days  when  In  this  way  the 
poems  of  Burns  and  the  plays  of  Shakespeare  first  came  into  his 


96  ROBERT  COLLYER 

hands.  So  Collyer  read — read  by  the  fading  sunhght  on  the 
moors;  read,  as  Abraham  Lincoln  used  to  read,  by  the  Hght  of  the 
hearth  fire  on  winter  nights;  read  as  he  walked  to  his  work  on 
winter  mornings,  and  again  as  he  trudged  home  in  the  late  eve- 
nings. 

At  eight  years  of  age  Collyer  went  to  the  mills  as  a  child 
laborer.  Here  he  remained  until  his  fourteenth  year.  There 
was  nothing  else  to  do,  for  his  father's  small  earnings  were  in- 
sufficient to  sustain  the  growing  family.  The  hours  of  work 
were  from  six  in  the  morning  until  eight  in  the  evening,  on  Sat- 
urday from  six  to  six,  with  an  hour  off  for  dinner.  The  children 
were  not  allowed  to  sit  down  at  their  work,  and  if  they  were 
caught  resting  themselves  for  a  moment  on  a  stray  box  or  barrel, 
they  were  brought  to  their  feet  by  the  whip  of  the  overseer. 
"Each  night,"  Collyer  tells  us,  "I  was  tired  beyond  all  telling 
and  thought  the  bell  would  never  ring  to  let  us  out  and  home 
at  last  and  to  bed.  And  it  seemed  as  if  I  only  just  got  to  sleep 
when  it  rang  again  to  call  me  to  work."  Collyer  was  rescued  at 
last  from  this  slavery  by  the  necessity  of  learning  a  trade.  Both 
parents  were  insistent  that  their  eldest  son  must  at  least  hold  the 
rank  of  the  father  as  a  smith.  So  on  a  very  memorable  day  the 
boy  was  apprenticed  to  a  blacksmith  in  the  town  of  Ilkley,  six 
miles  across  the  moors.  Here  he  remained  during  the  next 
twelve  years  of  his  life.  He  declares  that  he  was  never  much  of 
an  artisan,  but  he  must  have  been  something  more  than  an  ordi- 
nary worker  for  when  the  master  died  he  became  master  of  the 
forge,  and  was  soon  earning  the  munificent  sum  of  a  pound  a 
week.  This  was  enough  to  maintain  a  home,  so  the  day  came 
thus  early  when  he  claimed  the  lassie  who  had  won  his  loyal 
heart  and,  all  youthful  as  he  was,  made  her  his  wife. 

Then  came  the  first  great  sorrow  of  Dr.  CoUyer's  life.  In  a 
little  over  a  year,  the  wife  died  in  childbirth  and  was  laid  away 
in  the  graveyard  upon  the  hill,  with  her  babe  upon  her  breast. 
For  the  first  time  in  CoUyer's  experience,  beauty  vanished  from 
the  world  and  joy  from  his  heart.  His  hammer  rang  dull  and 
lifeless  on  the  anvil.  Even  his  beloved  books  failed  to  hold  his 
mind.      His  friends  were  shut  out  of  his  life.      "I  did  not  con- 


ROBERT  COLLYER  97 

suit  with  flesh  and  blood,"  he  writes  in  his  autobiography. 
"The  secret  lay  between  God  and  my  own  soul,  and  in  God  I 
must  find  help." 

It  was  this  experience  which  first  turned  his  thoughts  seriously 
to  religion.      One  day,  seeking  solace  in  his  sorrow,  he  went  to 
a  meeting  of  his   Methodist  neighbors   and   friends   in   a   little 
chapel  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town  and  there  was  moved  to  bear 
testimony  "how  it  was  with  him."      Before  long  he  became  a 
full-fledged  member  of  the  Methodist  Church.     With  this  came 
the  epoch-making  discovery  of  his  life — that  he  was  one  dow- 
ered with  the  gift  of  speech.      Going  night  after  night  to  the 
prayer  meetings,  he  became  accustomed  to  standing  upon  his  feet 
and  bearing  witness  to  his  spiritual  experience.      Little  by  little 
he  found  that  his  neighbors  heard  him  gladly  and  were  moved  by 
his    fervent  words.      Pretty   soon   nothing   would    satisfy   these 
people  but  that  he  must  be  a  lay  preacher,  and  go  out  "on  the 
Sunday"  to  near-by  villages  and  talk  to  other  Methodists  as  he 
talked  to  those  at  home.      Every  Sunday,  therefore,  when  the 
forge  was  still,  the  young  blacksmith  went  striding  across  the 
moors  or  over  the  hills  to  meet  some  little  group  of  worshipers 
and  speak  to  them  of  the  deep  things  of  the  spirit.      Sometimes 
he  talked  in  chapels,  more  often  in  kitchens  or  taprooms,  once 
in  a  while  out  under  the  open  skies  by  some  crossroads  or  in  the 
fields.      Gradually,  under  the  influence  of  these  experiences,  the 
young  man  found  beauty  in  the  world  again,  and  peace  and  joy 
creeping  back  into  his  heart. 

But  he  could  not  settle  down.  Something  had  happened 
which  could  not  be  repaired.  So  in  1849  he  made  up  his  mind 
to  emigrate  to  America.  His  father  and  mother  had  had  this 
idea  before  him,  and  no  doubt  he  had  heard  it  discussed  in  the 
home;  but  they  had  never  been  able  to  make  the  venture,  and 
had  given  it  up  before  Robert  went  to  Ilkley.  On  a  fair  day  in 
mid-April  in  1850,  he  married  the  noble  woman  who  remained 
his  wife  and  helpmeet  for  more  than  forty  years,  and  on  the 
next  day  the  two  sailed  from  Liverpool  in  the  steerage  of  the 
steamer  Roscius. 

The  two  voyagers  landed  in  New  York  and  two  days  later  they 


98  ROBERT  COLLYER 

went  to  Philadelphia,  which  had  been  the  original  destination  in 
their  minds  on  leaving  England.  The  young  blacksmith  was  so 
fortunate  as  to  find  employment  at  a  forge  in  Shoemakertown, 
seven  miles  out  in  the  country.  Here  he  remained  nine  years 
at  the  work  of  making  claw  hammers.  This,  as  he  tells  us,  "was 
a  new  craft" ;  but  he  was  a  skilled  workman,  and  before  long 
was  able  to  turn  out  no  less  than  twelve  dozen  claw  hammers  in 
a  single  day.  Now  and  then,  to  be  sure,  there  were  hard  times. 
For  a  few  weeks  in  one  summer  he  tossed  hay  in  the  meadows 
and  then  he  helped  to  gather  the  crops.  For  a  full  week  in  this 
period  he  worked  as  a  hod  carrier  for  a  group  of  bricklayers. 
Later,  in  1857,  at  the  time  of  the  panic,  the  anvil  was  again  silent. 
The  husband  was  now  the  father  of  little  children  and  work  had 
to  be  had  at  any  cost.  For  a  while  he  dug  a  well  for  a  neigh- 
bor; then  he  worked  upon  the  turnpike.  By  hook  or  crook  the 
little  home  was  kept  together  and  the  children  fed  and  clothed. 

Soon  after  his  arrival  in  Pennsylvania,  Collyer  presented  his 
letter  of  transfer  to  the  nearest  Methodist  Church,  and  was  re- 
ceived with  open  arms.  His  speech  was  raw  and  unfamiliar, 
the  broad  Yorkshire  dialect  was  like  a  foreign  language  to  the 
Philadelphia  brethren,  but  Collyer  soon  conquered  "the  new 
tongue  in  some  measure."  So  he  became  a  preacher  here,  as 
he  had  been  in  the  old  country;  and  every  Sunday  he  was  off 
bright  and  early  to  some  little  hamlet  on  the  circuit  in  which 
he  lived.  He  preached  his  sermon  morning  and  afternoon,  and 
then  trudged  home  again  in  the  evening  to  his  well-earned  rest. 
He  was  not  paid  even  so  much  as  to  make  good  the  wear  and 
tear  on  his  shoe  leather,  but  he  had  his  reward.  Everywhere 
he  found  friends.  Now  and  then  he  picked  up  a  book,  or  dis- 
covered a  library.  Best  of  all,  he  had  the  inestimable  joy  of 
pouring  out  his  heart  to  ears  that  heard  him  gladly.  These 
were  sunny  days  but  they  ended  in  clouds  and  storm. 

The  troubles  of  the  blacksmith-preacher  had  their  origin  in 
the  fact  that  he  was  unable  to  preach  the  doctrines  of  his  church. 
"I  never  cared,"  he  tells  us,  "for  what  we  call  dogma."  He 
was  interested  not  in  theology,  but  in  the  moral  and  spiritual 
aspects  of  everyday  life.     By  and  by  it  began  to  be  whispered 


ROBERT  COLLYER  99 

that  the  Yorkshireman  "did  not  believe  any  more  in  the  accepted 
doctrines."  He  had  not  denied  them,  but  he  had  not  supported 
them. 

These  troubles  were  aggravated  by  the  fact  that  CoUyer  was 
an  abolitionist.  On  one  ever-memorable  day  Collyer  had  heard 
Lucretia  Mott  speak  on  slavery,  "as  one  who  was  moved  by  the 
Holy  Ghost."  Instantly  the  young  man  sought  her  out,  and 
their  interview  was  the  beginning  of  a  lifelong  friendship.  From 
that  time  Collyer  was  an  ardent  abolitionist,  as  most  of  the 
Methodists  of  the  neighborhood  were  not.  It  was  because  of  his 
association  with  these  reformers  that  a  change  came  into  his  life. 
By  Lucretia  Mott,  Collyer  was  introduced  to  Dr.  Furness,* 
minister  of  the  First  Unitarian  Church  in  Philadelphia,  and  a 
leader  in  the  abolitionist  group.  This  man  no  sooner  looked 
upon  Robert  Collyer  than  he  loved  him,  and  a  friendship  was 
formed  which  lasted  through  more  than  half  a  century.  One 
Sunday  Dr.  Furness  invited  his  Methodist  comrade  to  preach  for 
him  in  his  pulpit.  Collyer  accepted  and  instantly  the  storm  which 
had  long  been  brewing  broke  upon  his  head.  He  was  summoned 
•to  appear  for  trial  before  the  presiding  elder  of  his  district,  was 
asked  certain  pointed  questions  which  he  could  not  answer,  and 
then  voluntarily  presented  his  resignation,  which  was  accepted. 
He  was  not  deprived  of  his  membership  in  the  church;  but  his 
work  as  a  Methodist  was  over.  Where  was  he  to  go  and  what 
was  he  to  do?  It  was  when  the  prospect  seemed  darkest  that 
the  way  was  suddenly  open.  The  Unitarian  Church  in  Chicago, 
which  supported  a  mission  for  the  poor,  wanted  a  "minister-at- 
large."  News  of  this  fact  come  to  Dr.  Furness  in  Philadel- 
phia, who  recommended  the  young  blacksmith.  The  call  came 
promptly,  was  passed  on  to  Collyer,  and  was  instantly  accepted. 
In  a  few  weeks  the  preacher  and  his  family  were  in  Chicago,  a 
city  as  strange  to  them  as  Peking  itself. 

This  event,  in  January,  1859,  marks  the  beginning  of  the  great 
and  famous  period  of  Robert  CoUyer's  career.  So  notable  was 
his  success  in  his  work  among  the  poor,  not  only  as  a  pastor  but 
also  as  a  preacher,  that  it  was  not  surprising  when  the  people 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  133. 


TOO  ROBERT  COLLYER 

of  the  new  Unitarian  church  on  the  North  Side  found  themselves 
ready  to  settle  a  minister,  that  they  turned  instinctively  to  the 
eloquent  Yorkshireman  and  invited  him  to  their  pulpit.  The 
proposal  seemed  impossible  at  first,  and  it  was  only  by  dint  of 
much  argument  that  he  could  be  persuaded  to  accept.  Finally, 
in  fear  and  trembling  of  spirit,  he  gave  his  consent  and  his  long 
ministry  at  Unity  Church  began.  Year  after  year  the  fame  of 
the  "blacksmith-preacher,"  as  he  now  came  to  be  called,  spread 
abroad,  and  people  came  from  far  and  near  to  hear  him.  In  ten 
years  he  was  the  best-known  preacher  in  the  Middle  West.  This 
made  inevitable  his  entrance  upon  the  Lyceum  Platform  of  that 
time,  and  for  many  years,  in  conjunction  with  such  men  as  Henry 
Ward  Beecher,  Wendell  Phillips,  and  John  B.  Gough,  he  ad- 
dressed great  multitudes  in  all  parts  of  the  country  as  one  of  the 
most  popular  lecturers  of  the  period. 

Two  events  stand  out  from  among  all  others  in  the  story  of 
this  time.  One,  of  course,  is  the  Civil  War.  The  moment  this 
conflict  broke  out  CoUyer  was  all  aflame.  Not  satisfied  with 
preaching  in  support  of  the  Union  cause,  he  went  to  the  front  in 
the  fall  of  1 86 1  in  the  service  of  the  United  States  Sanitary  Com- 
mission, serving  first  in  the  Army  camps  around  Washington. 
He  was  later  sent  to  Missouri  to  the  army  of  General  Fremont. 
Winter  found  him  in  Chicago  at  his  church,  but  in  February, 
1862,  he  was  summoned  to  the  field  of  Fort  Donelson,  which 
brought  him  his  first  close-range  experience  of  battle.  His  work 
was  of  a  grim  character,  but  he  was  full  of  courage  and  fine  vi- 
tality. Other  experiences,  including  one  at  Pittsburg  Landing, 
followed.  In  the  intervals  of  his  service  at  the  front,  CoUyer 
was  in  Chicago,  intently  engaged  at  anything  to  which  he  could 
turn  his  hand.  His  labor  for  the  care  of  prisoners  at  Camp 
Douglas  were  constant  and  untiring  for  a  long  period  of  time. 
Then  during  these  long  months  and  years  there  was  the  preach- 
ing which  was  of  such  vision  and  power  that  many  of  his  sermons 
were  carried  in  pamphlet  form  to  the  remote  corners  of  the 
Northern  States. 

The  second  great  event  of  the  Chicago  period  was  the  Chicago 
fire.      In  1869,  just  ten  years  after  his  arrival  in  the  city,  Collyer 


ROBERT  COLLYER  loi 

completed  and  dedicated  a  new  church  building  which  was  one 
of  the  largest  and  most  elaborate  in  the  Middle  West.  Two 
years  later,  on  the  evening  of  Sunday,  October  8,  1871,  as  he 
was  leaving  this  church  after  the  regular  service,  his  eyes  caught 
sight  of  a  glow  of  light  In  the  dark  sky  to  the  Southeast.  This 
was  the  beginning  of  the  great  conflagration  which  in  a  few  hours 
devoured  the  city.  Collyer's  glorious  new  church  was  laid  in 
ashes  the  next  morning.  With  this  went  his  home,  his  library, 
and  everything  that  he  owned  in  the  world.  Driven  to  the  out- 
skirts of  the  city  by  the  racing  flames,  he  found  himself  at  night, 
homeless,  and  penniless,  with  his  parishioners  scattered  to  un- 
known places  and  the  work  of  a  decade,  as  it  seemed,  completely 
wiped  out.  What  wonder  that  the  strong  man  broke  down  com- 
pletely and  cried  like  a  child  "for  the  pity  of  it  and  the  pain." 
With  the  morning  light,  however,  he  was  himself  again.  In- 
stantly he  placed  himself  at  the  service  of  the  city  and  became 
one  of  the  leaders  in  the  work  of  relief.  On  the  Sunday  follow- 
ing the  fire  he  summoned  his  people  about  him  on  the  ashes  of 
the  destroyed  church,  and  there,  amid  the  still-smoking  embers, 
conducted  a  service  and  preached  a  sermon,  the  news  of  which 
went  round  the  world.  This  scene  marked  the  supreme  moment 
of  Collyer's  career.  Rising  above  the  ashes  of  his  own  life,  he 
lifted  with  him  the  city  and  the  nation.  The  following  years 
were  devoted  to  the  work  of  rehabilitation.  A  new  church,  built 
by  the  devotion  of  himself  and  his  people,  and  the  gifts  of 
Unitarians  In  other  parts  of  the  country,  was  dedicated  on  Decem- 
ber 3,  1873,  an  occasion  marked  by  the  first  use  of  his  glorious 
hymn,  "Unto  thy  temple.  Lord,  we  come."  A  series  of  lecture 
trips  brought  money  for  a  new  home.  The  Chicago  ministry 
was  again  strongly  under  way. 

On  September  21,  1874,  a  call  came  to  him  from  the  Church 
of  the  Messiah  in  New  York.  This  invitation  was  a  complete 
surprise  and  was  very  tempting.  On  the  one  hand  the  burden 
of  the  Chicago  situation  seemed  to  be  weighing  him  down  beyond 
his  strength.  On  the  other  hand  was  the  attraction  of  New  York, 
with  Its  swarming  crowds.  Its  wide  publicity,  and  its  unparalleled 
possibilities  for  influence.     The  Chicago  people,  however,  would 


I02  ROBERT  COLLYER 

not  let  him  go,  and  took  this  occasion  to  pour  out  such  love  and 
devotion  upon  their  pastor  as  few  men  have  ever  received.  Nor 
could  Collyer  convince  himself  that  at  such  a  time  he  should 
desert  his  post !  So  he  declined  this  invitation,  but  when  it  was 
renewed  on  June  9,  1879,  he  accepted.  He  had  completed  the 
restoration  of  the  Chicago  church  and  the  work  there  was  pros- 
pering. But  somehow  or  other  the  work  had  never  been  the 
same  since  the  great  fire — nor  had  he  been  the  same  man! 
Something  had  snapped  within  him,  and  the  old  peace  and  joy 
were  gone.  It  was  not  strange  that  he  welcomed  new  scenes 
and  a  fresh  opportunity.  The  call  to  New  York  opened  the 
door  to  the  first  city  in  the  country,  to  a  beautiful  church  in  an 
unexcelled  location,  to  a  people  of  tried  devotion  and  fine  en- 
thusiasm. On  Sunday,  September  21,  1879,  Robert  Collyer 
preached  his  last  sermon  as  minister  of  Unity  Church,  Chicago. 
On  the  following  Sunday,  September  28,  he  appeared  in  the  pulpit 
of  the  Church  of  the  Messiah.  He  preached  from  the  text, 
"I  was  glad  when  they  said  unto  me,  let  us  come  into  the  house 
of  the  Lord." 

This  marked  the  beginning  of  another  long  and  prosperous 
ministry.  For  years  Collyer  preached  morning  and  evening  to 
thronging  congregations,  and  was  a  welcome  figure  at  public 
dinners,  public  meetings,  colleges  and  universities.  In  the  early 
1890's,  as  he  approached  the  Psalmist's  span  of  years,  he  began 
to  think  of  retirement,  but  his  people  refused  to  listen.  Not 
until  1896  could  he  persuade  them  to  lift  the  burden  of  labor 
and  responsibility.  Then  in  that  year  he  was  given  an  associate 
in  the  person  of  Dr.  Minot  J.  Savage,  who  took  over  the  parish 
leadership.  In  1903,  on  his  own  insistence  upon  retirement,  he 
was  made  pastor  emeritus.  Three  years  later,  upon  Dr.  Savage's 
sudden  illness,  he  was  summoned  back,  without  warning,  to  re- 
sume the  leadership  of  the  church.  For  a  year  he  carried  on 
with  marvelous  vigor  and  courage.  At  last,  in  February,  1907, 
he  was  relieved,  when  John  Haynes  Holmes  became  minister  of 
the  church.  The  following  summer  he  made  his  eighth  visit  to 
Europe,  and  was  crowned  with  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Litera- 
ture by  Victoria  University,  Leeds.      In  191 1  he  was  given  the 


ROBERT  COLLYER  103 

degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  by  the  Meadville  Theological 
School.  In  the  eighty-ninth  year  of  his  age  he  died,  after  a 
month's  illness,  on  November  30,  191 2. 

Dr.  Collyer  was  a  man  of  striking  appearance.  In  the  full 
vigor  of  his  manhood  he  stood  tall,  with  shoulders  and  arms 
made  of  heroic  proportions  by  the  long  years  of  labor  at  the 
anvil.  His  literary  style  both  in  speaking  and  writing  was  unique 
for  its  utter  Anglo-Saxon  purity.  To  hear  or  read  him  was  to 
be  carried  back  to  the  pages  of  "Pilgrim's  Progress"  or  the  King 
James  Bible.  His  understanding  of  the  human  heart  was  as  a 
shining  light  through  all  his  speech,  and  his  simple  love  of  men 
was  a  benediction.  As  age  developed,  he  became  one  of  the 
handsomest  and  most  venerable  of  old  men.  His  great  frame, 
his  snow-white  hair,  his  benignant  features,  his  clear  voice,  tended 
to  make  him  a  person  never  to  be  forgotten. 

Dr.  Collyer's  writings  were  numerous,  and  his  books  enjoyed 
wide  popularity.  He  published  five  volumes  of  sermons:  "Na- 
ture and  Life"  (1867),  "The  Life  that  Now  Is"  (i 871),  "The 
Simple  Truth"  (1878),  "Things  New  and  Old"  (1893),  and 
"Where  the  Light  Dwelleth"  (1908).  He  wrote  a  biography 
of  A.  H.  Conant,  called  "A  Man  in  Earnest,"  and  in  1906  pub- 
lished a  biographical  sketch  of  the  famous  Father  Taylor  of 
Boston.  In  1885  he  wrote  a  large  volume  about  his  old  home 
in  England,  called  "Ilkley,  Ancient  and  Modern."  In  1883 
appeared  his  "Talks  to  Young  Men,"  and  in  1905  his  brief  auto- 
biography, "Some  Memories."  In  191 1  a  volume  of  selections 
from  his  writings  was  published  under  the  title  of  "Thoughts  for 
Daily  Living."  Shortly  after  his  death  a  collection  of  lectures 
and  poems,  called  "Clear  Grit,"  was  published.  "The  Life  and 
Letters  of  Robert  Collyer,"  by  John  Haynes  Holmes,  appeared 
in  19 17,  and  this  biographical  sketch  has  been  condensed  from 
that  book. 


I04  MONCURE  DANIEL  CONWAY 

MONCURE  DANIEL  CONWAY 

1832-1907 

The  Heralds  of  a  Liberal  Faith  have  been  from  time  to  time 
reinforced  by  recruits  from  unexpected  sources  and  origins. 
Most  of  the  men  commemorated  In  this  volume  came  from  New 
England  backgrounds  and  from  families  of  the  Puritan  stock. 
Occasionally,  however,  there  flashed  across  their  skies  a  meteoric 
visitor  from  a  very  different  heritage  and  endowed  with  a  spar- 
kling brilliancy.  Moncure  Conway  was  a  Virginian.  His  father 
was  a  respected  magistrate  and  a  leader  in  the  State  Legislature. 
His  mother  was  of  the  Daniel  family  prominent  In  the  social  and 
journalistic  hfe  of  Richmond.  All  his  associations  and  inherit- 
ances were  conservative.  Nothing  in  his  surroundings  and  up- 
bringing suggested  change  or  novelty.  He  was  born  on  the 
Middleton  Estate  In  Stafford  County  on  March  17,  1832.  His 
early  education  was  at  Fredericksburg  Academy,  and  from  that 
school  he  went  to  Dickinson  College,  where  he  graduated  In  1849. 
He  started  to  study  law  at  Warrenton,  Virginia,  and  became  a 
writer  for  the  Richmond  Examiner  of  which  his  cousin,  John 
Daniel,  was  the  editor.  These  writings  avowed  intense  Southern 
sympathies  and  opinions,  States'  rights,  slavery,  an  established 
church,  and  all  the  rest.  Then  came  the  first  of  the  sudden 
shifts  that  marked  his  subsequent  career.  He  abandoned  the 
law  and  enlisted  in  the  Methodist  ministry,  a  move  which  aston- 
ished his  family  and  friends.  He  was  promptly  approbated  and 
for  two  years  served  as  an  evangelist,  first  in  the  RockvIUe  and 
then  in  the  Frederick  circuit  in  Maryland. 

Then  came  another  revolutionary  change.  He  discovered 
that  he  was  no  longer  in  sympathy  with  the  doctrines  and  disci- 
plines of  the  Methodist  Church.  Breaking  also  from  his  South- 
ern sympathies  and  associations,  he  betook  himself  to  what  for 
him  was  the  almost  foreign  land  of  Massachusetts  and  enrolled 
as  a  student  in  the  Harvard  Divinity  School.  There  he  proved 
himself  to  be  a  brilliant  scholar  and  an  impassioned  preacher. 
He  not  only  assimilated  progressive  theological  ideas  but  actually 


MONCURE  DANIEL  CONWAY  105 

became  an  abolitionist.     He  graduated  in  1854  and  returned  to 
Virginia  hoping  for  a  chance  to  preach  his  new-found  gospel  in 
his  native  state.     He  was  met  by  an  unbreakable  hostility.     His 
very  life  was  threatened  when  it  was  revealed  that  in  Boston 
he  had  befriended  Antony  Burns,  a  fugitive  slave.     He  fled  as 
far  as  Washington,   where   his   exceptional   gifts   of   animating 
speech  were  discovered  by  the  people  of  the  Unitarian  Church. 
He  was  ordained  as  their  minister  on  February  28,  1855.     His 
stay,  however,  was  short.     He  was  too  radical  in  his  opinions 
and  too  vehement  in  the  expression  of  them  for  that  rather  sedate 
congregation  which  included  the  families  of  some  Southern  Sena- 
tors   and    Representatives.     His    impetuous    sermon    after    the 
assault  on  his  parishioner.  Senator  Sumner,  was  more  than  they 
could  stand,  and  the  connection  of  minister  and  parish  was  dis- 
solved.    Then  a  call  came  to  him  from  the  church  in  Cincinnati, 
and  he  had  there  a  somewhat  tumultuous  but  on  the  whole  suc- 
cessful ministry  of  six  years.     His  house   and   church  became 
stations  on  the  underground  railway  and  he  was  Instrumental  in 
settling  a  colony  of  fugitive  slaves,  some  of  them  from  his  own 
•father's  plantation,  at  Yellow  Springs,  Ohio.     There,  too,  he 
won  fame  as  a  lecturer  and  author.     To  have  and  hear  a  Vir- 
ginian ardently  advocating  the  Northern  cause  was  exceptional 
and  aside  from  the  zeal  of  the  speaker,  had  something  dramatic 
about  It.     He  wrote  articles  for  papers  and  periodicals  and  pub- 
lished pamphlets  and  tracts  which  had  wide  circulation.      In  1862 
he  resigned  his  charge  and  gave  his  whole  time  and  strength  to 
the  antlslavery  cause.     For  a.  while  he  was  back  in  Massachu- 
setts, editing  The  Commonwealth  and  meeting  speaking  appoint- 
ments every  evening.     Then  he  must  needs  go  to  England  to 
explain  what  the  North  was  fighting  for  and  to  enlist  the  sym- 
pathy and  support  of  British  public  opinion.      Soon  he  was  in- 
vited to  become  the  minister  of  the  South  Place  Society  In  London, 
and  there  his  restless  spirit  found  stability  and  harmony.     He 
stayed  for  twenty  years,  preaching  to  enraptured  congregations 
and  was  a  frequent  contributor  to  the  newspapers  and  the  major 
magazines  In  both  England  and  America.      He  started  many  in- 
surrections in  complacent  minds.     He  was  forever  championing 


io6  MONCURE  DANIEL  CONWAY 

unpopular  causes  and  never  quite  content  if  he  found  himself  in 
a  majority.  A  succession  of  books,  too,  came  from  his  study 
table,  travelogues  full  of  keen  observations  and  enlivened  by  a 
rather  caustic  wit;  acute  analyses  of  social  and  religious  move- 
ments and  trends;  critical  dissertations  on  current  political  issues; 
a  biography  of  Thomas  Carlyle  and  a  "Sacred  Anthology,"  a 
collection  of  the  sayings  of  the  seers  of  all  races  and  ages.  A 
few  of  the  titles  will  indicate  the  diversity  of  his  interests  :  "South 
Coast  Saunterings  in  England,"  "Testimonies  Concerning  Slav- 
ery," "Republican  Superstitions,"  "Demonology  and  Devil 
Lore,"  "A  Necklace  of  Stories,"  "The  Wandering  Jew  and  the 
Pound  of  Flesh."  In  1884  he  returned  for  a  while  to  America, 
but  he  now  felt  more  at  home  in  England  and  went  back  to 
London  for  another  term  of  service  at  the  South  Place  Chapel. 
In  1904  he  completed  and  published  his  two-volume  "Autobiog- 
raphy; Memories  and  Experiences,"  the  record  of  a  singularly 
varied  and  vivid  career. 

Moncure  Conway  possessed  what  has  been  justly  called  "a  soul 
of  flame."  His  discovery  of  a  liberal  interpretation  of  religion 
transformed  and  transfigured  him.  Wherever  there  was  a  fight 
for  freedom  or  against  oppressions  and  tyrannies  he  wanted  to 
be  in  it.  He  refused  to  accept  or  tolerate  any  doctrine  that  was 
repulsive  to  his  moral  sense  or  which  seemed  to  him  artificial  or 
mechanical.  He  stood  in  the  procession  of  the  prophets  in  their 
passion  for  justice  and  righteousness.  He  seldom  practiced  self- 
control  when  confronted  with  men  whose  beliefs  and  methods  he 
disliked.  His  preaching  was  provocative,  the  style  as  biting  and 
incisive  as  the  thought.  He  had  no  use  for  the  conventional 
rhetoric  of  the  pulpit  or  for  a  pious  vocabulary.  He  did  not 
argue,  he  proclaimed.  He  was  no  trimmer,  anxious  to  offend 
no  one.  He  often  incurred  the  wrath  of  organized  iniquity  and 
was  the  target  for  virulent  abuse.  Like  all  such  vivid  natures 
he  was  subject  to  occasional  moods  of  depression,  but  for  the 
most  part  he  radiated  force  and  fire. 

Conway  died  in  Paris  on  November  15,  1907. 


SAMUEL  McCHORD  CROTHERS  107 

SAMUEL  McCHORD  CROTHERS 

1857-1927 

Samuel  McChord  Crothers  was  born  in  Oswego,  Illinois,  on 
June  7,  1857,  and  died  in  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  on  Novem- 
ber 9,  1927.  He  came  of  vigorous  Scottish  Presbyterian  stock, 
from  Northern  Ireland;  and  his  mind  was  never  more  alert  and 
active  than  when  it  was  exploring  areas  of  thought  where  his 
spiritual  heritage  might  find  expression  in  new  and  fruitful  forms. 
One  of  his  grandfathers.  Dr.  Samuel  Crothers,  founded  in  1808 
one  of  the  first  Presbyterian  churches  in  the  Territory  of  Illinois; 
and  another  of  his  kin,  Dr.  James  McChord,  the  first  president 
of  Center  College  in  Kentucky,  taught  a  doctrine  of  mental  and 
religious  unfolding  and  expansion  that  anticipated  by  many  years 
the  discoveries  and  teachings  of  evolution. 

After  graduating  at  the  age  of  sixteen  from  Wittenberg  Col- 
lege, Springfield,  Ohio,  Crothers  went  for  a  year  of  further  study 
to  Princeton  where  in  1874  he  received  his  A.B.  degree — the 
youngest  student  to  be  graduated  from  Princeton  College  up  to 
that  time,  with  the  single  exception  of  Aaron  Burr.  He  spent 
the  next  three  years  at  Union  Theological  Seminary  from  which 
he  graduated  in  1877,  and  in  that  same  year  was  ordained  to  the 
Presbyterian  ministry  in  Springfield,  Ohio.  He  served  for  two 
years  in  a  mission  field  in  Nevada,  at  Eureka  and  Gold  Hill;  and 
then,  in  1879,  went  to  the  Presbyterian  church  in  Santa  Barbara, 
California,  where,  in  1882,  he  married  Louise  M.  Bronson. 
Rarely  has  a  minister  found  so  perfect  a  helpmeet. 

The  ministry  in  Santa  Barbara  was  happy  in  its  development 
of  his  power  as  a  preacher  and  a  parish  minister,  but  it  was  also 
a  period  of  revolutionary  experience  for  the  young  minister. 
Neither  he  nor  his  people  knew  what  was  happening,  for  there 
were  no  sharp  breaks  in  his  thinking  and  no  conflicts  within  his 
soul.  When  finally  challenged  with  the  fact  that  he  was  no 
longer  preaching  sound  Presbyterian  doctrine  he  replied,  prob- 
ably with  the  same  gentle  playfulness  that  marked  his  whole  life, 
that  he  was  preaching,  not  the  doctrines  peculiar  to  Presbyteri- 


io8  SAMUEL  McCHORD  CROTHERS 

anism  but  the  doctrines  wherein  Presbyterianism  was  in  accord 
with  Christianity.  When  he  discovered  that  he  had  really  be- 
come a  Unitarian,  he  quietly  withdrew  and  his  people  let  him  go 
with  affectionate  but  understanding  reluctance.  It  remained  one 
of  the  finest  traits  of  his  mind  and  temper  that  this  transition 
left  in  him  no  sense  of  resentment  or  revolt.  The  essential  faith 
of  his  fathers  remained  dear  to  him,  and  the  fundamental  truths 
of  the  Westminster  Catechism,  detached  from  their  metaphysical 
elaborations,  were  repeatedly  the  theme  of  his  Unitarian  sermons. 
To  an  extraordinary  degree  he  combined  the  moral  passion  and 
sinewy  intellectual  fibre  of  Calvinism  with  the  adventurous  spirit 
of  the  prophet  and  pioneer. 

As  a  Unitarian  minister,  Mr.  Crothers  served  for  four  years 
(1882-1886)  in  Brattleboro,  Vt.,  seven  (1886-1894)  in  Saint 
Paul,  Minn.,  and  thirty-three  (i 894-1 927)  in  Cambridge;  and 
up  to  the  very  end  his  ministry  was  an  uninterrupted  growth  in 
spiritual  power.  His  sermons  and  his  prayers  brought  encour- 
agement and  healing  to  an  unnumbered  multitude.  Never  stoop- 
ing to  the  adroit  arts  of  the  "popular"  preacher,  never  tempering 
his  moral  judgments  to  the  prejudices  of  his  hearers,  he  preached 
without  partiality  and  without  hypocrisy;  but  it  was  the  preach- 
ing of  a  spacious  mind  always  at  home  in  God's  great  house, 
always  eager  to  share  with  others  the  happy  and  surprising  dis- 
coveries of  new  light  and  truth. 

His  ministry,  however,  was  not  restricted  to  the  Sunday  serv- 
ices and  the  pastoral  relations  of  his  successive  churches.  He 
became  widely  known  as  a  lecturer,  and  his  many  trips  across  the 
continent  gave  him  not  only  a  national  reputation  but  also  an 
extraordinary  breadth  of  vision  and  insight.  In  particular,  he 
was  in  constant  demand  as  a  preacher  at  colleges  and  universities 
— for  lectures  on  literary  and  historical  subjects,  or  for  the  sheer 
delight  of  the  gentle  humor  that  played  revealingly  upon  con- 
temporary events  and  tendencies.  He  was  always  the  inter- 
preter, the  reconciler,  the  friend  alike  of  the  humble  and  the 
great,  and  the  encourager  of  youth.  Young  people  turned  to 
Dr.  Crothers  as  a  teacher  who  knew  how  to  bring  his  wisdom 
to  their  capacity  without  a  touch  of  superiority  in  tone  of  voice 


SAMUEL  McCHORD  CROTHERS  109 

or  turn  of  phrase.  They  knew  that  they  could  count  upon  his 
sympathy,  his  keen  criticism  of  some  of  their  revolutionary  ideas, 
his  faith  in  their  abihty  to  make  their  Hves  count. 

Dr.  Crothers  early  won  fame  as  an  author.  His  delightful 
essays  were  marked  by  penetrating  insight,  discriminating  com- 
ment on  current  events,  homely  common  sense  and  quiet  humor. 
Sweetness  and  light  streamed  from  him  because  they  were  in  him. 
He  was  sometimes  described  as  another  Charles  Lamb  or  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes,  but  the  kinship  was  closer  with  Emerson.  He 
was  not  a  rebuker  of  sinners ;  he  was  not  an  orator  for  the  masses ; 
he  was  not  given  to  denunciation  or  even  to  exhortation.  "His 
mind,"  said  Dr.  Peabody,  "dwelt  in  the  higher  regions  of  thought 
and  character.  He  was  the  friend  and  helper  of  those  who 
would  walk  in  the  spirit  and  even  if  they  could  not  rise  up  with 
him  as  eagles,  they  were  taught  at  least  how  to  run  and  not  be 
weary,  how  to  walk  and  not  faint." 

Dr.  Crothers  was  so  temperamentally  shy  and  so  modest  and  so 
almost  aloof  in  social  relations  that  people  were  sometimes  blind 
to  the  fact  that  he  was  one  of  the  shrewdest  observers  of  prac- 
tical concerns  and  occurrences.  That  endowment  was  not  indeed 
derived  from  much  contact  with  worldly  affairs  but  rather  from 
observation  of  such  affairs  and  experiences  with  the  detachment 
of  a  seer.  It  was  "the  wisdom  which  is  from  above" — direct, 
discerning,  penetrating.  Doubtless  his  exceptional  capacity  to 
see  the  humorous  side  of  things  was  no  small  element  both  in  his 
judgment  of  men  and  events.  He  had  a  detective  eye  for  hum- 
bug and  could  pierce  pretension  or  pedantry  with  a  rapier  thrust 
of  wit.  But  it  was  a  wit  that  charmed  more  often  than  it 
wounded.  One  never  saw  a  spark  of  malice  in  his  eye  or  heard 
a  word  of  envy  from  his  lips.  He  never  seemed  to  be  in  a  hurry 
and  never  showed  signs  of  being  anxious  or  depressed. 

Recognition  came  to  him  in  generous  measure.  He  received 
the  honorary  degree  of  D.D.  from  Harvard  in  1899,  and  of 
Litt.D.  from  St.  Lawrence  in  1904,  from  Princeton  in  1909,  and 
from  Western  Reserve  in  1923.  When  Theodore  Roosevelt 
came  to  Cambridge  as  President  of  the  United  States,  to  cele- 
brate the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  his  graduation,  it  was  the 


no  SAMUEL  McCHORD  CROTHERS 

minister  of  the  First  Parish  Church  whom  he  invited  to  be  his 
single  guest  at  breakfast — to  the  consternation  of  the  "important 
people"  who  couldn't  quite  see  why  the  author  of  "The  Gentle 
Reader"  should  have  been  chosen  for  this  honor  by  the  evangelist 
of  "The  Strenuous  Life."  But  it  was  characteristic  of  both  men, 
and  the  table  talk  that  morning  must  have  been  worth-while. 

While  never  in  the  least  arrogant  or  arbitrary  and  always 
open-minded,  Dr.  Crothers  had  the  complete  courage  of  his  own 
convictions.  He  was  therefore  a  remarkable  convincing  advo- 
cate of  many  good  enterprises  and  equally  fearless  defender  of 
unpopular  causes.  Nothing  helps  a  cause  more  effectively  than 
to  find  it  consistent  with  such  gentleness,  sanity  and  interpretive 
good  will. 

Here  was  a  man  who  "practiced  the  presence  of  God"  in  the 
affairs  and  among  the  needs  of  men.  A  glad,  free  spirit  of  joy 
touched  all  his  writings  with  a  buoyant  optimism,  threw  its  light 
on  the  darkest  clouds  of  experience,  and  undergirded  all  his 
doings  with  fearlessness  and  serenity. 

The  writer  of  this  memoir  was  at  one  time  Dr.  Crothers'  associate  in  the  charge 
of  the  First  Parish  in  Cambridge.  To  his  manuscript  the  editor,  who  was  Dr. 
Crothers'  parishioner  for  twenty-seven  years,  has  added  some  sentences  from  his 
own  commemorative  address  and  some  quotations  from  the  memorial  address  of 
Dr.  Francis  G.  Peabody. 

At  Cambridge  Dr.  Crothers  succeeded  Edward  Henry  Hall  who  was 
born  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  April  i6,  1831.  He  entered  Harvard  College  at 
the  age  of  sixteen,  and  took  the  degree  of  A.B.  in  1851.  He  died  at  his 
home  in  Cambridge  on  February  22,  1912.  He  graduated  from  the  Har- 
vard Divinity  School  in  1855,  and  was  ordained  at  Plymouth,  Mass.,  on 
January  25,  1859,  where  he  remained  until  July,  1867.  During  that  time 
he  served  one  year  as  Chaplain  of  the  44th  Regiment,  Massachusetts  Volun- 
teers. On  February  10,  1869,  he  was  settled  at  Worcester  over  the  Second 
Congregational  (Unitarian)  Church.  In  1882  he  was  called  to  the  First 
Parish  of  Cambridge,  Mass.,  and  served  that  church  until  1893.  He  re- 
ceived the  degree  of  S.T.D.  from  Harvard  University  in  1892.  He  was 
lecturer  on  the  History  of  Christian  Doctrine  at  the  Harvard  Divinity 
School  from  1889  to  1 900.  He  was  the  author  of  "Orthodoxy  and  Heresy 
in  the  Christian  Church,"  "Lessons  on  the  Life  of  St.  Paul,"  "Papias  and 
His  Contemporaries,"  and  "Paul:  the  Apostle."  He  was  a  trustworthy 
scholar,  a  veracious  interpreter,  a  forcible  preacher.  His  sermons  kindled 
the  imaginations  and  gave  definite  impulse  to  the  wills  of  his  hearers.     A 


JAMES  De  NORMANDIE  hi 

manly  bearing,  a  splendid  head  set  on  broad  shoulders,  a  ringing  voice, 
an  utter  sincerity  of  speech  gave  power  to  his  words.  He  never  trimmed 
or  posed.  He  was  not  a  weather  vane  but  a  guidepost.  His  sturdy  inde- 
pendence stood  foursquare. 


JAMES  De  NORMANDIE 

1836-1924 

Born  of  Huguenot  stock  in  Newport,  Pa.,  on  June  9,  1836, 
James  De  Normandie  received  his  A.B.  from  Antioch  College  in 
1858  and  his  A.M.  in  1861,  and  graduated  from  the  Harvard 
Divinity  School  in  1862.  In  1898  Harvard  University  conferred 
on  him  the  honorary  degree  of  S.T.D.  Ordained  in  the  South 
Church  in  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  on  October  i,  1862,  he  was  settled 
over  the  South  Parish  till  1883,  when  he  was  called  to  the  First 
Church  in  Roxbury,  Mass.  Installed  there  on  March  14,  1883, 
he  served  that  ancient  parish,  the  church  of  John  Eliot,  the 
Apostle  to  the  Indians,  till  April  15,  191 7,  when  he  was  made 
minister  emeritus.  When  he  died,  at  Brookline,  Mass.,  on  Octo- 
ber 6,  1924,  he  had  therefore  spent  sixty-two  years  in  his  pro- 
fession— twenty-one  years  in  Portsmouth  and  forty-one  in 
Roxbury. 

There  are  three  outstanding  characteristics  of  Dr.  De  Nor- 
mandie's  life  and  work,  and  the  first  of  these  is  energy.  He  was 
a  living  dynamo.  His  output  of  physical  and  intellectual  and 
moral  and  spiritual  energy  was  tremendous.  Every  waking  hour 
he  filled  with  action,  action  of  the  mind  or  the  will.  He  never 
refused  a  call  for  service,  no  matter  how  far  he  might  have  to 
travel  or  how  exhausting  the  journey  to  body  and  spirit.  With 
him  the  whole  man  functioned  :  he  never  held  anything  back.  He 
gave  himself,  all  that  he  had  and  was,  to  his  work,  whether  as 
minister  of  the  church  or  editor  of  the  Unitar'mii  Review  or 
chairman  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Roxbury  Latin  School 
and  of  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

He  loved  service,  the  more  compelling  in  its  demands  the 
better.     Life,  more  life,  and  fuller — that  was  his  quest.     An 


112  JAMES  De  NORMANDIE 

immense  driving  energy  possessed  his  very  being.  Perhaps  it 
would  have  been  easier  if  he  had  rested  more,  but  it  was  not  in 
him  to  rest.  He  came  to  fourscore  in  the  full  tide  of  energy, 
and  if  the  later  years  were  years  of  difficulty  and  trial  it  was 
because  he  could  not  walk  and  work  at  the  same  high  speed. 

The  second  quality  which  distinguished  Dr.  De  Normandie's 
personality  was  sympathy.  He  was  overflowing  with  it.  And  it 
was  not  put  on  for  occasions — it  was  natural  to  him.  It  pro- 
ceeded from  a  great  heart.  He  felt  the  sufferings  and  sorrows 
of  others  as  if  they  were  his  own.  Every  soul  passing  through 
deep  waters  found  in  him  an  understanding  friend.  He  knew 
what  it  was  to  bear  a  heavy  cross,  and  out  of  his  own  pain  and 
grief  he  could  minister  to  other  spirits.  No  one  in  need  of  spir- 
itual help  ever  went  to  him  in  vain.  Always  there  was  the  life- 
giving,  light-giving  word.  In  much  humility  and  with  great 
courage  he  was  wrestling  with  his  own  spiritual  problems,  and 
out  of  that  struggle  came  the  power  which  healed  wounded  souls 
and  comforted  burdened  spirits.  His  cheerfulness  was  not  as- 
sumed; it  came  from  a  heart  and  mind  at  peace  with  itself  through 
struggle  and  victory. 

Nor  was  his  sympathy  for  individuals  alone.  It  went  out  to 
every  despised  race,  every  oppressed  people,  every  persecuted 
faith.  As  to  the  Latin  poet,  nothing  human  was  foreign  to  him. 
His  voice  was  always  uplifted  for  suffering  humanity,  wherever 
found,  in  the  Black  Belt,  in  the  Far  West,  in  the  Near  East.  His 
hand  was  ever  ready  to  give  material  help,  spiritual  fellowship. 
For  he  breathed  out  sympathy  as  he  breathed  in  life. 

The  third  characteristic  of  Dr.  De  Normandie's  life  was  vision. 
He  saw  what  was  in  men,  the  good  and  evil,  but  he  always  looked 
for  the  good.  He  saw  Into  the  depths  of  eternity,  but  the  mys- 
tery of  being  was  for  him  surcharged  with  light,  shot  through 
with  spiritual  purpose.  His  was  the  vision  of  the  pure  in  heart: 
he  saw  God  In  his  own  aspirations  after  fellowship  with  the 
Eternal;  In  the  agelong  struggle  of  humanity  to  know  the  truth 
which  makes  men  free;  in  the  courage  and  hope  and  faith  and 
love  and  loyalty  which  mark  the  man  seeking  God  and  the  good 
of  the  world;  in  the  Christ  who  is  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the 


JAMES  De  NORMANDIE  113 

Life,  and  in  Christly  souls  who  have  redeemed  mankind  from 
sin  and  evil;  in  the  beauty  and  glory  of  the  outward  world  and 
in  the  splendor  and  majesty  of  the  inward  world.  Such  a  seer 
was  this  leader  of  the  sons  of  God — clear-sighted  intellectually, 
morally,  spiritually. 

And  as  Emerson  says,  "Always  the  seer  is  a  sayer."  He 
must  put  into  words  that  which  he  has  seen  and  felt.  His  words 
were  winged  words  because  he  knew  God  and  saw  God.  Out 
of  a  deep  spiritual  experience  he  spoke  to  the  hearts  and  minds 
of  men,  and  they  went  away  enamored  of  the  beauty  of  holiness. 

Dr.  De  Normandie  was  a  prolific  writer  and  a  frequent  con- 
tributor to  magazines.  His  best-known  books  are  "The  Beauty 
of  Wisdom"  and  the  biography  of  Harriet  Albee.  In  1864 
Dr.  De  Normandie  married  Emily  F.  Jones  of  Portsmouth  and 
four  sons  survived  their  parents. 

Dr.  De  Normandie  was  succeeded  at  Portsmouth  by  Alfred  Gooding, 
who  was  born  in  Brookline,  Mass.,  May  10,  1856.  He  came  of  a  substan- 
tial family  stock  and  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1877.  He  then  spent  two 
years  studying  at  Bonn  and  Gottingen  in  Germany  and  returned  to  grad- 
uate at  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  in  1881.  After  a  brief  ministry  at 
Brunswick,  Me.,  he  was  installed  in  the  South  Parish  of  Portsmouth  on 
October  15,  1884,  and  there  completed  a  ministry  of  exactly  fifty  years. 
He  was  a  man  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  refinement  and  at  the  same  time, 
in  the  best  sense,  a  friendly  man  of  the  world,  widely  read,  broadly  traveled, 
a  loyal  friend,  a  charming  comrade.  He  both  gave  and  expected  courtesy 
and  good  will.  People  came  to  him  from  all  over  southeastern  New  Hamp- 
shire for  weddings  and  funerals.  For  forty-three  years  he  was  a  member 
of  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  city,  an  active  though  unseen  authority 
in  directing  and  actuating  the  life  of  the  city  schools.  For  almost  an  equal 
length  of  time  he  was  president  of  the  Portsmouth  Athenaeum  and  a  trustee 
of  the  Portsmouth  Public  Library  and  thus  guided  the  reading  habits  of 
thousands  of  people  who  never  stopped  to  think  how  the  books  they  read 
were  selected  and  made  available.  He  was  both  assiduous  and  generous 
in  the  work  of  preserving  and  opening  to  visitors  the  fine  old  mansions  of 
Portsmouth  and  in  gathering  the  legendary  lore  of  the  old  seaport.  He 
died  at  Portsmouth  on  October  17,  1934. 

At  Roxbury  Dr.  De  Normandie  succeeded  John  Graham  Brooks, 
who  was  born  in  Acworth,  N.  H.,  July  19,  1846,  and  died  at  his  home  in 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  on  February  8,  1938.  He  graduated  at  the  Harvard 
Divinity  School  in  1875.     He  was  ordained  at  Roxbury,  as  the  colleague 


114  GEORGE  ROWLAND  DODSON 

of  Dr.  George  Putnam,  on  October  lO,  1875,  and  soon  succeeded  to  full 
responsibility  in  charge  of  the  parish.  From  1885  to  1891  he  served  the 
Unitarian  Church  in  Brockton,  Mass.,  and  then  went  abroad  for  three 
years  of  study  at  Berlin,  Jena  and  Freiburg.  Returning,  he  took  up  his 
residence  in  Cambridge  and  became  eminent  as  an  author  and  teacher. 
He  conducted  courses  in  political  economy  and  civics  at  Harvard,  at  the 
Universities  of  Chicago  and  California  and  other  schools  and  colleges.  He 
served  as  President  of  the  American  Social  Science  Association  and  of  the 
National  Consumers  League  and  w^as  a  stimulating  and  well-beloved 
member  of  a  number  of  learned  societies.  Among  his  best-known  books 
are  "The  Social  Unrest,"  "As  Others  See  Us,"  and  "An  American  Citi- 
zen," the  biography  of  William  H.  Baldwin,  Jr. 


GEORGE  ROWLAND  DODSON 

1865-1939 

He  could  be  learned  without  being  dull.  He  could  be  a  pro- 
found philosopher  without  being  pedantic.  He  combined  reason 
and  reverence.  In  him  deep  religious  feeling  was  joined  to 
sound  common  sense. 

George  Rowland  Dodson  was  humbly  born  at  Jacksonville, 
Mo.,  August  20,  1865.  From  earliest  youth  he  was  eager  for 
knowledge  and  read  everything  he  could  lay  hands  on.  By  hard 
work  he  earned  his  way  through  the  University  of  Missouri  and 
graduated  there  in  1887.  Already  he  had  determined  to  become 
a  minister,  and  before  he  graduated  he  was  ordained  minister  of 
the  Disciples  Church  in  Mexico,  Missouri,  August  29,  1886.  He 
served  Disciples  Churches  in  Santa  Clara,  California,  and  Fulton, 
Missouri,  for  two  years  and  during  that  time  read  himself  out  of 
his  inherited  church  allegiance.  Apparently  he  had  no  contact 
during  that  time  with  liberal  churches  or  ministers.  His  prog- 
ress was  under  his  own  initiative  and  was  shared  by  his  alert 
and  devoted  wife.  In  1891  he  became  minister  of  the  Unitarian 
Church  in  Alameda,  California,  and  remained  there  for  ten  years. 
He  then  sought  further  education  and  enrolled  at  the  Harvard 
Divinity  School,  taking  his  master's  degree  in  1902  and  his 
doctor's  degree  in  1903.     In  the  latter  year  he  became  minister 


GEORGE  ROWLAND  DODSON  115 

of  the  Church  of  the  Unity  in  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  and  had  there 
a  fruitful  ministry  of  thirty-four  years.  He  died  at  St.  Louis, 
November  13,   1939. 

During  most  of  this  pastorate  Dr.  Dodson  was  also  professor 
of  philosophy  at  Washington  University.  Plato  was  his  first 
master,  and  later  he  was  a  disciple  of  the  French  philosopher 
Bergson  and  his  interpreter  to  American  readers.  For  him  phi- 
losophy was  an  adventure,  and  the  chance  to  interpret  life  in  the 
light  of  modern  scientific  knowledge  gave  him  unfailing  delight. 
He  was  a  preacher  to  thoughtful  people  and  many  leaders  of  the 
intellectual  and  civic  life  of  St.  Louis  were  included  in  his  con- 
gregation. He  wrote  innumerable  articles  and  book  reviews  and 
two  excellent  books:  one,  "Bergson  and  the  Modern  Spirit," 
summarizes  his  philosophical  teaching;  the  other,  "The  Sympathy 
of  Religions,"  condenses  his  studies  in  comparative  religion.  He 
was  active  too  in  civic  affairs  and,  among  other  interests,  was  the 
founder  and  president  of  the  Missouri  Association  for  Social 
Hygiene.  His  conduct  of  worship  had  a  friendly  informality 
and  he  had  a  rare  gift  of  inspiring  clear  thinking  and  resolute 
action.  His  was  a  ministry  characterized  by  intellectual  virility, 
lucidity  of  statement  and  emphasis  on  the  spiritual  values.  He 
had  for  himself,  and  largely  by  himself,  discovered  a  satisfactory 
system  of  rational  theology,  optimistic  and  constructive,  and 
he  visibly  rejoiced  in  every  opportunity  of  communicating  his 
thoughts  and  his  ideals  to  others.  He  sought  to  convict  men  of 
goodness  rather  than  of  sin  and  to  make  explicit  and  dominant 
the  good  that  lies  latent  in  ev-ery  life.  People  were  won  to  him 
not  only  as  an  intellectual  guide  but  by  his  genius  for  friendship. 
He  had  a  modest,  self-effacing  personality,  but  it  was  easy  to 
catch  the  contagion  of  his  glowing  spirit.  He  lived  beloved 
and  died  lamented. 


ii6  CHARLES  FLETCHER  DOLE 

CHARLES  FLETCHER  DOLE 

1845-1927 

Charles  Fletcher  Dole  was  minister  of  the  Unitarian  Church 
in  Jamaica  Plain,  Massachusetts,  for  forty  years,  from  1876  to 
19 1 6,  and  minister  emeritus  from  the  latter  date  until  his  death 
in  1927. 

Dr.  Dole  was  born  May  17,  1845,  •"  Brewer,  Maine,  the  son 
of  a  Congregational  minister.  In  1855  his  father  died  of  tuber- 
culosis, and  the  mother  with  her  two  sons,  Charles  and  Nathan, 
returned  to  her  girlhood  home  in  Norridgewock,  Maine.  There 
Charles  attended  grammar  school,  went  to  Sunday  services  in  the 
big  Congregational  meetinghouse,  swam  in  the  Kennebec  River 
during  the  summertime,  and  skated  on  its  surface  in  the  winter, 
did  his  share  of  the  family  chores,  and  grew  up  under  the  social 
and  moral  influences  of  a  village  still  predominantly  Calvinistic 
in  its  outlook.  His  mother  was  religiously  orthodox;  but,  during 
her  childhood,  Charles'  grandfather  had  belonged  to  a  group 
of  persons  who  read  Dr.  Channing's  works  and  held  Unitarian 
meetings  whenever  they  could  secure  a  minister. 

When  he  was  15,  Charles  entered  the  Lewiston  Falls  Academy, 
but  eye  trouble  forced  him  to  leave  at  the  end  of  the  first  term 
and  to  discontinue  his  studies  for  two  years.  Doing  odd  jobs 
for  neighbors  and  on  farms,  and  working  for  a  time  at  his  uncle's 
flour  store  in  Boston,  he  found  his  eyesight  strengthened  so  that 
he  could  enter  the  Chelsea  High  School  in  1862.  While  pre- 
paring to  take  college  entrance  examinations,  Charles  served  for 
some  months  as  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts  militia,  doing 
guard  duty  at  New  Bedford.  Confederate  privateers  were  at 
large,  and  not  even  New  England  harbors  were  considered  im- 
mune to  possible  attack.  A  Thayer  scholarship  and  a  Massa- 
chusetts state  scholarship  enabled  the  young  man  to  enter 
Harvard  in  1864,  and  four  years  later  he  was  graduated  stimma 
cum  laude,  the  second  honor  man  in  his  class.  For  a  year  he 
tried  teaching  at  the  Noble  School  for  boys  in  Boston;  he  then 
made  his  decision  to  enter  the  ministry,  attended  Andover  Semi- 


CHARLES  FLETCHER  DOLE  117 

nary  from  1869  to  1872,  taught  Greek  for  a  year  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Vermont,  and,  in  1873,  though  the  Council  even  then 
found  him  "unsound  in  doctrine,"  became  minister  of  tiie  Plym- 
outh Congregational  Church,  Portland,  Maine.  It  was  to  a 
more  congenial  atmosphere  that  he  went,  three  years  later,  to 
become  associate  minister  with  Dr.  James  Thompson  in  the 
Unitarian  Church  in  Jamaica  Plain. 

Jamaica  Plain  was  becoming  at  that  time  one  of  the  most 
desirable  residential  suburbs  of  Boston,  and  the  First  Congrega- 
tional Society,  organized  in  1770  and  for  sixty  years  the  only 
church  of  its  community,  was  a  strong,  family  parish.  It  had 
become  Unitarian  without  controversy  earlier  in  the  century. 
Upon  Dr.  Thompson's  death  in  1881,  Mr.  Dole  became  sole 
minister.  He  had  already  discovered  that  the  parish  included 
a  large  number  of  unusually  able  and  socially  minded  individuals; 
indeed,  he  once  wrote  that  "there  might  have  been  selected  out 
of  that  single  community  (of  Jamaica  Plain)  ...  a  wiser  Cab- 
inet than  ever  has  sat  in  Washington."  However,  the  parish 
was  conservative  in  its  ways,  and  when  Mr.  Dole  proposed  that 
the  church  organization  should  be  democratized  by  doing  away 
with  the  system  of  owned  and  rented  pews,  his  suggestion  was 
vigorously  opposed  and  overwhelmingly  defeated. 

Mr.  Dole  early  became  known,  in  Unitarian  circles  and  beyond, 
as  a  minister  keenly  interested  in  the  wider  applications  of  Chris- 
tian idealism.  A  firm  believer  in  God,  and  in  immortality  (his 
Ingersoll  Lecture,  entitled  "The  Hope  of  Immortality,"  remains 
one  of  the  more  notable  addresses  of  that  distinguished  Harvard 
series),  he  was  by  no  means  unaware  of  men's  capacities  for 
irrational  and  irresponsible  conduct.  But  he  had  unshakable 
confidence  in  the  power  of  good  will;  this  was  the  theme  which, 
as  he  himself  said,  marked  all  his  thinking  and  preaching  as  a 
golden  thread  running  through  an  otherwise  ever-changing  pat- 
tern. This  belief  was  the  basis  of  his  pacifism,  which  antedated 
the  Spanish-American  War.  In  spite  of  his  outspoken  opposi- 
tion to  American  participation,  he  held  the  respect  of  all  who 
knew  him  well  even  through  the  angry  days  of  the  First  World 
War. 


ii8  CHARLES  FLETCHER  DOLE 

It  was  his  interest  in  the  connection  between  religion  and  good 
citizenship  which  led  Dr.  Dole  into  his  first  major  venture  as  an 
author.  In  1891,  he  wrote  "The  American  Citizen"  for  use  in 
schools;  it  had  the  somewhat  amazing  sale  of  more  than  one 
hundred  thousand  copies.  For  the  general  public,  "The  Coming 
People,"  1897,  went  into  several  editions.  Others  of  his  better- 
known  books  were  "The  Theology  of  Civilization,"  "The  Reli- 
gion of  a  Gentleman,"  "The  Smoke  and  the  Flame,"  "The  Spirit 
of  Democracy,"  "The  Ethics  of  Progress,"  "The  Burden  of 
Poverty,"  and  "A  Religion  for  the  New  Day."  He  contributed 
to  several  publications,  including  the  Hibhert  Journal,  and  was, 
for  years,  on  the  editorial  staffs  of  the  Christian  Register  and 
Unity. 

Out  of  meetings  together  as  early  as  1893,  a  group  of  public- 
spirited  Massachusetts  liberals  organized  "The  Twentieth  Cen- 
tury Club,"  giving  distinguished  visitors  to  Boston  an  audience 
at  once  sympathetic  and  critical.  Dr.  Dole  followed  Edwin  D. 
Mead  as  president  of  this  club,  a  position  which  he  filled  with 
rare  skill  and  fairness  to  all. 

Another  of  Dr.  Dole's  interests  was  the  promotion  of  Negro 
education.  On  his  first  Boston  visit,  Booker  T.  Washington 
dined  with  the  Doles  and  spoke  in  the  Jamaica  Plain  Church. 
At  Dr.  Washington's  request.  Dr.  Dole  accepted  appointment  as 
a  trustee  of  Tuskegee  Institute,  and  he  followed  with  enthusiasm 
the  progress  of  other  Southern  schools  for  members  of  the 
minority  race. 

On  March  4,  1873,  Dr.  Dole  married  Frances  Drummond, 
who,  like  him,  had  entered  upon  life  in  a  Congregational  par- 
sonage. A  woman  of  wide  curiosity,  independent  judgment,  and 
remarkable  spiritual  vigor,  Mrs.  Dole  exerted  a  quiet  but  notable 
influence.  She  was  never  willing  to  acknowledge  herself  a  Uni- 
tarian, but  was  active  in  the  church  in  the  local  Women's  Alliance, 
and  in  the  life  of  the  community.  The  Doles  early  made  their 
summer  home  at  Southwest  Harbor,  Maine,  and  were  leaders 
in  all  good  works  in  that  community.  A  son,  James  Drummond, 
became  well-known  as  a  developer  of  the  business  of  canning  and 
shipping  pineapples  from  the  Hawaiian  Islands.     A  daughter, 


CHARLES  FLETCHER  DOLE  119 

Winifred,  married  Horace  Mann  of  Richmond,  Mass.  One  son, 
Richard,  died  at  sea  at  the  age  of  sixteen  while  on  a  first  voyage 
as  an  apprentice  seaman.  Dr.  Dole's  brother,  Nathan  Haskell 
Dole,  became  widely  known  as  an  author  and  translator. 

In  the  earnestness  and  obvious  honesty  of  his  thought,  the 
remarkable  fidelity  with  which  he  put  his  religion  to  work,  and 
the  power  he  possessed  to  impart  moral  encouragement  to  others. 
Dr.  Dole  had  a  touch  of  the  saint  about  him.  He  was  utterly 
consecrated.  He  was  not  always,  however,  a  typical  or  con- 
vincing churchman,  being  much  more  interested  in  ideas  than  in 
institutions.  His  pastoral  effectiveness  was  somewhat  lessened 
by  his  fear  lest  people  substitute  church  loyalty  for  a  more  de- 
manding and  whole-hearted  religion.  However,  he  himself  was 
faithful  at  the  services  of  the  church  even  when  not  preaching, 
and  gave  loyal  support  to  the  younger  men  who  followed  him 
in  the  ministry  at  Jamaica  Plain. 

Charles  F.  Dole  was  a  man  who  made  the  most  of  his  powers. 
Never  rugged  in  physique,  he  kept  himself  in  health  and  at  work 
through  eight  strenuous  decades.  To  the  same  degree  he  disci- 
plined and  developed  his  mind.  He  refused  to  trifle  with  ideas 
and  events,  and  insisted  upon  thinking  every  matter  through  until 
he  had  achieved  his  own  conviction  on  the  subject.  But  out  of  his 
honesty  and  power  of  concentration  came  a  remarkable  objec- 
tivity in  dealing  with  events  and  persons.  In  his  autobiography, 
"My  Eighty  Years,"  he  assesses,  with  cool  detachment,  the  vir- 
tues and  failings  of  a  number  of  the  men  and  women  who  were 
his  Jamaica  Plain  parishioners.  But,  as  one  of  those  who  knew 
him  well  said,  "We  do  not  mind,  because  he  was  quite  as  exact- 
ing in  his  judgment  of  himself." 


I20  JASPER  LEWIS  DOUTHIT 

JASPER  LEWIS  DOUTHIT 

1834-1927 

The  Unitarian  habit  of  mind  is  generally  supposed  to  be 
adapted  only  to  people  of  academic  training  and  inheritances  of 
culture.  It  is  associated  with  Harvard  College  and  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Boston,  Its  typical  representatives  are  men  like 
Channing,  Ware,  Bellows,  Frothingham,  Hale  and  Peabody. 
The  Unitarian  churches  are  predominantly  urban.  But  the  Uni- 
tarian movement  has  also  enjoyed  the  allegiance  of  a  number 
of  devoted  adherents  who  had  no  such  background  and  whose 
fields  of  service  were  not  in  New  England  or  in  cities,  but  in  coun- 
try districts  in  the  West  and  South.  Douthit  in  Illinois,  Peebles 
in  Colorado  and  Oregon,  Owen  in  Wisconsin,  Gibson  in  Georgia 
and  Florida,  Cowan  in  North  Carolina,  are  outstanding  repre- 
sentatives of  this  group.  Their  work  was  very  personal  and  did 
not  always  survive  in  enduring  institutions,  but  it  demonstrated 
the  adaptation  of  liberal  Christianity  to  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  people.  Outstanding  among  these  Home  Missionaries  was 
Jasper  L.  Douthit,  who  was  born  in  a  log  cabin  a  few  miles  east 
of  Shelbyville,  III.,  October  10,  1834,  the  eldest  son  of  Andrew 
E.  and  Mary  Ann  (Jordan)  Douthit.  On  November  2,  1857, 
he  married  Emily  Lovell  of  East  Abington,  Mass.,  who  became 
his  ardent  fellow  worker.  Four  children  were  born  to  them, 
one  of  whom  was  Robert  Collyer  Douthit  who  became  an  effec- 
tive and  well-beloved  Unitarian  minister.  Another  was  Wini- 
fred Douthit  who  with  indomitable  devotion  carried  on  her  fa- 
ther's work. 

With  the  exception  of  short  periods  of  time — eighteen  months 
in  Texas  as  a  lad;  part  of  a  year  at  Wabash  College;  three  years 
at  the  Meadville  Theological  School;  a  year  as  Superintend- 
ent of  Schools  at  Hillsboro,  III. — Douthit  was  a  rural  liberal 
evangelist  in  Southern  Illinois,  a  horse-and-buggy  missionary 
preacher  in  a  region  where  a  rugged  Calvinism  prevailed.  He 
built  several  simple  chapels  in  rural  communities  in  Shelby  County 
and  a  brick  church  in  Shelbyville  and  he  received  more  than  a 


JASPER  LEWIS  DOUTHIT  121 

thousand  people  into  church  membership.  His  records  show  that 
he  conducted  four  hundred  marriages  and  nearly  a  thousand 
funerals.  He  encouraged  a  number  of  young  men  to  enter  the 
liberal  ministry.  Because  of  his  labors  Shelby  County  is  differ- 
ent from  the  rest  of  "Egypt,"  as  that  part  of  Illinois  is  some- 
times called.  The  roads  and  fences  are  in  better  repair,  its 
schools  are  more  efficient,  the  farms  are  more  productive,  peo- 
ple are  more  concerned  for  the  public  good.  Finally  he  settled 
in  his  native  town  of  Shelbyville  and  for  fifty-one  years  he  served 
the  Unitarian  Church  he  had  founded  in  the  town  and  the  Jor- 
dan Church  which  he  started  in  the  village  nearest  to  his  birth- 
place. Upon  his  ninetieth  birthday  the  entire  community  rose 
to  do  him  honor  in  a  series  of  celebrations.  At  his  death  he  was 
the  senior  minister  of  the  Unitarian  fellowship. 

He  was  an  early  abolitionist  when  his  part  of  Illinois  was 
sympathetic  with  slavery  and  was  in  daily  danger  of  his  life 
because  of  his  activity.  He  was  equally  ardent  in  his  support 
of  woman  suffrage  and  prohibition.  In  1891  he  and  his  gentle 
but  indomitable  wife  founded  the  Lithia  Springs  Chautauqua 
and  carried  it  on  for  twenty  years.  For  thirty  years  he  edited 
and  published  a  monthly  periodical,  Our  Best  Words.  He  early 
espoused  "My  Lady  Poverty"  and  his  whole  career  was  a  battle 
for  all  sorts  of  enterprises  for  the  public  welfare,  waged  with 
complete  forgetfulness  of  self  and  with  unfailing  courage  and 
patience.  His  temperament  was  intense  and  insufficiently  re- 
lieved by  any  sense  of  humor.  His  life  had  many  anxieties  and 
cares  but  his  heroic  persistency  overcame  all  obstacles.  The 
romantic  story  of  his  life  is  told  in  "Jasper  Douthit's  Story,"  an 
autobiography.  He  died  at  Shelbyville,  June  11,  1927,  in  his 
ninety-third  year. 

Another  of  these  homespun  preachers  was  Stephen  Peebles,  who  was 
born  in  Morgan  County,  Ohio,  September  11,  1844,  and  died  at  his  home 
in  Grand  Junction,  Col.,  on  July  29,  1926,  at  the  age  of  eighty-two  years. 

His  educational  opportunities  were  meager,  and  he  was  brought  up  to 
work  with  his  hands  on  the  farm.  In  early  manhood,  after  his  marriage 
to  Diana  McClanathan,  he  went  to  Colorado  and  took  up  a  pioneer  claim 
in  the  mountains  at  Satank,  where  he  broke  a  farm  out  of  the  wilderness 
and  built  a  simple  ranch  house.     He  was  an  omnivorous  reader,  an  inde- 


122  JASPER  LEWIS  DOUTHIT 

pendent  thinker  and  a  man  of  real  spiritual  insight.  He  early  came  into 
contact  with  the  writings  of  Theodore  Parker,  and  the  interpretations  of 
Christianity  familiar  to  Unitarians  more  and  more  aroused  his  enthusiasm 
and  devotion.  He  began  to  gather  some  of  his  neighbors  in  the  school- 
house  of  the  scattered  community  in  which  he  lived,  and  there  would  read 
on  Sundays  the  sermons  of  Theodore  Parker  or  of  James  Freeman  Clarke 
or  of  Robert  CoUyer  or  of  other  ministers  that  he  admired.  Now  and  then 
he  ventured  to  read  something  of  his  own  composition.  Then  he  began  to 
print  leaflets  and  to  circulate  them  among  the  ranchmen.  Finally,  in  the 
spring  of  1890,  he  journeyed  to  Denver  and  made  himself  known  to  the 
minister  of  Unity  Church.  Here  he  found  a  congenial  church  home.  He 
was  encouraged  to  extend  his  missionary  labors  and  at  the  same  time  was 
guided  in  his  reading  and  study. 

In  1892,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  Conference  in  Denver, 
Mr.  Peebles  was  ordained  to  the  ministry.  Though  without  theological 
training,  he  had  given  ample  proof  of  his  calling  and  his  heart  and  soul 
were  in  the  mission  work.  He  was  a  minister  after  the  order  of  Robert 
Collyer  and  Charles  G.  Ames,  who  stepped,  the  one  from  the  anvil  and 
the  other  from  the  printer's  case,  to  the  pulpit. 

He  continued  for  some  years  to  serve  with  courage  and  persistent  devo- 
tion as  a  missionary-at-large  in  Colorado,  and  then  followed  his  children  to 
Oregon.  He  began  preaching  at  Eugene  and,  as  the  result  of  his  work, 
the  Unitarian  Church  at  that  University  center  was  organized.  Mr. 
Peebles  also  served  for  a  time  as  acting  pastor  at  Boise,  Idaho,  and  at  Salt 
Lake  City,  and  then  retired  to  a  farm  not  far  from  Eugene  and  accepted 
appointment  as  minister  emeritus  of  the  church  in  Eugene.  After  Mrs. 
Peebles'  death  in  19 18,  he  returned  to  Colorado. 

He  was  a  man  of  gentle  demeanor,  considerate  manners,  and  deep  appre- 
ciation of  the  good  things  in  literature — a  singular  outcome  of  a  rough 
environment  and  a  life  of  hard  manual  labor.  The  story  is  told  of  a 
country-bred  boy  who  was  taken  for  his  first  visit  to  a  city.  Seeing  the 
sights  there  meant,  among  other  things,  going  into  a  certain  famous  church 
where  there  were  some  glorious  stained-glass  windows  representing  the 
Twelve  Apostles.  Later,  back  at  home,  the  boy  was  asked  one  day  to 
define  a  saint.  "A  saint,"  he  said,  "is  a  man  that  the  light  can  shine 
through."     Stephen  Peebles  was  that  sort  of  a  saint. 

Engaged  in  the  same  sort  of  labor  was  Thomas  Grafton  Owen,  who 
was  born  in  Ohio  in  1830  and  died  at  Trempealeau,  Wis.,  April  26,  1912. 
He  was  the  son  of  a  Baptist  preacher  of  the  old  border  type,  who  moved 
from  Ohio  to  Indiana,  then  to  Illinois,  and  finally  to  Missouri.  At  an 
early  age,  Owen  began  to  preach  in  the  Methodist  churches  in  the  south- 
western part  of  Missouri,  a  region  where  the  people  had  strong  anti- 
abolitionist  sentiments.  His  sympathy  for  the  Negroes  brought  him  into 
suspicion,  and  he  was  compelled  to  fly  with  his  young  wife  to  the  North. 


JASPER  LEWIS  DOUTHIT  123 

For  some  time  he  lectured  in  Michigan,  Ohio,  and  Illinois  on  "The  Moral 
Conditions  of  the  Border."  After  the  war  Mr.  Owen  preached  for  some 
years  in  the  Congregational  Church  in  Peoria,  111.  In  1876  he  settled  in 
Trempealeau,  Wis.,  and  served  for  eight  years  as  a  Congregational  pastor. 
In  1884  he  removed  to  Arcadia,  Wis.,  and  started  a  People's  Church.  He 
there  came  under  the  influence  of  Dr.  Joseph  H.  Crooker  and  became  a 
Unitarian  missionary-at-large  in  Wisconsin,  continuing  to  make  his  home 
at  Arcadia.  He  served  a  far-flung  circuit  of  rural  communities  and,  as 
years  advanced,  became  "Father  Owen"  to  hundreds  of  young  people  he 
had  christened  and  married.     He  lived  both  frugally  and  fruitfully. 

Enlisted  in  a  similar  sort  of  service  but  in  a  very  different  environment 
was  Jonathan  Christopher  Gibson,  who  was  born  on  a  plantation  near 
Moulton,  Lawrence  County,  Alabama,  January  9,  1843.  His  father 
owned  a  number  of  slaves  and  carried  on  his  plantation  with  their  labor. 
Gibson  studied  at  the  district  school  and  afterwards  at  the  village  schools 
at  Oakville  and  Danville.  Here  he  was  prepared  for  college,  but  he  was 
but  a  boy  of  eighteen  when  he  volunteered  as  a  private  in  the  Confederate 
Army,  and  was  engaged  in  many  battles  or  skirmishes  in  Georgia,  Tennes- 
see, and  Carolina.  After  the  war  had  ended,  he  went  to  Florida  and  be- 
came a  teacher.  He  was  a  member  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  and  decided 
to  become  a  Baptist  minister ;  but  through  the  influence  of  the  Rev.  George 
L.  Chaney  he  became  a  Unitarian  and  gathered  a  little  congregation  at 
Bristol,  Fla.  For  over  twenty  years  he  preached  liberal  religion  in  country 
places  in  Georgia  and  Florida.     He  died  on  January  11,  1913. 

Succeeding  Mr.  Gibson  in  his  circuit  was  Francis  M.  McHale,  who 
was  born  December  19,  1858,  at  Bellamy,  Ontario,  Canada,  son  of  John 
McHale  and  the  youngest  of  seven  brothers.  His  parents  were  natives  of 
Ireland.  Going  to  Illinois  as  a  young  man,  he  taught  school  for  several 
terms  and  studied  law.  Subsequently  he  removed  to  Denver,  where  he 
was  interested  in  the  law  and  real  estate.  In  1897  Mr.  McHale  gave  up 
the  practice  of  law  and  devoted  his  time  to  the  ministry.  He  served  Baptist 
churches  in  Kansas,  Wisconsin,  Tennessee,  and  Texas.  He  became  inter- 
ested in  the  more  liberal  interpretations  of  religion  and  followed  Gibson  as 
circuit  minister  for  Southern  Georgia  and  Western  Florida,  employed 
jointly  by  the  American  Unitarian  Association  and  the  Women's  Alliance. 
His  regular  pastorates  were  at  Bristol  and  Rock  Bluffs,  Florida.  He  or- 
ganized, too,  a  society  at  Mt.  Pleasant,  Florida,  and  built  there  an  attrac- 
tive little  church.     He  died  on  September  4,  1916. 

Another  of  these  "homespun  missionaries"  was  William  H.  Cowan, 
who  was  born  on  a  farm  in  eastern  North  Carolina  in  1844.  All  his  life 
he  earned  his  living  and  brought  up  a  large  family  on  a  farm  in  Burgaw, 
N.  C.  In  middle  life  he  took  up  the  work  of  an  itinerant  preacher  in  the 
eastern  counties  of  his  native  State.  He  never  had  a  "call"  to  any  estab- 
lished church,  though  he  preached  with  some  regularity  in  the  Chapel  main- 


124  HUGO  GOTTFRIED  EISENLOHR 

tained  by  the  Women's  Alliance  at  Shelter  Neck,  N.  C.  He  was  accus- 
tomed to  drive  on  Sundays  many  miles  over  sandy  roads  and  preached  in 
schoolhouses,  tents  and  dwellings.  "The  common  people  heard  him  gladly." 
He  died  at  Burgaw,  November  4,  1922. 


HUGO  GOTTFRIED  EISENLOHR 

1860-1940 

For  forty-seven  years  Hugo  Gottfried  Eisenlohr  served  as 
minister  of  the  church  now  known  as  St.  John's  Unitarian  Church 
of  Cincinnati.  To  this  record  he  added  nine  years  of  continuous 
residence  in  Cincinnati  as  minister  emeritus,  with  occasional  serv- 
ice to  the  church.  It  was  in  1841  that  the  Rev.  August  Kroell 
became  the  minister  of  the  German  St.  John's  Church,  which  had 
been  incorporated  in  1839,  though  founded  in  18 14.  It  was 
he  who  held  theological  views  and  religious  attitudes  akin  to 
those  of  Unitarians  and  he  fearlessly  preached  them  to  his  con- 
gregation from  1 84 1  to  1874.  One  of  his  collaborators  was  the 
Rev.  Gustav  William  Eisenlohr,  minister  of  the  German  St. 
Paul's  Church  of  Cincinnati.  Together  they  published  a  liberal 
religious  weekly  in  German,  Protestantische  Zeitbldtter.  Hugo, 
the  son  of  Gustav  William  Eisenlohr,  was  born  in  the  home  of 
the  minister,  an  apartment  in  the  church  building,  March  i,  i860. 
When  his  father  removed  to  New  Braunfels,  Texas,  Hugo  went 
with  the  family,  and  there  grew  to  maturity.  Being  disposed  to 
enter  the  ministry,  Hugo  Eisenlohr  followed  the  advice  of  his 
father  and  enrolled  at  Meadville  Theological  School,  from  which 
he  graduated  in  1883.  After  his  graduation  he  served  for  a 
while  as  assistant  to  Dr.  Christian  Heddaeus,  of  the  Independ- 
ent Protestant  Church  of  Columbus.  While  there  he  met  Miss 
Jennie  Lesquereux,  who  later  became  his  wife.  Then  followed 
a  short  pastorate  at  Wheeling,  W.  Va.,  after  which  he  was 
called  to  St.  John's  Church  in  Cincinnati  to  revive  the  liberal 
tradition  of  the  church  established  by  Dr.  Kroell.  This  was 
not  easy  because  of  the  orthodox  condemnation  of  his  views  and 
the  considerable  minority  within  the  church  who  had  been  added 


THOMAS  LAMB    ELIOT  125 

during  the  period  of  the  orthodox  predecessor  in  the  pulpit.  But 
since  he  was  a  native  Cincinnatian  and  had  known  since  boyhood 
many  of  his  contemporaries  in  the  church  and  community,  this 
task  was  somewhat  hghtened.  His  friendly  temperament  and 
his  fluent  command  of  both  German  and  EngHsh,  which  he  used 
skilfully  to  persuade  men  to  liberal  religion,  won  him  the  affec- 
tion and  loyalty  of  his  congregation.  His  fearless  espousal  of 
Unitarian  opinions  and  his  fraternization  with  the  Unitarians 
won  him  the  respect  of  many,  including  his  severest  critics. 
The  chief  achievements  of  his  ministry  in  the  church  are  the 
furthering  of  the  transformation  of  a  German-speaking  congre- 
gation into  an  English-speaking  one,  and  the  affiliation  of  the 
church  with  the  American  Unitarian  Association  in  1924.  His 
outstanding  service  in  the  ministry  was  recognized  by  Meadville 
Theological  School  in  1925  by  the  granting  to  him  of  the  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Divinity.  His  long  and  active  service  in  many 
offices  in  the  Masonic  Fraternity  led  to  his  being  elevated  to  the 
thirty-third  degree  in  Scottish  Rite  Freemasonry.  Along  with  a 
prodigious  record  of  funeral,  wedding,  and  christening  services 
to  the  people.  Dr.  Eisenlohr  also  rendered  significant  service  in 
the  governing  board  of  several  Community  Chest  agencies,  as 
a  member  of  the  Board  of  Education  and  as  a  trustee  of  the 
Deaconess  Hospital.  On  his  eightieth  birthday  the  church  and 
the  city  honored  the  fifty-six  years  of  his  devoted  service  and 
leadership.     He  died  on  September  2,  1940. 


THOMAS  LAMB  ELIOT 

1841-1936 

Thomas  Lamb  Eliot  was  born  in  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  on 
October  13,  1841,  and  died  in  Portland,  Oregon,  on  April  28, 
1936,  at  the  age  of  ninety-four  and  after  sixty-eight  years  "of 
selfless  service  for  the  public  weal."  He  was  descended  from  old 
Massachusetts  family  stocks  which  for  nearly  three  hundred 
years  have  transmitted  through  successive  generations  a  distinc- 


126  THOMAS  LAMB    ELIOT 

tive  type  of  high  intellectual  and  moral  leadership.  He  was  the 
eldest  son  of  Rev.  William  G.  Eliot,*  D.D.,  the  organizer  and 
for  thirty-nine  years  the  minister  of  the  Church  of  the  Messiah 
in  St.  Louis,  and  a  leader  in  educational  and  philanthropic  en- 
terprises. Thomas  Eliot  was  a  member  of  the  first  class  (1862) 
to  graduate  from  Washington  University  (St.  Louis),  which  his 
father  organized  and  administered.  His  college  course  had  been 
interrupted  by  an  injury  to  his  eyes  and  in  i860  he  had  taken 
the  long  voyage  round  Cape  Horn  to  California,  hoping  for  an 
improvement  in  their  condition.  While  he  was  in  California, 
Starr  King  prophetically  said  to  him,  "The  Pacific  Coast  claims 
everyone  who  has  ever  seen  it — there's  Oregon !" 

After  graduation  he  enlisted  in  the  Union  Home  Guards  of 
Missouri,  but  saw  no  active  service  beyond  the  state  boundaries. 
Then  for  two  years  he  had  charge  of  a  Mission  House  connected 
with  his  father's  church,  working  among  the  poor  of  St.  Louis, 
and  meanwhile  preparing  for  the  ministry  under  his  father's 
guidance.  He  next  entered  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  and 
graduated  in  1865,  doing  two  years'  work  in  one,  in  spite  of 
such  defective  eyesight  that  it  was  often  necessary  to  have  his 
books  read  to  him.  The  next  year  he  took  the  degree  of  Master 
of  Arts  from  Washington  University.  He  preached  for  a  time 
in  Louisville,  Kentucky,  and  supplied  the  Church  of  the  Messiah 
in  New  Orleans  for  two  periods  of  several  weeks  each.  On  No- 
vember 28,  1865,  he  married  Henrietta  Robins  Mack  of  St. 
Louis,  who  was  also  descended  from  the  finest  New  England 
stock.  This  fortunate  and  happy  union  was  unbroken  for  sixty- 
seven  years,  and  Mrs.  Eliot  always  actively  shared  her  husband's 
work. 

Meanwhile  plans  were  on  foot  for  the  establishment  of  a  Uni- 
tarian Church  in  Portland,  Oregon.  In  July,  1862,  Starr  King 
had  preached  there  the  first  liberal  sermon  in  the  Northwest.  In 
December,  1865,  a  group  of  women  formed  a  "Ladies  Sewing 
Society"  to  earn  money  for  a  church.  Their  first  thirty  dollars 
they  sent  to  Rev.  Horatio  Stebbins,t  Starr  King's  successor  who 
had  recently  arrived  in  San  Francisco,  to  buy  a  communion  serv- 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  90.  t  See  Volume  III,  p.  348. 


THOMAS  LAMB    ELIOT  127 

ice.  The  San  Francisco  church  lent  Horatio  Stebbins  to  Port- 
land for  three  weeks  in  April,  1866;  a  society  was  organized, 
subscriptions  were  startecl,  and  a  lot  of  land,  between  the  town 
and  forest,  was  bought  for  $2,000.  Then,  in  the  summer  of 
1867,  a  little  chapel  was  built.  Finally,  through  the  agency  of 
Rev.  Charles  Lowe  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association,  an 
invitation  was  sent  to  Thomas  Eliot  to  be  their  minister. 

The  letter  reached  him  in  the  same  mail  with  one  from  Port- 
land, Maine,  which  was  in  effect  a  call  to  the  First  Parish  of  that 
city,  which  Horatio  Stebbins  had  left  to  go  to  San  Francisco. 
And  almost  immediately  came  an  invitation  to  settle  in  New 
Orleans.  Characteristically  Mr.  Eliot  followed  his  father's  ex- 
ample and  of  the  three  opportunities  chose  the  call  to  the  fron- 
tier post  which  seemingly  had  least  to  offer.  He  went  with  his 
young  wife  and  baby  by  way  of  Panama  to  San  Francisco,  and 
thence  by  steamer  to  Portland,  arriving  at  his  new  home  on  the 
morning  of  December  24,  1867.  The  baby  slept  that  night,  and 
for  some  months  thereafter,  in  a  leather  trunk.  The  following 
Sunday,  December  29,  1867,  the  new  chapel  was  dedicated  and 
the  young  minister  began  his  work. 

Portland  at  that  time  was  a  remote,  pioneer  town  of  some  six 
thousand  inhabitants.  The  streets  were  deep  in  mud  or  dust, 
according  to  the  weather,  and  without  lights  or  sidewalks.  No 
railroad  had  as  yet  reached  the  town.  Travelers  came  by  an 
overland  coach  which  continued  up  the  Coast  from  California, 
or  by  one  of  the  steamers  which  arrived  two  or  three  times  a 
month.  Letters  by  "pony  express"  to  the  Eliot  home  in  St. 
Louis  were  two  months  on  the  way.  But  the  men  and  women 
who  had  settled  Portland  were  an  exceptionally  vigorous  and 
capable  pioneer  group  and  they  were  prepared  to  build  one  of 
the  most  stable  and  orderly  communities  on  the  Coast. 

Thomas  Eliot  was  promptly  dubbed  "the  boy  preacher"  be- 
cause of  his  youthful  appearance.  He  at  once  began  to  build 
up  his  church,  which  soon  became  and  has  always  remained 
strong  and  influential.  He  preached  as  opportunity  offered  at 
the  County  Farm,  the  County  Jail  and  the  Insane  Asylum,  his 
early  training  having  made  him  a  friend  to  the  wretched  and 


128  THOMAS  LAMB    ELIOT 

distressed.  He  also  worked  for  legislation  to  establish  a  State 
Board  of  Charities  and  Correction,  and  it  was  said  of  him  that 
for  years  he  was  almost  the  only  person  in  Oregon  interested  in 
prison  reform.  From  1872  to  1875  he  was  County  Superin- 
tendent of  Education,  having  been  nominated  by  both  political 
parties.  The  post  involved  much  travel  under  arduous  condi- 
tions, but  he  turned  into  the  church  treasury  the  salary  which 
he  received  for  his  services. 

By  1875  the  church  had  so  increased  that  a  larger  building  was 
needed,  and  a  fund  was  started  and  plans  were  secured  from 
the  Boston  architects,  Peabody  and  Stearns.  Thomas  Eliot, 
although  he  came  of  long-lived  stock,  was  never  physically  vigor- 
ous, and  after  the  injury  to  his  eyes  he  could  not  read  or  write 
for  more  than  a  quarter  of  an  hour  without  pain.  For  years 
Mrs.  Eliot  served  as  his  amanuensis  to  whom  he  dictated  his 
sermons,  a  fact  which  gave  rise  to  the  legend  that  she  wrote 
his  sermons  for  him.  In  1875  he  was  worn  and  weary  from  his 
pioneer  labors.  So  he  resigned.  But  the  church  refused  to  ac- 
cept his  resignation,  granting  him  instead  a  year's  leave  of  ab- 
sence to  be  spent  in  Europe  which  he  accepted,  recalling  his 
father's  advice,  "Do  not  change;  stick  to  your  post  and  let  your 
influence  become  cumulative."  He  carried  with  him  an  appoint- 
ment as  Commissioner  of  Prisons  for  Oregon,  to  facilitate  his 
study  of  European  prison  methods. 

He  returned  much  improved  in  health,  and  not  long  afterwards 
the  money  needed  for  the  new  church  building  was  in  hand,  and 
it  was  dedicated  in  July,  1879.  It  was  "Victorian  Gothic"  in 
style,  and  adjoined  the  original  chapel.  It  served  the  parish  un- 
til 1923,  when  the  site  which  had  cost  $2,000  in  1867  was  sold 
for  $200,000  and  the  present  noble  church  was  built  not  many 
blocks  away. 

Dr.  Ehot  continued  as  active  minister  of  the  church  until 
1893,  though  after  1890  Rev.  Earl  M.  Wilbur,  who  married 
Dr.  Eliot's  eldest  daughter,  Dorothea,  and  who  was  later  presi- 
dent of  the  Pacific  Unitarian  School  for  the  Ministry,  was  his 
associate.  During  his  active  ministry,  until  the  coming  of  his 
associate,  he  preached  twice  each  Sunday,  and  he  was  an  assidu- 


THOMAS  LAMB    ELIOT  129 

ous  pastor.     Nevertheless,  although  he  said,  "I  am  jealous  of  the 
time  I  have  to  give  to  tasks  other  than  church  tasks,"  his  activi- 
ties were  always  overflowing  into  numerous  other  channels  of 
community  service.      Indeed,   for  fifty  years  there  was   hardly 
a  movement  for  civic  betterment  in  which  he  did  not  take  a  lead- 
ing part.     He  was  president  of  the  Children's  Home  from  1875- 
1919;  of  the  Oregon  Humane  Society  from  1882-1900;  of  the 
Oregon  Conference  of  Charities   and   Correction   from    1902- 
1912;  trustee  of  the  Boys'  and  Girls'  Aid  Society  from  1885- 
1921;  and  of  the  Portland  Associated  Charities  from  1905  to 
1908.     He  was  a  vice-president  and  director  of  the  Art  Associ- 
ation from   1882-1917,   and  of  the  Library  Association   from 
1 897-1 907,  and  he  served  on  the  Park  Commission  from  1900- 
1906.     His  church  was  a  fountain  of  influence  and  of  money 
for  constructive  enterprises,  and  from  two  of  its  members — hus- 
band and  wife — came  the  endowment  of  Reed  Institute  and  the 
establishment  of  Reed  College,  which  Dr.  Eliot  organized  and, 
at  the  request  of  the  founders,  served  as  the  president  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees  from   1904  to   1920.      In  this,   as  in  many 
other  lines,  to  an  extraordinary  degree  he  reproduced  in  Port- 
land the  earlier  work  of  his  distinguished  father  in  St.  Louis. 
He  was  also  a  member  of  the  board  of  directors  of  the  Ameri- 
can Unitarian  Association  from   1 894-1 900;  Commissioner  to 
Japan  from  the  Association  in  1903;  and  a  trustee  of  the  Pacific 
Unitarian  School  at  Berkeley  from  1907  to  191 8. 

Few  ministers  have  had  so  long,  so  happy  and  so  honorable  a 
career.  He  was,  in  truth,  "a  citizen  minister."  He  saw  the 
city  of  his  adoption  grow  from  a  small  frontier  town  to  a  hand- 
some, well-ordered  city  of  more  than  three  hundred  thousand 
people,  and  no  other  single  individual  contributed  so  much  as 
he  to  the  higher  life  of  the  community,  and  perhaps  none  loved 
it  more.  And  he  loved  not  only  the  city,  but  the  glorious  land 
in  which  it  is  set.  He  early  built  a  summer  home  at  Hood  River, 
and  witnessed  the  transformation  of  that  noble  valley  from  a 
forest  wilderness  to  a  vast  apple  orchard.  The  Eliot  glacier  on 
Mt.  Hood  is  named  for  him. 

In  person  Dr.  Eliot  was  a  man  of  exceptional  charm  and  of 


I30  WILLIAM  WALLACE  FENN 

winning  courtesy,  of  scholarly  tastes  and  poetic  temperament, 
modest  and  retiring  but  sturdy  and  courageous  in  his  convictions, 
a  lover  of  mankind.  While  he  was  still  a  young  man  Dr.  Hora- 
tio Stebbins  said  he  was  the  wisest  man  he  knew.  In  1889 
Harvard  gave  him  the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity 
in  absentia;  in  19 12  Washington  University  made  him  an  hon- 
orary Doctor  of  Laws;  and  in  19 15  Reed  College  conferred  on 
him  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Letters. 

Eight  children  were  born  to  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Eliot.  His  eldest 
son.  Rev.  William  G.  Eliot,  Jr.,  succeeded  to  his  father's  pulpit 
in  1906,  when  Dr.  Eliot  became  minister  emeritus.  In  1934 
the  son  in  turn  became  minister  emeritus.  The  Portland  church 
is  probably  unique  in  having  both  a  father  and  a  son  carried  on 
its  rolls  as  living  pastors  emeriti. 


WILLIAM  WALLACE  FENN 

1862-1932 

William  Wallace  Fenn  was  born  in  Boston  on  February  12, 
1862.  He  was  the  only  child  of  William  Wallace  and  Hannah 
(Osgood)  Fenn,  who  had  but  recently  married  and  moved  to  Bos- 
ton to  make  a  hazard  of  new  fortunes.  The  father  had  secured 
a  position  as  clerk  in  the  store  of  Cobb,  Bates  &  Yerxa,  but  died 
seven  weeks  after  the  birth  of  his  son.  The  mother  might  have 
found  a  home  for  herself  and  her  child  with  her  people  in  New 
Hampshire,  and  was  urged  to  do  so,  but  she  harbored  certain 
ambitions  for  her  little  son,  and  decided  to  stay  in  Boston  and 
give  the  boy  the  advantage  of  its  schools  and  colleges.  She 
opened  a  boarding  house  on  Shawmut  Avenue,  and  by  dint  of 
hard  work,  planning  and  pinching,  managed  to  support  herself 
and  her  boy  until  he  was  able  to  assume  the  duties  of  the  bread- 
winner. The  experience  threw  mother  and  son  very  closely  to- 
gether. Friends  were  scarce,  but  were  little  missed.  Each  had 
the  other,  and  that  was  enough.  All  the  mother's  hope  and 
pride  were  centered  on  her  son;  all  the  son's  dependence  and 


WILLIAM  WALLACE  FENN  131 

gratitude  were  concentrated  on  his  brave  mother.  Her  task  was 
to  make  the  living;  his  task  was  to  apply  himself  to  his  books. 
Neither  failed  the  other.  He  stood  at  the  head  of  every  class 
he  entered,  with  the  exception  of  the  Harvard  class,  and  he  was 
second  in  that.  This  close  bond  with  his  mother  was  perhaps 
the  most  cogent  of  all  the  facts  of  his  experience,  and  had  its 
lasting  effect  on  his  religious  life.  He  was  one  of  those  relent- 
less observers  who  are  never  satisfied  to  "take  life  as  it  comes," 
and  think  no  more  about  it.  He  must  submit  each  fact  to  a 
thorough  scrutiny,  discover  its  meaning,  and  learn  what  it  had 
to  teach.  This  habit  of  translating  experience  into  religious 
terms  gave  his  religion  a  peculiar  authenticity:  it  was  always 
something  more  than  an  inheritance.  It  was  an  original  dis- 
covery; something  that  had  come  alive  in  his  own  soul,  and  hence 
personally  valid  and  authoritative.  Such  things  as  loyalty,  grat- 
itude, fidelity  to  duty  and  to  principle  were  for  him  always  more 
than  mere  pragmatic  earth-bound  graces.  They  were  eternal 
values.      He  had  discovered  their  validity  for  himself. 

Fenn  prepared  for  college  in  the  Boston  Latin  School,  and 
entered  Harvard  with  the  class  of  '84.  He  majored  in  Greek 
and  Latin,  and  gave  himself  an  excellent  knowledge  of  Hebrew. 
At  graduation  he  was  the  class  orator.  The  higher  criticism  of 
the  Bible  had  a  powerful  fascination  for  him.  He  entered  the 
Harvard  Divinity  School,  and  found  his  chief  interest  in  New 
Testament  exegesis.  One  of  his  most  rewarding  activities  in 
the  Divinity  School  was  helping  Professor  Thayer  in  the  prepa- 
ration of  the  "Greek  New  Testament  Lexicon,"  a  task  for  which 
he  was  well-fitted  by  his  skill  in  the  classics.  It  was  during  the 
years  in  the  Divinity  School  that  he  made  the  change  in  his  de- 
nominational preference  which  brought  him  to  the  Unitarian 
Fellowship.  His  mother's  people  were  Seventh-Day  Baptists; 
his  father's  were  Trinitarian  Congregationalists.  His  interest 
in  the  higher  criticism  of  the  Bible  coupled  with  his  proficiency 
in  the  original  languages  enabled  him  to  make  his  own  discover- 
ies and  draw  his  own  conclusions.  The  Old  Testament  became 
for  him  a  thoroughly  human  and  an  exceedingly  vivacious  book, 
full  of  fleeting  shades  of  meaning,  covert  allusions,  plays  upon 


132  WILLIAM  WALLACE  FENN 

words,  whimsies,  humor,  pathos  and  sarcasm.  All  this  is  lost 
to  most  of  us  in  the  English  translation,  but  it  waits  to  reward  the 
enhghtened  reader  with  surprise  and  delight.  Reading  the  Syn- 
optic Gospels  with  the  same  skill  and  open-mindedness,  he  made 
the  same  discovery.  The  figure  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  emerged 
from  the  page,  a  rich,  forceful,  lovable  personahty,  with  a  vivid 
God-consciousness,  a  passion  of  human  sympathy,  a  boundless 
generosity,  a  rare  depth  and  clarity  of  thought,  a  concept  of 
God  as  a  God  of  Purpose  and  of  man  as  God's  son  and  fellow- 
laborer,  a  conviction  that  love  is  the  law  of  life  and  the  condition 
of  survival.  Here  was  a  gloriously  real  figure,  a  man  with  a 
message  for  his  times  and  all  times.  That  message  became  in 
the  young  student's  eyes  the  authentic  Christian  religion;  and 
the  Unitarians  with  their  avowal  that  "practical  religion,  as 
summed  up  in  the  words  of  Jesus,  consists  in  love  to  God  and 
love  to  man,"  were  the  only  fellowship  with  which  he  could  affili- 
ate himself  without  prejudice  to  his  intellectual  integrity. 

Far  from  regretting  his  orthodox  upbringing,  he  was  grateful 
for  it  to  the  very  end.  He  felt  that  it  had  nurtured  in  him  a 
spiritual  hunger  and  a  moral  passion  which  the  less  emotional 
Unitarian  frame  of  mind  might  never  have  taught  him.  In 
many  ways  it  was  an  ideal  equipment  for  a  parish  minister  and 
preacher.  His  mind  was  perfectly  free  to  observe,  cogitate,  and 
judge,  without  prejudice  or  restraint.  At  the  same  time,  he 
never  lost  that  habit  which  many  orthodox  cults  engender  of 
dramatizing  his  religious  convictions  into  a  vivid  urgent  per- 
sonal faith,  a  warm  personal  relationship  to  God,  a  bond  of  per- 
sonal intimacy  and  understanding  with  Jesus,  an  earnestness  in 
prayer,  an  active  conscience,  and  a  peremptory  sense  of  moral 
values.  Almost  at  once  he  revealed  himself  a  preacher  of  ex- 
ceptional power.  For  all  pulpit  arts  and  graces  he  had  nothing 
but  contempt.  His  sermons  were  always  a  thought  in  motion, 
each  step  clearly  defined,  and  the  conclusion  forcibly  driven  home. 
He  preached  not  the  comforts  but  the  duties  of  religion.  He  was 
exacting  both  with  himself  and  his  listeners.  A  certain  robust- 
ness of  mind  and  temperament  was  essential  for  anyone  who 
proposed  to  hear  him,  for  there  was  nothing  soothing  or  relax- 


WILLIAM  WALLACE  FENN  133 

ing  in  the  atmosphere  when  he  was  In  the  pulpit.  He  was  a 
deep,  hard,  honest,  fearless  thinker,  a  singularly  strong  person- 
ality; and  very  much  in  earnest.  One  would  never  think  of 
iiim  as  a  "beautiful"  preacher;  but  he  was  always  forceful,  often 
uncomfortable,  sometimes  magnificent.  He  had  a  way  of  saying 
unforgettable  things,  and  making  lasting  impressions. 

He  graduated  from  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  in  1887, 
and  was  promptly  ordained  and  installed  as  minister  of  Unity 
Church,  Pittsfield,  Massachusetts.  Three  years  was  as  long  as 
he  was  permitted  to  stay  in  this  first  parish.  In  1890  he  was 
called  to  the  First  Unitarian  Society  of  Chicago.  Here  he 
served  eleven  years,  and  in  1901  was  invited  to  become  the 
Bussey  Professor  of  Theology  in  the  Harvard  Divinity  School. 
This  position  he  held  for  the  remainder  of  his  life.  For  seven- 
teen years  he  was  Dean  of  the  School,  following  Rev.  Francis  G. 
Peabody  in  that  office.  He  was  far  too  conscientious  a  man  to 
assume  new  burdens  easily,  and  each  of  these  changes  meant  for 
him  a  busy  period  of  preparation  and  readjustment.  His  ap- 
pointment to  the  Bussey  Professorship  obliged  him  to  turn  his 
attention  from  New  Testament  exegesis  to  the  philosophers  and 
theologians.  These  subjects  he  handled  in  no  slavish  fashion 
but  always  as  a  critic,  and  in  a  way  to  arouse  an  attitude  of  per- 
sonal appraisal  and  judgment  in  his  students.  As  he  gained  con- 
fidence in  lecturing  he  never  became  perfunctory,  but  broadened 
his  scope  and  lengthened  his  stride.  He  found  a  great  fascina- 
tion in  the  dialectics  of  Edwards  and  Hopkins,  and  offered  a 
profitable  course  in  the  New  England  Theology.  Towards  the 
end  of  his  life  his  hobby  was  reading  all  the  literature  of  Puri- 
tanism he  could  lay  hands  on. 

His  chief  contribution  to  the  religious  thinking  of  his  times 
was  his  idea  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  He  presented  Jesus  as  a 
completely  human  figure,  a  sample  of  humanity  at  its  best,  whose 
every  power,  quality  and  spiritual  achievement  was  within  the 
category  of  things  human  and  hence  just  as  possible  for  other 
human  creatures  as  for  Jesus.  To  him,  Jesus  was  not  only  the 
Revealer  of  God  to  Man,  but  the  Revealer  of  Man  to  himself. 
To  look  upon  Jesus  as  a  glorified  scapegoat  who  bears  the  bur- 


134  WILLIAM  WALLACE  FENN 

den  of  man's  sins  and  atones,  by  his  innocent  death,  for  man's 
guilt,  was  for  Fenn  not  only  utterly  false  but  also  utterly  craven. 
Jesus  was  not  a  convenient  means  of  escape  from  the  Divine 
retribution,  but  an  inconvenient  standard  of  manhood  and  char- 
acter for  each  man  to  accept  and  follow  as  best  he  could.  In 
Jesus  man  can  discover  his  own  potentials.  From  Jesus  man 
can  learn  to  think  of  God  as  infinitely  understanding,  forgiving, 
patient,  and  loving.  Most  of  all,  from  Jesus  man  can  learn  to 
see  life  as  a  unity  of  purpose;  that  God  has  a  design  for  this 
world — there  is  an  objective,  life  has  a  meaning,  there  is  a  King- 
dom of  Heaven  to  build  on  earth,  and  God  is  waiting  for  man  to 
reach  spiritual  maturity  and  recognize  himself  as  a  son  of  the 
Most  High  and  enter  that  bond  of  loving  and  eager  co-operation 
with  God  which  was  all-compelling  in  the  case  of  Jesus  himself. 

Dean  Fenn  was  at  his  best  as  a  friend  and  counselor  of  young 
men.  He  could  teach  them  certain  valuable  qualities :  religious 
faith,  true  devoutness,  intellectual  honesty,  an  objective  in  life. 
They  learned  from  him  that  no  man  can  worship  God  with  a  lie 
on  his  lips;  that  not  all  men  can  do  great  things,  but  that  there 
is  greatness  in  little  things  faithfully  done.  He  did  not  turn  them 
all  into  scholars,  but  he  gave  them  an  idea  of  what  scholarship  is. 
He  never  talked  about  money  or  fame,  but  he  taught  them  to 
cultivate  character,  self-respect,  the  satisfactions  of  a  conscience 
at  peace  with  itself,  and  that  a  man's  greatest  effectiveness  lies 
not  in  what  he  says  or  does,  but  in  what  he  is.  Hundreds  of 
grateful  young  men  will  carry  to  their  graves  the  influence  of  his 
personality. 

In  1890  he  married  Faith  Huntington  Fisher.  There  were 
five  children,  one  of  whom,  Dan  Huntington  Fenn,  became  a 
Unitarian  minister.  His  family  life  was  exceedingly  happy. 
He  died  March  6,  1932,  and  his  body  lies  buried  among  his  kins- 
men in  the  little  graveyard  in  Weston,  Vermont. 

At  Chicago  Mr.  Fenn  succeeded  David  Utter,  a  well-beloved  minister 
of  wide  and  varied  experience.  He  was  born  a  farmer's  son,  in  Vernon, 
Ind.,  on  March  21,  1844.  Eager  for  an  education,  he  earned  his  way 
through  Butler  College  at  Indianapolis  and  graduated  in  1867.  Thence 
he  betook  himself  to  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  and  graduated  there  in 


ELMER  SEVERANCE  FORBES  135 

1 87 1.  He  was  ordained  minister  of  the  First  Church  in  Belfast,  Me.,  on 
October  31,  1871.  There  he  served  for  three  years  and  there  he  married 
the  daufihter  of  his  predecessor.  Rev.  Cazneau  Palfrey.  The  younjj;  wife 
was  soon  to  win  renown  as  the  authoress  of  poems  that  still  find  place  in 
the  anthologies  of  American  verse.  In  1875  the  young  couple  enlisted  for 
missionary  work  and  went  to  what  was  then  Washington  Territory.  For 
five  years  Mr,  Utter  was  a  minister-at-large  in  the  Puget  Sound  region, 
making  his  headquarters  at  Olympia  where  he  organized  a  church.  Then 
followed  three  years  at  Kansas  City,  eight  years  at  Chicago,  three  years  at 
Salt  Lake  City  where  he  was  the  first  minister  of  the  newly  organized 
church,  and  finally  twenty-one  years  at  Denver.  He  was  minister  emeritus 
after  191 7  and  he  died  in  1925.  Harvard  made  him  a  Doctor  of  Divinity 
in  1906.  He  was  a  man  of  indomitable  energy,  a  natural  leader  in  social 
and  educational  reforms,  unfailing  in  kindliness  and  good  will. 


ELMER  SEVERANCE  FORBES 

1860-1933 

Elmer  Severance  Forbes  was  born  at  Westboro,  Mass.,  on 
September  12,  i860,  of  an  old  New  England  stock  that  had  been 
eminently  serviceable  In  Massachusetts  for  ten  generations.  He 
graduated  at  Amherst  College  In  188  i,  and  entered  the  ministry 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  becoming  one  of  the  staff 
and  later  the  rector  of  St.  John's  Church  in  Jersey  City.  It  was 
a  large  parish  in  a  location  where  many  and  diverse  social  prob- 
lems had  to  be  met  and  the  young  clergyman  was  soon  absorbed 
In  matters  of  poor  relief,  of  housing  and  hygiene,  of  the  adjust- 
ments of  family  life,  and  of  the  care  of  the  delinquent  and  defec- 
tive. He  was  a  diligent  and  cheerful  worker  In  both  church  and 
community,  but  gradually  he  found  himself  becoming  more  Inter- 
ested in  the  social  applications  of  religion  than  In  the  theologies 
and  rituals  of  the  church.  When  he  realized  that  he  no  longer 
believed  the  creeds,  he  honorably  withdrew  from  the  Episcopalian 
communion  and  sought  admission  to  the  Unitarian  ministry.  He 
quickly  won  the  confidence  and  affection  of  his  new  associates 
while  retaining  the  good  will  of  many  of  his  former  comrades. 
His  rare  gifts  of  mind  and  heart  together  with  his  successful 


136  ELMER  SEVERANCE  FORBES 

experience  both  as  a  parish  minister  and  as  an  expert  in  social 
work,  all  pointed  to  him  as  the  right  man  to  inaugurate  the  work 
of  the  new  Department  of  Community  Service  of  the  American 
Unitarian  Association.  For  twenty-one  years,  until  his  retire- 
ment in  1929,  he  administered  that  department  with  diligence 
and  fidelity,  efficiently  representing  the  interest  of  Unitarians 
in  social  reforms.  It  was  at  first  a  pioneer  service,  for  the 
Unitarian  communion  was  the  earliest  of  the  Protestant  churches 
to  initiate  such  an  enterprise  and  many  people  had  to  be  per- 
suaded of  its  importance.  Mr.  Forbes  traveled  far  and  wide 
and  increasingly  convinced  ministers  and  people  not  only  that  a 
collective  endeavor  for  social  reforms  was  possible  and  prac- 
tical, but  also  that  there  was  an  essential  unity  of  purpose  in 
the  Unitarian  churches  in  regard  to  the  application  of  religious 
principles  to  social  problems.  He  organized  and  addressed 
many  Conferences,  gathered  and  edited  the  forty  or  fifty  in- 
fluential and  widely  distributed  pamphlets  published  as  the  "So- 
cial Service  Bulletins";  prepared  the  volume  on  the  "Social 
Ideals  of  a  Free  Church,"  counseled  with  many  ministers  and 
committees  in  regard  to  their  social  agencies  and  activities,  rep- 
resented the  Unitarian  Fellowship  at  interdenominational  con- 
ferences at  home  and  abroad  and  served  on  many  administrative 
boards  and  committees — always  judicious,  persuasive,  attractive. 
He  was  not  a  violent  or  aggressive  reformer,  but  gentle  of  speech, 
courteous  and  considerate  in  manner,  fraternal  in  spirit.  His 
judgments  were  deliberate  but  no  plan  for  human  welfare  failed 
to  secure  his  study  and  interest,  and,  if  found  worthy,  his  reso- 
lute advocacy.  He  fought  error  and  evil,  but  always  chival- 
rously. 

Elmer  Forbes  was  a  man  of  true  spiritual  refinement,  and  at 
the  same  time  and  in  the  best  sense  a  sensible  and  practical  man 
of  the  world.  He  was  eager  to  apply  religious  faiths  and  truths 
to  healthy  uses.  He  was  always  ready  with  wise  counsel  and 
self-denying  service,  bold  in  pleading  for  unfamiliar  reforms  and 
in  denouncing  popular  mistakes  and  injustices.  Kindly  and  tol- 
erant, he  was  a  charming  companion  and  loyal  friend.  He  died 
at  Plattsburg,  N.  Y.,  July  2,  1933. 


JOHN  PERKINS  FORBES  137 

JOHN  PERKINS  FORBES 

1855-1910 

John  Perkins  Forbes  was  born  in  Middleboro,  Massachusetts, 
March  25,  1855.  He  attended  the  public  schools  of  Middle- 
boro, and  was,  for  a  time,  a  pupil  in  Middleboro  Academy. 
Later  the  family  moved  to  Westboro,  Massachusetts,  and  there 
he  began  the  study  of  law.  He  soon  found  that  he  was  not 
happy  in  this  work,  and  in  1875  he  entered  the  Harvard  Divin- 
ity School.  When  he  returned  to  live  in  Westboro  it  was  as  the 
chosen  minister  of  the  Unitarian  Church  and  there  he  was  or- 
dained in  1878  and  there  he  married  the  wife  who  was  his  loved 
companion  and  ardent  fellow  worker  all  his  life.  Five  years 
of  happy  ministry  in  the  First  Parish  of  Arlington,  Massachu- 
setts, followed  his  three  years  of  service  in  Westboro,  and  then 
in  1887  he  was  called  to  the  old  First  Parish  in  Taunton,  Massa- 
chusetts. There  his  powers  rapidly  developed  and  in  1898  he 
was  invited  to  serve  the  Church  of  the  Saviour  in  Brooklyn, 
N.  Y.  All  his  experience  thus  far  had  been  in  old  New  Eng- 
land parishes,  but  leading  this  Influential  church  was  a  challenge 
which  he  knew  he  must  accept.  He  went  to  Brooklyn  in  the 
fall  of  1898  and  was  the  minister  of  the  church  until  his  death  in 
the  prime  of  life  on  April  16,  19 10. 

John  Forbes  was  a  well-read  man  and  had  a  well-stocked  li- 
brary but  he  was  not  a  learned  scholar.  He  wrote  no  books  and 
made  no  special  mark  by  any  epoch-making  address  or  famous 
deed.  He  was  a  friend,  a  comrade,  a  fellow  worker  who  could 
always  be  trusted  for  sane  counsel  and  self-denying  labor,  a  man 
of  wholesome,  erect,  magnanimous  nature  who  rang  true  in  every 
relation  of  life.  By  the  brave  old  wisdom  of  sincerity,  by  un- 
affected good  will,  by  stainless  life  and  public  usefulness  he  won 
the  confidence  and  affection  of  the  communities  in  which  he  suc- 
cessively lived.  His  was  a  well-balanced  personality,  genuinely 
self-forgetting  but,  for  a  cause  In  which  he  believed,  self-asser- 
tive, wide  open  to  enjoyment  yet  always  quick  in  sympathy  for 
sorrow,  responsive  to  the  charm  of  beauty  in  nature  and  art  and 


138  JOHN  PERKINS  FORBES 

literature  but  with  a  business  sense  that  shirked  no  drudgery 
of  detail,  a  spirit  emancipated  from  dogmatism  and  pietism  but 
possessed  of  a  natural  and  healthy  reverence.  Into  the  varied 
activities  of  his  time  and  place  he  threw  the  influence  of  the  sober, 
righteous  and  godly  life. 

John  Forbes  gave  himself,  that  is,  unreservedly  to  the  day-by- 
day  work  of  a  Christian  minister.  He  could  say,  "This  one 
thing  I  do."  He  had  an  admirable  equipment  for  preaching 
power.  His  presence  was  manly  and  dignified.  He  was  six 
feet  tall  and  broad-shouldered.  His  voice  was  rich  and  musi- 
cal and  his  gestures  varied  and  graceful.  He  made  the  most 
thorough  preparation  for  every  duty,  public  and  private.  The 
conduct  of  public  worship  was  to  him  a  fine  art.  Hymns,  read- 
ings, anthems  were  all  selected  with  painstaking  care.  Every- 
thing was  purposeful,  orderly  and  pertinent.  The  sermons  were 
direct  appeals  to  conscience  and  heart.  There  were  no  obscuri- 
ties or  subtleties,  no  technical  or  professional  vocabulary,  no 
mystic  raptures,  no  attempts  to  solve  world  problems — every- 
thing was  lucid,  coherent,  reasonable.  He  spoke  directly  and 
unaffectedly  about  the  abounding  joys  and  the  grateful  duties  of 
the  Christian  life.  In  person,  in  discourse,  in  spirit,  he  illus- 
trated the  excellence  of  his  favorite  theme,  "the  grace  of  Jesus 
Christ." 

Here  was  a  true  leader  in  the  things  of  the  spirit  and  at  the 
same  time  and  in  the  best  sense  a  man  of  the  world.  He  had 
marked  executive  ability  and  could  be  relied  on  for  good  judg- 
ment, sagacious  planning  and  discerning  foresight.  His  mind 
was  open  and  alert  but  he  was  temperamentally  conservative, 
equally  removed  from  tame  attachment  to  mere  traditionary 
thoughts  and  ways  and  from  the  mood  of  reckless  innovation. 
He  served  efficiently  as  an  officer  or  director  in  a  number  of  civic 
organizations,  and  he  was  a  diligent  and  reliable  member  of  the 
Board  of  Directors  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association.  His 
decisions  were  fair  and  impartial,  his  speech  good-tempered,  his 
unfailing  courtesy  not  an  outward  show  but  a  real  attribute  of 
spirit.  He  did  not  like  controversy  but  had  a  genius  for  point- 
ing out  the  comprehensive  and  healing  principles  that  reconciled 


PAUL  REVERE  FROTHINGHAM  139 

disputants  in  one  wider  view.  Nothing  was  ever  said  in  intol- 
erance or  pettiness  and  he  never  sharpened  an  argument  with  a 
taunt.  He  did  not  fight  error  and  evil  with  scornful  and  con- 
temptuous words  but  he  knew  how  to  overcome  evil  with  good. 
His  gift  of  influence  appeared  conspicuously  in  his  capacity  to 
inspire  high-minded  young  men  to  wish  to  be  what  he  was  and 
to  serve  as  he  served.  By  mere  force  of  persuasive  example  he 
led  a  number  of  men  to  choose  the  ministry  for  a  life  work.  He 
reverenced  his  own  calling  and  delighted  in  its  opportunities. 
He  was  zealous  for  the  honor  of  his  church  and  his  communion. 
His  only  son,  Roger  Forbes,  followed  him  into  the  ministry  and 
was  the  much  beloved  minister  of  the  churches  in  Dorchester, 
Mass.,  and  Germantown,  Pa.  They  were  more  like  brothers 
than  father  and  son.  Both  had  the  genuine  modesty  of  men 
who  live  in  the  presence  of  aims  greater  than  they  can  achieve, 
and  thus  delicacy  of  feeling  and  disinterested  good  will  marked 
all  their  intercourse  with  their  fellow  men.  By  genial  friend- 
liness and  appreciative  sympathy  and  sagacious  counsel  they 
turned  the  dry  deserts  of  experience  into  verdure  and  fruitfulness 
and  in  the  valleys  of  despondency  they  opened  springs  of  living 
water. 


PAUL  REVERE  FROTHINGHAM 

1 864-1 926 

Dr.  Frothingham  inherited  the  best  traditions  of  New  Eng- 
land thought  and  life.  His  forebears  were  ministers,  teachers, 
and  public  leaders  back  to  Elder  William  Brewster  of  the 
Plymouth  Company,  and  he  had  no  less  than  four  ancestors  who 
came  over  in  the  Mayflower.  Dr.  Nathaniel  Langdon  Frothing- 
ham, for  thirty-five  years  minister  of  the  First  Church  in  Boston, 
was  his  grandfather,  and  on  his  mother's  side  his  grandfather 
was  Dr.  William  P.  Lunt,  minister  of  the  First  Parish  in  Quincy. 
He  was  born  in  Jamaica  Plain,  July  6,  1864,  graduated  at  Har- 
vard in  1886  and  from  the  Divinity  School  in  1889.     In  Octo- 


I40  PAUL  REVERE  FROTHINGHAM 

ber  of  that  year  he  was  ordained  as  assistant  to  the  Rev,  William 
J.  Potter  *  of  the  First  Congregational  Church  in  New  Bedford 
and  soon  succeeded  to  the  pastorate  of  that  church.  In  1900 
he  became  minister  of  the  famous  Arlington  Street  Church  in 
Boston,  and  there  he  labored  with  ever-increasing  power  and  in- 
fluence until  his  sudden  death  on  November  27,  1926. 

It  was  singularly  appropriate  that  he  should  serve  for  twenty- 
six  years  in  the  church  renowned  by  the  ministries  of  Chan- 
ning  and  Gannett,  Ware  and  Herford.  There  his  congregations 
were  substantial  and  included  many  people  of  influence  in  the 
community — governors,  mayors,  judges,  teachers,  and  men  of 
large  affairs.  By  natural  inheritance  Frothingham  accepted  and 
avowed  Channing's  principles  and  ideals  though  not  his  precise 
opinions.  He  built  on  sound  and  unshaken  foundations.  At  the 
time  he  had  the  complete  courage  of  his  own  convictions,  neither 
accepting  old  ideas  for  the  sake  of  conformity  nor  advocating 
new  ideas  for  love  of  novelty. 

Dr.  Frothingham  was  fortunate  not  only  in  his  inheritances 
but  in  all  the  conditions  of  his  life.  While  still  a  young  man,  he 
won  high  reputation  and  recognition  in  his  profession.  He  was 
happy  in  his  home.  He  lived  among  admiring  friends.  He  had 
in  eminent  degree  the  kindly  common  sense  and  generous  heart 
that  Americans  demand  in  their  trusted  leaders.  Simplicity, 
sincerity,  fearlessness,  and  reverence  were  the  traits  that  made 
his  distinctive  personality. 

Frothingham  had,  by  inheritance,  by  temperament,  and  train- 
ing, the  instincts  and  habits  of  a  gentleman  and  a  scholar.  His 
family  background,  his  education,  his  native  tastes  and  aptitudes, 
his  wide  reading,  his  acquaintance  with  the  scenes  and  peoples 
of  many  lands,  all  contributed  to  make  him  a  highly  cultivated 
man,  appreciative,  versatile,  and  resourceful.  In  him  virility 
was  joined  with  refinement,  geniality  linked  with  self-respect, 
contempt  for  hypocrisy  and  meanness  interwoven  with  quick 
human  sympathies  and  love  of  the  beautiful  and  true. 

Frothingham  took  life  in  a  large  way  and  gave  guidance  to  a 
variety  of  good  enterprises.     He  belonged  to  many  clubs  and 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  303. 


PAUL  REVERE  FROTHINGHAM  141 

societies,  served  for  two  terms  as  an  Overseer  of  Harvard,  and 
was  for  many  years  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Preachers.  He 
was  an  influential  member  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the 
American  Unitarian  Association  and  a  trusted  oflicer  in  the  edu- 
cational and  philanthropic  institutions  of  his  city.  He  was  the 
author  of  several  noteworthy  volumes  of  sermons  and  wrote  an 
admirable  biography  of  his  great-uncle,  Edward  Everett.  With 
Mrs.  Frothingham  he  often  spent  his  summer  vacations  In  Eu- 
rope where  he  made  many  friends.  He  was  always  an  ardent 
internationalist  and  an  eager  advocate  of  democratic  principles. 
He  was  continually  seeking  and  commending,  in  straightforward 
and  farseeing  fashion,  intelligent  and  profitable  ways  of  dealing 
with  contemporary  problems  in  both  church  and  state.  One 
could  always  look  to  him  for  good  counsel  and  effective  co-opera- 
tion. 

He  was  a  man  whose  speech  and  influence  were  eminently 
cleansing  and  stimulating.  There  was  reasoned  judgment  united 
with  a  love  of  the  beautiful  and  at  times  with  passionate  ardor 
for  a  cause  in  which  he  believed.  He  rejoiced  to  live  in  a  cre- 
ative and  prophetic  time,  and  in  manly,  rational,  wholesome  fash- 
ion he  dedicated  his  life  to  certain  compelling  ideals.  In  his 
whole  make-up  he  was  the  highbred  radical,  "a  silver  weapon 
with  an  edge  of  steel."  There  was  about  him  a  bracing  sense  of 
reliability  and  sanity  and  preparedness.  He  could  be  learned 
without  being  dull;  he  could  be  zealous  without  being  fanatical; 
he  could  be  both  accurate  and  ardent.  His  sermons  were  pol- 
ished, graceful,  graphic,  often  picturesque  in  imagery.  He  had 
a  kind  of  instinct  for  essential  truth  and  a  power  to  discriminate 
between  the  fitful  and  the  permanent.  He  was  never  tempted 
to  court  a  showy  eloquence  and  there  were  no  loose  ends  in  his 
thinking.  No  one  ever  accused  him  of  moral  timidity.  The 
character  of  the  man  multiplied  and  projected  the  ideas.  The 
refinement  and  precision  of  his  thought  proceeded  from  the  disci- 
pline and  elevation  of  his  nature.  He  incarnated  the  good 
sense,  the  public  spirit,  the  practical  idealism  of  the  community 
he  loved.     The  man  was  the  embodiment  of  the  message. 

One  can  say  of  Frothingham,  as  he  said  of  his  great  predeces- 


142  WILLIAM  CHANNING  GANNETT 

sor,  Channing,  "The  love  of  order  was  mingled  In  him  with  the 
craving  for  progress.  Justice  and  liberty  entered  into  the  very- 
fibre  of  his  being." 


WILLIAM  CHANNING  GANNETT 

1840-1923 

William  Channing  Gannett,  born  in  Boston  on  March  13, 
1840,  was  named  after,  and  christened  by,  William  Ellery  Chan- 
ning, the  "founder  of  American  Unitarianism."  His  father, 
Ezra  Stiles  Gannett,*  had  gone  from  the  Harvard  Divinity 
School  to  be  Dr.  Channing's  associate,  and  in  1842  became  his 
successor  at  the  old  Federal  Street  Church  (now  the  Arlington 
Street  Church)  in  Boston.  Ezra  Stiles  Gannett  was  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association,  its  first  secre- 
tary, and  later  its  president.  Thus  William  Channing  Gannett 
grew  up  in  the  temple  of  Boston  Unitarianism.  His  grandfather 
Caleb  had  also  been  a  New  England  minister,  and  through  Caleb's 
wife  the  clerical  heritage  went  back  three  more  generations. 
Boston  was  also  the  home  of  William  Channing  Gannett's  mother, 
Anna  Linzee  Tllden,  who  died  in  1846,  too  soon  to  influence  her 
son's  life,  except  that  he  must  have  owed  to  her  his  strains  of 
poetry  and  humor. 

After  graduation  from  Harvard  College  In  i860,  he  taught 
school  for  a  year  in  Newport,  R.  I.  His  letters  of  the  period  be- 
tray both  his  indecision  and  the  New  England  conscience  which 
beset  him  all  his  life.  He  thought  he  was  a  poor  teacher  and 
unfit  for  either  business  or  the  law.  He  doubted  his  worthiness 
for  the  ministry.  Nevertheless  he  entered  the  Harvard  Divinity 
School  in  the  following  year — then  left  It  In  mid-term  to  join  the 
first  party  sent  by  the  New  England  Freedmen's  Society  to  the 
sea  islands  of  South  Carolina.  There  several  thousand  freed 
slaves  were  half-starving;  It  was  the  New  Englanders'  task  to 
feed  and  clothe  them,  get  them  to  work,  market  their  product, 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  138. 


WILLIAM  CHANNING  GANNETT  143 

open  schools — to  demonstrate  that  iUiterate  black  freedmen 
would  work  without  the  incentive  of  the  lash.  It  was  a  tough 
pioneer  job;  many  left  it  after  a  few  months.  Young  Gannett 
managed  several  plantations  and  organized  a  school.  Despite 
bouts  of  malaria  he  made  good,  and  stayed  four  years.  It  was 
the  richest  experience  of  his  life,  he  felt,  and  he  planned  to  devote 
his  life  to  the  freedmen.  But  his  father's  ill  health  brought  him 
back  to  Boston. 

He  accompanied  his  father  to  Europe  in  1865,  remaining  for 
a  year  of  study.  Slowly  he  made  up  his  mind  for  the  ministry. 
Graduating  from  the  Divinity  School  In  1868,  he  at  once  faced 
West.  His  first  parish  was  at  Milwaukee,  then  a  Western  town 
of  muddy  streets  and  wooden  sidewalks  where  a  minister  rode 
horseback  to  make  his  parish  calls.  In  1871  he  returned  East  to 
be  near  his  father  (who  died  that  year),  taking  a  parish  In  East 
Lexington,  and  he  subsequently  devoted  several  years  to  writing 
"Ezra  Stiles  Gannett,"  a  biography  which  includes  chapters  that 
are  still  a  classic  history  of  the  evolution  of  American  Unitarian- 
ism.  That  filial  task  completed,  Gannett  again  turned  to  the 
West.  He  was  minister  of  Unity  Church  In  St.  Paul  from  1877 
to  1883,  then  for  four  years  served  as  a  sort  of  minlster-at-large 
for  the  Western  Unitarian  Conference,  beside  writing  Sunday- 
school  lessons  and  study  outlines.  Upon  his  marriage  in  1887 
(to  Mary  Thorn  Lewis,  a  birthright  Quaker  from  Philadelphia, 
who  became  a  kind  of  associate  pastor  with  him),  he  settled  In 
the  Hinsdale,  111.,  parish.  In  1889  he  moved  to  Rochester, 
N.  Y.,  and  lived  there,  as  pastor  until  1908,  and  as  pastor  emer- 
itus until  his  death  in  December,  1923. 

William  Channing  Gannett  could  not,  of  course,  remember 
his  godfather.  Dr.  Channing,  who  had  died  when  he  was  two  years 
old,  but  he  had  grown  up  In  Channing's  living  memory.  Emer- 
son he  met  face  to  face,  and  in  college  days  he  often  walked  in 
to  Boston  to  hear  Theodore  Parker  preach.  These  three  were 
his  major  prophets  all  his  life,  topics  for  his  sermons  and  study 
classes,  inspiration  of  his  thought.  Like  Channing,  he  was  all 
his  life  a  rationalist-mystic.  He  early  accepted  Emerson's  tran- 
scendentalist  doctrine  of  the  immanence  of  God  in  the  blowing 


144  WILLIAM  CHANNING  GANNETT 

clover  and  in  the  soul  of  every  man.  To  him,  as  to  Emerson, 
Jesus  was  "one  man  true  to  what  is  in  you  and  me."  He  had, 
with  Theodore  Parker,  an  historical  awareness  that  the  heresies 
of  one  age  become  the  orthodoxies  of  the  next,  and  at  moments 
he  was,  like  Parker,  a  passionate  reformer. 

His  father  had  not  been  an  abolitionist;  he  was.  All  his  life 
any  challenge  to  the  Negro's  dignity  as  a  human  being  aroused 
him.  Even  in  his  Milwaukee  days  he  was  a  strong  woman  suf- 
fragist. In  Rochester  Susan  B.  Anthony  was  a  member  of  his 
congregation,  and  an  intimate  friend.  With  her  he  worked  for 
years  to  have  women  admitted  to  the  then  exclusively  male  Uni- 
versity of  Rochester;  she  pledged  her  life  insurance,  he  and  his 
wife  their  house,  to  complete  the  necessary  fund. 

But  he  was  pimarily  a  parish  minister.  He  was  never  a  dra- 
matic preacher,  though  some  of  his  thoughtful  sermons  were 
reprinted,  in  America  and  abroad,  in  English  and  in  German,  in 
many  tens  of  thousands.  He  was  a  born  teacher,  with  a  rare 
capacity  to  draw  his  listeners  into  personal  expression.  The 
ever-inquiring  clarity  of  his  own  mind  and  the  shining  integrity 
of  his  character  left  a  profound  impression  on  all  his  parishioners. 

Three  Unitarian  ministers  were  his  lifelong  friends  and  co- 
workers. To  John  White  Chadwick  of  Brooklyn  many  of  his 
poems  were  dedicated.  With  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones  of  Chicago 
he  published  in  1877  ^  collection  of  sermons,  "The  Faith  That 
Makes  Faithful,"  and,  with  Jones  in  1882,  he  founded  Unity 
as  an  organ  of  Western  religious  "radicalism."  With  Frederick 
Lucian  Hosmer  he  published  three  series  of  poems — "The 
Thought  of  God" — the  first  series  in  1885,  a  second  in  1894 
and  a  third  in  19 18.  With  Hosmer  also  he  edited  "Unity  Hymns 
and  Chorals"  (1880;  revised  edition,  1 9 1 1 ;  James  Vila  Blake  was 
a  coeditor  of  the  first  edition),  in  which,  after  the  manner  of 
Samuel  Longfellow,  they  adapted  and  rewrote  orthodox  hymns 
and  lay  poems  for  the  liberal  churches,  thereby  offending  some 
who  believed  in  sticking  to  the  original  texts. 

Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones  was  also  his  ally  in  the  "Western  Issue" 
which  once  caused  some  commotion  among  American  Unitarians. 
At  the  Cincinnati  meeting  of  the  Western  Unitarian  Conference 


WILLIAM  CHANNING  GANNETT  145 

in  1886,  Mr.  Gannett  proposed  the  resolution  that  "the  Confer- 
ence conditions  its  fellowship  on  no  dogmatic  tests,  but  welcomes 
all  who  wish  to  join  it  to  help  establish  truth  and  righteousness 
and  love  in  the  world."  The  fact  that  no  mention  was  made  of 
the  Christian  heritage  or  allegiance  annoyed  some  conservative 
Unitarians.  But  with  passing  years  such  things  are  forgotten 
and  the  summary  of  "Things  commonly  believed  among  us," 
which,  when  Mr.  Gannett  proposed  it  at  Cincinnati  had  seemed 
dangerously  radical,  was  later  circulated  with  approval  by  the 
Unitarian  Association.  The  words  are  still  familiar :  "Freedom, 
the  method  in  religion,  in  place  of  Authority;  Fellowship,  the 
spirit  in  religion,  in  place  of  Sectarianism;  Character,  the  test  in 
religion,  in  place  of  Ritual  or  Creed;  Service,  or  Salvation  of 
Others,  the  aim  in  religion,  in  place  of  Salvation  of  Self."  This 
was  the  free  goal  of  his  Channing-Emerson-Parker  background. 

It  was  characteristic  of  Mr.  Gannett  that  when  the  Ministe- 
rial Alliance  in  Rochester,  after  considerable  debate,  voted  to 
admit  the  Universalist  and  Unitarian  ministers  to  its  ranks,  he 
could  not  feel  free  to  do  so  unless  the  Alliance  would  also  wel- 
come Rabbi  Max  Landsberg  of  the  Temple  Berith  Kodesh. 
(The  Temple  and  the  Unitarian  Church  had  shared  joint 
Thanksgiving  services  even  before  Mr.  Gannett  went  to  Roches- 
ter. In  his  days  their  members  organized  together  the  Boys' 
Evening  Home,  a  newsboys'  settlement  in  the  building  since  en- 
larged and  christened  Gannett  House.)  To  Mr.  Gannett  the 
"fundamental"  in  the  Unitarian  tradition  in  which  he  lived  was 
always  its  constantly  expanding  horizon. 

His  hymns  long  ago  crossed  denominational  lines  in  the  hymn- 
books.  "Bring  O  morn  thy  music,"  modern  words  to  replace 
the  evangelical  text  set  to  "Nicaea,"  is  probably  the  most  widely 
sung  today;  "The  Stream  of  Faith,"  beginning,  "From  heart  to 
heart,  from  creed  to  creed.  The  hidden  river  runs,"  may  be  most 
characteristic.  Of  his  sermons,  "Blessed  Be  Drudgery"  (a 
product  of  his  first  year  in  the  pulpit)  was  most  widely  reprinted; 
"The  House  Beautiful"  (whose  inspiration  is  still  recognized 
by  the  popular  magazine  which  uses  its  title)  perhaps  has  most 
contemporary  life.     His   Sunday-school   lessons,   analyzing  the 


146  WILLIAM  CHANNING  GANNETT 

evolution  of  religion  and  of  Bible  literature,  were  widely  used 
and  so  were  his  outlines  for  study  classes  in  Emerson,  Browning, 
Dante,  Wordsworth  and  the  elder  New  England  poets.  His 
scholarly  studies  of  Unitarianism,  beginning  in  the  biography  of 
his  father  and  culminating  in  his  book  on  "Francis  David: 
Founder  and  Martyr  of  Unitarianism  in  Hungary"  (1914) 
still  have  value. 

He  was  a  rarely  modest  man,  friendly  if  somewhat  shy  (pos- 
sibly his  lifelong  deafness  contributed  to  that),  with,  especially 
in  his  later  years,  when  his  full  beard  was  snowy  white  and  his 
old-fashioned  ear  trumpet  was  ever  in  hand,  an  impressive,  radi- 
ant personality.  Dr.  Crothers,  who  succeeded  him  in  St.  Paul, 
called  him  a  "poet-preacher,"  and  remarked  that  a  quarter  cen- 
tury after  Gannett  had  given  up  his  six  years'  charge,  the  St. 
Paul  parish  was  still  known  as  "Mr.  Gannett's  church."  His 
Rochester  colleague.  Rabbi  Landsberg,  called  him  the  greatest 
teacher  of  practical  religion  he  had  ever  met,  adding  "Dr.  Gan- 
nett could  teach  by  his  very  presence.  He  was  a  man  of  power 
who  spoke  with  authority."  Harvard  gave  him  the  honorary 
degree  of  S.T.D.  in  1908,  in  the  last  group  of  honorary  degrees 
conferred  by  President  Eliot. 

At  Rochester  Dr.  Gannett  succeeded  Newton  Mann  who  was  born 
at  Cazenovia,  N.  Y.,  January  16,  1836,  the  son  of  Darwin  H.  and  Cordelia 
(Newton)  Mann.  He  was  the  descendant  of  sturdy  New  England  ances- 
tors who  had  settled  in  Massachusetts  before  1644.  When  he  was  twelve 
years  of  age  the  death  of  his  father  thrust  heavy  responsibilities  upon  him, 
but  in  spite  of  his  burdens  he  persevered  in  his  studies,  graduated  from 
Cazenovia  Academy  and  ultimately  become  a  thorough  scholar.  At  the 
outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  he  was  appointed  head  of  the  Western  Sanitary 
Commission,  with  which  he  served  until  the  end  of  the  war.  He  then 
entered  the  Unitarian  ministry,  and  in  1865  organized  the  Unitarian 
Church  in  Kenosha,  Wis.,  where  he  was  ordained  and  where  he  served  for 
three  years.  Then  followed  a  pastorate  of  two  years  in  Troy,  N.  Y.,  and 
in  1870  he  accepted  a  call  to  Rochester,  where  he  remained  eighteen  years. 
His  last  charge  was  at  Omaha,  Neb.,  where  for  twenty  years  he  ministered 
to  a  substantial  congregation.  Mr.  Mann  lived  in  the  stirring  times  when 
evolution  was  a  subject  of  keen  discussion  in  the  churches  and  for  years  his 
sermons  were  printed  in  the  public  press.  He  was  also  a  trenchant  writer 
and  among  other  books  published  in  1905  the  "Evolution  of  a  Great  Lit- 


AUSTIN  SAMUEL  GARVER  147 

erature,"  one  of  the  best  books  setting  forth  the  results  of  the  higher 
criticism  of  the  Bible.  It  provided  for  the  general  reader  the  conclusions 
of  the  students  of  the  Bible  about  the  dates,  authorship,  composition  and 
purposes  of  the  books.  It  traced  "the  growth  of  a  people's  literature  and 
its  gradual  elevation  in  spirituality  and  power."  In  1912  Mr.  Mann 
married  the  Rev.  Rowena  Morse  and  moved  to  Chicago  where  she  was 
and  continued  to  be  the  minister  of  the  Third  Unitarian  Church.  He 
lived  to  be  ninety,  pursuing  his  studies  and  enjoying  the  friends  who  appre- 
ciated his  gifts  of  mind  and  heart.     He  died  at  Chicago  July  25,  1926. 


AUSTIN  SAMUEL  GARVER 

1849-1918 

Austin  Samuel  Garver  was  born  in  Scotland,  Pennsylvania,  on 
December  12,  1849,  and  died  in  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  on 
June  20,  19 1 8.  He  graduated  from  the  Andover  Theological 
School  in  1 87 1,  and  in  the  following  year  was  ordained  to  the 
Congregational  ministry.  For  eight  years  he  remained  in  that 
communion  and  then,  desiring  a  larger  freedom,  he  transferred 
his  allegiance  to  the  Unitarian  fellowship.  For  five  years  he 
served  the  church  in  Hopedale,  Massachusetts,  whence  he 
was  called  to  the  Second  Parish  (First  Unitarian  Church)  in 
Worcester.  For  twenty-five  years  he  labored  there  with  un- 
failing fidelity,  and  upon  retiring  from  the  active  ministry  he 
was  made  pastor  emeritus.  To  the  day  of  his  death  he  contin- 
ued to  serve  both  the  church  and  the  city  that  he  loved.  In 
1 88 1  he  married  Sarah  C.  Brackett,  of  Braintree,  who  contrib- 
uted much  to  the  charm  and  hospitality  of  his  home. 

A  perusal  of  the  bulky  scrapbooks  containing  extracts  from 
his  sermons,  programs  of  Conferences  and  other  gatherings,  and 
letters  which  he  had  received  during  the  twenty-five  years  of  his 
ministry  in  Worcester,  reveals  something  of  the  esteem  in  which 
he  was  held  not  only  by  the  men,  women  and  children  of  his 
parish,  but  by  his  brethren  in  the  ministry  and  multitudes  of  his 
fellow  citizens.  That  his  ability  was  widely  recognized  is  estab- 
lished by  the  fact  that  he  was  sought  after  for  such  important 
positions  as  Secretary  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association,  as 


148  AUSTIN  SAMUEL  GARVER 

colleague  to  Edward  Everett  Hale,  and  as  President  of  the  Mead- 
ville  Theological  School.  But  his  heart  was  in  Worcester  and 
nothing  could  induce  him  to  leave  the  Second  Parish. 

No  one  who  ever  heard  Mr.  Garver  preach  or  read  the  all  too 
few  of  his  printed  sermons  can  fail  to  be  impressed  by  their 
lucidity  and  sincerity.  While  the  manner  of  his  preaching  was 
quiet,  it  was  a  quietness  charged  with  passion.  Without  a  par- 
ticle of  sensationalism  he  was  a  fearless  and  forceful  preacher. 
In  uprooting  things  that  are  bad  he  was  a  radical;  in  preserving 
things  that  are  good  he  was  a  conservative. 

Next  to  Mr.  Garver's  passion  for  the  truth  was  his  love  of  the 
beautiful.  To  him  art  was  the  handmaiden  of  religion  and  the 
holiness  of  beauty  was  as  sacred  as  the  beauty  of  holiness.  He 
was  one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  very  first,  to  introduce  the 
use  of  pictures  in  the  Church  School.  He  traveled  widely 
and  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  art  treasures  of  the  world. 
Through  his  love  of  beauty  he  became  interested  in  the  Art 
Museum  of  the  city  of  Worcester,  and  in  due  time  was  chosen 
its  President.  He  served  also  as  President  of  the  Worcester 
Art  Society  and  as  a  member  of  the  Public  School  Art  League. 

Next  to  his  influence  in  the  religious  and  artistic  interests 
of  the  community  was  his  concern  for  education.  Early  in  his 
ministry  in  Worcester  he  became  conspicuous  because  of  some 
trenchant  criticisms  of  the  administration  of  the  Public  Schools. 
He  was  soon  called  upon  to  lend  a  hand  in  reforming  the  school 
system.  He  was  elected  to  the  School  Committee  and  for  thir- 
teen years  in  that  capacity  rendered  invaluable  service  to  the 
children  of  the  city.  His  wisdom  and  experience  were  also 
availed  of  by  his  election  to  be  a  trustee  of  Clark  University,  of 
the  Worcester  Polytechnic  Institute  and  of  Leicester  Academy. 
His  interest  in  historical  research  is  attested  by  his  membership 
in  the  American  Antiquarian  Society. 

Nor  was  Mr.  Garver's  interest  confined  to  the  church  he  served 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  to  the  schools  or  the  Art  Museum. 
One  cannot  peruse  the  multitude  of  letters  he  received  without 
realizing  the  large-heartedness  and  wide-spreading  sympathies 
of  the  man.     In  the  words  of  one  of  his  associates:  "He  was 


AUSTIN  SAMUEL  GARVER  149 

a  lovable  man  and  endeared  himself  to  everyone  with  whom  he 
came  in  contact.  ,  .  .  He  loved  children  and  his  fcUowmen; 
he  was  a  friend  of  everyone  and  everyone  was  his  friend."  Es- 
pecially his  brethren  in  the  ministry  had  reason  to  feel  his  friendly 
spirit.  Scarcely  a  year  passed  that  the  Worcester  Association 
of  Ministers  was  not  invited  to  his  hospitable  home  and  delight- 
fully entertained.  Moreover,  he  was  ever  ready  to  listen  to  a 
comrade's  troubles  and  give  him  comfort  and  courage.  Many 
times  throughout  his  ministry  was  the  worth  of  Mr.  Carver's 
service  recognized  by  his  friends  and  parishioners.  But  the 
climax  of  their  esteem  was  expressed,  after  he  had  served  the 
Second  Parish  in  Worcester  for  a  period  of  twenty  years,  in  a 
letter  which  was  handed  to  him  in  behalf  of  the  Church  by  his 
parishioner  and  friend  Stephen  Salisbury,  and  which  reads  in 
part  as  follows: 

"Your  entire  parish,  one  and  all,  send  you  most  sincere  and 
affectionate  greetings  upon  the  twentieth  anniversary  of  your 
connection  with  our  church.  From  the  moment  that  you  as- 
sumed the  responsibilities  of  your  difficult  office,  we  became  aware 
of  the  beautiful  qualities  of  mind  and  heart  that  you  possess, 
the  sincerity,  truthfulness,  and  disinterestedness  of  your  char- 
acter, the  refinement  of  your  cultivated  intellect,  and  your  per- 
sistent devotion  to  what  you  deemed  right  and  best  for  our  true 
interest  and  for  the  good  of  the  community. 

"We  regard  with  great  satisfaction  the  love  of  art  and  poetry 
that  has  manifested  itself  so  noticeably  in  your  connection  with 
our  civic  and  social  life.  Your  efforts  to  create  and  encourage 
a  correct  taste  for  the  beautiful  and  true  in  literature  and  art, 
and  your  careful  preparation  as  a  leader  in  art  studies,  has  made 
you  an  authority  in  these  matters,  and  has  helped  very  much  to 
promote  an  interest  in  the  whole  domain  of  art  in  our  city. 

"The  high  quality  of  your  discourses  and  their  application  to 
the  individual  needs  of  your  parishioners,  and  the  beautiful  dic- 
tion and  finish  of  all  your  public  utterances,  have  created  in  us 
great  admiration  for  your  acknowledged  influence  among  men 
of  every  variety  of  belief,  as  well  as  in  the  councils  of  the  liberal 
faith." 


I50  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE 

For  the  last  eight  years  of  his  Hfe,  though  reheved  of  parish 
responsibihties,  he  continued,  like  his  Master,  going  about  doing 
good.  On  the  day  that  he  died  he  had  conducted  the  funeral 
service  for  a  venerable  friend  in  a  neighboring  town  and  was 
on  his  way  to  the  graduating  exercises  of  Clark  University. 
Wrote  President  G.  Stanley  Hall,  "I  believe  I  was  the  last  per- 
son to  speak  to  him  on  that  fatal  Commencement  Day.  I  had 
scarcely  turned  away  from  him  when  he  fell." 

Associated  with  Mr.  Garver  in  Worcester  was  Calvin  Stebbins  who 
was  born  in  South  Wilbraham,  now  Hampden,  Mass.,  April  22,  1837. 
Brought  up  on  a  farm,  he  had  a  farmer  boy's  knowledge  and  skill,  and 
wherever  he  lived,  his  garden,  tilled,  planted,  and  tended  by  himself,  was 
always  one  of  his  great  satisfactions.  He  attended  Phillips  Exeter  Acad- 
emy, graduated  from  Amherst  College  in  1862,  and  studied  at  the  Harvard 
Divinity  School.  He  left  the  Divinity  School  before  graduation,  and  on 
April  2,  1865,  he  w^as  ordained  as  an  evangelist  at  the  South  Congrega- 
tional Church  in  Boston,  of  which  Edward  Everett  Hale  was  the  minister. 
He  went  immediately  to  Charleston,  S.  C,  and  during  the  first  months  of 
the  reconstruction  period  he  was  the  minister  of  the  Unitarian  church  in 
that  city.  Settlements  followed  in  Chicopee  and  Marlboro,  Mass.,  Detroit, 
Mich.,  Andover  and  Lebanon,  N.  H.,  Worcester,  Mass.,  and  finally  Fram- 
ingham,  where  he  died  on  December  30,  1921. 

His  most  rewarding  pastorate  was  during  the  twelve  years  ( 1 886-1 898) 
that  he  served  the  Church  of  the  Unity  in  Worcester,  but  he  habitually  left 
his  successive  charges  stronger  than  he  found  them.  He  had  a  stalwart 
figure,  a  virile  personality,  and  was  a  powerful  preacher  of  spiritual  reli- 
gion. He  was  a  great  student  of  history,  and  his  sermons  were  almost 
always  illuminated  by  some  dramatic  event  in  history  told  in  such  a  way 
as  to  hold  attention  and  never  to  be  forgotten. 


EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE 

1822-1909 

No  one  who  ever  saw  Edward  Everett  Hale  could  possibly 
forget  him.  No  one  who  knew  him  could  fail  to  be  impressed 
by  his  personality.  Physically  he  was  a  big  man.  He  was  built 
on  generous  lines  and  his  head  was  Homeric.  He  was  large, 
too,  in  his  grasp  of  things.     In  all  his  outlooks  he  enjoyed  a 


EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE  151 

wide  horizon.  It  was  written  of  him  that  "Probably  no  man 
in  America  aroused  and  stimulated  so  many  minds  as  Hale,  and 
his  personal  popularity  was  unbounded." 

Edward  Everett  Hale  was  born  in  Boston  on  April  3,  1822, 
and  through  a  long  line  of  distinguished  ancestors  he  inherited 
the  finest  qualities  of  the  New  England  character.  Nathan 
Hale,  the  patriot  who  died  regretting  only  that  "he  had  but 
one  life  to  give  for  his  country,"  was  his  great-uncle.  His 
mother,  Sarah  Prescott  Everett,  was  the  daughter  of  the  Rev. 
Oliver  Everett  and  the  sister  of  Edward  Everett  for  whom  her 
son  was  named.  At  nine  years  of  age  he  entered  the  Boston 
Latin  School,  and  at  thirteen  he  entered  Harvard  College.  He 
was  the  youngest  member  of  the  Class  of  1839,  and  he  outlived 
all  his  classmates. 

One  of  the  controlling  influences  in  his  career  is  to  be  found 
in  the  fact  that  his  father  was  the  editor  of  a  newspaper,  and 
Dr.  Hale  once  said  of  himself  that  he  was  "cradled  in  the  sheets 
of  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser."  He  began  to  work  for  the 
paper  in  his  boyhood,  both  gathering  news  and  setting  type. 
Journalism  requires  haste  in  preparation  rather  than  careful 
statement  or  precision  of  detail.  Partly  because  of  his  early 
journalistic  training,  Dr.  Hale  was  always  ready  to  write  upon 
a  great  variety  of  subjects  and  he  was  always  reporting,  editing 
and  publishing.  All  his  life  he  contributed  timely  and  cogent 
articles  on  every  sort  of  subject  to  the  periodicals  of  his  day — 
the  North  American  Review,  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  the  Christian 
Register,  the  Outlook,  and  many  more.  He  was  for  several 
years  editor  of  the  Christian  Examiner  and  for  its  entire  lifetime 
editor  of  Old  and  New,  a  magazine  that  he  created  and  sus- 
tained. Every  public  occasion  called  for  his  presence  and  his 
kindling  words.  Although  he  was  always  a  temperance  advo- 
cate, few  public  dinners  were  complete  without  the  wine  of  his 
discourse.  His  speech  had  a  ready  conversational  flow,  but  often 
rose  into  impassioned  eloquence. 

In  college  Hale  found  his  place  naturally  in  the  literary  set, 
won  two  Bowdoin  prizes,  graduated  second  In  his  class,  and  was 
the  Class  Poet.     He  did  not  go  to  the  Divinity  School  but  pre- 


152  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE 

pared  for  the  ministry  by  teaching  in  the  Boston  Latin  School  and 
by  reading  and  studying  under  the  direction  of  his  minister, 
Dr.  Lothrop,  and  the  Rev.  John  G.  Palfrey. 

His  passion  to  be  helpful  appeared  early,  for  in  his  junior 
year  at  college  his  diary  has  this  entry:  "I  went  to  the  Poor 
House  to  see  our  old  Goody  who  has  had  a  stroke  of  palsy." 
One  wonders  how  many  of  his  classmates  rooming  in  that  college 
building  went  to  see  the  paralyzed  old  woman  who  had  made 
their  beds  and  swept  their  rooms.  For  more  than  seventy 
years  after  that  little  considerate  act.  Hale  was  consistently 
going  to  all  sorts  of  out-of-the-way  places  and  wherever  people 
needed  help  and  cheer. 

Hale  was  licensed  to  preach  by  the  Boston  Association  of  Min- 
isters and  in  1846  was  settled  in  the  Church  of  the  Unity  in 
Worcester.  There  began  his  long  and  fruitful  intimacy  with 
Senator  George  F.  Hoar.  Ten  years  later  he  took  charge  of  the 
South  Congregational  Church  in  Boston  and  remained  the  min- 
ister, and  minister  emeritus,  for  fifty-three  years.  Early  in  his 
ministry  a  new  church  was  built,  and  his  congregation  was  one 
of  the  largest  in  Boston. 

Dr.  Hale  was  equally  a  prophet  of  pure  Christianity,  a  social 
reformer  and  a  man  of  letters.  He  was  inherently  versatile, 
unceasingly  active,  and  instinctively  disposed  to  acts  of  helpful- 
ness. It  was  as  natural  to  him  to  want  to  help  a  fellow  creature 
as  it  was  to  write  a  story  or  preach  a  sermon.  He  did  all  three 
things  with  spontaneous  ease,  and  he  did  them  all  three  at  the 
same  time. 

In  1852  Mr.  Hale  married  Emily  Perkins,  a  granddaughter 
of  Lyman  Beecher,  and  they  had  a  large  family  of  brilliant  chil- 
dren. The  hospitable  house  was  open  to  all  sorts  and  condi- 
tions of  people,  regardless  of  race  or  color. 

Needless  to  say  that  Dr.  Hale  possessed  exceptional  physical 
vigor.  He  never  had  any  limitations  of  weakness  or  illness. 
His  intellectual  energy  too  was  ceaseless  and  ran  riot  through 
every  realm.  In  spite  of  his  incessant  service  in  the  ministry. 
Dr.  Hale  was  constantly  busy  as  an  author.  Pens  and  paper 
were  his  playthings.     The  little  book  "A  Man  Without  a  Coun- 


EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE  153 

try,"  made  his  literary  reputation  and  still  continues  the  most 
popular  and  famous  story  that  he  ever  wrote.  So  vivid  is  the 
imaginary  tale  that  it  was  generally  accepted  as  historic.  In 
his  own  opinion  the  best  of  his  stories  was  "In  His  Name."  It 
tells,  as  no  formal  sermon  can  tell,  how  the  Christian  persua- 
sions re-enforce  the  natural  promptings  of  men's  hearts.  The 
story  "Ten  Times  One  Is  Ten"  resulted  in  the  formation  of 
scores  of  "Harry  Wadsworth  Clubs"  and  "Look-up  Legions" 
and  his  motto  for  them  has  an  enduring  imperative :  "Look  up 
and  not  down;  Look  out  and  not  in;  Look  forward  and  not 
back:  and  Lend  a  Hand."  His  historical  writings  were  ani- 
mated and  picturesque,  but  he  cared  more  for  the  general  sweep 
of  events  than  for  accuracy  in  detail.  He  made  history  inter- 
esting but  not  always  precise  as  to  facts.  He  believed  in  origi- 
nal sources,  but  he  was  in  too  much  of  a  hurry  to  seek  for  them. 
In  his  later  years  he  loved  to  remember  and  record  the  memories 
of  his  youth,  and  to  write  biographies  of  the  people  he  had 
loved. 

But  to  many  people  Dr.  Hale  was  more  than  minister  or  man 
of  letters.  He  was  first  and  foremost  a  philanthropist.  He 
championed  all  sorts  of  reform  movements;  every  sphere  of  hu- 
man welfare  knew  his  leadership;  and  in  all  his  plans  he  was  con- 
structive and  optimistic.  He  believed  that  a  Christian  minis- 
ter's first  function  was  to  engage  in  Christian  work.  He  was  not 
a  violent  or  critical  censor  of  wrong  but  a  day-by-day  worker 
for  the  right.  He  was  a  general  practitioner  rather  than  a  spe- 
cialist— a  friend  of  all  good  movements.  He  was  "not  an 
abolitionist,  nor  a  prohibitionist,  nor  a  socialist,  nor  was  he  en- 
rolled in  the  ranks  of  their  opponents."  He  did  not  belong  to 
any  organized  body  of  reformers  except  the  Christian  Church. 

There  was  one  conspicuous  exception  to  this  rule.  As  early 
as  1 87 1  he  published  in  Old  and  New  an  article  on  "The  United 
States  of  Europe,"  and  in  1885  he  began  to  preach  about  the 
need  for  a  Supreme  Court  of  the  Nations.  In  1889  in  the 
course  of  a  sermon  called  "The  Twentieth  Century"  he  went 
into  the  details  of  his  proposal  for  a  permanent  International 
Tribunal.     This  plan  and  prophecy  he  repeated  frequently,  and 


154  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE 

he  got  people  all  over  the  country  familiar  with  the  thought  and 
the  principle.  He  started  a  little  paper,  The  Peace  Crusade, 
and  he  sent  monthly  broadsides  to  hundreds  of  newspaper  offices 
all  advocating  the  "Confederacy  of  the  World."  He  was  thirty 
years  ahead  of  his  time  and  did  not  live  to  see  his  prophecy  ful- 
filled. The  international  court  was  finally  organized  in  the  cen- 
tennial year  of  its  prophet. 

Many  were  the  public  duties  entrusted  to  Dr.  Hale.  He 
served  two  terms  as  an  Overseer  of  Harvard  College  and  was 
a  member  of  the  first  Board  of  Preachers  to  the  University. 
Honorary  degrees  came  to  him  from  many  colleges.  In  1903 
he  was  appointed  Chaplain  to  the  United  States  Senate  and 
spent  the  winters  of  his  latter  years  in  Washington.  In  his 
hands  the  office  of  Chaplain  took  on  a  dignity  and  significance  it 
never  had  before.  The  prayers  were  unconventional,  familiar 
and  impressive.  He  was  always  an  outspoken  Unitarian  and  he 
had  an  intense  loyalty  to  the  Congregational  tradition.  The 
Pilgrim  Covenant  was  his  sufficient  creed. 

Dr.  Hale  continued  in  unabated  vigor  of  body,  mind  and  spirit 
until  his  death,  sitting  in  his  library  at  his  home  in  Roxbury,  on 
June  10,  1909. 

Edward  Hale  was  ordained  Associate  Minister  with  Dr.  Edward 
Everett  Hale  by  the  South  Congregational  (Unitarian)  Church,  Boston, 
on  October  14,  1886.  Mr.  Hale  was  born  in  Northampton,  Massachu- 
setts, on  February  22,  1858,  the  son  of  William  Bainbridge  and  Amelia 
Porter  Hale.  He  prepared  for  college  at  Phillips  Exeter  Academy,  New 
Hampshire,  and  received  his  A.B.  from  Harvard  with  the  Class  of  1879. 
After  two  years  in  Italy  and  after  early  study  in  architecture  he  entered  the 
Harvard  Divinity  School,  receiving  the  degree  of  S.T.B.  in  1886.  On 
April  2,  1 89 1,  he  became  the  first  minister  of  the  First  Unitarian  Church 
of  Essex  County,  in  Orange,  New  Jersey,  where  he  remained  until  July  i, 
1897.  From  October  3,  1897,  until  his  death,  March  27,  1918,  he  was 
minister  of  the  First  Church  in  Chestnut  Hill,  Massachusetts.  In  Orange 
he  was  the  architect  of  the  first  church  building;  and  in  Chestnut  Hill  he 
worked  closely  with  the  architect  of  a  new  church.  In  1888,  while  in 
Orange,  he  became  Assistant  and  later  Assistant  Professor  of  Homiletics 
in  the  Harvard  Divinity  School,  teaching  there  until  1906.  On  June  19, 
1889,  he  married  Emily  Jose  Milliken  of  Boston;  there  were  two  children, 
Emily  Hale  and  William  Peabody  Hale. 


EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE  155 

IVIr.  Hale  had  a  clear,  orderly,  scholarly  mind,  which  led  to  the  offer 
of  Principalship  of  his  own  preparatory  school  in  Exeter ;  and  to  the  Presi- 
dency of  the  Aleadville  Theoloj2;ical  School.  He  was  endowed  with  a 
devout  spiritual  nature  and  the  instinct  of  true  pastoral  care  for  the  churches 
he  served;  a  gift  which  was  transmitted  to  and  most  gratefully  recognized 
by  the  many  students  who  came  under  his  homiletical  inspiration. 

Dr.  Charles  Carroll  Everett  was  Professor  of  Theology  in  the  Harvard 
Divinity  School  from  1869  and  Dean  from  1878  to  igoo,  where  his  lectures 
marked  a  definite  epoch  in  the  theological  life  of  the  School.  Unfortu- 
nately he  never  left  manuscripts  of  his  lectures.  To  Mr.  Hale  was  given 
the  task  of  preserving  and  editing  the  work  of  Dr.  Everett.  The  first  book 
was  published  by  Harvard  College  with  the  title,  "The  Psychological  Ele- 
ments of  Religious  Faith"  (Alacmillan,  1902).  A  much  fuller  course  was 
also  published  by  the  college,  "Theism  and  the  Christian  Faith"  (Macmil- 
lan,  1909),  comprising  some  ninety  lectures  whose  treatment  had  varied 
from  j'ear  to  year.  All  this  material  had  to  be  collected  from  students' 
notes,  from  memory  and  brief  records.  To  this  work  Mr.  Hale  brought 
understanding,  judgment  and  consecrated  labor. 

Edward  Cummings  was  the  son  of  Edward  Norris  and  Lucretia  Frances 
(Merrill)  Cummings  and  was  born  at  Colebrook,  N.  H.,  April  20,  1861. 
He  received  his  A.B.  at  Harvard  in  1883  and  A.M.  in  1885.  Then  fol- 
lowed three  years  of  sociological  study  in  Europe  as  the  first  incumbent  of 
the  Robert  Treat  Paine  Fellowship  in  Social  Science.  The  most  significant 
episode  in  his  study  of  European  economic  conditions  and  philanthropic 
agencies  was  his  year's  residence  at  Toynbee  Hall  in  East  London,  where 
Canon  Barnett  w^as  doing  his  brave  pioneering  work.  He  came  home  to 
take  up  teaching  at  Harvard,  first  as  instructor  in  economics  and  then 
(1893— 1900)  as  Assistant  Professor  of  sociology.  During  this  period  he 
was  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics. 

He  had  long  been  attracted  to  the  ministry  and  in  1900  he  was  ordained 
and  became  the  assistant  of  Dr.  Hale.  The  relations  of  the  older  and  the 
younger  man  were  most  cordial  and"  co-operative  and  when  Dr.  Hale  died 
Mr.  Cummings  became  his  successor.  In  1925  the  church  was  merged  with 
the  historic  First  Church  and  Mr.  Cummings  became  minister  emeritus. 

He  was  a  lifelong  servant  of  good  causes,  a  lover  of  justice,  of  his  country, 
and  of  mankind.     He  died  on  November  2,  1926. 


156  BROOKE  HERFORD 

BROOKE  HERFORD 

1 830-1 903 

Brooke  Herford  was  unique  in  the  following  that  he  won,  and 
the  service  that  he  rendered  both  in  England  and  in  the  United 
States.  Born  in  1830  in  the  town  of  Altrincham,  England,  he 
filled  seventy-three  years  with  a  zest  for  living,  blessed  many 
people  with  his  spiritual  insight  and  practical  common  sense, 
lent  his  organizing  genius  to  many  worthy  causes,  secular  and 
religious,  and  left  behind  him  countless  admirers  who  remem- 
bered him  as  a  beloved  friend  and  a  heartening  preacher. 

Brooke  was  the  eighth  child  and  youngest  son  of  John  and 
Sarah  Herford.  His  mother  died  when  he  was  only  about  two 
years  old.  She  had  already  exercised  a  wide  influence  as  a 
teacher  and  endowed  her  children  with  many  fine  qualities  and 
talents.  She  was  the  daughter  of  Edward  Smith  of  Birming- 
ham, who  was  a  member  of  the  Unitarian  church  where  Dr. 
Joseph  Priestley  ministered,  and  from  which  he  was  driven  by 
a  riotous  mob  in  1791.  The  father,  John  Herford,  was  a  mer- 
chant, vigorous  and  enterprising.  Brooke  received  his  earliest 
education  in  Manchester  at  the  school  of  an  eminent  scholar  and 
Unitarian  minister,  the  Rev.  John  Relly  Beard.  At  fourteen  he 
left  school  and  went  into  his  father's  countinghouse,  where  he 
remained  for  four  years.  He  always  claimed  that  this  experi- 
ence in  business  did  more  to  make  a  man  of  him,  "a  man  as  the 
foundation  of  a  minister,  than  all  the  special  training  of  the 
Divinity  course  at  College."  Soon  he  was  busy  in  the  Sunday 
School,  and  also  at  Mosley  Street  Mission  School,  and  his  first 
profoundly  influential  friendship  had  been  formed,  that  with 
Philip  Carpenter,  then  minister  at  Warrington.  Carpenter  dis- 
cussed everything  with  him  and  got  him  to  thinking  about  be- 
coming a  minister.  His  father  gave  him  no  encouragement  at 
first,  and  rather  ridiculed  the  whole  idea.  He  did  not  make  the 
break  right  away,  but  continuing  in  the  countinghouse,  spent  his 
spare  hours  diligently  trying  to  prepare  himself  for  college. 
Presently  he  met  two  more  people,  destined  to  influence  his  life 


BROOKE  HERFORD  157 

very  greatly.  The  first  was  Travers  Madge,  who  had  come 
to  assume  general  direction  of  the  Mosley  Street  Sch6ol  and 
who  shared  his  most  intimate  thoughts  with  young  Herford. 
Madge's  piety  and  unselfishness  made  a  deep  impression  upon 
Brooke  and  confirmed  his  desire  to  enter  the  ministry. 

At  eighteen  he  entered  Manchester  New  College,  now  at 
Oxford  but  then  at  Manchester,  where  he  found  a  truly  liberal 
spirit.  He  lived  a  frugal  life,  and  perseveringly  prepared  him- 
self for  preaching  and  the  parish  ministry,  feeling  particularly 
blessed  by  the  presence  of  such  men  as  James  Martineau  and 
Francis  William  Newman.  At  twenty-one  he  started  preaching 
regularly  at  Todmorden  in  Yorkshire  and,  as  the  college  authori- 
ties could  not  sanction  this  arrangement,  he  decided  to  withdraw 
from  the  college  and  become  the  settled  minister  of  the  church. 
He  came  into  close  contact  with  the  working  people,  and  be- 
friended their  interests,  but  he  was  also  courageous  and  quick 
to  rebuke  the  labor  organizers  when  they  resorted  to  violence. 

The  second  person  who,  after  Travers  Madge,  influenced 
Brooke  Herford's  life  profoundly  was  Hannah  Hankinson.  They 
were  married  in  1852 — after  he  had  been  six  months  at  Tod- 
morden— and  she  became  his  true  helpmate,  sharing  with  him 
both  his  struggles  and  his  triumphs.  They  were  both  strong 
personalities,  but  they  enjoyed  a  perfectly  harmonious  relation- 
ship with  each  other,  and  provided  a  happy  home  for  nine  chil- 
dren. Sometimes  when  he  could  not  give  as  much  help  finan- 
cially as  he  wished  to  to  chapels  and  societies  that  were  soliciting 
aid,  he  would  say,  "I  have  contributed  nine  little  Unitarians  to 
the  cause,  and  I  can't  afford  much  more."  As  it  turned  out, 
that  was  a  very  substantial  contribution. 

Together  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Herford  wrought  at  Todmorden 
for  five  years,  with  a  salary  probably  equivalent  to  about  a  thou- 
sand dollars  a  year.  Their  next  charge  was  at  the  Upper  Chapel, 
in  the  busy  manufacturing  city  of  Shefl^eld,  a  parish  deservedly 
proud  of  its  history,  and  of  its  social  standing  in  the  community. 
Here  Mr.  Herford  developed  into  the  powerful  personality  for 
which  he  was  later  known,  and  here  he  preached  as  good  ser- 
mons, it  is  said,  as  were  ever  put  out  in  his  maturer  years.     He 


158  BROOKE  HERFORD 

became  active  in  denominational  as  well  as  community  affairs, 
but  never  neglected  his  very  careful  pulpit  preparation.  While 
in  Sheffield  he  carried  on  missionary  work  extensively  in  the 
nearby  Yorkshire  villages,  and  organized  a  band  of  lay  preach- 
ers to  help  him.  Some  of  these  laymen  later  became  ministers 
themselves;  they  were  but  the  first  of  many  young  men  whom  he 
started,  steered,  or  quickened  in  this  direction. 

After  a  pastorate  of  nine  years — he  held  the  conviction  that 
no  minister  ought  to  remain  in  any  parish  more  than  ten  years — 
he  resigned  a  pastorate  in  which  he  had  been  eminently  success- 
ful and  moved  to  a  parish  where  he  would  receive  a  smaller  sal- 
ary than  he  had  been  getting  at  Sheffield,  though  probably  a 
larger  field  of  service.  The  new  parish  was  the  Strangeways 
Free  Church  in  Manchester.  There  he  spent  eleven  fruitful 
years.  He  was  engrossed  in  his  immediate  tasks,  but  also  was 
tutor  at  the  Home  Missionary  College,  a  champion  of  social 
justice  in  the  community,  and  editor  by  conscription  of  a  history 
of  Lancashire,  while  the  frugal  little  home  continued  to  overflow 
with  hospitality.  Toward  the  end  of  these  eleven  years  his 
health  began  to  break.  Then  it  was  upon  the  advice  of  a  York- 
shireman,  Robert  Collyer,  then  minister  of  Unity  Church  in 
Chicago,  that  the  congregation  of  the  Church  of  the  Messiah 
asked  Brooke  Herford  to  come  across  the  sea.  It  was  a  pain- 
ful and  somewhat  hazardous  move  but  Brooke  Herford  soon 
took  delight  in  the  vigor  and  vitality  of  Chicago  and  in  the 
enterprise  and  breezy  frankness  of  the  people.  He  enjoyed 
his  ministry  there  and  was  vastly  successful  in  the  task  of  pre- 
senting the  truths  and  principles  of  religion  to  a  mixed  and  migra- 
tory congregation  bent  largely  upon  worldly  success.  He  had 
been  there  almost  seven  years  when  he  received  a  call  from  the 
Arlington  Street  Church  in  Boston.  It  offered  him  a  somewhat 
more  comfortable  life,  which  he  did  not  want  but  which  would 
do  him  no  harm,  and  to  enter  into  the  tradition  of  Channing  and 
Gannett  was  an  invitation  he  could  not  refuse.  The  settlement 
was  fortunate  for  Boston  also.  Two  blocks  from  Arlington 
Street,  Phillips  Brooks  was  at  the  zenith  of  his  power  and  fame 
at  Trinity  Church.     Equally  near  by  was  George  A.  Gordon  at 


BROOKE  HERFORD  159 

the  new  Old  South  Church.  Brooke  Herford  was  a  worthy 
member  of  this  trio  and  they  worked  Intimately  and  liapplly 
together. 

Herford  preached  twice  every  Sunday  with  the  large  audito- 
rium of  the  Church  often  so  full  that  people  were  sitting  on  the 
pulpit  stairs.  Occasionally,  to  be  sure,  some  of  the  people  at 
the  Vesper  Service  would  get  up  to  leave  as  the  musical  program 
ended,  and  just  before  the  sermon  began.  Once,  as  this  hap- 
pened, Mr.  Herford  said  from  the  pulpit,  "Let  us  suspend  our 
Service  for  a  moment,  until  those  children  who  cannot  sit  for  an 
hour  have  left  the  Church."  He  preached  also  upon  innumer- 
able special  occasions,  and  was  in  wide  demand.  He  was  one 
of  the  original  members  of  the  Board  of  Preachers  at  Harvard 
University,  and  the  university  awarded  him  an  honorary  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Divinity.  He  served  as  a  member  of  the  Board  of 
Directors  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association,  and  as  an 
officer  of  the  old  National  Conference  of  Unitarian  and  Other 
Christian  Churches,  and  he  originated  the  exceedingly  useful 
Church  Building  Loan  Fund.  He  never  disguised  his  Unitarian- 
ism,  but  he  always  stood  in  sympathetic  relations  with  liberal 
orthodoxy.  He  was  particularly  concerned  with  bringing  the 
right  and  left  wings  of  Congregationalism  closer  together. 

During  his  Boston  pastorate  he  had  long  summer  vacations. 
He  and  his  family,  when  they  did  not  go  abroad,  went  out  to 
Wayland  where  they  had  acquired  a  home.  Here,  "far  from 
the  madding  crowd,"  they  were  refreshed  and  reinvigorated. 
They  began  each  day  in  the  cozy  breakfast  room,  with  vines  and 
flowers  hanging  outside  the  windows,  by  meeting  together,  par- 
ents and  children  in  prayer,  so  devout  and  tender  that  a  stran- 
ger could  hardly  listen  to  it  without  tears.  But  the  days  were 
filled  with  gayety  as  well  as  with  reverence;  the  children  had 
their  charades — there  were  poets,  actors,  and  philosophers 
among  them — and  their  music  and  their  merriment.  One  parish- 
ioner sent  Dr.  Herford  a  cow  for  the  summer,  and  another  a 
horse.  He  was  proud  of  his  garden  and  his  orchard,  and 
worked  well  with  his  hands  on  any  practical  project.  Friends, 
in  the  city  and  in  the  country,  were  always  pouring  in  and  out. 


i6o  BROOKE  HERFORD 

His  Boston  pastorate  was  the  longest  that  he  held  except  for 
Manchester,  though  a  few  months  short  of  ten  years'  duration. 
In  spite  of  the  comforts  that  he  enjoyed,  the  weight  of  the  bur- 
dens began  to  tell  on  his  health.  It  was  evident  that  both  he 
and  Mrs.  Herford  were  beginning  to  grow  old.  Perhaps  it  was 
time  to  go  back  to  England.  He  had  a  call  from  Rosslyn-HIU 
Chapel,  Hampstead,  London.  The  question  of  going  or  stay- 
ing was  freely  discussed.  Ties  in  Boston  with  his  own  parish- 
ioners and  with  his  brother  ministers  were  very  strong,  as  were 
ties  now  throughout  the  country,  but  a  deep  sense  of  duty  made 
it  obvious  to  his  friends  that  he  would  return  to  England. 

At  Hampstead  honors  were  heaped  upon  him.  He  was  the 
same  Brooke  Herford  that  they  had  known  before  in  England, 
only  mellowed  and  deepened,  and  with  the  added  prestige  of  his 
American  ministry.  He  took  up  his  duties  with  a  fresh  enthusi- 
asm. He  was  elected  president  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Uni- 
tarian Association,  and  doubled  the  income  of  that  organization. 
He  was  elected  to  the  committee  of  Manchester  New  College. 
In  1897  he  represented  the  Unitarians  at  Queen  Victoria's  Dia- 
mond Jubilee.  Once  he  returned  to  America  for  a  brief  visit, 
giving  the  famous  Dudleian  Lecture  at  Harvard  and  preaching 
at  Arlington  Street  Church. 

Dr.  Herford  retired  from  the  active  ministry  after  fifty  years 
of  strenuous  and  noble  service.  Shortly  after,  he  had  a  stroke, 
and  then,  grateful  for  all  that  life  had  given  him  and  confident 
of  the  future,  he  listened  on  Sunday  evening,  December  21,  1903, 
to  the  old  familiar  hymns  sung  by  his  dear  ones,  as  they  had 
been  sung  so  often  at  the  close  of  the  Sabbath  day,  and  then 
said  good-bye.  The  funeral  was  held  In  Rosslyn-HIU  Chapel, 
Hampstead,  and  was  conducted  by  his  ministerial  friends.  The 
ashes  were  burled  beside  those  of  his  wife  by  the  little  chapel  at 
Hale,  Cheshire,  where,  fifty-one  years  before,  they  had  pledged 
their  marriage  vows. 

Herford  was  a  great  preacher,  a  great  organizer,  and  a  great 
friend.  His  books — "A  Protestant  Poor  Friar:  The  Life-Story 
of  Travers  Madge,"  "The  Story  of  Religion  in  England,"  "Ser- 
mons of  Courage  and  Cheer,"  "The  Small  End  of  Great  Prob- 


FREDERICK  LUCIAN  HOSMER  i6i 

lems,"  "Anchors  of  the  Soul" — though  carefully  and  systemati- 
cally organized,  were  the  natural  fruit  of  his  life,  rather  than  the 
product  of  research.  He  knew  humble  folk,  and  loved  them, 
and  he  knew  people  of  affluence  and  loved  them.  With  St.  Paul 
he  could  say,  "I  know  how  to  be  abased,  and  I  know  also  how  to 
abound:  in  everything  and  in  all  things  have  I  learned  the  secret 
both  to  be  filled  and  to  be  hungry,  both  to  abound  and  to  be  in 
want."  But  whether  he  was  filled  or  hungry,  his  character  re- 
mained the  same.  Herford  was,  in  the  best  sense,  a  man  of  the 
world.  He  knew,  that  is,  what  human  nature  is  like  and  what 
it  is  capable  of.  He  knew  life's  temptations  and  follies  and 
also  its  raptures  and  heroisms.  He  was,  as  one  friend  remarked, 
"a  preacher  who  was  both  a  poet  and  a  good  man  of  business." 
His  enthusiasms  were  eminently  contagious,  his  kindly  humor 
was  penetrating.  He  was  open-handed  and  open-hearted  and 
all  that  he  said  and  did  was  animated  by  a  vital  sincerity.  Inter- 
course with  him  was  always  Invigorating.  "His  devoutness,"  ac- 
cording to  his  English  colleague,  Philip  Wicksteed,  "was  never 
a  plant  that  needed  a  sheltered  atmosphere,  and  the  protection 
of  hallowed  associations.  It  was  a  primal  emotion,  robust  and 
rejoicing  in  the  open  air."  His  religion  was  not  otherworldly, 
but  it  raised  this  world  to  ever  higher  levels,  and  made  it  seem 
a  more  heavenly  place. 


FREDERICK  LUCIAN  HOSMER 

1840-1929 

Many  people  think  of  the  Unitarian  movement  as  primarily 
a  theological  revolt,  as  "intellectual"  rather  than  spiritual,  as 
"moral"  rather  than  religious.  But  the  remarkable  stream  of 
noble  religious  poetry  that  has  flowed  from  writers  bred  in  the 
rational  piety  of  the  Unitarians  discloses  and  proclaims  that 
Unitarianism  is  primarily  the  utterance  of  a  spiritual  idealism. 
It  has  been  justly  said  that  "beneath  the  vigorous  rationalism  of 
the  Unitarians  there  is  a  deeper  movement  of  religious  life,  a 


i62  FREDERICK  LUCIAN  HOSMER 

consciousness  of  God  that  none  but  a  poet  can  utter,  a  spiritual 
lineage  that  unites  these  modern  minds  to  the  great  company  of 
witnesses  of  the  real  presence,  the  fellowship  of  the  Church  of 
the  Spirit." 

The  hymns  of  the  Unitarian  "Heralds"  are  sung  in  the  churches 
of  all  denominations,  even  where  membership  would  be  denied 
to  the  writers.  Of  the  major  American  poets-,  Bryant,  Emerson, 
Holmes,  Longfellow,  and  Lowell  were  Unitarians.  Poet- 
preachers  like  Bulfinch,  Clarke,  Foote,  Frothingham,  Furness, 
Hedge,  Johnson,  Livermore,  S.  Longfellow,  Norton,  Parker, 
Pierpont,  Sears,  and  Ware  are  commemorated  in  Volume  IIL 
Sketches  of  their  noteworthy  successors  in  this  field  of  service — 
Beach,  Blake,  Chadwick,  Collyer,  Gannett,  Savage,  Wendte, 
Williams,  and  Wilson — are  contained  in  this  volume.*  Out- 
standing in  this  remarkable  company  was  Frederick  Lucian 
Hosmer,  who  was  born  in  Framingham,  Mass.,  on  October  i6, 
1840,  the  son  of  Charles  and  Susan  Hosmer.  He  graduated 
from  Harvard  College  in  1862  and  from  the  Harvard  Divinity 
School  in  1869.  On  October  26  of  the  latter  year,  he  was 
ordained  minister  of  the  First  Congregational  Church  (Uni- 
tarian) of  Northborough,  Mass.,  where  he  remained  for  three 
years.  Thereafter  he  was  minister  of  the  First  Unitarian  Church 
of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  1 878-1 892;  of  the  Church  of  the  Unity, 
St.  Louis,  Missouri,  1 894-1 899;  and  of  the  First  Unitarian 
Church  of  Berkeley,  California,  1900-1915,  and  minister  emeri- 
tus until  his  death  at  Berkeley  on  June  7,  1929. 

In  the  Divinity  School  he  attached  himself  to  a  group  of  pro- 
gressive fellow  students,  among  whom  was  William  C.  Gannett, 
who  became  his  intimate  and  lifelong  friend.  In  their  views  of 
religion,  in  their  abilities  as  the  writers  of  hymns,  and  as  the 
editors  of  a  hymnbook  which  should  give  adequate  utterance  in 
song  to  their  views,  these  two  friends  offer  a  striking  parallel  to 
that  other  pair  of  young  radicals,  Samuel  Johnson  and  Samuel 

*  In  the  Hymns  of  the  Spirit  published  in  1937,  the  hymn  writers  of  whom  bio- 
graphical sketches  appear  in  this  book  are  represented  as  follows — Beach  by  one 
hymn,  Blake  by  two,  Chadwick  by  ten,  Collyer  by  one,  Gannett  by  seven,  Hosmer 
by  thirty-five.  Savage  by  four,  Mrs.  Spencer  by  one,  Wendte  by  one,  Williams  by 
eleven,  Wilson  by  one. 


FREDERICK  LUCIAN  HOSMER  163 

Longfellow,  who  had  graduated  from  the  Divinity  School  some 
twenty  years  earlier.  And  as  Samuel  Longfellow  was  tiie  fore- 
most American  hymn  writer  of  tlie  middle  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, so  Frederick  Hosmer  became  outstanding  in  its  closing 
decades. 

It  was  not  until  he  approached  middle  life  that  he  began  to 
write  hymns.  In  his  earlier  years  he  was  known  as  a  beloved 
pastor  and  an  acceptable  preacher,  his  most  successful  pastorate 
being  that  in  Cleveland,  where  he  built  up  a  strong  and  influ- 
ential church.  Buchtel  College  made  him  a  Doctor  of  Divinity 
in  1887. 

In  1880  Hosmer,  Gannett  and  James  Vila  Blake  compiled  and 
edited  "Unity  Hymns  and  Chorals,"  a  hymnbook  which  had  a 
considerable  circulation  in  its  day  and  of  which  a  revised  edition 
was  brought  out  in  191 1.  In  1886  Hosmer  and  Gannett  pub- 
lished "The  Thought  of  God  in  Hymns  and  Poems,"  a  book 
which  contained  fifty-six  pieces  by  Hosmer.  These  two  books 
are  the  source  books  for  his  and  Gannett's  hymns,  but  their  habit 
of  revising  their  hymns,  even  after  publication,  often  resulted  in 
a  final  form  different  from  that  in  which  they  originally  appeared. 
Hosmer,  especially,  was  no  facile  versemaker  but  a  poet  intent 
on  making  his  hymns  as  perfect  an  expression  of  his  thought  as 
possible.  He  had  a  wide  knowledge  of  hymnody  and  sound  theo- 
ries of  hymn  construction  which  he  expounded  In  lectures  at  the 
Harvard  Divinity  School  in  1908.  His  hymns  are  the  expres- 
sion of  a  cheerful  faith  and  are  carefully  wrought  out  in  simple 
and  facile  forms  which  do  not  disclose  the  labor  and  care  which 
went  Into  their  making. 

They  began  to  find  their  way  into  hymnbooks  before  1900. 
"The  New  Hymn  and  Tune  Book"  (19 14)  contains  thirty-three 
by  him;  "Hymns  of  the  Spirit"  ( 1937)  contains  thirty-five,  more 
than  by  any  other  author.  "The  English  Songs  of  Praise,"  ed- 
ited by  the  Anglican  Canon  Dearmer,  contains  seven.  Canon 
Dearmer,  the  foremost  English  authority  on  hymnology,  calls 
Hosmer's  hymn — 

O  Thou  in  all  thy  might  so  far, 


i64  JENKIN  LLOYD  JONES 

"this  flawless  poem,  one  of  the  completest  expressions  of  reli- 
gious faith,"  and  his  hymn 

Thy  kingdom  come  —  on  bended  knee 
The  passing  ages  pray, 

(written  for  the  1891  Commencement  of  the  MeadvIUe  Theo- 
logical School),  "one  of  the  noblest  hymns  in  the  language." 

Hosmer  was  felicitous  in  writing  for  special  occasions,  the  most 
notable  instance  being  his  great  hymn 

O  prophet  souls  of  all  the  years, 

written  for  the  Parliament  of  Religions  held  in  Chicago  in  1893, 
a  perfect  expression  of  the  spirit  of  that  meeting.  But  he  wrote 
in  no  less  moving  verse  of  his  deep  faith  in  God,  and  of  the 
confident  trust  with  which  he  faced  death. 

Frederick  Hosmer  was  a  man  of  highest  ethical  standards  and 
keen  religious  insight.  He  was  never  married,  but  he  was  a 
beloved  friend  and  a  delightful  companion  who  could  entertain 
with  witty  impromptu  verse  as  well  as  illuminate  conversation 
with  profound  thought.  Esteemed  as  he  was  as  a  parish  min- 
ister, his  hymns  were  the  great  and  lasting  contribution  which 
he  made  to  the  religious  life  of  his  time.  He  stands  with  Samuel 
Longfellow  as  the  greatest  of  American  hymn  writers  in  the  high 
quality  of  his  verse  and  the  thought  it  enshrines. 


JENKIN  LLOYD  JONES 

1843-1918 

Nine  months  after  the  Sixth  Wisconsin  Light  Artillery  had 
gone  to  the  front  in  '61  a  group  of  new  recruits  was  called  for. 
Among  them  was  a  boy  too  young  to  go  out  when  the  battery 
was  first  mustered.  It  had  been  his  hope  after  finishing  at  the 
Spring  Green  Academy  to  go  to  the  youthful  college  forty  miles 
away.  But  war  prevented.  One  day  in  August  1862  he  dropped 
the  oat  bundles  he  was  binding  and  enlisted.     For  three  days 


JENKIN  LLOYD  JONES  165 

this  boy  soldier  slept  and  drilled  at  Camp  Randall,  then  a  pleasant 
pasture,  now  the  athletic  stadium  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin. 
That  was  as  near  that  great  university  as  Private  Jenk  Jones 
ever  got  until  forty-seven  years  later  when  the  university  hon- 
ored itself  and  him  by  conferring  upon  him  its  highest  degree. 

As  the  soldier  boy  marched  across  the  embryo  metropolis  of 
the  West  to  take  his  train  for  the  battlefields,  the  wonder  of 
Chicago  played  upon  his  imaginative  mind.  Through  three 
years  of  war  that  picture  of  a  growing  city  focused  into  the  re- 
solve that  some  day  he  would  be  a  preacher  there. 

Twenty  years  before  this  preacher-minded  boy  faced  his  first 
battle  in  the  marshlands  of  Mississippi,  two  middle-aged  Welsh- 
men might  have  been  seen  of  a  summer  evening  smoking  their 
pipes  before  the  door  of  a  stone  cottage  on  the  rounded  pas- 
tured hills  at  Blaencatla  in  Cardiganshire.  These  two  brothers, 
Richard  Lloyd  Jones,  the  father  of  the  soldier-preacher,  and  his 
bachelor  brother,  Jenkin,  for  whom  the  boy  was  named,  talked 
often,  long  and  late  about  the  larger  land  of  opportunity.  Rich- 
ard and  Jenkin  were  religious  liberals  in  an  atmosphere  so  thick 
with  Presbyterian  orthodoxy  that  "you  could  cut  it  out  of  the 
air  in  square  chunks  with  a  knife."  It  was  less  of  a  risk  for  the 
unburdened  brother  to  move  than  for  the  father  of  a  growing 
family.  So  first  "Uncle  Jenkin"  came  as  pathfinder  to  America. 
One  year  later,  with  their  six  children,  Richard  and  Mary  Lloyd 
Jones  came,  the  baby  one  year  old  on  November  14,  1844,  the 
day  they  landed  at  Castle  Garden.  America  was  Jenkin  Lloyd 
Jones'  first  birthday  present. 

A  Hudson  River  steamboat  carried  the  immigrant  group  to 
Albany.  On  the  chill  November  ride  up  river,  the  Welsh  peasant 
mother  huddled  her  brood  of  six  close  to  the  side  of  the  smoke- 
stack on  deck,  the  warmest  place  she  could  find.  Three  times 
a  uniformed  officer  of  the  boat  took  the  bewildered  little  woman 
back  to  what  was  to  her  a  cabin  too  gorgeous  for  humble  hill 
folk.  She  could  not  realize  that  the  circling  staircases,  paneled 
mirrors,  carpets  and  cushioned  seats  symbolized  America. 

On  Christmas  Day  near  Utica  they  laid  away  in  the  new-found 
land  the  little  three-year  sister  Nannie,  who  had  sickened  of 


i66  JENKIN  LLOYD  JONES 

diphtheria,  and  then  went  on  westward.  Near  the  little  town 
of  Ixonia,  Wisconsin,  the  pilot  brother  Jenkin  died.  There  was 
no  preacher  of  their  liberal  faith  to  speak  at  the  bier  of  this 
simple  pioneer.  In  the  clearing  of  a  virgin  forest  brother 
Richard  raised  his  voice  in  reverent  hymn  and  bowed  his  head 
in  prayer. 

Further  west  the  family  pressed  and  finally  settled  on  the  banks 
of  the  Wisconsin  River.  It  was  near  there  that  the  preacher- 
minded  boy  taught  country  school  before  he  went  to  war.  In 
that  war,  fighting  for  what  seemed  to  him  a  holy  cause,  he  was 
engaged  in  eleven  battles  of  first  rank,  including  the  Siege  of 
Vicksburg,  Corinth,  Holly  Springs,  Lookout  Mountain  and  Mis- 
sionary Ridge.  At  the  last  he  received  the  Injury  that  caused 
him  always  to  carry  a  cane.  It  was  during  his  three  years' 
soldiery,  a  service  that  was  a  never-ending  source  of  Inspiration 
to  him,  that  he  became  a  great  Lincoln  lover,  finding  in  the  spirit 
of  the  martyred  President  the  tender  strength  and  the  breadth 
of  sympathy  that  to  him  were  righteousness. 

Returning  from  war,  he  again  made  the  march  from  station 
to  station  through  the  streets  of  growing  Chicago.  It  was  then 
he  riveted  down  the  resolve  of  three  years  before.  At  Madison 
the  battery  was  drawn  up  at  parade  rest  In  front  of  the  little 
station  from  which  was  soon  to  depart  the  train  that  was  to 
carry  them  the  last  lap  of  their  return.  These  returning  soldiers 
were  waiting  for  their  discharge  papers.  There  was  delay. 
The  train  waited — an  hour,  two  hours — and  still  the  papers 
did  not  come.  The  conductor  decided  he  could  hold  the  train 
no  longer,  eager  though  he  was  to  accommodate  the  boys  In  blue. 
He  shouted,  "All  aboard."  The  whistle  blew.  There  was  no 
command.  That  train  was  going  home.  Instinctively  the  boys 
broke  ranks  and  ran  for  the  cars.  The  captain  saw  his  well- 
drilled  battery  break  In  disorder.  Then  he  too  swung  onto  the 
last  platform  of  the  departing  train.  Some  two  weeks  later  they 
went  back  to  the  capital  to  be  mustered  out.  But  the  boys  got 
home  on  the  evening  of  the  third  of  July.  Next  day,  Jenkin 
Lloyd  Jones  made  his  first  public  appearance,  reading  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  at  a  Fourth  of  July  celebration.     During 


JENKIN  LLOYD  JONES  167 

his  three  years  at  war  he  had  received  $604.97  In  army  pay. 
Of  this,  he  had  sent  home  $445.  A  Httle  over  a  hundred  dollars 
In  cash  he  brought  with  him.  Also  during  his  years  of  service 
this  boy  did  the  unusual  thing  of  keeping  in  his  knapsack  a  diary 
In  which,  with  almost  unfailing  regularity,  he  wrote  daily.  Years 
later  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society  Issued  In  book  form  this 
remarkable  and  simple  war  record  of  a  private. 

One  day  of  that  home-coming  summer  Jenk  threw  down  his 
rake  in  the  field,  walked  in  to  the  humble  farm  home  and  told 
his  mother  that  he  had  been  corresponding  with  a  school  In 
Meadvllle,  Pennsylvania.  He  was  going  there  to  learn  to  be 
a  preacher.  The  pioneer  farmer  was  too  encumbered  with  the 
bread  and  butter  problem  of  a  family  of  ten  children  to  be  able 
to  promise  any  financial  help,  but  the  returned  soldier  reminded 
them  of  his  hundred  dollar  war  savings.  It  would  take  him  to 
Meadvllle  and  start  him.     There  he'd  find  a  way. 

And  he  found  the  way.  He  became  janitor  of  the  school 
building.  He  waited  on  table.  He  split  wood  and  was  the 
cook's  assistant.  He  set  for  himself  a  rigid  schedule.  Nothing 
ever  broke  it.  So  he  went  through  four  years.  The  school 
made  a  good  job  of  It.  It  turned  out  a  preacher.  It  was  at 
Meadvllle,  too,  that  he  met  Susan  Barber,  who  was  the  private 
secretary  of  Professor  Frederic  Huldekoper.  They  were  mar- 
ried the  day  after  he  graduated  and  they  spent  their  honeymoon 
at  their  first  Unitarian  conference. 

Already  he  had  attracted  the  attention  of  substantial  churches 
and  had  received  three  calls.  One  was  a  church  in  the  suburbs 
of  Boston,  one  at  Keokuk,  Iowa,  and  one  from  WInnetka,  the 
lake  shore  suburb  north  of  Chicago.  That  was  the  least  In  parish 
enrollment  and  much  the  least  in  salary.  But  it  was  near  the 
city  of  the  soldier's  dream.  Chicago  was  his  goal.  To  WIn- 
netka he  went,  but  within  a  year  a  call  came  from  All  Souls 
Church  at  Janesville,  Wisconsin.  Janesvllle  was  just  over  the 
Illinois  state  line,  so  it  was  not  too  far  from  Chicago,  and  It  was 
nearer  the  fading  mother  and  the  spirit  of  the  stalwart  father 
on  the  Wisconsin  farm.  It  was  In  Janesvllle  that  the  trained 
hand  of  the  Meadvllle  girl  who  had  been  schooled  In  an  atmos- 


i68  JENKIN  LLOYD  JONES 

phere  of  culture  began  to  show  in  his  work.  She  was  more 
than  a  painstaking  mother  and  homemaker.  She  was  the  effi- 
cient parish  assistant  and  the  wisest  counselor  he  ever  had.  She 
was  a  good  carpenter.  She  built  his  first  desk.  She  remade 
and  made  over  again  her  dresses.  Every  dollar  that  could  be 
saved  went  into  books.  She  read  many  of  the  books  for  him. 
She  was  his  amanuensis.  She  made  his  sermon  manuscripts  from 
his  dictation.  In  Janesville  and  in  later  years  in  Chicago  she 
sometimes  occupied  his  pulpit,  preaching  her  own  sermons. 

There  were  changes  in  Unitarian  pulpits  in  Chicago  during 
the  nine  years,  but  the  Janesville  preacher  had  not  been  called 
there.  The  soldier  resolution  was  strong — so  strong,  he  did  only 
what  a  fool  or  a  man  who  knows  not  how  to  fail  would  do. 
'Mid  a  tearful  farewell,  his  friends  saw  him  take  his  little  family 
with  scarcely  money  enough  for  railroad  fare  and  a  month's 
board,  and  move  to  Chicago,  determined  to  strike  out  for  him- 
self. He  said  to  the  wife  who  was  overflowing  with  faith  and 
faithfulness,  "We  will  build  a  church  here  in  Chicago."  And 
they  did!  They  picked  their  vicinity — on  the  south  side  of  the 
city — and  on  a  November  Sunday  in  1882  he  hired  a  little  hall 
over  some  stores  at  the  intersection  of  35th  street  and  Cottage 
Grove  avenue.  Not  counting  his  own  family,  he  had  a  congre- 
gation of  just  twelve  the  first  Sunday.  Before  the  benediction 
was  spoken  he  announced  that  he  would  preach  in  the  same  place 
the  next  Sunday.  He  hoped  those  present  would  come  again 
and  bring  their  friends. 

The  next  Sunday  his  congregation  numbered  thirty-three. 
The  next  Sunday  he  had  sixty-six.  It  was  that  Sunday  that  he 
preached  his  famous  sermon,  "All  Souls  Are  Mine."  That 
sermon  was  his  prophecy  and  his  program.  To  the  sixty-six 
he  said,  "With  your  help  and  co-operation,  we  will  start  here  a 
new  church,  to  be  the  Church  of  All  Souls.  I  shall  ask  no  church 
subscriptions  of  you  until  the  worth  of  the  church  shall  be  proved 
to  you.  I  shall  invite  you  to  give  as  your  impulse  directs  to 
the  Sunday  collection  basket.  Out  of  that  I  shall  pay  all  the 
church  bills,  and  if  there  be  money  left  I  shall  accept  it  as  my 
salary."     On  that  basis  he  made  a  go  of  it,  and  when  he  died 


JENKIN  LLOYD  JONES  169 

he  was  the  oldest  settled  minister  of  any  denomination  in  Chicago. 

Pioneering  a  liberal  faith,  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones  became  not  only 
one  of  the  great  pulpit  orators  of  Chicago,  joining  in  inter- 
denominational fellowship  with  Robert  CoUyer,  David  Swing, 
Rabbi  Hirsh,  Hiram  W.  Thomas  and  Dr.  Gunsaulus,  but  he  be- 
came the  outstanding  prophet  of  liberal  religion  in  the  north 
Mississippi  valley.  For  eleven  years  he  served  as  Secretary  of 
the  Western  Unitarian  Conference,  and  the  office  at  175  Dear- 
born street  was  a  lyceum  bureau,  dispensing  preachers  to  plat- 
forms where  eager  audiences  waited.  It  was  a  publication  office. 
The  Unity  Publishing  Company  was  issuing  Unity  with  Jones  as 
editor,  and  publishing  and  distributing  sermons  and  tracts  and 
leaflet  literature  relating  to  liberal  religious  activities.  It  was 
beginning  to  publish  an  increasingly  pretentious  list  of  books.  It 
was  in  those  days  that  Jones,  in  collaboration  with  his  friend, 
Gannett,  got  the  Western  Unitarian  Conference  to  accept  the 
principle  that  there  should  be  no  doctrinal  test  of  Unitarian 
fellowship.  No  matter  how  liberal  might  be  its  phraseology, 
there  should  be  no  semblance  of  a  creed.  Western  Unitarianism 
should  stand  for  Freedom,  Fellowship  and  Character  in  Religion 
and  should  welcome  into  its  fold  all  who  wished  to  join  it  to  help 
establish  Truth,  Righteousness  and  Love  Among  Men. 

In  Chicago  the  Vincennes  Hall  movement  soon  moved  to  a 
nearby  skating  rink.  In  two  years  more  it  found  its  home  in 
the  unique  architectural  conception  that  placed  church  and  par- 
sonage in  an  edifice  that  resembled  a  clubhouse  more  than  a 
cathedral.  A  flagstaff  took  the  place  of  spire.  It  was  a  seven- 
day  church.  It  was  a  church  home,  a  school,  a  club  and  a  shrine. 
It  was  a  strong  church  because  it  was  a  church  of  courage  and 
conviction. 

All  Souls  Church  was  a  home.  The  first  words  that  faced 
you  as  you  entered  were,  "Here  Let  No  Man  Be  Stranger." 
Jones  was  a  great  fellow  for  church  socials  and  church  suppers. 
He  loved  the  get-togethers.  Every  November  brought  a  great 
Thanksgiving  dinner  for  all  who  were  homeless.  Many  of  the 
people  gave  up  their  own  dinners  to  be  part  of  the  great  church 
home  dinner.     After  the   feast  there  was   festival.     All   Souls 


I70  JENKIN  LLOYD  JONES 

Church  danced.  It  was  waltz  and  two-step  until  close  to  eleven 
o'clock  which  was  the  uncompromising  closing  time.  Then  came 
the  Virginia  reel  because  that  was  "the  only  dance  that  Mr.  Jones 
could  do." 

All  Souls  Church  was  a  school.  In  the  basement  of  that 
church  building  where  every  square  inch  was  utilized,  there  were 
boys'  classes  in  drawing  and  manual  training  and  girls'  classes 
in  domestic  arts.  In  the  auditorium  there  were  Friday  after- 
noon lectures  which  filled  the  church  to  capacity  with  the  children 
of  the  neighborhood.  David  Starr  Jordan  came  to  tell  how  he 
climbed  the  Matterhorn.  Men  of  national  note  who  could  talk 
well  to  adults  on  philosophy  or  sociology  simpHfied  their  messages 
but  never  lessened  the  inspiration  for  the  young.  Among  these 
courses  the  minister  gave  six  talks  on  "The  Story  of  a  Private." 
It  was  so  popular  the  children  spread  reports  of  it  and  he  was 
called  upon  to  repeat  it  in  other  sections  of  the  city.  Five  nights 
in  the  week,  school  was  in  session.  Mr.  Jones  led  the  classes 
in  philosophy  and  literature,  studying  Emerson,  Darwin,  Spencer 
and  interpreting  the  other  master  minds  in  sociology  and  litera- 
ture and  science.  Then  there  were  the  great  novels  and  poets 
to  be  read  and  discussed.  Browning  was  too  full  of  interpretive 
lines  for  an  evening  class  alone.  The  day  class  came  as  an  over- 
flow. The  University  of  Chicago  made  him  lecturer  on  English 
literature. 

In  spite  of  all  these  multiplied  activities  and  expended  energies, 
all  the  interruptions  of  out-of-town  lecture  dates  and  the  annual 
March  lecture  tour  in  the  South,  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones  loved  and 
had  his  recreation.  Every  afternoon,  rain  or  shine,  he  kept  his 
five-o'clock  appointment  with  his  horse.  Saddled  at  the  stable 
a  block  away  it  would  canter,  riderless,  to  the  study  door,  stand 
as  if  hitched  until  mounted.  And  despite  the  ankle  broken  at 
Missionary  Ridge  and  which  was  never  rightly  mended,  the 
artilleryman  was  again  on  the  gallop  for  a  round  of  the  park, 
invariably  taking  the  hurdles  along  the  bridle  path.  His  love 
for  the  saddle  led  to  long  vacation  cross-country  rides  that 
ripened  into  his  wayside  sermon  books,  "Jess"  and  "A  Dinner 
of  Herbs." 


JENKIN  LLOYD  JONES  171 

Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones  could  not  be  the  lover  of  good  literature, 
the  student  of  dramatic  poetry  and  not  be  susceptible  to  good 
dramatic  reading  and  the  actor's  art.  Great  players  were  his 
friends.  He  loved  a  good  comedy.  He  enjoyed  jokes.  He 
laughed  heartily.  Just  as  he  was  moved  by  mirth,  so  was  he 
moved  by  tenderness.  Deep  sympathies  laid  hold  on  his  heart. 
His  strong  preaching  was  always  filled  with  sentiment  but  never 
with  sentimentalism.  He  was  dynamic.  It  was  nothing  un- 
common for  his  congregation  to  break  out  in  applause.  More 
than  once  the  people  were  moved  to  a  standing  cheer  while  his 
hands  would  be  raised  in  protest.  Except  in  most  unseasonable 
weather,  through  many  years  his  church  was  filled  to  standing 
room  only  and  at  times  hundreds  had  to  turn  away. 

He  was  a  civic  leader  no  less  than  a  pulpit  power.  At  munici- 
pal mass  meetings  at  the  auditorium  and  at  old  Battery  D  armory 
there  would  be  noisy  demonstrations  just  because  "the  lion- 
headed  preacher"  stepped  onto  the  platform.  A  group  of  lead- 
ing Chicagoans  once  rented  Central  Music  Hall  for  a  series  of 
Sunday  nights,  that  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones  might  bring  a  message 
to  the  downtown  citizens  and  the  transients  who  do  not  get  out 
Sunday  morning  into  the  residence  sections.  Those  sermons 
were  published  under  the  title,  "Practical  Piety."  His  "Word 
of  the  Spirit,"  a  book  of  sermons  on  the  citizen's  duty  to  church, 
state  and  nation  was  like  a  bugle  call  to  duty. 

In  the  late  'eighties,  two  brother  ministers  joined  him  In  a 
rash  financial  venture.  They  bought  sixty  scenic  acres  on  the 
Wisconsin  River  that  were  worthless  for  cultivation.  There 
they  started  a  summer  camp.  Cottages  were  built,  an  Emerson 
pavilion  or  lecture  hall  was  set  up,  and  the  Tower  Hill  Summer 
School  was  started.  This  camp  was  but  three  miles  from  the 
old  homestead  about  which  his  brothers  and  sisters  had  taken 
up  adjoining  farms.  In  the  old  home  valley  Jones  built  a  Unity 
Chapel  which  became  a  family  home  of  worship.  Through  his 
planning  the  old  homestead  was  converted  Into  the  Hillside 
Home  School  conducted  by  his  two  teacher  sisters.  Through 
his  friends  and  Influence  this  school  came  into  prompt  and  full 
patronage  and  continued  its  good  work  until  closed  by  the  death 


172  JENKIN  LLOYD  JONES 

of  the  sisters.  The  Tower  Hill  land,  which  the  three  preachers 
had  bought,  was,  pursuant  to  their  wishes,  finally  given  to  Wis- 
consin as  a  state  park  and  is  now  so  held. 

Mr.  Jones  never  lost  interest  in  the  Meadville  Theological 
School.  He  kept  in  close  touch  with  its  students  and  graduates. 
His  home  might  well  have  been  called  "Preachers'  Tavern,"  for 
there  were  fed  and  bedded  every  aspirant  to  a  liberal  pulpit  that 
wandered  into  town.  More  than  that,  it  was  the  rendezvous 
of  practically  all  the  men  and  women  of  light  and  leading  who 
came  to  Chicago. 

In  1893  the  World's  Fair  brought  to  Chicago  a  gathering  that 
gave  a  world-wide  perspective  to  the  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones  inclu- 
sive creed,  "All  Souls  Are  Mine."  A  commission  was  appointed 
to  actualize  the  dream  of  gathering  into  friendly  conference  the 
representatives  not  only  of  the  clashing  sects  of  Christianity 
but  also  of  all  great  religions  of  the  earth.  Dr.  Barrows,  Chi- 
cago's leading  Presbyterian  minister,  was  made  president  of  this 
enterprise  and  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones  its  general  secretary,  and — if 
the  term  were  truly  stated — its  general  manager.  It  was  when 
this  great  enterprise,  the  Parliament  of  Religions,  seemed  on  the 
verge  of  collapse  and  its  promoters  about  ready  to  concede  the 
undertaking  too  gigantic  to  realize,  that  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones 
preached  his  famous  seventeen  sermons  on  the  "Glory  of  the 
Parliament"  and  roused  the  religious  people  of  Chicago  to  en- 
thusiastic action.  Large  sums  of  money  were  raised  by  Chicago's 
businessmen.  Priests,  preachers  and  apostles  were  brought  from 
the  far  ends  of  the  earth  and  were  surprised  to  find  how  wide 
was  their  common  ground.  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones  compiled  the 
great  common  denominator  of  that  congress  into  book  form, 
"A  Chorus  of  Faith,"  and  that  was  followed  by  his  "Seven  Great 
Religious  Teachers,"  and  his  "Seven  Years  Course  in  Religion." 

Meanwhile,  the  institutional  church  so  benignantly  busy  needed 
more  elbow  room.  In  1905,  across  the  street  from  "All  Souls" 
of  many  rich  memories,  there  was  built  a  seven-story  structure 
called  Lincoln  Centre.  In  this  civic  centre  All  Souls  Church 
found  a  new  home. 

The  minister  gloried  in  being  a  Lincoln  soldier.     It  was  the 


JENKIN  LLOYD  JONES  173 

militant  preacher  who  for  years  crowded  his  church  beyond  its 
seating  capacity.  It  was  the  fighter  for  civic  righteousness  who 
brought  great  mass  meetings  in  downtown  halls  to  their  feet  at 
the  mere  sight  of  the  preacher-prophet.  But  the  Parliament  of 
Religions,  which  had  so  fired  his  imagination  and  appealed  to  his 
heart,  diverted  his  lines  of  study  and  thinking.  More  and  more 
he  became  the  research  student  seeking  the  ancient  sources  of 
religious  inspiration,  finding  the  common  grounds  and  seeking  to 
tear  down  the  fences  that  divide.  This  took  him  away  from  his 
intimate  contact  with  men  and  with  the  immediate  civic  problems. 
He  became  a  student  in  the  abstract  rather  than  the  concrete. 
When  the  World  War  came,  he  saw  it  from  a  religious  rather 
than  a  practical  point  of  view.  He  became  an  outspoken  pacifist. 
Many  of  his  oldest  and  most  devoted  parishioners  felt  impelled 
to  part  from  the  church.  It  was  a  heartbreaking  separation. 
More  and  more  he  drew  into  the  cloistered  life  of  his  study  and 
his  life  closed  in  many  disappointments.  He  died  on  September 
12,  1918. 

.  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones  was  a  man  of  the  Pauline  type,  great- 
hearted, tender,  tolerant,  a  born  helper  of  souls.  His  values 
were  spiritual.  For  this  reason  he  often  ignored  physical  facts. 
He  was  human,  sensitive  to  hurt,  at  times  susceptible  to  designing 
flattery  that  defeated  his  better  ends.  He  was  sometimes  too 
ready  to  trust.  He  was  capable  of  mistake.  But  he  always  had 
the  courage  of  his  convictions.  "We  should  be  where  the  stones 
fly,"  he  used  to  say.  He  was  always  ready  to  take  the  risk 
of  ridicule.  He  fought  for  freedom.  He  was  the  spirit  of 
FELLOWSHIP.  He  exemplified  CHARACTER.  His  life  was  the 
RELIGION  he  professed. 


174  ARTHUR  MARKLEY  JUDY 

ARTHUR  MARKLEY  JUDY 

1854-1922 

Among  the  potent  forces  for  the  hberal  cause  in  the  Middle 
West  in  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  the  earlier 
years  of  the  present  century  was  Arthur  M.  Judy,  for  nearly 
twenty-six  years  the  minister  of  the  Unitarian  Church  of  Daven- 
port, Iowa,  and  one  of  that  city's  leading  citizens.  He  was  a 
minister  who  took  both  his  profession  and  his  citizenship  seriously. 

He  was  born  in  Plattsburgh,  Ohio,  in  1854.  His  parents  were 
Swiss  (the  family  name  was  Tschudy,  a  spelling  which  his  brother, 
H.  B.  Tschudy,  Curator  of  the  Brooklyn  Public  Museum,  pre- 
served) .  A  graduate  of  Antioch  College  at  Yellow  Springs  with 
the  class  of  1877,  and  of  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  in  1881, 
he  went  to  Davenport  in  the  year  of  his  graduation  to  begin  his 
only  pastorate.  He  served  the  church  until  March,  1909,  when 
failing  health  compelled  his  resignation.  He  retired  to  a  farm 
a  few  miles  from  Davenport,  where  he  happily  spent  the  remain- 
ing fifteen  years  of  his  life. 

Mr.  Judy  lived  for  his  church  and  its  people  and  for  his  city. 
His  slight  form  and  bearded  face  were  seen  wherever  projects 
of  educational,  social  or  religious  nature  were  being  advanced. 
He  was  a  popular  leader  to  whom  people  listened  gladly  and 
in  whom  they  trusted.  The  Unitarian  Church  grew  in  numbers 
and  influence  under  his  leadership.  A  quiet  but  forceful  preacher 
in  whom  there  was  no  guile,  and  an  indefatigable  parish  worker, 
he  built  up  a  famous  organization.  It  was  a  period  when  the 
struggle  between  the  old  theology  and  the  new  science  was  vocal; 
Mr.  Judy's  clear  thinking  and  candid  speech  helped  to  resolve 
that  controversy.  His  gospel  was  that  of  "salvation  by  char- 
acter," for  he  had  no  faith  in  complex  ideologies  and  "isms."  In 
the  noble  potencies  of  human  nature  he  believed  with  a  steadfast 
faith;  and  his  exhortation  to  men  and  women  was  to  develop  the 
best  things  in  themselves,  so  that  their  inherent  nobility  might 
become  a  contribution  and  influence  in  the  social  structure. 

The  years  of  his  pastorate  in  Davenport  were  years  of  activity 


THOMAS  KERR  175 

and  growth  of  the  Western  Unitarian  Conference  and  of  the 
Iowa  Unitarian  Association,  in  both  of  which  Mr,  Judy  was  a 
powerful  influence.  For  many  years  he  edited  Old  and  New, 
the  journal  of  the  Iowa  Association.  He  had  an  immense  faith 
in  the  good  tidings  he  was  preaching,  and  he  expended  his  vitality 
gladly  and  without  hindrance. 

Finally,  in  1907,  his  sliglit  body  and  limited  strength  began  to 
give  way.  He  left  the  pulpit  and  devoted  his  remaining  years 
to  his  next  great  interest,  scientific  agriculture.  While  he  was 
still  active  in  the  ministry,  he  wTote  papers  on  the  conservation 
of  the  soil,  its  fertility  and  its  products,  and  the  miracle  of  grow- 
ing things  aroused  his  wondering  interest.  His  final  years  were 
devoted  to  the  pursuit  of  this  interest;  but  he  still  devoted  part 
of  his  time  and  effort  to  his  Unitarian  loyalties.  He  was  a  be- 
loved guide  and  mentor  among  his  Unitarian  friends  and  their 
associations,  until  the  year  before  his  death,  January  2,  1922. 

Arthur  Judy  was  a  w^armhearted,  lovable  man,  intensely  honest 
in  act  and  thought,  a  noble  preacher,  a  wise  guide,  rich  in  the 
wisdom  of  human  nature. 


THOMAS  KERR 

1824-1904 


Dr.  Kerr  was  born  in  Aberdeen,  Scotland,  May  24,  1824. 
He  studied  at  Gordon  College  and  the  University  of  Aberdeen. 
He  landed  in  New  York  in  the  twenty-first  year  of  his  age, 
attended  scientific  lectures  at  Columbia,  pushed  westward,  took 
a  course  in  medicine  at  the  Iowa  State  University,  graduating 
in  1850,  and  at  once  took  up  the  practice  of  medicine  in  Elgin,  111. 
Seven  years  of  successful  practice  in  this  field  made  him  the 
beloved  "country  doctor,"  But  by  nature  he  was  a  minister. 
In  1857  he  was  ordained  into  the  Baptist  ministry,  and  in  June, 
i860,  he  accepted  a  call  to  the  Baptist  Church  at  Rockford,  111., 
preaching  his  first  sermon  the  Sunday  after  the  fall  of  Fort 
Sumter.     This  was  the  beginning  of  a  noncommissioned  chap- 


176  THOMAS  KERR 

laincy  which  continued  throughout  the  war.  Whether  at  the 
front,  in  the  home  pulpit,  or  in  the  field,  he  was  always  the  in- 
spiration of  the  soldier  and  of  the  Sanitary  and  Christian  Com- 
missions. After  the  war  he  passed  to  a  larger  pastorate  in 
Hannibal,  Mo.,  but  at  the  end  of  three  years  he  was  back  again 
in  his  beloved  Rockford  with  enlarging  thought  and  disturbing 
ideas.  In  October,  1870,  there  was  an  amicable  accounting. 
The  minister  must  speak  his  whole  mind;  and  he  and  forty-eight 
of  his  members  withdrew  from  the  Baptist  church  and  organized 
the  Church  of  the  Christian  Union,  with  and  for  which  Dr.  Kerr 
labored  to  the  end  of  his  Hfe,  giving  it  more  than  thirty-three 
years  of  loyal  service. 

Dr.  Kerr  was  always  an  independent.  His  Scotch  mind  and 
scientific  training  gave  him  a  relish  for  the  metaphysical  side  of 
religion,  but  he  was  also  a  man  of  great  geniality,  devoutness  of 
heart,  and  practical  sagacity.  He  was  a  man  of  stately  bearing, 
of  wide  and  accurate  information,  intimately  identified  with  the 
civic  life  of  his  community.  His  theological  break  with  ortho- 
doxy was  decisive,  but  the  spirit  of  schism  never  entered  his  soul. 
He  loved  the  Unitarian  fellowship,  but  he  continued  to  love  the 
brethren  in  all  communities.  Some  weeks  before  his  death, 
a  neighboring  Congregational  minister,  anticipating  the  end, 
preached  a  sermon  on  "Our  Brother  in  Christ,  Thomas  Kerr," 
taking  for  his  text,  "He  shall  feed  his  flock  like  a  shepherd." 

Dr.  Kerr  was  a  careful  reader  and  a  skillful  commentator, 
but  his  pre-eminent  strength  lay  in  his  citizenship.  He  was  in- 
terested in  his  church,  but  more  in  his  city.  His  consciousness 
was  more  than  national;  it  was  international.  When  he  went 
abroad,  he  went  with  open  eyes,  and  brought  home  much  wealth 
for  his  people.     Dr.  Kerr  died  on  January  4,  1904. 


ARTHUR  MAY  KNAPP  177 

ARTHUR  MAY  KNAPP 

1841-1921 

It  was  the  happy  lot  of  Arthur  May  Knapp  to  be  the  pio- 
neer leader  of  a  unique  missionary  adventure.  He  was  born  in 
Charlestown,  Mass.,  on  May  29,  1841,  and  prepared  for  college 
at  the  famous  Allen  School  in  West  Newton.  He  entered  Har- 
vard as  a  sophomore  and  graduated  in  the  Class  of  i860.  Then, 
perhaps  for  health  reasons  or  perhaps  just  for  adventure,  he  went 
to  sea  and  made  a  voyage  round  Cape  Horn  in  the  ship  Crusader, 
a  name  prophetic  of  his  later  career.  He  got  back  to  Boston  in 
time  to  enlist  as  a  private  in  the  Forty-fourth  Massachusetts  Reg- 
iment. When  his  military  service  was  over,  he  entered  the  Har- 
vard Divinity  School  and  graduated  in  1867.  His  good  looks, 
his  family  background,  his  genial  personality,  commended  him  at 
once  to  the  favor  of  several  churches.  He  accepted  the  call  of 
the  First  Congregational  Church  in  Providence,  R.  I.,  and  was 
.ordained  there  on  January  8,  1868,  and  had  a  brief  but  developing 
pastorate  of  three  years.  Then  he  took  charge  of  the  Independ- 
ent Congregational  Church  in  Bangor,  Me.  ( 1871—1879),  where 
he  was  abundantly  happy  and  popular.  He  was  eminently  com- 
panionable, progressive  in  thought,  gay  of  heart,  buoyant  in 
spirit.  In  1879  he  was  called  to  the  First  Parish  Church  in 
Watertown,  Mass.,  and  served  there  for  seven  fruitful  and  con- 
tentful years.  Then  came  the  exceptional  opportunity  that  gave 
unique  distinction  to  the  career  of  one  whose  life  had  thus  far 
been  that  of  a  parish  minister  of  excellent  repute. 

In  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  empire  of  Japan 
had  emerged  from  its  long  isolation  and  was  rapidly  enter- 
ing into  relations  with  the  western  nations.  Commercial  and 
political  contacts  led  on  to  cultural  connections.  The  Japanese 
were  in  the  mood  to  adopt  European  and  American  methods  in 
business  and  education  and  military  preparedness.  The  door  was 
opened  too  for  Christian  missionary  efforts  and  most  of  the  occi- 
dental churches,  both  Catholic  and  Protestant,  sent  their  repre- 
sentatives to  Japan  and  founded  schools  and  gathered  churches. 


178  ARTHUR  MAY  KNAPP 

Certain  of  the  intellectual  leaders  of  the  country,  including  a 
number  of  young  men  who  had  studied  in  Europe  or  America, 
were,  however,  eager  to  discover  some  more  appropriate  and 
adequate  spiritual  impulse  and  motive.  They  found  the  dog- 
matic interpretations  of  Christianity  no  more  satisfying  than 
their  own  Confucian  or  Shintoist  or  Buddhist  inheritances.  They 
had  come  to  believe  that  back  of  the  power  and  prosperity  of  the 
western  nations  there  must  be  some  special  inspiration  or  driving 
force  and  felt  that  that  impulse  must  be  somehow  derived  from 
the  Christian  religion.  On  the  other  hand  the  irrational  asser- 
tions and  the  supernatural  claims  of  orthodox  Christianity  left 
them  cold.  The  leader  of  this  group  of  intellectual  and  spiritual 
adventurers  was  Yukichi  Fukuzawa,  one  of  the  most  influential 
and  public-spirited  citizens  of  Japan  and  the  founder  of  the  Keio 
University.  Around  him  gathered  a  considerable  number  of 
scholars  and  progressive  publicists  and  in  1886  there  joined  them 
a  diplomat  just  returned  from  England,  Mr.  Yano  Fumio.  In  a 
series  of  articles  in  a  leading  Japanese  journal,  the  Hochi  Shem- 
bun,  he  declared  that  he  had  found  in  England  a  practical  and 
spiritual  interpretation  of  Christianity  free  of  superstition  and 
unreasonable  dogmas  and  well  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  Japa- 
nese people.  It  was  called  Unitarianism.  Whereupon  the 
group,  to  which  had  been  added  a  recent  graduate  of  Harvard, 
the  Baron  Kaneko,  addressed  a  communication  to  the  American 
Unitarian  Association  suggesting  that  the  Association  send  to 
Japan  a  representative  who  would  be  commissioned  to  explain 
and  elucidate  the  Unitarian  habit  of  mind  and  principles  of  con- 
duct. 

This  invitation  was  cordially  received  by  the  Directors  of  the 
Association,  and  in  1888  Mr.  Knapp  was  commissioned  to  go  to 
Japan  "to  meet  with,  to  encourage,  and  to  co-operate  with  any 
individuals  or  groups  of  persons  in  Japan  who  might  wish  to 
know  the  more  advanced  thought  of  Christendom  about  the 
spiritual  problems  and  interests  of  man."  In  fulfilling  this  com- 
mission Mr.  Knapp  enjoyed  a  year  full  of  exhilarating  experi- 
ences, and  he  brought  back  such  glowing  reports  that  the  Direc- 
tors of  the  Association  acted  promptly  and  vigorously.     A  band 


ARTHUR  MAY  KNAPP  179 

of  six  preachers  and  teachers  was  recruited  and  in  1889  Mr. 
Knapp  returned  to  Tokyo  accompanied  hy  the  Rev.  Clay  Mac- 
Cauley  as  his  colleague,  by  Mr.  Saichiro  Kanda,  who  had  been 
studying  at  the  Meadville  Theological  School  and  who  was  to 
serve  as  secretary  of  the  mission,  and  by  three  young  professors 
who  were  to  divide  their  time  between  the  mission  and  teaching 
in  the  Keio  University.  The  mission  was  further  reinforced  by 
the  Rev.  H.  W.  Hawkes,  who  represented  the  British  Unita- 
rians. "Receive  us,"  wrote  Mr.  Knapp  to  his  Japanese  friends, 
"not  as  theological  propagandists,  but  as  messengers  of  the  gos- 
pel of  human  brotherhood  in  the  religious  life  of  mankind." 
The  mission  was  established,  so  runs  the  record,  "to  express 
the  sympathy  of  the  Unitarians  of  America  for  progressive  reli- 
gious movements  in  Japan"  and  Mr.  Knapp  and  his  companions 
were  commissioned  "not  to  convert,  but  to  confer."  They  said 
to  their  Japanese  hosts,  "Here  is  what  we  have  discovered  about 
the  mysteries  of  life  and  death.  Now  tell  us  what  you  have 
discovered  from  your  different  point  of  view  and  out  of  your 
study  and  experience."  They  sought  to  work  not  so  much  for 
their  Japanese  associates  as  zvith  them  in  the  discernment  of 
truth  and  the  promotion  of  brotherhood  and  good  will. 

The  mission  was  received  with  great  cordiality.  Large  audi- 
ences listened  to  lectures  and  sermons  In  the  chief  cities.  A 
magazine,  Rikiigo  Zassh'i  (Cosmos),  was  started  and  soon  ac- 
claimed as  the  best  religious  paper  in  Japan.  A  noteworthy 
series  of  tracts  was  published  and  a  school  for  the  training  of 
leaders  was  opened  with  seven  teachers  and  a  diligent  band  of 
pupils.  Close  relations  were  established  with  the  faculties  and 
students  of  the  Doshlsha,  Waseda,  Keio,  and  Imperial  Universi- 
ties. Finally,  a  Japanese  Unitarian  Association  was  organized 
and  in  1894  Unity  Hall  In  the  Mita  District  of  Tokyo  was  built 
to  house  all  its  activities. 

After  getting  things  well  started  Mr.  Knapp  handed  over  the 
direction  of  the  mission  to  his  colleague.  Dr.  MacCauley,  and  to 
a  new  associate.  Rev.  William  I.  Lawrance,  and  returned  to  the 
United  States.  For  seven  years  he  was  the  minister  of  the  Uni- 
tarian Church  in  Fall  River,  Mass.,  but  he  kept  in  correspond- 


i8o  ARTHUR  MAY  KNAPP 

ence  with  friends  in  Japan  and  in  1900  went  back  to  Tokyo, 
not  to  resume  charge  of  the  mission  but  to  be  the  proprietor  and 
editor  of  a  newspaper  of  growing  influence,  the  Japan  Advertiser. 
He  also  wrote  a  book,  "Feudal  and  Modern  Japan,"  an  authori- 
tative account  of  the  social  and  political  development  of  the 
Empire. 

In  1 9 10  Mr.  Knapp  finally  returned  to  America  and  made  his 
home  at  West  Newton,  Mass.,  amid  the  scenes  and  people  fa- 
miliar in  his  youth.  But  his  closing  years  were  sad.  Both  his 
wife  and  his  son,  their  only  child,  died,  and  he  was  himself  afflicted 
with  crippling  disease.  His  release  from  prolonged  illness  came 
on  January  29,  192 1. 

The  Unitarian  mission  in  Japan  was  unique  in  more  than  one 
respect.  It  was  exceptional  in  its  origin  because  it  was  under- 
taken at  the  invitation  and  upon  the  initiative  of  Japanese  citi- 
zens. It  was  unique  in  its  design  which  was  not  to  put  over  a 
foreign  form  of  faith  but  to  meet  Japanese  scholars  and  rehgious 
leaders  on  common  grounds.  It  had  a  profound  influence  not 
only  on  the  religious  life  of  Japan  but  also  in  modifying  the 
methods  and  animating  the  spirit  of  the  older  Christian  missions. 
Finally  it  was  unique  in  its  fulfillments.  The  administrators  of 
the  Japanese  Unitarian  Association  rapidly  proved  themselves  to 
be  competent  and  faithful,  and  in  1900  the  direction  of  the  mis- 
sion, the  care  of  the  property,  and  the  advancement  of  the  cause 
was  entrusted  entirely  to  them.  Dr.  MacCauley,  to  be  sure,  kept 
in  touch  by  occasional  visits  and  in  1909  he  again  took  up  resi- 
dence at  Unity  Hall  and  for  eleven  years  lived  there,  in  no  sense 
as  director  but  as  "guide,  philosopher,  and  friend."  No  other 
mission,  though  much  longer  established,  had  found  it  possible 
to  relinquish  foreign  control.  After  only  twelve  years  the  Japa- 
nese Unitarians  proved  themselves  qualified  to  carry  on  the  enter- 
prise with  eflScIency  and  largely,  though  not  wholly,  on  their  own 
resources. 

Clay  MacCauley  had  an  exceptionally  varied  career  rich  in  contacts 
with  all  sorts  of  people  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  America.  He  was  soldier, 
traveler,  linguist,  lecturer,  author,  and  administrator.  He  was  born  on 
May  3,  1843,  at  Chambersburg,  Pa.,  a  community  settled  and  ruled  by 


ARTHUR  MAY  KNAPP  i8i 

people  of  Scotch- Irish  descent.  He  was  bred  in  the  strictest  kind  of  Cal- 
vinism and  early  determined  to  be  a  Presbyterian  minister.  He  was  the 
only  child  of  his  parents  and  they  guarded  and  guided  his  education  with 
scrupulous  care.  Because  it  would  not  take  him  far  from  home,  he  was 
enrolled  at  Dickinson  College,  but  after  a  while  he  began  to  assert  himself 
and  transferred  to  Princeton,  where  he  proved  himself  a  diligent  student 
and  a  natural  leader.  When  the  Civil  War  broke  out,  he  was  one  of  the 
first  to  enlist,  but  his  father  hastened  to  headquarters  and  had  the  enlistment 
canceled.  When  he  became  of  age,  he  again  asserted  himself  and  enlisted 
in  the  126th  Pennsylvania  Regiment.  He  was  soon  made  Ordnance  Ser- 
geant of  the  Second  Division  of  the  Ninth  Corps  and  in  that  capacity  had 
a  thrilling  experience  at  the  Battle  of  Antietam.  Sent  back  to  Washington 
for  ammunition,  he  broke  all  rules,  got  his  carts  loaded,  and  returned  to  the 
front  just  in  time  to  save  his  regiment  from  being  overwhelmed.  The 
ammunition  he  brought  turned  the  tide  of  battle.  He  was  promoted  to  a 
lieutenancy  and  went  through  the  Fredericksburg  campaign.  At  Chan- 
cellorsville  his  division,  stationed  at  the  right  of  the  Federal  line,  was  caught 
unawares  by  the  rush  of  Confederate  troops,  and  he  and  most  of  his  com- 
pany were  taken  prisoners.  The  captives  suffered  all  sorts  of  hardship  but 
were  finally  delivered  to  Libby  Prison  in  Richmond.  He  survived  the 
experiences  of  that  place  and,  partly  by  luck  and  partly  by  his  own  audacity, 
he  was  finally  included  in  a  squad  called  out  to  be  exchanged,  and  he  got 
back  to  Pennsj'lvania  just  in  time  to  be  discharged  with  his  regiment.  He 
returned  to  Princeton  and  graduated  in  1864.  His  father's  house,  and 
most  of  Chambersburg,  was  burned  when  the  Confederates  invaded  Penn- 
sylvania, and  the  family  was  reunited  in  Chicago,  where  the  son  entered  the 
Old  School  Presbyterian  Seminary,  later  the  McCormick  Theological 
Seminary.  In  April,  1866,  he  was  commissioned  "A  Probationer  for  the 
Holy  Ministry"  and  went  to  take  charge  for  six  months  of  a  little  Presby- 
terian Church  in  Depere,  Wisconsin.  There  two  things  happened  that 
changed  the  course  of  his  thought  and  life.  By  some  chance,  he  picked 
up  Dr.  Horace  Bushnell's  book  on  ^'The  Atonement"  and  found  its  argu- 
ments disturbing  and  convincing.  He  went  on  to  read  avidly  in  the 
hitherto  unknown  writings  of  the  New  England  Congregationalists  with 
the  result  that  he  entered  on  a  period  of  great  mental  unrest.  In  that  same 
summer  there  came  to  visit  friends  in  Depere  a  girl  whose  home  was  in 
Bangor,  Maine,  and  the  young  minister  fell  in  love  with  her.  Later  in 
the  course  of  his  wooing  he  must  needs  go  East.  Her  people  attended  the 
Independent  Church  in  Bangor  of  which  Charles  Carroll  Everett  *  was 
the  minister.  In  him  young  MacCauley  found  a  wise  and  gentle  counselor. 
So  it  came  about  that  after  his  marriage  in  1867  MacCauley  felt  obliged, 
to  the  distress  of  his  family  and  associates,  to  relinquish  his  Presbyterian 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  105. 


i82  ARTHUR  MAY  KNAPP 

commission  and  accept  the  charge  of  a  Congregational  Church  in  Morrison, 
111.  When,  however,  the  time  came  for  his  ordination,  the  Council,  called 
to  approve  the  new  minister,  found  him  upon  examination  to  be  more 
heretical  than  was  anticipated  and  finally  voted  not  to  proceed  with  the 
ordination.  The  Morrison  Church  renewed  its  call,  but  MacCauley  felt 
it  best  to  decline. 

He  sought  the  counsel  of  Robert  Collyer  in  Chicago  and  received  a 
hearty  welcome.  Probably  at  Mr.  CoUyer's  suggestion  he  got  an  invita- 
tion to  supply  the  pulpit  of  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Rochester,  New  York. 
There  he  set  forth,  as  he  wrote  later,  "The  earnest  utterance  of  an  emanci- 
pated brain  and  heart,  rejoicing  in  the  liberty  of  brightening  truth,  exhila- 
rated by  the  free  study  of  the  spiritual  relationship  of  God  and  man."  He 
did  not,  however,  remain  long  at  Rochester.  He  yearned  for  closer  rela- 
tionship with  the  old  established  Free  Churches  in  New  England ;  so  when 
a  call  came  from  the  First  Parish  Church  in  Waltham,  Mass.,  he  gladly 
accepted  and  was  there  installed  on  December  29,  1869,  Dr.  Everett  preach- 
ing the  sermon.  There  followed  a  happy  ministry  of  three  years.  His 
controversial  mood  was  outgrown,  and  he  gave  himself  to  wholly  construc- 
tive preaching  and  work.  Then  a  generous  parishioner  offered  to  pay  all 
the  expenses  of  a  sojourn  at  European  universities,  and  he  spent  the  years 
1873  and  1874  attending  lectures  chiefly  at  Heidelberg  and  Leipzig  and 
reading  extensively  in  the  history  of  philosophy  and  in  the  new  science  of 
comparative  religion. 

On  his  return  to  America  he  was  engaged  to  preach  for  the  Unitarian 
Church  in  Washington,  D.  C,  which  was  just  then  planning  to  remove 
from  its  old  building  at  6th  and  D  Streets  to  a  new  site  at  14th  and  L 
Streets.  There  on  June  27,  1877,  the  cornerstone  of  the  new  church  build- 
ing was  laid,  and  on  January  29,  1878,  All  Souls  Church  was  dedicated. 
Dr.  Bellows  preaching  the  dedication  sermon.  Three  days  later  Mr. 
MacCauley  was  installed  as  minister. 

His  health,  however,  soon  became  impaired,  and  in  1880  he  was  con- 
strained to  resign  and  seek  a  much-needed  rest.  For  a  while  he  entered 
the  service  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  and 
then  had  a  traveling  commission  to  visit  and  report  upon  the  condition  of 
the  Menominee  Indians  in  Wisconsin  and  the  Seminoles  in  Florida.  Still 
seeking  health,  he  spent  a  winter  in  Italy  and  then  sought  out-of-door  life 
in  Montana  and  Minnesota.  During  the  year  1 885-1 886  he  occupied  the 
pulpit  of  Unity  Church  in  St.  Paul  and  then  for  a  while  was  editor  of  the 
Commercial  Bulletin  in  Minneapolis,  and  lectured  on  "The  Fundamental 
Truths  in  Philosophy"  at  the  University  of  Minnesota.  In  1889  he  was 
appointed  to  be  the  colleague  of  Mr.  Knapp  in  charge  of  the  mission  in 
Japan.  On  Mr.  Knapp's  withdrawal,  he  became  the  head  of  the  mission. 
He  conducted  the  Normal  School,  edited  the  magazine,  preached  and  lec- 
tured in  many  communities.     With  the  exception  of  occasional  visits  to 


AUGUSTUS  MENDON  LORD  183 

Boston  to  report  on  the  work  and  enjoy  a  brief  period  of  rest,  he  remained 
for  twenty-one  years  the  friend  and  counselor  of  the  Japanese  liberals. 
After  1909  he  lived  at  Unity  Hall  and  was  what  the  Japanese  called  their 
"Elder  Statesman."  He  belonged  to  many  learned  societies,  wrote  many 
articles  and  editorials  for  the  press,  and  was  the  confidant  of  educational 
leaders  and  projjressive  statesmen.  In  1914  he  wrote  and  published  his 
"j\Iemories  and  IVIemorials,"  a  book  which  is  practically  an  autobiography 
and  which  contains  some  of  his  more  important  essays  and  lectures.  He 
also  published  an  English-Japanese  grammar  which  proved  very  useful. 
He  died  at  Berkeley,  California,  November  15,  1925. 


AUGUSTUS  MENDON  LORD 

1861-1941 

To  have  served  for  more  than  half  a  century  as  the  distin- 
guished and  beloved  minister  of  a  famous  church  in  a  great  city 
is  a  rare  achievement.  Dr.  Lord,  though  born  in  San  Francisco 
on  February  7,  1861,  was  of  New  England  stock.  His  roots 
were  in  the  State  of  Maine,  and  wherever  he  might  work  or 
wander  he  was  most  at  home  in  Kennebunk.  He  graduated  at 
Harvard  in  the  Class  of  1883 — he  was  the  Class  Poet — and 
from  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  in  1887 — an  outstanding 
scholar  and  a  good  comrade.  He  was  ordained  minister  of  the 
First  Congregational  (Unitarian)  Church  in  Arlington,  Mass., 
on  September  22,  1887,  served  there  for  three  happy  and  fruit- 
ful years,  and  in  1890  was  called  to  the  old  First  Congregational 
(Unitarian)  Church  in  Providence,  R.  L  There  he  served  as 
minister  for  forty  years  and  then  for  ten  years  as  minister  emer- 
itus. In  1892  he  married  a  distant  cousin,  Frances  Lord  of 
Kennebunk.  Brown  University  gave  him  the  degree  of  Doctor 
of  Divinity  in  1906.  He  died  at  his  home  in  Providence  on 
September  14,  1941. 

Dr.  Lord  was  a  natural  leader  in  many  walks  of  life,  a  wise 
counselor,  a  sympathetic  friend,  a  sure-footed  guide  in  life's 
perplexities  and  troubles.  He  loved  poetry  and  wrote  good 
verse  himself.     Two  small  volumes  of  his  poetry  were  published 


i84  LOAMMI  WALTER  MASON 

and  so  was  a  book  of  delightful  "Little  Stories  of  Great  People." 
His  readings  from  the  poets  were  immensely  popular,  for  he 
had  a  rich  voice,  a  discerning  spirit,  and  an  exceptional  gift  of 
interpretation.  His  sermons  had  intellectual  substance  and 
polished  felicity  of  phrase.  His  physical  presence  inspired  con- 
fidence, for  he  was  tall  and  erect,  dignified  in  manner,  and  obvi- 
ously a  real  person,  candid  and  sincere  in  speech,  both  trust- 
worthy and  self-reliant.  He  was  always  a  good  neighbor  and 
citizen.  Strength  and  beauty  were  united  in  his  character,  mercy 
and  truth  were  met  together. 

Dr.  Lord  served  for  many  years,  and  with  great  enjoyment, 
as  a  Trustee  of  the  Providence  Public  Library;  and  he  main- 
tained close  relations  with  the  affairs,  the  faculty  and  students 
of  Brown  University,  which  is  distant  only  a  block  from  his 
church.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Visitors  and  fre- 
quently a  leader  of  the  Chapel  services.  The  Brown  Class  of 
1883  made  him  an  honorary  member.  He  particularly  enjoyed 
the  Brown  Commencements  because  of  the  grateful  greetings  of 
the  many  graduates  he  had  known  and  helped  in  their  student 
days. 


LOAMMI  WALTER  MASON 
1861-1929 

Loammi  Walter  Mason  was  born  November  24,  1861,  on  a 
farm  at  Jackson,  near  Franklin,  Pa.,  the  son  of  Joseph  and 
Eugenia  (Anderson)  Mason.  His  father's  family  was  of  Scotch- 
Irish  pioneer  stock  and  his  great  grandfather  was  the  first  school- 
master in  Franklin.  On  his  mother's  side  there  was  a  strain  of 
Quaker  blood.  Dr.  Mason  as  a  young  man  taught  in  the  tradi- 
tional one-room  country  schoolhouse,  and  there  he  introduced 
the  then  novel  method  of  teaching  by  pictures  and  symbols  as 
well  as  textbooks. 

No  part  of  our  country  is  more  beautiful  than  the  hills  of 
Pennsylvania  among  which  he  lived  his  boyhood  and  youth.      In 


LOAMMI  WALTER  MASON  185 

such  an  ideal  environment  he  heard  the  call  to  the  ministry.  Be- 
ginning his  theological  studies  in  a  Methodist  school,  he  changed 
before  graduation  to  the  Meadville  Theological  School,  gradu- 
ating in  1886.  He  was  ordained  June  17,  the  day  he  was  grad- 
uated, and  at  the  same  time  was  installed  in  the  Mission  Society 
which  he  himself  had  organized  in  Union  City,  Pa.  Shortly 
afterwards  he  married  Caroline  Wilkins,  a  young  woman  in 
whose  veins  ran  the  blood  of  such  ancestors  as  William  Shirley, 
Colonial  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  and  of  Deacon  Samuel 
Chapin,  founder  of  Springfield,  Mass.  Five  children  were  born 
to  them,  of  whom  three  survived  their  father. 

After  serving  the  young  Society  in  Union  City  faithfully  for 
several  years,  he  accepted  a  call  to  Brookfield,  Mass.,  where 
he  reorganized  and  upbuilt  the  church.  After  four  years  of  a 
successful  and  happy  ministry  there,  he  accepted  a  call  to  the 
First  Parish  in  Gloucester,  Mass.  His  strong  community-minded 
philosophy  made  it  natural  for  him  to  be  the  founder  of  the 
Gloucester  Associated  Charities,  and  he  took  his  share  in  the 
other  community  interests  of  the  city. 

In  the  year  1900,  Dr.  Mason  was  called  to  the  pastorate  of 
the  First  Unitarian  Church  of  Pittsburgh,  succeeding  Dr.  Charles 
E.  St.  John.  The  city  of  Pittsburgh  had  been  settled  by  Scotch- 
Irish  Presbyterians,  representing  a  powerful  influence  that  re- 
mains to  this  day.  Naturally,  therefore,  Pittsburgh  was  a  con- 
servative city  which  was  not  friendly  to  the  Unitarian  movement. 
This  fact  served  as  a  challenge  to  Dr.  Mason  who  willingly  ac- 
cepted it,  and  for  twenty-eight  years  as  the  minister  of  the  First 
Church  carried  out  an  aggressive  and  effective  ministry,  not  only 
in  his  own  church  but  in  the  whole  city,  at  the  same  time  retaining 
his  gentle  and  saintly  spirit. 

During  his  ministry  in  the  First  Church,  a  beautiful  stone 
structure  was  built  and  the  congregation  was  increased  and 
strongly  organized.  Beyond  his  faithful  duties  in  his  own 
church,  he  was  active  in  many  civic  affairs.  He  became  one  of 
the  strongest  forces  in  the  establishing  of  the  Juvenile  Court. 
He  was  likewise  of  great  service  to  the  Children's  Service  Bureau 
and  gave  invaluable  aid  in  the  organization  of  the  Associated 


1 86  JOSEPH  MAY 

Charities.  He  has  been  properly  called  the  father  of  the  Pitts- 
burgh playgrounds.  Kingsley  House,  a  social  settlement  of  far- 
reaching  helpfulness,  commanded  his  loyal  support.  So  did  the 
Milk  and  Ice  Association,  the  Election  Reform  Bureau,  and  the 
University  Extension  Society.  He  served  on  the  Board  of  Trus- 
tees of  the  Meadville  Theological  School  for  many  years,  and  a 
number  of  young  men  found  their  way  into  the  ministry  through 
his  example  and  leadership.  His  guiding  hand  helped  men 
trained  in  other  denominations  to  enter  the  Unitarian  Fellow- 
ship. Among  them  was  the  writer  of  this  sketch,  who  also  had 
the  privilege  of  serving  with  him  as  an  associate  for  a  year  and 
a  half  before  Dr.  Mason's  death  and  then  succeeded  him. 

In  June,  1908,  Dr.  Mason  was  given  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Divinity  by  Buchtel  College. 

At  the  all-too-early  age  of  67,  Dr.  Mason  passed  away  Janu- 
ary I,  1929.  He  was  mourned  not  only  by  his  congregation, 
but  the  whole  city  of  Pittsburgh  paid  its  tribute  as  well.  In- 
deed it  could  be  said  of  him  as  it  was  said  of  Lincoln: 

And  when  he  fell  in  whirlwind, 

He  went  down  as  when  a  lordly  cedar,  green  with  bows, 

Goes  down  with  a  great  shout  upon  the  hills, 

And  leaves  a  lonesome  place  against  the  sky. 


JOSEPH  MAY 

1836-1918 


Joseph  May  was  the  son  of  Samuel  Joseph  May  *  and  Lucretia 
Flagge  Coffin.  His  paternal  grandfather  was  Colonel  Joseph 
May,  for  over  forty  years  a  warden  of  King's  Chapel  in  Boston. 
His  paternal  grandmother  was  Dorothy  Sewall  (niece  of  Dor- 
othy Quincy),  a  descendant  of  the  first  and  sister  of  the  second 
Chief  Justice,  Samuel  Sewall.  His  maternal  grandfather  was 
Peter  Coffin,  a  member  of  King's  Chapel,  who  was  descended 
from  Tristam   Coffin,   one   of  the   first   settlers   of  Nantucket, 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  235. 


JOSEPH  MAY  187 

driven  thither  in  search  of  a  freer  rehgious  atmosphere.  Joseph 
May  was  born  in  Boston,  January  21,  1836,  and  spent  his  child- 
hood and  youth  in  Brooklyn,  Connecticut,  in  Scituate,  Massachu- 
setts, and  Syracuse,  New  York,  where  his  eminent  father  had 
pastorates  in  Unitarian  churches.  In  Syracuse,  one  of  his  school- 
mates and  chums  was  Andrew  D.  White,  later  the  President  of 
Cornell  University.  The  friendship  of  these  two  continued 
throughout  their  long  years  and  was  full  of  sympathy  and  under- 
standing. He  entered  Harvard  College  with  well-developed  in- 
tellectual interests,  the  fruit  perhaps  of  his  mother's  influence. 
Mother  and  son  were  particularly  congenial,  and  as  she  was  fond 
of  poetry  and  the  languages,  reading  her  New  Testament  in 
French  and  knowing  Italian,  she  quickened  kindred  interests  in 
her  son.  While  in  college  his  health  failed,  a  nervous  break- 
down resulting  from  too  close  application  to  his  studies,  but  he 
was  called  the  first  scholar  of  his  class,  sharing  this  distinction 
with  Solomon  Lincoln  and  John  D.  Long.  He  received  his  A.B. 
from  Harvard  in  1857.  After  several  years  partly  spent  in 
Europe,  he  entered  the  Harvard  Divinity  School,  from  which  he 
graduated  in  1865.  Following  his  graduation  he  became  the 
pastor  of  the  First  Unitarian  Congregational  Church  of  Yonkers, 
New  York,  where  he  served  for  two  years,  so  winning  the  affec- 
tion of  the  parishioners  that  he  kept  it  throughout  their  lives. 
While  in  Yonkers,  he  married  Miss  Harriet  C.  Johnson,  sister 
of  the  artist,  Eastman  Johnson.  They  had  four  children.  Then 
followed  seven  happy  and  productive  years  as  pastor  of  the  First 
Religious  Society  of  Newburyport,  Massachusetts.  In  January, 
1876,  he  became  the  pastor  of  the  First  Unitarian  Church  of  Phil- 
adelphia, succeeding  Dr.  William  Henry  Furness.*  Dr.  Furness 
had  been  the  minister  of  the  church  for  fifty  years  and  continued 
for  twenty-one  years  as  pastor  emeritus,  thus  completing  seventy- 
one  years  in  a  single  church.  Dr.  Furness  often  preached  for 
Dr.  May,  being  as  he  said,  "ready  to  respond  with  an  hour  or  two 
of  notice."  Dr.  Furness  was  theologically  conservative  while 
Dr.  May  was  the  representative  of  a  more  progressive  school 
of  thought.     Together  they  furnished  an  illustration  of  what 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  133. 


i88  JOSEPH  MAY 

is  meant  by  a  free  pulpit.  Each  respected  and  loved  the  other, 
and  both  were  given  sympathetic  hearings  by  the  congregation. 

Dr.  May  served  the  Philadelphia  church  for  twenty-five  years 
and  upon  his  retirement  became  pastor  emeritus,  but  throughout 
all  the  years  he  was  the  pastor  beloved,  honored,  respected.  In 
1887  Jefferson  College  honored  him  with  the  degree  of  LL.D. 
and  in  19 14  he  received  the  degree  of  D.D.  from  Meadville 
Theological  School.  Throughout  his  life  he  was  a  student, 
pursuing  his  studies  more  from  sheer  interest  and  delight  than 
for  their  utilitarian  value.  He  was  an  ardent  classicist,  his 
special  copy  of  Horace  having  been  bound  and  rebound  several 
times.  He  knew  Greek  and  was  proficient  in  French,  Italian 
and  Spanish.  His  published  works  were  few,  being  limited  to 
a  volume  on  "The  Miracles  and  Myths  of  the  New  Testament," 
two  volumes  of  "The  Life  and  Letters  of  Samuel  Longfellow," 
and  a  considerable  number  of  pamphlet  sermons.  He  was  a 
student  of  art  and  history,  as  well  as  of  language. 

Although  his  active  ministry  came  before  the  general  interest 
in  the  social  gospel,  he  was  convinced,  and  gave  long  and  persua- 
sive expression  of  his  conviction,  that  religion  has  its  public  as 
well  as  its  personal  application.  He  was  a  member  of  the  "Law 
and  Order  Society."  He  felt  keenly  the  need  of  Negro  educa- 
tion and  was  a  pioneer  in  the  development  of  substitutes  for  the 
saloon.  Henry  C.  Lea,  a  generous  and  loyal  parishioner,  said 
of  Dr.  May  that  his  sermons  on  civic  righteousness  definitely  in- 
fluenced the  elections  and  were  a  potent  factor  in  the  life  of  the 
city.  A  firm  believer  in  the  saying,  "Be  not  overcome  of  evil 
but  overcome  evil  with  good,"  he  was  a  leader  in  establishing 
what  was  then  rare,  a  community  home  to  compete  with  the 
saloon,  the  streets  and  the  public  halls.  His  faith  in  the  enter- 
prise bore  fruit,  and  for  many  years  "The  Evening  Home  and 
Library  Association"  exerted  a  positive  influence  in  the  city. 

Although  always  the  courteous  and  tolerant  gentleman,  he  was 
the  outspoken  and  fearless  preacher  of  free  Christianity.  His 
sermons  covered  a  wide  range  of  interests  and  yet  the  pastoral 
spirit  in  him  led  him  most  frequently  to  sermons  of  personal  life. 
During  his  Philadelphia  pastorate  he  inspired  and  led  the  con- 


JOEL  HASTINGS  METCALF  189 

gregatlon  in  the  erection  of  a  new  and  larger  church  building  in 
a  much  better  location.  He  was  so  successful  that  the  new 
church  at  21st  and  Chestnut  Streets  was  dedicated  free  of  debt. 

Scholarly,  dignified,  cultivated,  he  was  yet  of  a  tender  and 
bountiful  nature.  He  was  loved  because  he  gave  so  much  that 
inspired  love.  He  lifted  men  to  their  higher  selves  by  sheer 
force  of  his  personality.  It  was  said  by  one  of  his  parishioners, 
as  was  said  of  Emerson,  that  leaving  him  one  felt  that  something 
beautiful  had  passed  that  way.  When  he  died,  there  had  been 
passed  on  to  hundreds  of  the  generation  to  whom  he  ministered 
the  larger  life  and  the  larger  hope  which  are  found  only  in  the 
things  of  the  spirit. 

Soon  after  his  settlement  in  Philadelphia,  his  wife  died,  and 
sixteen  years  later  he  married  Miss  Elizabeth  Bacon  Justice. 
Retiring  from  the  active  pastorate  in  1901,  he  spent  his  remain- 
ing years  in  travel  and  in  quiet  living  in  Philadelphia.  He  died 
January  9,  1918. 


JOEL  HASTINGS  METCALF 

1866-1925 

Joel  Hastings  Metcalf,  clergyman-astronomer,  lover  of  na- 
ture and  of  humanity,  was  born  at  Meadville,  Pa.,  on  January  4, 
1866,  and  died  at  Portland,  Maine,  February  21,  1925.  Fol- 
lowing his  graduation  in  1890  -from  the  Meadville  Theological 
School,  he  took  postgraduate  work  at  the  Harvard  Divinity 
School  and  in  that  year  he  married  Elizabeth  Lockman  of  Cam- 
bridge. In  1892  he  received  the  degree  of  Ph.D.  from  Alle- 
gheny College.  In  1903  he  continued  graduate  work  at  Oxford 
University.  He  received  a  Doctorate  in  Divinity  from  the 
Meadville  Theological  School  in  1920.  He  was  for  a  few  years 
the  minister  of  the  Roslindale  Unitarian  Society,  and  then  held 
pastorates  at  Burlington,  Vt.  (i  893-1903),  Taunton,  Mass. 
(1904-1910),  Winchester,  Mass.  (1911-1920),  and  at  Port- 
land, Maine  (1920-1925). 


igo  JOEL  HASTINGS  METCALF 

Throughout  his  ministry  he  showed  a  very  high  ability,  a  wide 
tolerance  and  vivid  faith.  Outwardly  simple  and  wholly  unpre- 
tentious in  manner,  he  met  each  man  on  his  own  plane,  and  took 
him  at  his  best.  His  eagerness  to  serve  his  fellow  men  was 
demonstrated  in  World  War  I  when,  in  1918,  he  obtained  leave 
of  absence  from  his  parish  and  went  overseas  as  a  Y.M.C.A. 
secretary  attached  to  the  Third  Division,  with  which  he  served 
at  the  front.  He  showed  remarkable  courage  and  ingenuity  and 
a  self-sacrificing  devotion  to  the  welfare  of  the  men  under  his 
care.  For  getting  food  and  supplies  to  men  in  exposed  positions 
at  Chateau-Thierry,  he  received  a  citation  for  special  bravery. 
Offered  a  United  States  chaplaincy  with  the  rank  of  captain,  he 
declined  believing  that  he  was  better  able  to  help  as  a  Y.M.C.A. 
worker. 

As  a  devoted  Unitarian,  he  was  deeply  concerned  over  the 
postwar  condition  of  Transylvania,  the  birthplace  of  modern 
Unitarianism,  and  gladly  accepted  a  commission  from  the  Ameri- 
can Unitarian  Association  to  enter  that  shattered  country  to 
bring  aid  and  encouragement  to  the  Unitarian  churches.  In 
this  labor  he  was  a  tower  of  strength.  On  one  occasion  he  made 
a  daring  trip  from  Bucharest  to  Cluj  with  about  $10,000  in  cur- 
rency. As  a  result  of  his  visits  throughout  the  province,  he  left 
a  host  of  friends  and  admirers. 

Dr.  Metcalf  was  no  stranger  to  Europe.  For  many  years, 
during  his  summer  vacations,  he  had  conducted  tourist  parties  to 
England  and  the  Continent.  Although  these  tours  were  pri- 
marily for  sight-seeing,  he  was  keenly  alive  to  European  politics 
and  social  movements  as  well  as  to  cultural  values,  a  knowledge 
of  which  he  skillfully  imparted  to  his  fellow  travelers. 

Dr.  Metcalf  was  not  only  an  able  minister,  but  a  noted  ama- 
teur astronomer.  In  spite  of  a  busy  life,  he  was  able  to  serve 
a  great  scientific  interest  which  stemmed  from  a  boyhood  fascina- 
tion with  the  stars.  When  he  was  fourteen  years  old,  he  took 
from  a  Sunday-school  library  a  book  called  "Other  Worlds  Than 
Ours,"  by  Richard  Proctor.  This  book  became  an  open  door 
through  which  he  caught  glimpses  of  the  Universe. 

His  first  real  telescope,  purchased  for  $500,  was  delivered 


AMANDUS  NORMAN  191 

perilously  across  the  ice  of  Lake  Champlain  and  set  up  near  the 
parsonage  in  Burlington.  During  the  years  that  followed,  Dr. 
Metcalf  discov^ered  six  comets,  forty-one  asteroids,  and  several 
variable  stars.  The  comets  bear  his  name  as  a  perpetual  memo- 
rial to  their  discoverer.  He  was  awarded  five  medals  by  for- 
eign astronomical  associations,  and  was  made  a  Fellow  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  and  of  the  American 
Astronomical  Society.  For  a  time  he  was  chairman  of  the  Visit- 
ing Committee  of  the  Harvard  Observatory. 

He  also  excelled  in  applied  optics,  computing  lens  curves  and 
grinding  lenses.  He  made  a  special  telescope  for  Harvard 
Observatory  used  by  that  institution  for  stellar  photography. 
At  his  death,  he  left  a  half-finished  lens  which  was  later  com- 
pleted and  used  in  the  discovery  of  the  ninth  planet,  Pluto. 

Dr.  Metcalf  lived  through  a  period  of  controversy  between 
science  and  religion.  His  sermons  bear  witness  to  his  intense 
interest  in  the  subject  and  to  his  knowledge  of  its  implications. 
Intellectually  fearless  and  spiritually  devout,  he  made  it  his  busi- 
ness to  cast  down  the  barriers  which  threatened  to  separate  the 
two  fields  of  human  thought  and  endeavor.  For  him  there  was 
no  necessary  division  between  them.  He  lived  in  the  happy  con- 
sciousness of  a  vast  life,  wherein  the  probings  of  the  mind  were 
to  be  completely  free  and  unimpeded.  With  Kepler  he  could  say 
"the  undevout  astronomer  is  mad." 


AMANDUS  NORMAN 

1865-1931 

Amandus  Norman  served  as  the  minister  of  the  Norwegian 
liberal  Christian  congregation  called  the  Nora  Free  Christian 
Church,  at  Hanska,  Minnesota,  from  the  time  he  had  completed 
his  theological  training  in  1893  until  the  time  of  his  death  in 
1 93  I.  This  service  was  continuous  with  the  exception  of  two 
years,    1896— 1898,   when   he  was   coeditor   of  a   newspaper   in 


192  AMANDUS  NORMAN 

Grand  Forks,  North  Dakota,  and  Fargo,  Minnesota.  The 
length  of  time  in  which  he  served  one  church  was  matched  by 
the  quahty  of  his  leadership  and  its  self-sacrificing  spirit. 

Norman  was  born  at  Stange,  Hedemarken,  Norway,  June  8, 
1865,  and  came  as  a  lad  of  seventeen  with  his  father  to  Clay 
County,  Minnesota,  where  his  father  had  taken  homestead. 
Here  he  spent  his  formative  years  being  employed  in  various 
enterprises  while  at  the  same  time  ceaselessly  working  towards 
an  understanding  of  his  adopted  country,  its  history,  its  institu- 
tions, and  its  customs.  In  Norway  he  had  known  Kristofer  Jan- 
son,  the  famous  poet-preacher  who  had  come  to  the  United  States 
in  1 88 1  under  the  auspices  of  the  American  Unitarian  Associa- 
tion to  work  as  a  missionary  among  the  Scandinavians.  Janson 
saw  in  the  youth  a  man  of  real  promise  and  induced  him  to  study 
for  the  liberal  ministry.  He  entered  the  Meadville  Theological 
School,  graduated  in  1892  and  in  the  following  year  took  a  grad- 
uate course  at  the  Harvard  Divinity  School. 

In  the  first  years  of  his  ministry,  he  served  the  Nazareth 
Church  at  Minneapolis  in  conjunction  with  his  congregation  at 
Hanska.  In  1906  he  concentrated  his  work  and  energy  at 
Hanska  where  he  built  himself  into  the  church  and  the  commu- 
nity by  his  inexhaustible  spirit  of  service.  He  was  a  firm  be- 
liever in  the  cause  of  liberal  religion,  but  he  was  conservative 
in  the  best  sense  of  the  word.  Steadily  and  step  by  step  he  led 
his  people  to  a  broader  understanding  of  religion,  to  a  more 
tolerant  attitude  towards  those  with  whom  they  differed,  and 
to  a  deeper  insight  into  the  principles  of  Christianity.  When 
we  consider  that  he  and  they  inherited  a  tradition  and  a  reli- 
gious environment  established  on  the  static  qualities  of  Lutheran 
orthodoxy,  we  realize  the  wisdom  and  patience  required  for  this 
leadership. 

One  underlying  thought  permeated  his  life  philosophy — the 
innate  goodness  of  man.  This  confident  belief  was  not  so  much 
the  result  of  reflective  thinking  as  an  instinctive  feeling,  which 
found  its  expression  in  an  abounding  good  will.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  he  lived  his  religion  completely  and  devotedly. 
Behind  his  somewhat  stern  exterior,  there  was  a  spirit  of  mag- 


AMANDUS  NORMAN  193 

nanimity,  an  understanding  and  forgiving  soul.  He  always 
stressed  character,  and  he  exemplified  it  to  a  marked  degree. 
The  development  of  character  constituted  a  continuous  process, 
not  to  be  rebuffed  by  speculative  theological  trends,  nor  by  per- 
sonal discouragements. 

He  was  not  conspicuous  as  an  orator  and  he  was  too  modest 
about  his  capacity  as  a  public  speaker.  But  one  need  only  to  read 
some  of  his  many  sermons  and  lectures  to  realize  that  sound  sense 
and  substance  characterized  them.  Each  address  shows  careful 
preparation.  He  believed  in  a  scholarly  ministry,  read  and 
studied  many  books  in  different  languages  and  in  a  great  variety 
of  topics.  While  he  had  little  sympathy  with  modern  efficiency 
methods,  he  was  by  no  means  destitute  of  organizational  skill. 
What  was  accomplished  during  his  ministry  at  Hanska  shows 
practical  achievement  of  enduring  significance. 

As  a  pioneer  minister  Dr.  Norman  found  opportunity  to 
express  his  creative  power  in  many  fields.  For  eighteen  years 
he  edited  Mere  Lys,  a  quarterly  publication  in  the  Norwegian 
language  which  was  distinguished  by  the  content  and  diversity 
of  the  articles.  Through  his  persistent  effort,  a  community  hall 
was  built  in  the  village  of  Hanska,  containing  a  library  and  a 
recreational  center  for  the  community.  He  also  published  a 
hymnbook  in  the  Norwegian  language,  containing  many  Unita- 
rian hymns  which  he  had  translated  from  the  English  originals. 
He  was  a  guide  and  leader  in  many  forms  of  pihlanthropic  work, 
and  outstanding  service  for  the  needy  in  Europe  was  done  by 
his  congregation  during  and  after  the  first  World  War.  Mead- 
ville  Theological  School  conferred  the  Doctor  of  Divinity  de- 
gree on  him  in  the  year  1922.     He  died  on  November  14,  193 1. 

Contemporary  with  the  work  among  the  Americans  of  Norwegian  origin 
by  Dr.  Norman,  similar  enterprises  were  developed  in  the  Icelandic  colonies 
in  Manitoba,  with  the  Dutch  settlers  in  Michigan  and  the  Finns  in  Minne- 
sota. Among  the  leaders  of  these  undertakings  was  Rognvaldur  Peturs- 
SON,  who  was  born  in  Ripur,  Iceland,  in  1877.  He  studied  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Manitoba,  graduated  from  the  Meadville  Theological  School  in 
ig02,  and  took  postgraduate  work  at  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  in  1903. 
In  1929  Meadville  conferred  on  him  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity. 
A  year  later  the  University  of  Iceland  made  him  a  Doctor  of  Philosophy, 


194  AMANDUS  NORMAN 

conferring  on  him,  as  is  their  custom,  both  a  diploma  and  a  ring.  In  1903 
he  was  ordained  to  the  ministry  and  became  pastor  of  the  First  Icelandic 
Church  of  Winnipeg,  which  he  served  for  two  periods — 1903  to  1909,  and 
1915  to  1922.  Between  these  periods  he  acted  as  Field  Secretary  for  the 
Canadian  Icelandic  Churches,  and  continued  this  work  during  his  second 
pastorate  and  until  the  time  of  his  death.  When  the  thousandth  anniver- 
sary of  the  Icelandic  Free  Parliament  was  celebrated,  he  was  recalled  to 
Iceland  and  took  a  prominent  part  in  carrying  out  the  program  he  had 
helped  to  create.  He  was  founder  and  President  of  the  Icelandic  National 
League,  and  editor  of  The  Icelandic  National  Magazine.  Dr.  Petursson 
died  at  his  home  in  Winnipeg  on  February  15,  1941. 

Associated  with  Dr.  Petursson  was  Magnus  J.  Skaptason,  who  was 
born  in  Iceland,  February  4,  1850.  He  was  a  graduate  of  the  Reykjavik 
College  and  Divinity  School.  He  was  ordained  in  1875,  and  served  for 
twelve  years  as  minister  in  the  State  Church  of  Iceland.  In  1887,  accom- 
panied by  his  wife  and  children,  he  came  to  Manitoba,  where  he  carried 
on  a  successful  ministry  in  the  Gimli  district  for  a  number  of  years.  Dur- 
ing this  time  he  experienced  a  change  in  theological  views,  and  withdrew 
from  the  Lutheran  Synod.  He  became  minister  of  the  Icelandic  Unitarian 
Church  in  Gimli,  Man.,  and  from  1893  to  1901  he  was  minister  of  the 
church  in  Winnipeg.  In  1901  he  was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the  Ice- 
landic Unitarian  Conference  and  became  its  missionary,  serving  chiefly  in 
the  Icelandic  communities  about  Lake  Winnipeg.  He  died  at  Winnipeg 
on  March  8,  1932. 

Another  leader  of  the  Icelandic  churches  was  Gudmundur  Arnason, 
who  was  born  in  Borgarfjordur,  Iceland,  in  1881  and  died  in  Lundar,  Mani- 
toba, on  February  24,  1943.  He  studied  at  the  University  of  Berlin  and 
then  came  to  America  and  entered  the  Meadville  Theological  School,  where 
he  graduated  in  1908.  He  then  had  a  further  year  of  study  in  Europe  as 
the  Cruft  Fellow.  He  was  ordained  the  minister  of  the  Icelandic  Church 
in  Winnipeg,  Canada,  on  September  19,  1909,  and  for  more  than  thirty 
years  he  was  a  devoted  evangelist  and  servant  of  the  cause  of  liberal  reli- 
gion among  the  Icelandic  people  in  Western  Canada.  At  the  time  of  his 
death,  he  was  Regional  Director  and  President  of  the  United  Conference 
of  Icelandic  Churches  in  North  America. 

The  outstanding  liberal  leader  among  the  Hollanders  was  Frederick 
William  Nicolaas  Hugenholtz,  who  was  born  in  Rotterdam,  Nether- 
lands, August  I,  1839,  and  graduated  at  the  University  of  Leyden  in  1863. 
He  was  ordained  in  the  ministry  of  the  Remonstrant  Church  and  served 
parishes  at  Delden  for  five  years,  Tisvikzee  for  six  years,  and  at  Zandport 
for  eleven  years,  and  he  was  the  editor  of  the  paper  representing  liberal 
Christianity  in  Holland.  In  1885  he  came  to  America  and  took  charge  of 
a  group  of  liberal  churches  in  Michigan,  making  his  headquarters  at  the 
town  called  Holland.     He  was  a  man  of  wide-spreading  influence  among 


FRANCIS  GREENWOOD  PEABODY  195 

the  Dutch-speaking  people  in  central  Michigan,  and  he  died  at  Grand 
Rapids  on  February  17,  1900. 

The  Unitarian  pioneer  among  the  Americans  of  Finnish  descent  was 
RiSTO  Lappala.  Born  and  educated  in  Finland  and  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  Finnish  literature  and  history,  he  also  spoke  English  with  fluency. 
He  came  to  the  United  States  in  1904,  and  for  a  time  wrote  for  various 
newspapers  and  served  as  a  college  instructor.  With  these  advantages  of 
experience  Mr.  Lappala  combined  an  extraordinary  attractive  personality. 
He  won  the  confidence  of  plain  people  by  his  generous  spirit  and  quick 
interest,  and  commanded  the  respect  of  intellectual  leaders  by  his  gifts  of 
mind  and  heart. 

Born  into  the  Lutheran  Church,  in  America  Mr.  Lappala  entered  the 
Congregational  Ministry,  and,  after  studying  in  Boston,  served  for  five 
years  at  the  Finnish  church  in  Ashtabula,  Ohio.  When  his  thinking  be- 
came more  liberal  he  transferred  to  the  Unitarian  fellowship,  always  con- 
tinuing, however,  his  personal  friendship  w4th  many  of  the  Congregational 
leaders. 

As  a  Unitarian  pioneer  Mr.  Lappala  entered  the  mining  town  of  Virginia, 
Minn.,  as  a  stranger  and  boldly  set  out  to  establish  a  liberal  church.  For 
some  time  he  worked  in  the  mines  during  the  day  and  preached  in  the 
evenings.  Very  soon,  however,  he  gathered  a  permanent  congregation,  the 
Free  Christian  Church  of  Virginia.  Other  flourishing  societies  were 
started  by  him  at  Angora  and  Idington. 

While  in  Boston  Mr.  Lappala  met  and  married  a  fellow  student,  Miss 
Milma  Sophie  Tikkanen,  who  co-operated  ably  with  her  husband.  A  few 
years  later  she  also  was  ordained  and  served  as  minister  of  the  church  in 
Angora,  and  after  her  husband's  death  at  Virginia. 

Courageous  in  thought  and  in  action,  warmly  generous  and  hospitable, 
Mr.  Lappala  possessed  a  convincing  faith  in  the  truths  of  liberal  Christianity. 
He  died  on  February  26,  1923. 


FRANCIS  GREENWOOD  PEABODY 

1847-1936 

Francis  Greenwood  Peabody  was  one  of  the  most  widely  known 
and  honored  of  Unitarian  ministers.  He  was  born  in  Boston  on 
December  4,  1847,  the  youngest  child  of  the  Rev.  Ephraim  Pea- 
body,*  the  minister  of  King's  Chapel,  and  his  wife,  Mary  Jane 
Derby.     Late  in  life  Professor  Peabody  wrote  with  loving  care 

•  See  Volume  III,  p.  297. 


196  FRANCIS  GREENWOOD  PEABODY 

a  charming  account  of  his  parents  in  his  little  book  "A  New 
England  Romance." 

He  entered  Harvard  with  the  class  of  1869,  and  took  a  happy 
part  in  college  activities.  In  1868,  when  a  junior,  he  was  first 
baseman  in  the  first  Harvard  nine  to  play  against  Yale.  From 
college  he  went  to  the  Harvard  Divinity  School,  graduating  in 
1872  with  the  degrees  of  A.M.  and  S.T.B.  The  same  spring 
he  married  Miss  Cora  Weld  of  Boston.  A  year  and  a  half  of 
travel  in  Europe  followed,  the  greater  part  of  which  was  spent 
at  the  University  of  Halle  in  Germany,  where  he  worked  under 
Tholuck,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  an  acquaintance  with  Ger- 
man scholarship  which  became  a  permanent  influence  in  his  ca- 
reer. 

When  he  returned  home  early  in  1874  he  accepted  a  call  to 
the  First  Parish  in  Cambridge,  and  was  ordained  minister  of 
that  church  on  March  31,  1874.  He  served  the  church  for  five 
years,  resigning  in  1879  on  account  of  ill-health.  His  appoint- 
ment to  the  Divinity  School  was  the  result  of  a  request  addressed 
to  him  by  Dean  Everett  who  asked  him,  after  his  resignation 
from  his  parish,  to  lecture  on  homiletics.  President  Eliot,  whose 
first  wife  was  Peabody's  eldest  sister,  opposed  the  appointment  on 
the  ground  that  it  was  unsuitable  for  him  to  give  his  own  brother- 
in-law  a  place  on  the  faculty.  President  Eliot's  scruples  were 
eventually  overcome  and  Mr.  Peabody  was  appointed  lecturer 
on  ethics  and  homiletics  for  the  year  1880-81,  and  Parkman 
Professor  of  Theology  the  next  year.  In  1886  he  became  Plum- 
mer  Professor  of  Christian  Morals,  with  charge  of  the  college 
chapel,  filling  the  position  which  Dr.  Andrew  P.  Peabody  *  had 
held  up  to  1881.  In  this  oflSce  he  remained  until  January,  1913, 
when  he  became  professor  emeritus.  He  also  was  Acting  Dean 
of  the  Divinity  School  on  two  occasions  during  the  absence  of 
Dean  Everett,  and  was  Dean  from  1901  to  1905.  In  all  these 
fields  of  work,  as  preacher,  teacher,  author,  administrator,  he 
was  a  master,  and  most  of  all  in  the  art  of  contentful  and  benefi- 
cent living. 

Professor  Peabody,  in  addition  to  occasional  brief  vacation 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  288. 


FRANCIS  GREENWOOD  PEABODY  197 

journeys  to  study  methods  of  social  amelioration,  used  his  recur- 
ring sabbatical  leaves  of  absence  as  opportunities  for  travel.  In 
1891—92  he  spent  most  of  the  winter  with  his  family  in  Germany, 
going  to  Palestine  and  Italy  in  the  spring.  In  1898-99  he  was 
again  in  Germany  and  Italy,  and  during  his  absence  wrote  his 
"Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Question,"  which  was  published 
the  following  year.  In  1905—06  he  went  to  Berlin  as  the  first 
exchange  professor  from  America  at  the  University  of  Berlin. 
Again  President  Eliot,  on  account  of  the  family  connection,  was 
reluctant  to  nominate  him.  His  selection  was  due,  no  doubt,  in 
part  to  Professor  Francke's  recommendation,  in  part  to  the  spe- 
cial invitation  of  the  Emperor  Wilhelm,  and  in  part  to  the  nov- 
elty of  his  teaching  in  social  ethics,  a  field  of  study  which  was 
without  counterpart  in  European  universities.  After  his  resig- 
nation in  1 9 13,  Professor  Peabody  also  visited  Japan,  as  Com- 
missioner for  the  American  Unitarian  Association. 

Professor  Peabody's  service  at  the  Divinity  School  was  dis- 
tinguished both  for  his  skill  as  a  teacher  of  homiletics,  and  for 
his  development  of  the  department  of  social  ethics.  The  stu- 
dents who  studied  pastoral  care  and  the  art  of  preaching  under 
his  guidance  found  in  him  a  keen  but  sympathetic  critic  who  was 
himself  a  thorough  master  of  the  art  which  he  taught.  No 
divinity  student  who  took  "Hom.  2"  under  him  ever  forgot  the 
experience. 

Dr.  Peabody  early  established  a  reputation  as  a  singularly 
felicitous  and  persuasive  preacher.  He  developed  with  great 
skill  the  art  of  making  brief  addresses  at  morning  prayers  in 
Appleton  Chapel,  a  task  which  many  visiting  preachers  found  a 
difficult  one.  Two  volumes  of  these  sermonettes  appeared,  called 
"Mornings  in  the  College  Chapel,"  the  first  in  1896,  the  second 
in  1907.  These  addresses  reveal  how  much  it  is  possible  to  say, 
and  to  say  well,  in  the  space  of  six  minutes.  Dr.  Peabody  also 
published  two  volumes  of  longer  sermons,  "Afternoons  in  the 
College  Chapel"  (1898)  and  "Evenings  in  the  College  Chapel" 
(191 1 ).  These  chapel  addresses  represent  the  highest  level  of 
college  preaching. 

The  felicity  of  the  literary  style  remains  on  the  printed  page. 


198  FRANCIS  GREENWOOD  PEABODY 

but  the  cold  type  cannot  convey  the  grace  of  the  clear  and  per- 
suasive utterance  and  the  quiet  dignity  of  the  speaker.  He  was 
in  no  sense  a  "fiery  orator,  or  a  cyclonic  master  of  assembhes." 
He  searched  hearts,  but  with  a  heahng,  not  a  scorching,  touch. 
There  was  no  showy  rhetoric  but  an  abundance  of  epigrams  that 
clung  to  a  hearer's  memory.  There  was  balance  in  the  sentences 
and  a  revelation  of  the  beauty  and  music  and  cogency  of  the 
Enghsh  tongue.  He  was  fond  of  paradoxes  and  contrasting 
phrases  and  his  illustrations  were  wonderfully  apt  and  graphic. 
He  was  a  preacher  of  power  because  of  the  sanity  and  vitality 
of  his  ideas,  the  clarity  of  his  vision,  the  beauty  and  symmetry 
of  the  form  in  which  the  ideas  were  expressed,  and  above  all 
because  of  the  high  and  tender  humanity  of  the  man  himself. 
He  was  at  once  the  scholar  in  thought  and  the  artist  in  words. 

He  was  always  approachable  and  hospitable.  He  had  none 
of  the  scholar's  aloofness.  He  was  entirely  free  from  insularity. 
He  was  unconscious  of  intellectual  or  racial  barriers.  He  was 
equally  at  home  in  the  fisherman's  cottage  or  the  king's  palace. 
He  could  preach  with  the  same  finish  and  poignancy  in  the  coun- 
try schoolhouse  or  the  great  cathedral.  Anyone  could  go  to 
him  with  a  personal  problem  or  difficulty,  sure  of  his  under- 
standing sympathy  and  confident  of  wise  counsel.  He  knew  his 
St.  Thomas  Aquinas  and  also  his  "Alice  in  Wonderland."  He 
was  an  astute  teacher  of  the  philosophy  of  religion  and  at  the 
same  time  had  a  firm  hand  on  the  tiller  of  his  boat  and  a  quick 
eye  for  the  trim  of  a  sail. 

In  another  field  of  service  Dr.  Peabody  played  an  unforgettable 
part.  From  their  founding  all  the  endowed  American  colleges 
had  required  the  attendance  of  undergraduates  at  daily  morning 
prayers  and  at  Sunday  Services.  In  1880  Harvard  pioneered 
the  change  from  the  compulsory  system  of  religious  instruction 
to  a  voluntary  system.  The  experiment  was  denounced  by  many 
graduates  and  parents.  The  president  of  another  college  wrote 
that  "the  abandonment  of  a  custom  so  salutary  as  well  as  time- 
honored  would  be  fraught  with  most  serious  consequences  to  the 
whole  fabric  of  our  civilization."  It  fell  to  Dr.  Peabody,  as  the 
administrator  of  the  College  Chapel  and  Chairman  of  the  newly 


FRANCIS  GREENWOOD  PEABODY  199 

established  Board  of  Preachers,  to  put  the  optional  system  into 
operation,  and  he  did  so  with  such  success  that  the  critics  were 
gradually  disarmed  and  the  new  system  confirmed  in  the  confi- 
dence and  adopted  in  the  practice  of  many  academic  communities. 
A  yet  wider  reputation,  however,  came  to  him  from  his  work 
in  social  ethics.  In  1881-82  he  lectured  in  the  Divinity  School 
on  "The  History  of  Ethics,"  and  also,  once  a  week,  on  "Practical 
Ethics."  The  latter  was  a  course  on  the  application  of  Chris- 
tian principles  to  social  problems,  and  never  before,  save  for  an 
isolated  and  unrepeated  course  of  lectures  given  at  Andover  a 
year  earlier,  had  instruction  of  this  particular  type  been  offered 
in  any  American  theological  school.  In  1883-84  he  first  offered 
a  course  in  "Ethical  Theories  and  Social  Problems:  a  practical 
examination  of  the  questions  of  charity,  temperance,  labor, 
prisons,  divorce,  etc."  This  was  open  to  college  undergraduates 
— among  whom  it  became  popularly  known  as  "Peabo's  drainage, 
drunkenness  and  divorce" — and  it  contributed  much  to  open  the 
eyes  of  young  men  at  Harvard  to  the  existence  of  grave  social 
problems.  Such  was  his  purpose,  for  he  particularly  sought  to 
encourage  young  men,  for  the  most  part  from  sheltered  and 
favored  homes,  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  promotion  of  the 
social  welfare  of  the  less  fortunate.  He  stimulated  scores  to 
activity  along  these  lines,  and  contributed  much  to  the  develop- 
ment of  social  service  as  a  profession.  For  divinity  students 
there  were  advanced  courses  which  supplied  a  solid  foundation 
for  the  awakening  interest  of  the  churches  in  the  "social  gospel." 
Teachers  of  the  older  academic  disciplines  sometimes  looked 
askance  on  the  new  subject  as  something  not  quite  within  the 
range  of  scholarship,  but  Professor  Peabody  viewed  it  as  an 
opportunity  for  a  great  contribution  to  life  and  thought,  and 
made  himself  a  master  of  the  subject.  Before  he  resigned  he 
had  secured  from  his  friend,  Mr.  Alfred  T.  White  of  Brooklyn, 
an  endowment  for  the  department  of  social  ethics,  gathered  a 
first-rate  library  on  the  subject,  and  so  enlarged  the  field  of  in- 
struction that  ten  courses  or  half-courses  were  offered  by  three 
other  lecturers  besides  himself.  The  substance  of  his  teaching 
eventually  appeared  in  a  series  of  volumes,  "Jesus  Christ  and  the 


200  FRANCIS  GREENWOOD  PEABODY 

Social  Question"  ( 1900) ,  "Jesus  Christ  and  Christian  Character" 
(1904),  "The  Approach  to  the  Social  Question"  (1909)  and 
"The  Christian  Life  in  the  Modern  World"  (1914).  These 
books  brought  Professor  Peabody  wide  recognition  in  this  coun- 
try and  Europe. 

His  writings,  however,  were  not  limited  to  the  field  of  social 
ethics  and  to  sermons.  In  1903  he  translated  Professor  Hilty's 
"Happiness,"  and  the  same  year  wrote  "The  Religion  of  an 
Educated  Man."  His  literary  work  went  steadily  on  after  his 
retirement  from  active  teaching.  In  19 18  he  published  "Educa- 
tion for  Life,"  a  deeply  interesting  and  accurate  record  of  the 
development  of  Hampton  Institute,  and  an  Important  source 
book  in  the  history  of  Negro  education  In  this  country.  Profes- 
sor Peabody's  connection  with  Hampton  was  long  and  intimate, 
for  he  was  a  trustee  of  the  Institute  for  forty  years,  and  none  of 
his  activities  brought  him  greater  pleasure  than  this  association 
with  one  of  the  noblest  and  most  successful  enterprises  for  the 
advancement  of  the  American  Negro.  His  "New  England  Ro- 
mance," already  referred  to,  appeared  In  1920,  and  his  "The 
Apostle  Paul  and  the  Modern  World"  In  1923.  His  book,  "The 
Church  of  the  Spirit"  (1925),  is  worthy  to  be  classed  with 
Sabatler's  "Religion  of  the  Spirit"  as  a  noble  Interpretation  of 
pure  Christianity  and  its  practice  in  serviceable  living.  In  1927 
he  published  a  delightful  collection  of  biographical  sketches  of 
fifteen  personal  friends,  under  the  title  "Reminiscences  of  Present- 
Day  Saints."  In  1830  came  a  little  collection  of  "Prayers  for 
Various  Occasions  and  Needs,"  and  In  1931  he  printed  privately 
and  sent  to  his  friends  at  Christmastlde,  just  after  his  eighty- 
fourth  birthday,  a  charming  and  cheerful  essay  on  old  age.  He 
himself  gave  his  friends  a  beautiful  example  of  the  serenity  of 
old  age,  filled  with  high  interests  and  fruitful  labors.  Increasing 
deafness  shut  him  off  from  much  of  the  social  intercourse  he  had 
enjoyed  but  he  retained  keen  interest  in  persons  and  events,  his 
genial  humor  and  his  capacity  to  speak  the  seasonable  and  satis- 
fying word. 

Professor  Peabody's  life  was  an  exceptionally  well-rounded 
one.     He  was  a  lover  of  books  and  of  travel,  of  the  sea  and  of 


ULYSSES  GRANT  BAKER  PIERCE  201 

the  ships  that  sail  thereon,  a  man  of  many  and  varied  friendships. 
From  his  earliest  childhood  he  was  bred  in  the  finest  tradition 
of  New  England  Unitarianism,  and  to  its  principles  he  always 
remained  deeply  attached.  But  his  wide  culture  and  experience 
of  life  also  bred  in  him  a  catholicity  of  spirit.  His  friends  were 
all  of  religious  communions — and  of  none.  His  position  at 
Harvard  brought  to  him  many  sympathetic  contacts  with  the 
leaders  of  other  denominations,  and  in  their  eyes  he  was  an  out- 
standing interpreter  of  the  best  thought  and  tradition  of  Uni- 
tarian Christianity.  The  secret  of  his  activity  and  his  influence 
was  in  his  firm  assurance  of  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man. 
What  he  said  of  another  may  be  repeated  of  him:  "The  supreme 
lesson  of  his  beautiful  life  was  that  of  worldly  wisdom  derived 
from  unworldly  consecration.  It  was  the  wisdom  which  is  from 
above,  full  of  mercy  and  good  fruits.  Behind  the  kindliness 
which  made  him  a  delightful  companion  were  the  firmness  and 
serenity  derived  from  an  uncomplicated  and  undisturbed  religious 
life.  It  was  the  habit  of  faith  which  led  him  to  works  of  love." 
He  was  given  an  honorary  D.D.  by  Yale  in  1887;  the  degree 
of  LL.D.  by  Western  Reserve  in  1907 ;  and  the  degree  of  S.T.D. 
by  Harvard  in  1909.  Mrs.  Peabody  died  in  September,  19 14. 
Of  their  four  children  one  died  in  Italy  as  a  youth,  and  a  second, 
the  distinguished  physician  Dr.  Francis  W.  Peabody,  died  in 
middle  life.  Dr.  Peabody  died  December  28,  1936,  in  his  nine- 
tieth year. 

In  the  biographical  sketch  prepared  by' Dr.  Foote,  the  editor,  who  was  Dr.  Pea- 
body's  nephew,  has  inserted  sundry  phrases  from  his  own  memorial  addresses. 


ULYSSES  GRANT  BAKER  PIERCE 

1865-1943 

To  have  preached  for  forty-two  years  from  one  of  the  most 
conspicuous  pulpits  in  America  and  efficiently  administered  the 
affairs  of  a  great  church  at  the  Nation's  capital  is  a  supreme  test 
of  a  man's  character  and  ability.      Dr.  Pierce  met  that  test  with 


202  ULYSSES  GRANT  BAKER  PIERCE 

unfailing  competency  and  nobly  represented  the  best  traditions 
and  practices  of  the  Unitarian  ministry.  His  Christian  name 
reveals  the  time  of  his  birth,  July  17,  1865,  when  General  Grant 
was  the  national  hero.  He  came  of  a  good  family  stock  in 
Providence,  R.  I.,  and  was  bred  in  the  customs  and  convictions 
of  the  Baptist  communion.  From  the  PubHc  Schools  he  went  to 
Hillsdale  College  to  prepare  for  the  ministry  and  took  his  degree 
there  in  1890.  He  must  already  have  found  himself  inclined  to 
more  liberal  interpretations  of  religion,  for  he  then  elected  to 
go  to  the  Harvard  Divinity  School,  and  he  studied  there  under 
great  teachers  like  Everett,  Peabody,  Thayer,  and  Toy,  but  he 
did  not  stay  long  enough  to  graduate.  He  was  eager  for  active 
service  and  did  not  disdain  a  modest  beginning.  On  August  30, 
1 89 1,  he  was  ordained  minister  of  a  newly  organized  little  church 
in  Decorah,  Iowa.  After  two  years  there  he  pushed  further  west 
and  for  four  years  served  another  small  Unitarian  Church  in 
Pomona,  California.  There  his  exceptional  gifts  of  mind  and 
heart  were  manifested,  and  in  1898  he  returned  to  the  East  and 
took  charge  of  the  church  in  Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  where  his  congrega- 
tion was  largely  recruited  from  the  faculty  and  students  of  Cor- 
nell University.  Then  came  the  call  to  Washington  where  he 
was  installed  minister  of  All  Souls  Church  in  April,  1901,  and 
there  he  remained  until  his  sudden  death  on  Sunday,  October 
10,  1943,  shortly  after  he  had  conducted  the  morning  service, 
preached  a  fine  sermon,  and  christened  a  child. 

His  was  a  supremely  happy  and  fruitful  life.  His  admin- 
istrative capacity  was  soon  discovered.  For  twelve  years  he 
served  on  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  American  Unitarian 
Association  and,  as  one  of  the  Foreign  Relations  Committee, 
made  several  trips  to  Europe  helping  to  organize  and  animate 
the  liberal  forces.  He  was  the  preacher  of  the  Association's 
Anniversary  Sermon  in  19 16.  In  Washington  he  was  active 
and  influential  in  the  management  of  the  city's  charitable  and 
educational  institutions — a  trustee  of  Gallaudet  College  and  of 
Howard  University,  Secretary  of  the  Columbia  Institution  for 
the  Deaf,  and  President  of  the  Board  of  Visitors  of  St.  Eliza- 
beth's Hospital.     For  four  years.  (1909-19 13)  he  was  Chaplain 


ULYSSES  GRANT  BAKER  PIERCE  203 

of  the  United  States  Senate,  succeeding  in  that  office  the  revered 
Dr.  Edward  Everett  Hale.  It  was  said  of  him,  "His  prayers 
were  marked  by  deep  religious  feeling,  coupled  with  the  broadest 
tolerance  and  an  understanding  of  religion  in  the  deepest  sense. 
Both  in  his  prayers  and  in  his  sermons  he  always  contributed  to 
the  clear  thinking  of  those  who  listened  to  him  and  to  their  faith 
in  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  Brotherhood  of  Man." 

In  1907  he  compiled  and  published  "The  Soul  of  the  Bible," 
being  selections  from  the  Bible  arranged  in  synthetic  readings. 
The  book  has  gone  through  many  editions  and  continues  to  be 
widely  used  both  in  families  and  in  the  Scripture  readings  from 
the  pulpits  of  all  the  Protestant  denominations.  Another  book, 
"The  Creed  of  Epictetus,"  did  not  have  so  large  a  circulation 
but  is  valued  by  many  readers.  In  1909  both  Hillsdale  College 
and  George  Washington  University  gave  him  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Divinity. 

But  Dr.  Pierce's  energies  were  chiefly  devoted  to  All  Souls 
Church.  He  found  the  society  worshiping  in  a  convenient  but 
rather  commonplace  building  at  14th  and  L  Streets.  As  the  con- 
gregation grew  in  numbers  and  resources,  a  new  building  became 
increasingly  necessary,  and  in  1924  the  splendid  great  church  at 
1 6th  and  Harvard  Streets  was  dedicated.  The  beauty  and  fit- 
ness of  the  building  owe  much  to  Dr.  Pierce's  foresight  and  skill 
as  well  as  to  his  capacity  for  business.  Worship,  study,  work 
and  social  gatherings  were  all  amply  provided  for,  and  the  build- 
ing became  a  truly  national  church  for  liberals  from  all  parts  of 
the  country.  Dr.  Pierce's  influeiice  was  thus  diffused  far  beyond 
merely  parochial  borders. 

In  his  pulpit  Dr.  Pierce  made  his  church  a  beacon  light  of  the 
liberal  faith.  He  was  a  great  preacher,  wise,  penetrating,  elo- 
quent. He  was  a  master  in  the  art  and  use  of  words.  Many 
a  flaming  phrase  of  his  has  been  for  other  preachers  a  veritable 
sword  of  the  spirit.  He  read  widely  in  the  great  literatures 
and  especially  in  poetry  and  philosophy.  He  had  unsurpassed 
knowledge  of  the  needs  of  the  human  heart  and  was  always  a 
good  neighbor  and  understanding  friend,  quick  in  sympathy  and 
ready  with  the  right  words  on  both  merry  and  sad  occasions. 


204  CHARLES  FRANK  RUSSELL 

He  sparkled  with  whimsical  humor  and  was  always  kindly  and 
generous.  His  zest  and  joy  in  life  were  eminently  contagious. 
All  who  met  him  or  heard  him  discovered  what  it  means  to  be 
intensely  and  fruitfully  alive.  The  diversities  of  liberal  faith 
and  practice  found  in  him  and  through  him  the  deeper  unity  of 
the  spirit.  He  was  a  liberal  Christian  in  the  perfect  meaning 
of  that  definition.  Dr.  Pierce  married  Florence  Lonsbury,  who 
also  had  been  educated  for  the  ministry  and  who  was  always  his 
able  and  loyal  fellow  worker. 


CHARLES  FRANK  RUSSELL 

1848-1921 

Charles  Frank  Russell  was  born  in  1848  in  the  little  village 
of  Parish,  N.  Y.,  where  his  father  was  a  prosperous  country 
merchant.  He  died  in  Boston,  November  10,  1921.  As  a  boy 
he  went  to  the  village  schools  and  for  some  years  to  a  boarding 
school.  Before  he  was  twenty,  however,  he  had  entered  business 
and  for  several  years  was  engaged  in  various  commercial  pur- 
suits. He  was  in  business  in  Chicago  in  the  early  '70's,  a  mar- 
ried man  with  two  little  sons.  It  was  at  the  time  when  Robert 
CoUyer  was  at  the  height  of  his  power  as  the  minister  of  Unity 
Church.  Russell's  religious  thought  had  been  slowly  crystallizing 
into  liberal  forms.  A  sermon  of  CoUyer's,  "How  Enoch  Walked 
with  God,"  made  a  particularly  deep  impression  on  him  and 
he  joined  Unity  Church.  His  work,  as  one  of  the  interested 
young  men  in  the  church,  his  services  with  the  relief  activities 
after  the  great  fire  and  the  strong  personal  influence  of  Collyer, 
all  tended  to  increase  his  interest  in  the  Unitarian  movement  and 
at  last  brought  him  to  a  sense  of  his  vocation  in  the  ministry. 

Although  he  was  now  a  man  of  thirty,  with  family  responsi- 
bilities, he  entered  the  Meadville  Theological  School.  After  one 
year  there  he  presented  himself  at  the  Harvard  Divinity  School, 
where  it  was  made  possible  for  him  to  take  courses  in  Harvard 
College  as  well. 


CHARLES  FRANK  RUSSELL  205 

During  one  year  at  the  School  he  acted  as  minister  of  the 
church  in  Bedford,  Mass.,  and  on  November  16,  1882,  he  was 
ordained  minister  of  the  First  Parish  in  Weston.  With  his 
family  he  occupied  the  parsonage,  but  continued  his  work  at  the 
Divinity  School,  receiving  his  degree  of  S.T.B.  in  June,  1884. 
Until  April,  19 16,  a  period  of  nearly  thirty-four  years,  he  was  the 
devoted  and  well-beloved  minister  of  the  Weston  Parish. 

For  many  years  he  was  prominent  in  denominational  affairs, 
being  at  different  times  a  director  of  the  American  Unitarian 
Association  and  interested  in  a  number  of  other  denominational 
organizations.  Twice  he  received  calls  to  other  fields  of  service : 
once  to  be  associate  with  his  friend,  Theodore  Williams,  at  the 
Church  of  All  Souls  in  New  York,  and  again  to  become  the  Field 
Agent  for  the  Association  in  New  England,  but  each  time  the 
Weston  people  rose  in  their  loyalty  and  affection  and  persuaded 
him  to  stay  with  them.  In  the  winter  of  1917-18  he  was  a 
teacher  in  the  Pacific  Unitarian  School  for  the  Ministry  at  Berke- 
ley, Calif.;  and  in  the  winter  of  19 18-19,  just  when  he  was  set- 
tling down  for  some  months  of  rest  in  Boston,  being  asked  to 
serve  the  church  in  Richmond,  Va.,  whose  minister  was  overseas, 
he  went  there  at  once,  and  entered  into  the  work  with  enthusiasm. 

Mr.  Russell's  interests  were  extraordinarily  varied.  Litera- 
ture, art,  music,  nature — what  might  be  called  the  "humanities" 
— in  these  his  soul  took  delight.  He  was  not  a  student  in  the 
strict  sense  of  that  word,  but  a  reader  who  was  on  intimate  terms 
with  the  best  in  literature.  One  of  his  intellectual  achievements 
was  the  preparation  of  the  Biographical  Index  for  the  University 
Hymnbook,  prepared  for  use  in  the  chapel  of  Harvard  Univer- 
sity, in  1895.  In  this  work  Mr.  Russell  assisted  Dr.  Francis  G. 
Peabody  and  Mr.  Warren  A.  Locke,  the  University  Choirmaster, 
his  special  task  being  to  ascertain  the  original  readings  of  each 
hymn  and  to  get  accurate  facts  regarding  authors,  composers, 
and  dates.  In  this  work  Mr.  Russell  spent  a  long  period  of 
study  and  the  result  may  fairly  be  called  a  truly  scholarly  attain- 
ment in  the  field  of  hymnology.  With  the  consent  of  the  Uni- 
versity and  in  conjunction  with  Dr.  Samuel  A.  Eliot,  he  also 
prepared  an  edition  of  the  Hymnbook  for  use  in  churches. 


2o6  MINOT  JUDSON  SAVAGE 

His  aesthetic  sense  was  strongly  developed,  as  could  be  in- 
ferred from  the  beautiful  church  built  under  his  leadership  in 
Weston,  from  the  deep  love  that  he  had  for  music,  and  from 
the  joy  that  he  found  in  gardening,  which  for  many  years  was  his 
principal  avocation.  Always  the  first  interest  of  his  life,  how- 
ever, was  the  ministry  of  rehgion.  Through  the  years  of  his 
work  in  Weston  he  developed  a  standard  of  worshipfulness,  of 
friendliness,  and  of  true  religion  which  gave  to  the  Weston 
Church  an  atmosphere  of  its  own.  The  plans  and  work  of 
younger  comrades  in  the  ministry  were  always  dear  to  his  heart. 
Within  a  few  hours  of  his  death  he  was  talking  with  some  of 
these  younger  men  and  expressing  his  faith  in  them  and  in  the 
future  of  their  work  and  finally  said,  "I  feel  that  I  may  say,  'Lord, 
now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart  in  peace.'  "  His  death  came 
swiftly  and  peacefully  as  he  sat  with  his  wife.  (After  his  first 
wife's  death  he  had  married  in  1898  Miss  Mary  Otis  Rogers,  and 
she  was  his  companion  of  twenty-three  years.) 

Mr.  Russell's  hfe  was  not  eventful  in  the  sense  of  great  achieve- 
ments on  the  surface.  Who  shall  say  that  it  was  not  eventful 
in  its  influence  upon  other  Hves  touched  by  his  devotion,  his  sin- 
cerity and  his  faith?  No  man  can  minister  to  one  community 
for  nearly  forty  years  without  producing  results  in  human  char- 
acter. As  Mr.  Russell  cultivated  his  garden  and  made  it  bring 
forth  beauty,  so  he  cultivated  his  parish  and  the  fruits  of  beauty 
and  truth  and  love  are  evident  in  the  Hfe  of  the  town  of  Weston. 


MINOT  JUDSON  SAVAGE 
1841-1918 

Dr.  Savage  was  first  and  foremost  among  American  ministers 
to  affirm  the  religious  interpretation  of  the  new-found  truths  of 
Evolution.  In  the  last  two  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century 
his  words,  both  spoken  and  printed,  were  a  godsend  to  thousands 
of  people  troubled  and  confused  in  their  religious  thinking  by 
the  discoveries  of  science. 

In  1883  Herbert  Spencer  wrote  to  him,  "I  have  read  with 


MINOT  JUDSON  SAVAGE  207 

much  interest  your  clearly  reasoned  and  eloquent  exposition  of 
the  religious  and  ethical  bearings  of  the  Evolution  doctrine.  I 
rejoice  to  see  that  these  aspects  of  it  are  coming  to  the  front. 
It  is  high  time  that  something  should  be  done  toward  making 
people  see  that  there  remains  for  them  not  a  mere  negation  of 
their  previous  ethical  and  religious  beliefs,  as  they  had  supposed, 
but  contrariwise,  beliefs  which,  as  you  say,  have  a  definite  and 
unshakable  foundation.  ...  I  hope  that  your  teachings  will 
initiate  something  like  a  body  of  definite  adherents.  I  have  been 
long  looking  forward  to  the  time  when  something  of  this  kind 
might  be  done  and  it  seems  to  me  that  you  are  the  man  to  do  it." 

On  a  knoll  above  the  Kennebec  River  near  Norridgewock, 
Maine,  there  still  stands  a  small  farmhouse.  There  Minot 
Savage  was  born  on  June  10,  1841.  His  father,  high-principled, 
austere,  Calvinistic,  his  mother,  blessed  with  an  understanding 
heart  and  a  joyous  sense  of  humor,  were  of  English  stock  trans- 
planted to  America  in  the  late  sixteen  hundreds.  The  times 
w^ere  hard  and  the  little  farm  was  poor.  The  house  was  lighted 
by  tallow  candles  and  cooking  was  done  over  the  open  fire.  Edu- 
cation was  limited  to  the  meager  resources  of  the  local  schools. 
Religion  was  a  severe  discipline;  Bible  memory  work  a  weekly 
task;  church  and  Sunday  School  attendance  strictly  required. 
College  was  out  of  the  question,  but  the  boy  worked  on  farms 
and  at  all  sorts  of  odd  jobs.  When  he  was  thirteen  years  old 
he  joined  the  Congregational  Church  and  he  early  determined 
to  become  a  minister.  The  help  of  a  generous  benefactor,  who 
remained  anonymous,  enabled  him  to  enroll  at  the  Bangor  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  his  "theological  West  Point,"  as  he  later  called 
it.  There  he  quickly  made  up  some  of  the  deficiencies  in  his 
schooling  and  there  he  nurtured  a  love  of  poetry.  All  his  life 
the  poets  were  his  favorite  authors  and  he  wrote  a  good  deal 
of  verse  himself. 

He  served  for  a  year  with  the  Christian  Commission  in  the 
South  and,  returning  to  Bangor,  graduated  from  the  Seminary 
in  1864.  Thereupon,  he  married  Ella  Godfrey  Dodge,  daughter 
of  the  Rev.  John  S.  and  Ann  S.  Dodge,  was  ordained  at  Bangor 
and  commissioned  by  the  Home  Missionary  Society  to  go  to  Cali- 


2o8  MINOT  JUDSON  SAVAGE 

fornia.  The  young  couple  traveled  by  sea  to  Panama,  crossed 
the  Isthmus  and  again  by  ship  to  San  Francisco.  His  first 
appointment  was  to  the  mission  at  San  Mateo  and  later  he 
worked  at  Grass  Valley.  After  a  three-years'  service  he  realized 
that  his  parents  were  growing  old  and  needed  him,  and  so,  by 
way  of  Nicaragua,  he  returned  east  and  accepted  the  charge  of 
the  Congregational  Church  at  Framingham,  Mass.  There  he 
first  came  into  contact  with  more  liberal  habits  of  mind  than 
those  in  which  he  had  been  bred  and  there  he  began  to  read 
scientific  books,  especially  the  works  of  Darwin,  Wallace  and 
Spencer,  and  reached  the  conclusion  that  "a  Ptolemaic  theology 
cannot  live  in  a  Copernican  universe." 

Hoping  to  find  a  freer  atmosphere  in  the  West,  he  removed 
in  1869  to  Hannibal,  Missouri,  and  served  the  Congregational 
Church  there.  His  preaching  became  more  and  more  unortho- 
dox until  at  last  he  was,  as  he  wrote,  "born  into  the  glorious 
liberty  of  the  sons  of  God."  In  1872  he  resigned  and  joined  the 
Unitarian  fellowship.  It  was  while  he  was  in  Hannibal  that  he 
published  his  first  book,  "Christianity  the  Science  of  Manhood," 
and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  first  two  editions  were  hailed 
with  enthusiasm  by  the  orthodox  press.  The  third  edition,  pub- 
lished unchanged  after  he  had  become  a  Unitarian,  was  con- 
demned with  equal  heartiness  by  the  very  same  papers. 

His  first  Unitarian  pastorate  was  In  the  Third  Unitarian 
Church  In  Chicago  and  there  began  his  lifelong  devotion  to 
Robert  CoUyer  who  was  at  the  height  of  his  fame.  The  younger 
preacher  soon  won  wide  acclaim  as  a  bold  thinker  and  a  forceful 
speaker,  and  in  1874  he  was  called  to  the  Church  of  the  Unity 
In  Boston.  There  followed  a  fruitful  ministry  of  twenty-two 
years.  He  preached  to  thronging  congregations  and  his  sermons 
were  printed  every  week  and  circulated  in  thousands  all  over  the 
world.  He  soon,  too,  was  in  great  demand  In  the  lecture  field 
and  traveled  from  coast  to  coast  describing  and  extolling  what 
he  called  "the  greatest  revolution  In  religion  and  theology  since 
the  birth  of  Christianity."  He  spoke  habitually  without  notes 
but  only  after  the  most  arduous  preparation.  So  clear,  lucid 
and  well-constructed  were  his  "extemporaneous"  sermons  that 


MINOT  JUDSON  SAVAGE  209 

they  were  printed  just  as  they  were  taken  down  by  the  reporters 
almost  without  revision.  Books,  too,  came  steadily  from  the 
publishers,  sometimes  collections  of  sermons  already  printed, 
sometimes  original  studies  In  the  subjects  where  he  had  made 
himself  a  master — "The  Religion  of  Evolution,"  "The  Morals 
of  Evolution,"  "Belief  in  God,"  "Beliefs  about  Man,"  "Religion 
for  Today,"  "Jesus  and  Modern  Life,"  "The  Evolution  of  Chris- 
tianity," "Religious  Reconstruction,"  and  many  more. 

Dr.  Savage  became  a  leader  In  denominational  affairs.  He 
served  on  the  Council  of  the  National  Conference  and  was  an 
influential  member  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  American 
Unitarian  Association.  He  it  was  who  proposed  at  the  meeting 
of  the  National  Conference  at  Saratoga  in  1894  the  amendment 
to  the  Constitution  which  became  the  approved  declaration  of 
the  Unitarian  churches  and  which  reads,  "These  churches  accept 
the  religion  of  Jesus,  holding.  In  accordance  with  his  teaching, 
that  practical  religion  Is  summed  up  In  love  of  God  and  love  to 
man."  Two  years  later,  when  Harvard  gave  him  a  Doctorate 
of  Divinity,  President  Eliot  summed  up  the  man  and  his  work 
in  these  words:  "Minot  Judson  Savage,  truth  seeker,  proving  all 
things,  holding  fast  that  which  is  good;  orator  vehement,  per- 
suasive, eloquent." 

It  was  in  the  same  year,  1896,  that  Robert  Collyer  persuaded 
Savage  to  leave  Boston  and  become  the  associate  minister  of  the 
Church  of  the  Messiah  In  New  York.  Collyer's  popularity  was 
still  great  but  he  was  getting  on  in  years  and  craved  the  co- 
operation and  support  of  his  younger  and  equally  famous  friend. 
The  two  were  like  an  older  and  younger  brother,  bound  closely 
together  in  admiration  and  love.  Their  congregations  crowded 
the  great  church  at  34th  Street  and  Park  Avenue,  and  the  weekly 
sermons  continued  to  be  printed  in  pamphlet  form,  "Messiah 
Pulpit,"  taking  over  the  wide  circulation  of  "Unity  Pulpit"  of 
the  Boston  years.  Savage's  reputation  was  now  widespread  and 
he  went  almost  every  year  to  Europe  as  well  as  continuing  his 
lectures  in  America.  On  one  of  his  European  journeys,  serving 
as  a  delegate  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association  to  the  meet- 
ing of  the  International  Council  of  Unitarians  and  Other  Liberal 


2IO  MINOT  JUDSON  SAVAGE 

Religious  Thinkers  and  Workers,  he  preached  the  Conference 
Sermon  from  the  pulpit  in  Geneva  from  which  John  Calvin  had 
condemned  Servetus  three  hundred  years  before. 

It  was  in  these  years  that  he  developed  a  keen  interest  in 
psychical  research.  His  approach  to  the  subject  was  characteris- 
tic. At  first  he  was  inclined  to  believe  that  spiritualistic  manifes- 
tations were  largely  fraudulent  and  he  rather  scoffed  at  the  whole 
subject.  Then  he  reflected  that  he  had  no  right  to  ridicule  until 
he  looked  into  the  subject  carefully  and  open-mindedly.  He 
entered  into  correspondence  with  accredited  leaders  in  the  re- 
search field  and  began  separating  the  wheat  from  the  chaff. 
When  he  was  satisfied  that  wheat  existed  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
state  his  convictions.  His  book,  "Life  after  Death,"  records 
his  conclusions  and  is  especially  noteworthy  for  the  wonderful 
tribute  to  his  son,  Philip  Savage,  a  young  poet  and  scholar  of 
great  promise  who  died  in  1899. 

But  the  years  of  strenuous  labor  began  to  tell  upon  him.  Dis- 
abling attacks  of  vertigo  became  frequent  and  Dr.  Collyer  always 
carried  a  sermon  to  church  so  that,  if  necessary,  he  could  substi- 
tute in  the  pulpit.  In  1906  prolonged  illness  forced  his  resigna- 
tion. His  last  years,  with  both  physical  and  mental  infirmity 
increasing  upon  him,  were  spent  for  the  most  part  in  the  home 
of  his  daughter  and  son-in-law,  the  Rev.  Minot  Simons,  in  Cleve- 
land, Ohio.  He  died  suddenly  in  Boston  while  in  attendance  on 
the  Unitarian  meetings  in  May,  19 18. 

Naturally,  because  of  his  radical  thinking  and  forthright 
speech.  Dr.  Savage  provoked  the  censure  of  more  conservative 
Christians.  Some  of  his  critics  were  peculiarly  scathing  and  cap- 
tious. He  was  always  ready  for  a  good  intellectual  battle  but 
he  was  never  vituperative  or  acrimonious.  He  respected  his 
opponents'  sincere  convictions  and  fought  fair.  His  friendships 
with  his  fellow  workers  were  firm  and  lasting  and  he  abounded 
in  little  kindnesses.  He  was  always  ready  to  give  of  his  precious 
time  and  energy  to  any  and  all  who  came  to  him  with  problems 
great  or  small.  He  found  his  greatest  happiness  in  his  home. 
He  was  a  great  pioneer  of  thought  and  action  but  not  less  a  great 
personality,  kindly,  considerate,  beloved. 


RUSH  RHEES  SHIPPEN  211 

RUSH  RHEES  SHIPPEN 
1828-1911 

Rush  Rhees  Shippen,  son  of  Judge  Henry  Shippen,  of  an  old 
Philadelphia  family,  and  Elizabeth  Wallis  Evans,  of  Welsh  an- 
cestry, was  born  in  Meadville,  Pa.,  January  18,  1828.  When 
twelve  years  of  age  he  entered  Allegheny  College,  where  for 
three  years  he  was  the  youngest  student,  leaving  at  fifteen  in  his 
junior  year  to  teach  in  a  Meadville  district  school.  In  1844  he 
became  a  member  of  the  first  class  to  be  enrolled  in  the  Mead- 
ville Theological  School. 

Family  associations  seemed  to  destine  him  for  the  Unitarian 
ministry.  His  father,  as  early  as  18 12,  had  been  a  subscriber 
to  the  First  Unitarian  Church  of  Philadelphia  and  his  mother 
was  a  devoted  friend  and  correspondent  of  the  Rev.  Ephraim 
Peabody.*  His  oldest  sister,  Frances,  had  married  Edgar 
Huidekoper,  son  of  Harm  Jan  Huidekoper,  founder  of  the 
Meadville  Theological  School;  and  later  his  sister  Sarah  mar- 
ried Thomas  J.  Mumford,t  who  was  editor  of  the  Christian 
Register  in  the  1870's.  Taking  a  year  off  to  tutor  in  the  family 
of  a  Southern  planter,  he  graduated  from  the  Meadville  School 
in  1849.  On  the  recommendation  of  Rev.  William  G.  Eliot  | 
of  St.  Louis,  he  went  to  Chicago  as  minister  of  the  First  Uni- 
tarian Society,  the  town  then  having  a  population  of  23,000. 
Soon  it  was  necessary  to  enlarge  the  church  building  to  provide 
for  the  growing  congregation.  " 

In  1855  Mr.  Shippen  married  "the  beautiful  Zoe  Rodman," 
as  she  was  known,  a  music  teacher  from  Utica,  N.  Y.  Of  this 
happy  union,  lasting  for  more  than  half  a  century,  four  children 
were  born,  two  of  them  surviving  the  parents. 

In  1859  Mr.  Shippen  succeeded  Edward  Everett  Hale  as 
minister  at  the  Church  of  the  Unity,  Worcester,  Mass.,  a  society 
many  years  later  incorporated  into  the  Second  Parish.  As  a 
member  of  the  School  Committee,  chaplain  of  the  county  prison, 
and  active  in  causes  dear  to  him — anti-slavery,  Negro  education, 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  297,      t  See  Volume  III,  p.  263.      t  See  Volume  III,  p.  90. 


212  RUSH  RHEES  SHIPPEN 

and  "women's  rights" — he  stood  out  as  a  leader.  Again  his 
church  building  had  to  be  enlarged.  During  the  Civil  War  he 
had  a  memorable  interview  with  President  Lincoln,  the  conver- 
sation a  tradition  in  his  family.  One  winter,  for  reasons  of 
health,  his  generous  congregation,  led  by  Senator  George  F. 
Hoar,  sent  him  abroad,  an  experience  profoundly  affecting  his 
cultural  interests  and  leading  him  in  later  years  to  make  many 
European  trips. 

In  1 87 1  Mr.  Shippen  became  Secretary  of  the  American  Uni- 
tarian Association.  In  his  gasht  Boston  office  at  7  Tremont 
Place,  lacking  the  facilities  of  modern  business,  with  an  office 
staff  of  two,  he  conducted  the  affairs  of  the  Association.  His 
duties  involved  much  travehng  and  frequent  preaching.  Though 
the  Chicago  fire  of  1871,  the  Boston  fire  of  1872,  and  the  panic 
of  1873  taxed  the  resources  of  the  denomination,  during  his  ten 
years  in  office  a  considerable  number  of  Unitarian  churches  were 
organized  in  the  United  States.  In  1877  he  found  time  to  revise 
the  "Livermore"  Hymn  and  Tune  Book,  and  to  publish  what 
was  virtually  a  new  hymnbook  which  served  the  denomination 
for  a  generation.  To  this  useful  book  Mr.  Shippen,  with  char- 
acteristic modesty,  did  not  attach  his  name  as  editor.  In  addi- 
tion, he  compiled  a  book  of  devotional  readings,  "Daily  Praise 
and  Prayer,"  and  wrote  for  Harper's  New  Religious  Encyclo- 
paedia the  article,  "Unitarianism,"  later  published  as  a  tract. 

In  1 88 1  Mr.  Shippen  became  minister  of  All  Souls'  Church, 
Washington,  D.  C,  following  the  resignation  of  Rev.  Clay 
MacCauley.  During  his  fourteen  years  in  the  capital  he  took 
an  active  part  in  civic  affairs,  notably  as  trustee  of  Howard 
University,  and  as  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Red  Cross  under 
Clara  Barton.  In  the  course  of  frequent  exchanges  with  Rev. 
Minot  J.  Savage  of  Boston,  many  of  his  sermons  were  printed 
in  Dr.  Savage's  "Unity  Pulpit"  series.  His  pastoral  duties  under 
the  exacting  conditions  of  Washington  were  lightened  by  Mrs. 
Shippen  whose  graciousness  and  sympathetic  understanding  en- 
deared her  to  all. 

In  1895,  with  advancing  years,  seeking  a  smaller  parish  and 
one  nearer  his  children,  he  accepted  a  call  to  Unity  Church, 


RUSH  RHEES  SHIPPEN  213 

Brockton,  Mass.,  succeeding  the  Rev.  John  Graham  Brooks. 
During  this  his  final  ministry  covering  ten  years,  he  was  dean  of 
Brockton's  clergy  and  for  five  terms  president  of  the  Public 
Library,  In  191 1  the  Meadville  Theological  School  conferred 
upon  him,  along  with  his  old-time  friend,  Robert  Collyer,  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity,  the  first  honorary  degree  given 
by  the  school.  A  few  months  later,  June  18,  191 1,  he  died, 
never  having  fully  recovered  from  Mrs.  Shippen's  death  in  19 10. 

Dr.  Shippen — as  he  was  known  to  a  generation  of  Unitarians 
— had  the  initial  advantage  of  stature,  a  robust  frame,  and  a 
rich,  resonant  voice.  He  had  two  sides,  both  Yorkshire  and 
Wales  mingling  in  his  blood.  An  excellent  chess  player,  an 
architect  in  all  but  profession,  and  an  efficient  administrator,  he 
was  also  a  man  of  feeling,  with  a  buoyant  temperament,  unusual 
social  gifts,  and  a  love  of  poetry  and  music.  Music,  indeed,  was 
his  chief  avocation.  A  skillful  flutist  from  his  youth,  he  often 
delighted  parish  gatherings  with  operatic  arias.  In  later  years 
he  became  a  Wagner  lover,  making  several  pilgrimages  to  Bay- 
reuth.  As  to  his  faith,  in  common  with  many  a  contemporary 
he  had  no  taste  for  "theological  hairsplitting,"  as  he  called  it, 
satisfied  with  a  simple  creed,  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the 
Brotherhood  of  Man.  His  sermOns,  enriched  by  historical  illus- 
trations and  personal  experiences,  always  stressed  Christian  char- 
acter. Lectures  given  from  time  to  time  at  the  Meadville  Theo- 
logical School  bore  testimony  to  his  interest  in  history  and 
biography. 

Conservative  in  theology  but  tolerant,  a  stout  advocate  of 
social  reforms  but  not  of  the  radical  type,  and  a  confirmed  opti- 
mist, he  was  everywhere  a  welcome  preacher,  always  facing  full 
congregations.  The  text  of  one  of  his  most  popular  sermons, 
taken  from  Dickens,  "Think  of  me  at  my  best,"  represented  his 
characteristic  attitude  toward  the  world  and  his  fellowmen. 
Here,  in  a  word,  was  a  happy  warrior  in  the  cause  of  a  cheer- 
ful faith. 


214  HENRY  MARTYN  SIMMONS 

HENRY  MARTYN  SIMMONS 
1841-1905 

Henry  Martyn  Simmons  was  born  in  1841,  at  Paris  Hill,  a 
village  in  Oneida  County,  New  York.  Although  numbering 
among  his  ancestors  John  and  Priscilla  Alden,  his  hne  seems  to 
have  lost  touch  with  its  Congregational  antecedents,  and  it  was 
a  Presbyterian  environment  in  which  he  grew  up.  He  gradu- 
ated at  Hamilton  College,  Clinton,  New  York,  in  1864,  with  the 
highest  honors,  having  as  a  competitor  for  the  first  place  a  no 
less  formidable  rival  than  Elihu  Root. 

Simmons  studied  for  the  Presbyterian  ministry  at  the  Auburn 
Theological  Seminary  and  started  preaching  at  Salina,  near  Syra- 
cuse. He  found  himself,  however,  unable  to  subscribe  to  the 
literal  terms  of  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith  and  so  was 
denied  ordination.  He  served  for  a  while  in  two  small  churches 
in  Ilion  and  Herkimer  and  then,  coming  under  the  influence  of 
the  Unitarian  minister  at  Syracuse,  Samuel  J.  May,*  he  discov- 
ered himself  to  be  a  Unitarian  and  accepted  a  call  to  the  church 
in  Kenosha,  Wisconsin.  There  he  worked  for  eight  years,  serv- 
ing also  for  a  while  as  the  Superintendent  of  Schools.  Then 
followed  three  happy  years  as  minister  of  the  Unitarian  Church 
in  Madison  and  close  association  with  such  congenial  spirits  as 
Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones,  William  C.  Gannett,  and  Robert  CoUyer, 
who  recognized  in  him  a  man  of  their  own  kind.  In  1881  the 
new  Unitarian  Society  at  Minneapolis  invited  Mr.  Simmons  to 
become  its  pastor  and  a  connection  was  formed  which  lasted 
twenty-four  years,  ending  only  with  the  death  of  the  minister 
in  1905. 

It  was  outwardly  an  uneventful  life  but  a  life  full  of  service 
unobtrusively  but  effectively  rendered.  He  was  attacked  with 
deafness  in  his  early  manhood,  and  it  finally  became  almost  com- 
plete. Emerson  would  have  us  believe  that  in  the  balance  of 
things  every  handicap  has  its  compensation,  and  the  thought  has 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  235. 


HENRY  MARTYN  SIMMONS  215 

a  fit  illustration  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Simmons.  In  the  long  silence 
to  which  he  was  doomed,  seclusion  became  inevitable,  and  the 
resource  through  which  he  mitigated  his  enforced  solitude  was 
found  in  books.  He  studied  widely  and  profoundly  in  all  the 
great  literatures.  He  knew  Greek  almost  as  if  it  were  his  ver- 
nacular. He  read  Homer  every  year,  and  he  was  equally  versed 
in  Greek  drama,  history,  and  philosophy.  The  great  Latin 
authors  were  no  less  at  his  command.  He  had  mastered  modern 
tongues  as  well.  In  particular,  he  was  widely  read  in  French, 
which  he  found  more  to  his  taste  than  German,  where  obscure 
speculations  and  a  labored  style  offended  his  clear  and  direct 
habit  of  mind  and  speech.  In  English  and  American  literature 
he  knew  and  cherished  all  that  was  best.  His  proficiency  in 
science  was  also  unusual.  He  was  an  excellent  botanist,  and  he 
studied  with  great  zest  astronomy,  geology,  and  biology.  The 
calamity  which  consigned  him  to  silence  gave  opportunity  for  the 
development  of  a  culture  broad,  refined,  profound.  He  was  of 
necessity  a  recluse;  "the  place  that  did  contain  his  books  was  to 
him  a  glorious  court,  where  daily  he  conversed  with  noble  poets 
and  philosophers." 

Simmons  was  a  fearless  thinker  and  he  early  adopted  and  pro- 
claimed the  new  revelations  of  science  in  their  relation  to  reli- 
gious thought.  His  criticism  of  the  doctrines  that  seemed  to 
him  out-of-date  were  often  sharp  and  his  candid  declaration  of 
his  convictions  in  regard  to  political  or  economic  affairs  sometimes 
alienated  some  of  his  followers.  Though  radical  in  both  theo- 
logical and  political  thinking  he  was  never  destructive.  The 
discreet  reformer  was  for  him  the  true  conservative.  A  lively 
wit  irradiated  his  utterances  and  he  never  failed  to  give  the  im- 
pression of  a  reverent,  listening  soul,  seeking  always  to  be  "in 
tune  with  the  infinite."  His  sermon  style  was  crystalline  in 
clearness  and  in  arrangement.  The  sermons  abounded  in  a 
wealth  of  illustration  drawn  from  his  extensive  reading  and 
invariably  rose  to  a  climax  of  spiritual  affirmation.  His  thought 
centered  about  the  conception  of  the  Divine  Unity  and  the  world 
to  him  was  "the  perennial  miracle  wherein  the  soul  lives  and 
works."     He  loved  nature  with  the  heart  of  a  poet  but  most  of 


2i6  HENRY  MARTYN  SIMMONS 

all  he  loved  human  nature,  and  even  through  the  limitations  of 
his  intercourse  with  neighbors  and  friends  shone  an  eager  appre- 
ciation and  a  generous  judgment  of  his  fellowmen.  He  was 
wholly  modest  about  himself  and  skeptical  about  the  praise  that 
was  offered  him.  His  two  published  volumes,  "The  Unending 
Genesis"  and  "New  Tables  of  Stone,"  contain  his  essential 
message. 

As  a  pastor  Mr.  Simmons  could  do  but  little.  He  rather 
avoided  social  contacts  in  the  feeling  that  those  who  tried  to 
talk  to  him  must  suffer  some  annoyance  or  embarrassment.  The 
pulpit  was  his  throne.  His  physical  presence  was  impressive. 
He  was  of  medium  stature  and  compact  build.  His  face  beneath 
a  shock  of  black  hair  was  strong  and  kindly  and  his  eyes  were 
shrewd  and  flashing.  His  congregations  were  not  large  but  the 
choicer  spirits  of  the  city — teachers,  judges,  civic  workers,  the 
more  thoughtful  youth  of  the  University  and  public-spirited  citi- 
zens of  all  sorts — hung  upon  his  words.  Conservatives  sat  with 
radicals,  employers  with  employes,  united  in  the  consciousness 
that  they  were  listening  to  a  man  of  exceptional  learning  and  rare 
discernment.  Few  were  the  auditors  whose  preconceived  opin- 
ions did  not  now  and  then  receive  a  jolt.  Believers  in  America's 
"Manifest  Destiny"  writhed  under  the  preacher's  denunciations 
of  imperialism.  Standpatters  winced  when  the  preacher  scored 
the  follies  of  stagnant  policies  and  immovable  habits.  Republi- 
can toes  were  trodden  upon  when  he  exposed  the  iniquities  of 
high  tariffs  and  Democratic  toes  suffered  when  he  arraigned  the 
cruelties  of  race  prejudice  in  the  South.  However  the  hearers 
might  differ,  they  knew  that,  though  they  themselves  were  uncon- 
vinced, they  were  listening  to  a  sincere  and  manful  advocate  of 
justice  and  righteousness  and  they  came  again  for  more  of  the 
strong  medicine.  Always,  too,  the  sermons  ended  on  the  note 
of  a  constructive  optimism.  His  people  could  all  say,  "Here 
was  a  scholar  of  wondrous  vision,  therefore  we  bless  him  and 
give  thanks  for  him."  Of  him  his  successor  wrote,  "The  charm 
of  his  personality,  the  artistry  of  his  expression,  the  incisiveness 
and  inclusiveness  of  his  intellectual  comprehensiveness  could  not 
be  imitated  or  transmitted." 


HENRY  MARTYN  SIMMONS  217 

At  Madison  Mr.  Simmons  was  succeeded  by  Joseph  Henry  Crooker, 
who  was  born  in  Foxcroft,  Maine,  December  8,  1850,  and  died  at  Kansas 
City,  Missouri,  May  29,  1931.  He  was  ordained  in  the  ministry  of  the 
Baptist  Church  in  1873,  but  five  years  later  entered  the  Unitarian  fellow- 
ship and  became  minister  of  the  Unitarian  Church  at  La  Porte,  Indiana. 
His  most  rewarding  pastorates  were  at  Madison,  Wisconsin,  1881-1891, 
and  at  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan,  1 898-1 905.  These  are  churches  at  Univer- 
sity centers  and  Mr.  Crooker  proved  himself  an  intellectual  and  moral 
leader  of  far-reaching  influence.  Between  these  pastorates  he  was  the  first 
minister  of  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Helena,  Montana.  There,  he  was  the 
outstanding  minister  of  the  State,  Chaplain  of  the  State  Senate  and  active 
in  educational  and  philanthropic  work.  He  secured  the  passage  of  the 
statute  creating  a  State  Board  of  Charities,  of  -which  he  was  the  first 
President. 

After  leaving  Ann  Arbor  he  served  acceptably  at  Roslindale  and  Am- 
herst, Mass.,  and  was  widely  known  as  a  preacher  and  lecturer.  In  1903 
he  preached  the  sermon  at  the  meeting  of  the  British  Unitarian  Association 
in  London.  After  his  retirement  he  lived  in  Elgin,  Illinois,  and  later  in 
Kansas  City.  He  was  twice  married,  his  second  wife  being  the  Rev.  Flor- 
ence Kollock  Crooker,  a  well-known  Universalist  minister. 

Dr.  Crooker  was  the  author  of  many  books  and  a  constant  contributor 
to  the  Christian  Register,  the  Universalist  Leader,  the  Hibbert  Journal  and 
other  periodicals.  Among  his  best-known  books  were  "Problems  in  Ameri- 
can Society,"  1889;  "The  New  Bible  and  Its  Uses,"  1903;  "Religious 
Freedom  in  American  Education,"  1903.  His  "The  Church  of  Today" 
was  published  simultaneously  by  the  Congregationalists,  the  Unitarians, 
and  the  Universalists  in  1908  and  was  followed  by  "The  Church  of  To- 
morrow" in  191 1.  His  tracts  written  for  the  Unitarian  Association  had 
wide  circulation  and  one  of  them,  "The  Unitarian  Church,"  was  reprinted 
in  England  and  translated  into  many  languages.  St.  Lawrence  University 
and  the  University  of  Nashville  made  him  a  Doctor  of  Divinity. 

Dr.  Crooker  was  a  man  of  remarkable  gifts  of  mind  and  heart.  He 
had  a  splendid  bodily  presence,  an  impressive  manner,  a  clear  and  forcible 
style.  He  was  pre-eminently  a  preacher  to  men  and  to  university  profes- 
sors and  students,  but  he  was  also  a  leader  in  scholarship  and  in  philan- 
thropic and  educational  reforms. 

Another  leader  of  the  church  in  Madison  was  Frank  Albert  Gilmore, 
who  was  born  in  Belfast,  Maine,  on  December  27,  1864.  His  father,  a 
successful  sea  captain  for  many  years,  gave  up  the  sea  shortly  after  Frank's 
birth  and  went  into  business.  His  death  while  his  son  was  a  very  young 
man  threw  the  responsibility  for  the  family  on  Frank,  who  carried  on  the 
business  for  his  mother  for  several  years.  He  was  prepared  for  college  at 
the  Maine  Central  Institute  at  Pittsfield,  graduated  at  Colby  College  in 
1890  and  at  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  in  1894. 


2i8  HENRY  MARTYN  SIMMONS 

His  education,  however,  was  not  confined  to  the  academic  course.  The 
lure  of  the  sea  was  in  his  blood,  and  after  finishing  his  course  at  the  high 
school,  Frank  made  a  voyage  as  common  sailor  on  a  three-masted  schooner. 
He  worked  his  way  through  college  and  gained  the  strength  and  deter- 
mination which  come  from  that  experience.  Fond  of  athletics  and  proud 
of  every  laurel  which  came  to  his  Alma  Mater  in  the  contests  between  the 
Maine  colleges,  he  helped  to  gain  many  a  victory  for  her  on  the  baseball 
diamond:  for  three  years  as  first  baseman  and  one  year  as  catcher  of  the 
college  nine.  In  his  last  year,  Colby  won  the  championship  of  the  Maine 
College  League. 

He  was  married  in  1892  to  Marion  Gatchell  of  Winthrop,  and  to  them 
four  children  were  born. 

When  he  was  ready  for  the  work  of  the  ministry,  his  desire  turned 
toward  his  native  state.  At  Presque  Isle,  he  found  the  kind  of  people 
whom  he  both  understood  and  loved.  Then  other  and  larger  churches 
beckoned  to  him,  and  for  six  years  he  served  successfully  the  church  at 
Haverhill,  Mass.  In  the  spring  of  1 900  he  was  called  to  the  important 
college  pulpit  of  Madison,  Wisconsin,  and  there  spent  seventeen  years 
of  his  prime.  There  his  children  grew  to  manhood  and  womanhood,  and 
there  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  impressing  himself  on  the  young  men  and 
women  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin  who  came  in  their  formative  col- 
lege years  under  his  deeply  thoughtful  and  spiritual  influence.  He  was 
a  good  citizen  and  took  his  part  in  the  life  of  the  town  and  university. 
He  was  the  author  of  the  excellent  guidebook  to  Madison  and  vicinity 
which  is  still  in  use.  As  a  missionary  of  liberal  Christianity,  he  became 
well-known  throughout  central  Wisconsin  and  he  served  for  many  years 
as  Secretary  of  the  State  Conference. 

He  resigned  his  Madison  pastorate  in  191 7  to  become  the  Field  Agent 
of  the  American  Unitarian  Association  for  the  district  of  the  Middle 
States  and  Canada  with  headquarters  in  New  York  City.  To  this  work, 
while  of  a  different  kind  from  that  of  the  intimate  pastorate,  he  brought 
the  same  gifts  of  mind  and  heart  and  leadership  which  always  character- 
ized him.  As  secretary  of  the  Fellowship  Committee  he  found  a  special 
opportunity  to  impress  upon  the  applicants  for  the  ministry  its  real  worth 
and  importance.  His  visits  to  the  churches  under  his  supervision  were 
always  welcomed,  and  to  the  ministers  he  was  a  trusted  counselor  and 
friend. 

Those  were  the  years  of  the  great  war.  His  two  older  sons  enlisted, 
one  in  the  army  and  the  other  in  the  navy.  Albert  died  in  France,  a  com- 
missioned officer  in  the  Aviation  Corps;  Robert  died  at  the  Pelham  Naval 
Station.  As  these  blows  fell  upon  him,  his  strength  seemed  to  give  way 
and  the  buoyancy  of  life,  so  characteristic  of  him,  seemed  to  be  gone. 

In  May,  19 19,  he  accepted  a  call  to  the  charge  of  the  Unitarian  churches 
in  Aroostook  County,  Maine,  the  scene  of  his  first  pastorate.     His  health, 


HENRY  MARTYN  SIMMONS  219 

however,  was  broken  and  he  died  on  August  17,  1919,  at  Grand  Manan, 
where  he  had  gone  hoping  that  he  might  recover  in  some  measure  the 
strength  of  body  and  spirit  which  grief  for  the  loss  of  his  two  noble  sons 
had  so  seriously  impaired. 

Frank  Gilmore  had  a  rare  power  of  sympathy  for  all  sorts  and  condi- 
tions of  men,  a  broad  and  deep  appreciation  of  human  nature  and  a  genius 
for  friendship.  He  loved  to  have  his  friends  about  him  and  knew  how 
to  entertain  them  with  story  and  anecdote  and  how  to  enliven  the  conver- 
sation with  a  genial  wit.  He  believed  greatly  in  God  and  in  immortality. 
The  liberal  gospel  of  Channing,  IVIartincau,  and  Everett  was  the  suste- 
nance of  his  inner  life  and  formed  the  substance  of  his  sermons. 

Another  noteworthy  preacher  in  a  College  Town  Pulpit  was  Jabez  T. 
SuNDERL.AND,  who  was  born  on  February  11,  1842,  in  Yorkshire,  Eng- 
land, but  who  was  brought  to  this  country  when  only  two  years  old.  He 
was  educated  at  the  University  of  Chicago,  where  he  received  an  A.B.  de- 
gree in  1867  and  an  A.M.  degree  in  1869,  and  at  the  Baptist  Union  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  in  Chicago,  where  he  received  his  B.D.  degree  in  1870. 
Tufts  College  conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  in 
1914. 

Dr.  Sunderland  began  his  ministry  as  pastor  of  a  Baptist  Church  in 
Milwaukee,  Wis.,  but  he  soon  grew  restless  under  the  restrictions  of  the 
doctrinal  systems  in  which  he  had  been  trained.  Uniting  with  the  Uni- 
tarian fellowship,  he  entered  upon  a  series  of  fruitful  pastorates — at  North- 
field,  Mass.,  1872-1875;  Chicago,  111.,  1876-1878;  Ann  Arbor,  Mich., 
1878-1898;  Oakland,  Calif.,  1898-1899;  Toronto  and  Ottawa,  Canada, 
1900-1906;  Hartford,  Conn.,  1906-1911 ;  and  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y.,  1912- 
1920.  To  him  Christianity  meant  a  realization  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God 
and  the  practice  of  brotherhood  among  men.  He  was  a  prolific  author 
of  books  and  tracts,  his  most  famous  work  being  "The  Origin  and  Char- 
acter of  the  Bible,"  which  is  still  widely  read.  He  started  and  for  many 
years  edited  a  monthly  magazine.  The  Unitarian,  and  his  sermons  during 
the  twenty  years  at  Ann  Arbor  were  published  monthly  in  a  series  known 
as  "A  College  Town  Pulpit."  He  also  gathered  an  anthology  of  reli- 
gious verse  published  with  the  title  "One  Upward  Look  Each  Day." 

In  his  last  years,  Dr.  Sunderland's  primary  interest  was  in  the  libera- 
tion of  the  people  of  India.  He  first  went  to  India  on  a  commission  from 
the  British  and  Foreign  Unitarian  Association.  In  191 3-14  he  was  again 
sent  to  India  and  the  Far  East  by  the  American  Unitarian  Association, 
and  he  lectured  widely  on  educational  and  religious  subjects.  He  re- 
turned to  America  to  give  the  remainder  of  his  life  to  the  cause  of  inde- 
pendence for  India.  Dr.  Sunderland  died  on  August  13,  1936,  at  the 
home  of  his  son  in  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan.  His  was  a  wide-extended  influ- 
ence— New  England,  Canada,  the  Middle  West,  California,  India.  His 
books   and   tracts    circulated   wherever    English    is    read.     His    preaching 


220  FRANKLIN  CHESTER  SOUTHWORTH 

lacked  kindling  and  magnetic  power  but  he  was  the  embodiment  of  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual  sanity.  He  had  a  gift  of  perceiving  and  interpreting 
the  needs  of  his  generation.  He  was  an  observant  traveler,  an  accurate 
reporter,  a  vigilant  and  ingenious  editor. 


FRANKLIN  CHESTER  SOUTHWORTH 

1863-1944 

From  the  beginnings  of  the  liberal  movement  in  America  the 
preparation  and  training  of  ministers  has  been  a  matter  of  grave 
concern.  In  the  early  days  Harvard  College  was  itself  primarily 
a  theological  seminary.  Its  founders  in  1636  had  declared  it  to 
be  their  purpose  to  train  ministers,  "dreading,"  as  they  said,  "to 
leave  an  illiterate  ministry  to  the  churches  when  our  present 
ministers  shall  lie  in  the  dust."  Most  of  the  ministers  of  the 
New  England  churches  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  cen- 
turies either  were  trained  at  Harvard,  or  read  and  worked 
with  some  older  minister  of  good  repute  before  taking  charge  of 
a  parish.  By  a  natural  evolution  Harvard  became  more  and 
more  associated  with  the  liberal  movement  in  the  Massachusetts 
churches,  and  that  identification  was  made  manifest  in  1805  by 
the  election  of  Henry  Ware,*  an  avowed  Unitarian,  to  the  Hollis 
Professorship  of  Divinity.  Thereafter  the  oldest  of  American 
colleges  was  to  be  counted  on  the  side  of  intellectual  progress 
and  religious  liberty. 

The  differentiation  of  the  Divinity  School  from  the  College 
was  very  gradual.  The  General  Catalogue  of  the  School  begins 
the  list  of  its  graduates  with  the  Class  of  18 12,  but  the  Quin- 
quennial Catalogue  of  the  College  dates  the  origin  of  the  School 
in  18 16.  The  first  "Public  Exercises"  of  the  School  took  place 
on  December  17,  18 17,  and  it  was  not  until  18 19  that  a  Faculty 
of  Theology  was  definitely  organized.  The  School  was  pledged 
to  "The  serious,  impartial,  and  unbiased  investigation  of  Chris- 
tian truth."      Since  that  time  it  has  been  the  pioneer  of  unsec- 

*  See  Volume  II,  p.  40. 


FRANKLIN  CHESTER  SOUTHWORTH  221 

tarian  theological  education  and  the  fostering  mother  of  sound 
learning  and  generous  public  spirit. 

The  Meadville  Theological  School,  where  were  trained  many 
of  the  ministers  commemorated  in  this  book,  was  established  in 
1844  at  Meadville,  Pennsylvania,  by  the  farseeing  wisdom  and 
generous  gifts  of  Harm  Jan  Huidekoper  and  his  son  Frederic* 
On  pages  23—26,  following  the  memoir  of  Professor  Barber, 
will  be  found  the  biographical  sketches  of  the  outstanding  mem- 
bers of  the  faculty  of  the  Meadville  School.  The  successive 
presidents  have  been  Rufus  P.  Stebbins,t  1845— 1856;  Oliver 
Stearns,!  1 856-1 863;  Abiel  Abbott  Livermore,§  1 863-1 890; 
George  L.  Cary,  1 890-1 902,  a  scholarly  layman.  All  of  these 
leaders,  except  Dr.  Cary,  were  graduates  of  the  Harvard  Di- 
vinity School  and  Dr.  Cary  was  a  graduate  of  Harvard  College. 
He  was  succeeded  at  Meadville  by  Franklin  Chester  Southworth, 
who  was  born  at  Fort  Collins,  New  York,  October  15,  1863, 
and  died  at  Little  Compton,  Rhode  Island,  May  21,  1944.  He 
graduated  at  Harvard  in  1887  and  from  the  Divinity  School  in 
1892.  He  was  ordained  minister  of  the  Unitarian  Church  in 
Duluth,  Minnesota,  on  November  29,  1892,  with  Dr.  Crothers, 
then  at  St.  Paul,  and  Mr.  Fenn,  then  at  Chicago,  taking  part  in  the 
service.  He  served  at  Duluth  for  five  years,  for  two  years  was 
minister  of  the  Third  Unitarian  Church  in  Chicago,  and  for 
three  years,  1 899-1 902,  the  Secretary  and  Executive  Officer  of 
the  Western  Unitarian  Conference.  In  1902  he  was  chosen  to 
be  President  of  the  Meadville  School  and  continued  in  that  im- 
portant post  of  service  (emeritus  after  1928)  until  his  death. 
Buchtel  College  made  him  a  Doctor  of  Divinity  in  19 15,  and  in 
the  same  year  Allegheny  College  made  him  a  Doctor  of  Laws. 

In  1928—29  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Southworth  visited  Japan  and  India 
as  the  official  representative  of  the  Free  Churches  of  Amer- 
ica to  confer  with  the  Japanese  Unitarian  Association  and  the 
Brahmo  Samaj  of  India.  Dr.  Southworth  addressed  great  gath- 
erings in  Tokyo,  Kioto,  Singapore,  and  Rangoon,  and  even 
larger  meetings  in  Calcutta,  Lucknow,  Lahore,  Madras,  Karachi, 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  i8o.  t  See  Volume  III,  p.  344. 

t  See  Volume  III,  p.  344.  §  See  Volume  III,  p.  210. 


222  FRANKLIN  CHESTER  SOUTHWORTH 

and  Bombay.  The  assembly  at  Lucknow  was  a  veritable  par- 
liament of  religions  with  representatives  of  Hinduism,  Islam, 
Sikhism,  and  Christianity. 

In  the  nineteenth  century  it  had  been  the  habit  to  establish 
theological  seminaries  in  small  towns  and  quiet  neighborhoods 
where  students  could  work  in  academic  seclusion  and  far  from  the 
distractions  of  great  cities.  Gradually  it  became  evident  that 
men  training  for  a  ministry  that  was  something  more  and  differ- 
ent from  the  discharge  of  purely  priestly  functions  needed  con- 
tact with  the  resources  of  the  great  universities  and  with  the 
social  and  religious  agencies  that  could  be  found  only  in  large 
cities.  Dr.  Southworth  was  one  of  the  first  of  seminary  presi- 
dents to  realize  this  need.  Patiently  and  persuasively  he  labored 
to  bring  about  the  removal  of  the  Meadville  School  from  a 
small  city  in  western  Pennsylvania  to  Chicago  and  with  close 
relations  with  the  fast-growing  University  of  Chicago.  The 
buildings  and  surroundings  at  Meadville  had  endeared  them- 
selves to  fifty  classes  of  students,  and  the  proposed  removal 
seemed  an  act  of  ingratitude  to  the  Huidekoper  family,  whose 
nourishing  care  had  continuously  fostered  the  institution.  Slowly 
the  trustees  were  persuaded  that  the  move  was  wise  and  practi- 
cal. A  compromise  provided  that  the  school  should  remain  a 
Pennsylvania  corporation  while  carrying  on  its  work  at  Chicago. 
The  sale  of  the  Meadville  properties  and  the  generous  gifts  of 
friends  in  Chicago  sufficed  to  build  on  three  corners  of  57th 
Street  and  Woodlawn  Avenue  a  fine  academic  and  library  build- 
ing, two  residence  halls,  and  a  President's  house,  while  the 
fourth  corner  was  already  occupied  by  the  beautiful  building  of 
the  First  Unitarian  Church. 

Dr.  Southworth  was  not  a  systematic  theologian  but  a  man 
who  thought  independently,  spoke  his  mind  fearlessly,  and  re- 
spected the  dignity  and  worth  of  his  fellow  men.  His  preaching 
had  the  qualities  of  directness,  sincerity,  and  immediacy.  There 
was  no  florid  oratory,  but  everything  was  clear-cut  and  forth- 
right. He  had  something  worthwhile  to  say,  and  he  said  it 
simply  and  clearly.  Though  the  head  of  a  theological  school, 
there  was  never  anything  pedantic  about  him.     As  a  personal 


FRANKLIN  CHESTER  SOUTHWORTH  223 

counselor,   he   was   understanding   and   compassionate.     As    an 
administrator,  he  had  both  initiative  and  tenacity. 

Dr.  Southworth  was  succeeded  as  President  by  Sydney  Bruce  Snow, 
who  was  born  in  Winchester,  Massachusetts,  March  19,  1878.  His  fa- 
ther was  a  descendant  of  early  Cape  Cod  settlers.  His  mother,  Helen 
Florence  Winde,  was  of  Danish  ancestry.  The  family  was  associated  with 
the  Congregational  Church  in  Winchester.  Upon  graduation  from  Har- 
vard College  in  1900,  his  literary  bent  led  him  into  the  field  of  journalism 
and  he  went  to  work  on  the  Boston  Transcript.  On  Christmas  1901,  he 
married  Margrette  Kennedy  of  Cambridge  at  the  summer  home  of  the 
Kennedy  family  in  Windsor,  Vermont.  This  beautiful  estate  in  Vermont, 
which  ultimately  became  the  property  of  the  Snows,  played  an  important 
part  in  Sydney  Snow's  life.  It  was  there  that  he  spent  his  summers  when- 
ever he  was  not  abroad,  delighting  in  the  care  of  the  forests,  tramping 
in  the  hills,  riding  horseback  and  especially  entertaining  his  friends  and 
acquaintances. 

While  engaged  in  newspaper  work,  he  became  interested  in  the  Unita- 
rian Church  and  his  deeply  religious  nature  moved  him  to  enter  the  Har- 
vard Divinity  School.  On  graduation  in  1906,  he,  his  wife  and  two  small 
sons  moved  to  Palo  Alto,  California,  where  he  was  ordained  and  took  up 
the  work  of  the  recently  organized  church.  The  handsome  young  min- 
ister with  his  great  gift  for  friendship  at  once  won  the  hearts  of  his  par- 
ish and  of  the  community.  A  little  chapel  of  unusually  imaginative  char- 
acter was  built,  which  fitted  the  quality  and  character  of  the  worship. 
From  the  beginning,  Sydney  Snow's  gift  for  expressing  the  aspirations  of 
his  people  in  prayer  was  evident.  To  him,  prayer  was  the  heart  of  a 
service  and  throughout  his  life  he  devoted  much  thought  to  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  words  by  which  he  strove  to  lift  worshipers  into  communion 
with  God. 

His  three  years  in  Palo  Alto  were  followed  by  three  years  as  minister 
in  Concord,  New  Hampshire,  and  in  1912  he  was  called  to  be  the  associate 
of  Dr.  Howard  N.  Brown  at  King's  Chapel  in  Boston.  A  bond  of  affec- 
tion tied  the  younger  man  and  the  older  man  together  and  these  years  were 
happy  ones,  until  America  entered  the  first  World  War.  Sydney  Snow 
was  a  convinced  pacifist  and  he  was  unable  to  support  the  war  enterprise 
to  the  satisfaction  of  some  of  the  members  of  the  Church.  It  should  be 
added  that  at  the  outbreak  of  the  second  World  War  the  Nazi  threat  to 
civilization  obliged  him  to  abandon  the  pacifist  position. 

In  his  summer  vacation  in  191 7,  he  gave  his  services  to  the  Red  Cross 
in  the  Third  Naval  District.  The  following  year  he  went  to  Germany 
to  serve  with  the  Army  Educational  Corps  of  the  A.E.F,  In  March 
1920,  King's  Chapel  again  granted  him  leave  of  absence  to  go  as  chair- 
man of  a  commission  sent  by  the  American  Unitarian  Association  to  in- 


224  FRANKLIN  CHESTER  SOUTHWORTH 

vestigate  the  condition  of  the  Unitarian  Churches  in  Transylvania.  The 
plight  of  the  churches  under  the  new  Rumanian  rule  stimulated  the  sister 
churches  of  the  faith  in  America  to  render  aid.  The  commission  rendered 
a  priceless  service  of  relief  and  encouragement  and  Sydney  Snovr  brought 
back  w^ith  him  not  only  an  honorary  membership  in  the  Chief  Consistory 
of  the  Unitarian  Churches  of  Transylvania  but  friendships  which  were  to 
be  kept  alive  throughout  his  life. 

On  his  return,  he  accepted  a  call  to  the  Church  of  the  Messiah  in  Mon- 
treal where  he  remained  until  1926.  Again  he  established  a  place  for 
himself  in  the  affections  and  admiration  of  his  people  and  his  Montreal 
days  were  forever  afterward  a  fond  memory. 

Then  in  1928,  came  the  call  to  the  presidency  of  the  Meadville  Theo- 
logical School  in  Chicago,  where  he  served  until  his  death  in  April  1944. 
Both  as  an  able  administrator  and  as  teacher  of  Practical  Theology,  he 
maintained  high  standards  for  his  students  and  exerted  an  influence  much 
wider  than  his  formal  duties  would  suggest.  It  was  under  his  leadership 
that  the  Meadville  School  became  one  of  the  four  theological  schools  that 
were  united  in  the  Federated  Theological  Faculty  of  the  University  of  Chi- 
cago. As  for  the  students  who  came  and  went  during  these  years,  the  mem- 
ory of  the  late  afternoon  hour,  when  his  home  was  always  open  for  informal 
conversation,  is  indelible. 

Sydney  Snow  was  a  frequent  visitor  to  Europe,  climbing  in  the  High 
Tatras  in  Slovakia,  canoeing  down  the  Thames,  or  preaching  in  English 
churches.  He  was  made  an  honorary  member  of  the  British  Assembly  of 
Unitarian  Churches.  The  degree  of  D.D.  was  conferred  on  him  by  Mead- 
ville in  1923  and  the  degree  of  Ph.D.  by  the  Royal  Hungarian  Francis 
Joseph  University  in  Szeged  in  1938. 

Of  fine  physical  appearance  and  personal  charm,  with  a  tender  strength 
that  made  his  presence  felt,  of  a  simplicity  of  nature  that  made  him  always 
open  and  frank,  Sydney  Snow  was  a  delightfully  companionable  man.  His 
devotion  to  the  Unitarian  cause  was  such  that  no  tax  upon  him  was  too  great 
and  no  occasion  too  insignificant  for  him  to  give  himself.  His  influence  was 
primarily  through  personal  contact  and  many  were  the  persons  whose  lives 
were  "touched  to  a  finer  end"  by  association  with  him. 


HENRY  GEORGE  SPAULDING  225 

HENRY  GEORGE  SPAULDING 

1837-1920 

Henry  George  Spaulding  was  born  in  Spencer,  Massachu- 
setts, May  28,  1837.  His  father  was  Reuben  Spaulding,  an 
eminent  physician,  holding  degrees  from  Harvard,  Dartmouth 
and  Middlebury  Colleges.  He  was  a  classical  scholar  and  began 
his  son's  lessons  in  Latin  so  early  that  Henry,  by  the  time  he 
was  eleven  years  old,  had  translated  the  whole  of  the  The  Aeneid. 
He  read  the  Latin  and  Greek  classics  throughout  life  with  ease 
and  delight,  and  was  equally  fond  of  the  best  works  of  modern 
writers.  His  mastery  of  pure  English  was  frequently  com- 
mented upon.  These  advantages  he  always  credited  to  his  fa- 
ther's influence  and  effort. 

Mr.  Spaulding's  mother  had  also  a  fine  taste  in  literature,  but 
her  especial  interest  was  music.  She  was  the  only  teacher  in 
music  he  ever  had — a  striking  testimonial  to  her  skill  when  it 
is  remembered  that  he  sang  in  a  choir  at  the  age  of  eight,  was 
playing  a  church  organ  at  twelve — though  too  small  in  stature 
to  reach  the  pedals  from  the  organ  seat — and  at  fourteen  was  a 
teacher  of  music.  In  later  life  he  was  for  many  years  the  precen- 
tor at  Harvard  Commencements,  and  he  exerted  a  wide  influence 
upon  public  taste  through  the  introduction  of  the  best  music  to 
common  use. 

Mr.  Spaulding's  early  life  was  spent  in  Brattleboro,  Vt.,  his 
mother's  native  town,  to  which  the  family  removed  while  he 
was  still  a  child.  After  going  through  the  Brattleboro  schools 
he  was  sent  to  Phillips  Andover  Academy,  and  in  1856  he  en- 
tered Harvard. 

He  earned  his  way  through  college  by  playing  a  church  organ, 
now  and  then  securing  a  scholarship  or  prize  for  excellence  in 
class  or  for  a  brilliant  essay.  Among  his  classmates  were  Wil- 
liam Channing  Gannett,  Arthur  May  Knapp,  and  Charles  A. 
Humphreys.  They  became  attached  friends.  All  four  entered 
the  Unitarian  ministry,  and  they  kept  their  little  circle  complete 


226  HENRY  GEORGE  SPAULDING 

until  they  celebrated  the  sixtieth  anniversary  of  their  graduation, 
in  1920. 

Mr.  Spaulding  took  rank  as  a  "first  scholar"  in  his  class.  For 
a  time  he  was  editor  of  the  Harvard  Magazine,  and  delivered 
several  addresses  on  literary  and  political  subjects  that  made 
him  known  as  "the  most  promising  young  man  of  his  day." 
When  Charles  Sumner  died,  Mr.  Spaulding's  sermon  on  his  life 
was  pronounced  by  the  statesman's  daughter  to  be  the  best  ac- 
count of  her  father's  life  that  had  appeared. 

Soon  after  his  graduation  in  i860,  the  Civil  War  broke  out. 
Mr.  Spaulding  tried  to  enlist,  but  was  rejected  on  account  of 
defective  eyesight.  He  then  offered  himself  to  Dr.  Bellows 
as  a  worker  in  the  Sanitary  Commission  and  in  that  work  saw 
something  of  the  war.  With  a  singular  felicity  in  getting  into 
things,  he  stood  within  twenty  feet  of  Abraham  Lincoln  as  he 
delivered  his  Second  Inaugural. 

The  war  over,  Mr.  Spaulding  entered  the  Harvard  Divinity 
School,  and  graduated  in  1866.  His  first  pastorate  was  at 
Framingham,  Mass.,  where  he  was  installed  as  minister  on  Feb- 
ruary 9,  1868.  The  sermon  was  preached  by  Dr.  Hedge,  Dr. 
Furness  wrote  the  Installation  Hymn,  and  Dr.  Hale,  Francis 
Tiffany,  Joshua  Young,  his  brother-in-law,  and  his  classmate, 
Charles  A.  Humphreys,  took  part  in  the  service.  During  this 
pastorate  he  made  a  visit  to  Europe,  where  he  became  espe- 
cially interested  in  archaeology.  On  his  return  he  gave  lectures 
on  pagan  and  Christian  Rome,  illustrated  by  diagrams,  which 
pointed  toward  his  pre-eminence  in  this  field  a  few  years  later. 

From  Framingham,  Mr.  Spaulding  was  called,  in  1873,  to 
the  Third  Religious  Society  in  Dorchester.  During  his  four 
years  of  service  in  this  church  he  secured  a  branch  of  the  Boston 
Public  Library  for  the  people  of  that  community,  organized  and 
trained  choirs  of  young  people  and  children,  teaching  them  to 
sing  effectively  music  usually  regarded  as  too  difficult  for  any 
but  practiced  singers. 

Mr.  Spaulding  was  among  those  who  first  realized  the  refin- 
ing influence  of  classical  art  upon  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
men,  and  he  dedicated  the  next  five  years  of  his  life  to  bringing 


HENRY  GEORGE  SPAULDING  227 

to  people  the  best  that  painting  and  sculpture  have  wrought. 
He  made  repeated  trips  to  Europe,  mainly  to  see  and  secure 
copies  of  the  treasures  in  the  great  art  galleries.  These  copies 
he  converted  into  stereoptlcon  slides,  accompanying  them  with 
a  lecture  at  once  descriptive  and  appreciative.  It  is  said  that 
he  was  the  first  person  thus  to  combine  pictures  with  spoken  dis- 
course. He  was  justly  called  "the  father  of  the  illustrated  lec- 
ture." 

In  1874,  and  again  in  1876,  he  gave  courses  before  the  Lowell 
Institute,  in  Boston,  and  he  lectured  in  many  American  cities 
and  before  universities,  art  associations,  and  other  educational 
bodies.  Charles  Dudley  Warner  was  doubtless  correct  when 
he  said  of  Mr.  Spaulding,  "His  successes  are  due  to  his  knowing 
how  to  put  his  scholarship  into  a  form  that  can  be  popularly 
apprehended." 

Mr.  Spaulding  was  elected  Secretary  of  the  Unitarian  Sunday 
School  Society  in  1883,  and  for  a  period  of  nine  years  gave  his 
attention  to  the  development  of  agencies  for  the  religious  guid- 
ance of  the  young.  From  the  beginning  of  his  ministry  he  had 
taken  an  active  Interest  In  this  work.  In  his  Framlngham 
Church  he  prepared  lessons  for  all  classes  in  his  school,  antici- 
pating an  enterprise  later  taken  up  by  the  national  society.  In 
Dorchester,  where  he  had  the  devoted  and  efficient  co-operation 
of  Elizabeth  P.  Channing,  he  did  notable  work  in  the  same  field. 
When,  therefore,  he  became  executive  officer  of  the  Unitarian 
Sunday  School  Society,  he  brought  to  that  responsible  post  both 
zeal  and  experience  of  a  high  order.  Mr.  Spaulding's  admin- 
istration fell  in  a  period  when  the  purposes  and  methods  of  reli- 
gious education  were  undergoing  progressive  changes.  Instruc- 
tion In  Sunday  Schools  had  long  been  traditional.  It  was  con- 
centrated on  the  Bible,  the  Catechism  and  whatever  indoctrina- 
tion was  deemed  essential  for  a  child's  conversion  and  salvation. 
In  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  emphasis  was 
increasingly  upon  character  building.  Memory  work  was  going 
out  of  favor.  The  Bible  was  still  the  basis  of  most  of  the 
Instruction,  but  it  was  taught  with  due  regard  to  the  conclusions 
of  modern  scholars  about  the  dates  and  authorship  and  contents 


228  HENRY  GEORGE  SPAULDING 

of  the  Bible  books.  The  Church  Schools  needed  textbooks  and 
these  Mr.  Spaulding  at  once  set  about  providing,  writing  a  con- 
siderable number  of  them  himself.  "The  Teachings  of  Jesus," 
"Lessons  on  the  Gospel  of  Luke,"  "Hebrew  Prophets  and  Kings," 
and  "Later  Heroes  of  Israel"  followed  from  his  pen  in  rapid 
succession.  His  "Lessons  on  Forty  Hymns"  opened  a  new  field 
for  the  teaching  of  rehgion,  and  his  "Sunday  School  Service 
Book  and  Hymnal"  set  a  new  and  high  standard  in  books  of 
worship  for  young  people.  He  resigned  from  the  Secretaryship 
of  the  Society  in  1892  and  retired. 

In  1867  Mr.  Spaulding  married  Lucy  Warland,  daughter  of 
Dr.  Sylvanus  and  Mrs.  Mary  (Bell)  Plympton,  of  Cambridge. 
A  son  and  a  daughter  were  born  to  them.  Mrs.  Spaulding  died 
in  1 9 10.  Later,  Mr.  Spaulding  married  Jane,  daughter  of  Hon. 
Nathan  H.  and  Mrs.  Ann  E.  (Carr)  Langworthy,  of  Westerly, 
R.L 

The  closing  years  of  this  eventful  life  were  given  to  quiet 
study,  occasional  preaching  and  lecturing,  and  the  enjoyment  of 
a  home  rich  in  treasures  of  art  and  hterature,  as  well  as  happy 
and  hallowed  memories.  He  died  in  Brookline,  September  13, 
1920,  in  his  eighty-fourth  year. 

In  developing  and  broadening  the  process  of  Religious  Education,  Mr. 
Spaulding  was  succeeded  by  Edward  Augustus  Horton,  who  was  born 
of  an  old  New  England  stock  in  Springfield,  Mass.,  on  September  28, 
1843.  He  was  still  in  school  when  the  Civil  War  broke  out,  but  he  at  once 
enlisted  in  the  Navy.  After  his  discharge  he  betook  himself  to  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago  and  thence  to  the  Meadville  Theological  School,  where 
he  graduated  in  1868.  He  was  minister  at  Leominster,  Mass.,  1868- 
1875;  First  Parish  of  Hingham,  1877-1880;  Second  Church  in  Boston, 
1 880-1 892.  His  demonstrated  ability  as  the  administrator  of  the  Church 
Schools  led  to  his  election  in  1882  to  the  Presidency  of  the  Unitarian 
Sunday  School  Society,  and  ten  years  later  he  took  over  the  entire  charge 
of  the  work  of  the  Society.  There  for  eighteen  years  he  enlarged  the 
eflorts  of  Mr.  Spaulding  and  their  labors  were  continued  by  their  succes- 
sors, Dr.  Wm.  I.  Lawrance  and  Dr.  Florence  Buck.  Under  their  direc- 
tion the  teaching  in  the  Church  Schools  became  child-centered  and  life- 
centered  rather  than  book-centered.  For  them  the  test  of  religion  was 
not  just  in  right  opinions  but  in  character.  Their  endeavor  was  to  in- 
still principles  of  good  conduct  and  to  guide  children  into  the  ways  of 


HENRY  GEORGE  SPAULDING  229 

happy  and  serviceable  living.  By  simple  forms  of  worship,  by  precept 
and  example,  they  sought  to  create  in  the  Church  Schools  an  atmosphere 
wherein  faith  and  hope  and  love  could  find  good  opportunities  for  growth. 
They  gave  the  religious  life  of  children  a  chance  to  develop  in  healthy, 
natural  ways.  The  methods  they  advocated  and  the  textbooks  they  wrote, 
or  caused  to  be  written,  profoundly  influenced  the  customs  not  only  of  the 
churches  of  their  own  fellowship,  but  also  of  the  more  conventional  Sun- 
day Schools.  They  were  pioneers  of  a  new  spirit  and  method  in  Reli- 
gious Education. 

For  twenty-five  years  (1903-1928)  and  under  many  different  admin- 
istrations, Mr.  Horton  was  the  duly  elected  Chaplain  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Senate,  and  finally,  by  a  unanimous  vote,  became  the  first  and  only 
Chaplain  Emeritus  in  the  history  of  the  Commonwealth.  He  was  always 
a  popular  preacher,  facile  and  glowing  in  his  style  of  speaking,  graphic 
in  his  choice  of  words,  and  not  unaware  of  the  value  of  dramatic  effects. 
He  died  at  the  home  of  his  daughter  in  Toronto  on  April   15,   193 1. 

Dr.  Horton's  successor  in  the  field  of  Religious  Education  was  William 
Irvin  Lawr.ance,  who  was  born  at  Winchester,  Ohio,  on  March  3,  1853. 
The  family  belonged  in  the  Christian  connection  and  it  was  in  the  schools 
of  that  communion  that  Mr.  Lawrance  prepared  for  the  ministry.  He  was 
ordained  at  Yellow  Springs,  Ohio,  on  May  5,  1875,  and  for  the  next  five 
years  he  served  in  small  country  churches  in  Ohio  and  then  as  Chaplain 
of  the  Reform  School  at  Lancaster.  Feeling  no  longer  at  home  in  the 
church  of  his  inheritance,  in  1882  he  enrolled  in  the  Harvard  Divinity 
School  and  graduated  in  1885.  For  the  next  six  years  he  was  the  minister 
of  the  Third  Religious  Society  in  Dorchester,  Mass.,  and  then  accepted  ap- 
pointment to  the  -staf?  of  the  Unitarian  Mission  in  Japan.  His  service 
there  was  constructive  and  he  won  the  respect  and  affection  of  his  Japanese 
fellow  workers.  Returning  to  America  in  1894,  he  was  minister  of  the 
Church  in  Meadville,  Pa.,  1 895-1 899,  and  at  Winchester,  Mass.,  1899- 
1910.  In  these  parishes  he  proved  himself  a  highly  successful  leader  in  the 
organization  and  administration  of  the  Church  Schools,  and  in  1910  he  was 
elected  President  of  the  Unitarian  Sunday  School  Society,  and  two  years 
later  appointed  Director  of  the  Department  of  Religious  Education  of  the 
American  Unitarian  Association.  He  wrote  textbooks  of  enduring  value 
and  traveled  widely,  energizing  the  Church  Schools.  Meadville  gave  him 
the  Doctorate  in  Theology  in  1917.  In  1925  he  retired  and  spent  his  later 
years  in  California.     He  died  at  Berkeley,  Calif.,  on  October  18,  1935. 


230  CARLTON  ALBERT  STAPLES 

CARLTON  ALBERT  STAPLES 

1827-1904 

Faithful  pastor  and  earnest  preacher,  Rev.  Carlton  A.  Staples 
had  a  ministry  of  fifty  years  without  a  break  and  his  life  was  one 
of  health  and  sanity,  usefulness  and  devotion.  He  was  born 
March  30,  1827,  in  Mendon,  Mass.  He  came  of  vigorous 
farmer  stock  on  both  sides,  the  son  of  Jason  and  Phila  Taft 
Staples,  and  his  forebears  had  broken  the  wilderness  and  toiled 
on  its  rocky  hill  slopes  from  the  settlement  of  the  place  in  1663. 
Carlton  Staples  was  of  large  frame,  broad-shouldered,  with 
vigorous  voice  and  open,  kindly  countenance.  He  belonged 
among  that  race  of  well-proportioned  men  who  dominated  the 
New  England  pulpits  in  the  middle  nineteenth  century.  His 
presence  was  impressive,  his  manner  genial,  his  laugh  hearty 
and  his  smile  winning. 

In  his  father's  family  five  children  lived  to  grow  up  of  whom 
he  was  the  eldest.  A  younger  brother,  Nahor  Augustus  Staples, 
was  also  a  Unitarian  minister,*  whose  life  of  brilliant  promise 
was  suddenly  ended  in  the  service  of  the  Second  Society  of 
Brooklyn  in  1864  at  the  age  of  thirty-three.  Reared  in  the 
hard  labor  and  discipline  of  the  farm,  Carlton  was  of  a  serious 
temperament  and  early  developed  a  strong  ambition  for  thought- 
ful pursuits.  Despite  scanty  means  and  meager  opportunities  he 
found  his  way  to  Uxbridge  and  Worcester  Academies  and  then 
to  the  Bridgewater  Normal  School  where  he  was  among  the  early 
graduates  in  1847.  ^^  became  a  successful  and  inspiring  public- 
school  teacher,  in  Mendon,  Watertown,  and  Medfield,  passing 
thence  into  the  Meadville  Theological  School  and  graduating 
with  his  brother  in  1854.  He  was  at  once  called  to  the  Inde- 
pendent Congregational  Church  in  Meadville,  its  first  settled 
pastor.  Here  he  was  ordained,  and  on  July  4  of  the  same  year 
he  married  Priscilla,  daughter  of  Charles  and  Martha  Eddowes 
Shippen  of  Stapely  Furnace,  Pa.  Her  grandfather,  Ralph  Ed- 
dowes of  Chester,  England,  a  pupil  of  Joseph  Priestley,  emi- 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  221. 


CARLTON  ALBERT  STAPLES  231 

grated  to  Philadelphia  in  1796  and  was  instrumental  in  found- 
ing the  First  Unitarian  Society  there.  Mrs.  Staples  was  a  woman 
of  rare  qualities,  gentle  character  and  high  conscientiousness. 
She  survived  her  husband  and  passed  away  in  19 13  at  the  age 
of  nearly  ninety-four  years.  They  had  one  child,  Charles  Jason, 
born  in  Meadville  in  1856,  who,  in  his  turn,  became  a  Unitarian 
minister. 

In  1858  Mr.  Staples  became  the  colleague  of  Dr.  William  G. 
Eliot  of  St.  Louis,  Mo.  It  was  a  large  and  influential  church 
and  Mr.  Staples  was  busy  for  three  years  with  its  charities  and 
services.  Following  his  Northern  principles,  Mr.  Staples,  in 
1 86 1,  accepted  appointment  as  Chaplain  in  an  Engineer  Regi- 
ment of  Missouri  Volunteers.  The  regiment,  after  wintering 
in  the  State,  participated  in  the  operations  of  1862  at  Island 
No.  10  and  at  Memphis  and  Corinth.  The  regiment  was  then 
widely  scattered  and  few  were  left  for  his  ministrations.  So 
he  resigned  and  was  at  once  invited  to  succeed  his  gifted  brother 
Nahor  in  the  church  at  Milwaukee,  Wis.  Here  he  remained  for 
six  years,  active  in  the  work  of  Soldiers'  Relief,  maintaining  the 
prosperity  of  the  parish,  and  giving  much  of  his  time  to  promot- 
ing liberal  religion  throughout  the  State.  In  1868  he  was  ap- 
pointed as  Western  Secretary  of  the  American  Unitarian  Asso- 
ciation and  showed  himself  well-adapted  to  this  diflicult  field  by 
his  tolerant  interest  in  men  of  many  minds  and  his  virile  presen- 
tation of  simple  undogmatic  faith.  This  position  brought  about 
his  removal  to  Chicago  and  the  establishment  of  an  office  and 
bookroom.  On  the  west  side  of  Chicago  he  found  the  oppor- 
tunity of  starting  a  new  liberal  movement  which  became  the  Third 
Unitarian  Church,  and  whose  leadership  he  zealously  undertook. 
A  fine  structure  was  nearly  completed  through  his  efforts  when 
the  great  fire  of  1871  interrupted  all  plans  and  the  future  of  the 
society  seemed  uncertain.  For  a  year  he  struggled  on  and  had 
finished  the  church  when  he  received  an  unexpected  call  from 
Providence,  R.  I. 

It  was  a  great  change  from  a  city  of  shifting  population  and 
unquiet  winds  of  doctrine  to  the  old,  large  and  well-equipped 
First  Congregational  Society  of  Providence.     He  was  then  in 


232  CARLTON  ALBERT  STAPLES 

his  prime  and  for  nine  years,  1872  to  188 1,  he  labored  devotedly, 
giving  of  his  best  in  study,  pulpit,  and  parish.  Here  as  else- 
where, he  won  many  warm  and  faithful  friends  and  served  many 
outside  causes,  on  the  Providence  School  Committee  and  in  the 
city's  charities  and  missions.  His  memorial  in  the  church  is  its 
beautiful  Stone  Chapel,  built  largely  through  his  enthusiasm  and 
persistence. 

But  his  last  parish  called  forth  his  mellowest  powers.  In 
Lexington,  Mass.,  where  his  brother,  Nahor,  had  begun  his  min- 
istry, he  found  a  place  and  a  people  that  best  fitted  his  qualities 
of  mind  and  heart.  He  delighted  in  the  traditions  of  town  and 
parish.  He  lived  in,  and  loved,  Lexington's  early  history.  He 
was  foremost  in  urging  and  carrying  through  the  marking  of 
memorable  scenes  in  Lexington's  great  day,  April  19,  1775.  He 
rescued  the  old  Parsonage  from  destruction.  He  brought  the 
"Old  Belfry,"  which  had  rung  the  Alarm  of  1775,  back  from 
its  hiding  place  on  a  secluded  farm  to  its  former  association 
with  the  Church  and  Common.  He  was  a  leader  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Historical  Society,  which  has  become  the  custo- 
dian and  the  center  of  the  town's  pride  in  its  past  and  present. 
He  served  steadily  and  earnestly  on  the  School  and  Library  Com- 
mittees throughout  his  pastorate  of  twenty-three  years.  Ever 
mindful  of  his  church  and  ministry  he  endeared  himself  to  a  whole 
generation  by  his  warm  spiritual  sympathy.  His  prayers  were 
a  genuine  uplifting  of  the  heart  and  conscience.  His  words  in 
bereavement  were  ever  tender  and  helpful.  His  sermons  were 
always  carefully  written,  plain,  practical,  full  of  reverence  for 
the  character  of  Christ,  firm  with  faith  in  God.  His  spirit  was 
constantly  hopeful,  looking  forward,  ready  to  receive  whatever 
new  truth  or  practice  seemed  to  him  sound  and  good. 

In  his  last  years  his  frame  was  still  stalwart  and  his  voice 
resonant.  He  became  a  familiar  figure  on  Lexington  Green, 
telling  its  historic  story  to  ever-increasing  numbers  of  visitors. 
His  days  were  like  an  ideal  autumn.  No  good  cause  ever  missed 
his  moral  support.  The  garden,  the  lovely  highways  around 
Lexington,  the  Massachusetts  hills,  were  his  pleasure  and  recrea- 
tion.    Grandsons  and  granddaughter  grew  up  around  him. 


REED  STUART  233 

So  his  release  from  earthly  service  was  not  a  break  but,  as 
Robert  Collyer  called  it,  "a  consummation."  He  was  present 
at  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  his  Meadville  class.  He  visited 
the  Isles  of  Shoals  meetings,  giving  a  benediction  to  the  Chapel 
service  not  soon  forgotten.  Spontaneous  recognition,  by  church 
and  friends,  of  his  uninterrupted  ministry  of  fifty  years  gave  him 
a  joy  granted  to  but  few.  There  was  warm  response  at  his 
golden  wedding,  a  restful  summer,  a  bit  of  preaching  on  Boston 
Common  the  last  Sunday.  Then,  after  a  morning  in  the  orchard, 
August  30,  1904,  his  heart  failed  and  he  had  entered  the  Unseen 
Life.  He  had  been  an  honest  "workman,  needing  not  to  be 
ashamed,  rightly  sharing  his  word  of  truth." 


REED  STUART 
1845-1910 


Reed  Stuart  was  born  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley  in  Virginia, 
October  21,  1845.  The  community  was  solidly  Presbyterian 
and,  as  he  once  said,  the  staple  fireside  conversation  was  on 
Jacksonian  Democratic  politics  and  Calvinistic  theology.  The 
family  moved  to  Illinois,  where  his  father  died  in  Mr.  Stuart's 
boyhood.  The  family  continued  on  the  farm  on  which  they  lived, 
and  he  led  the  life  of  a  farmer's  boy  until  he  was  old  enough  to 
enlist  in  the  army  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Civil  War.  His  mili- 
tary experience  gave  color  and  background  to  an  ardent  patriot- 
ism, and  induced  in  him  a  profound  and  abiding  abhorrence  of 
war. 

He  graduated  from  Monmouth  College  in  1870,  and  took  his 
theological  course  in  the  Presbyterian  Theological  Seminary  in 
Chicago.  In  1872  he  married  and  became  pastor  of  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church  at  Oneida,  111.  Five  years  later  he  went 
to  the  First  Congregational-Presbyterian  Church  of  Battle  Creek, 
Mich.,  where  he  remained  for  ten  years.  Midway  in  this  pas- 
torate, by  his  own  reading  and  study,  having  grown  out  of  the  old 
theology,  he  resigned  his  pastorate;  but  the  Church  preferred  the 


234  REED  STUART 

minister  to  the  creed,  refused  to  accept  tlie  resignation,  and  be- 
came an  Independent  Congregational  Church.  Mr.  Stuart  re- 
mained in  charge  of  it  until  he  was  called  to  the  Unitarian  Church 
in  Detroit  in  1886. 

The  boyhood  experiences  of  the  farm,  the  early  impressions 
produced  by  the  bleak  austerities  of  the  old  theology,  the  inci- 
dents of  march  and  camp  and  skirmish,  the  struggles  between 
ancestral  creed  and  individual  conviction,  were  common  to  him 
with  thousands  of  others;  but  it  was  given  to  him  to  see  more 
clearly  and  feel  more  deeply  the  significance  of  it  all,  because  he 
was,  in  the  old  Greek  sense,  a  poet. 

Partly,  it  is  to  be  supposed,  from  temperament,  partly  as 
the  result  of  the  arduous  and  painful  struggle  through  which  he 
passed  out  of  the  old  faith,  Mr.  Stuart  was  rather  a  lonely  man, 
and  he  could  not  take  much  interest  in  the  administrative  side  of 
religious  organization.  He  led  no  party  and  founded  no  school. 
His  exclusion  from  clerical  associations  did  not  disturb  him  and 
he  needed  no  applause  to  sustain  him.  Truth  was  not  some- 
thing he  could  pick  up  by  intercourse  with  other  people.  It 
was  something  that  he  and  God  had  to  settle  between  them.  He 
took  nothing  for  granted.  He  was  always  a  radical,  going,  that 
is,  to  the  roots  of  things.  Necessity  was  laid  upon  him  to  ration- 
alize and  justify  any  doctrine  or  custom.  To  him  religion  was 
a  personal  thing,  and  he  spoke  with  the  spiritual  authority  of  a 
prophet  of  the  good  news  of  God.  Although  he  was  a  learned 
man  and  widely  read,  and  though  his  sermons  gave  abundant  evi- 
dence of  his  knowledge  and  of  his  reading,  he  used  the  language 
of  everyday  life,  and  his  sermons  were  vivid  and  pictorial.  He 
did  not  contemplate  truth  through  the  long  vistas  of  religious 
history  or  indulge  in  elaborate  formal  argumentation.  His  per- 
ception of  truth  was  direct  and  immediate. 

He  died  at  Princeton,  N.  J.,  February  7,  19 10. 


WILLIAM  LAURENCE  SULLIVAN  235 

WILLIAM  LAURENCE  SULLIVAN 
1872-1935 

William  Sullivan  was  born  on  November  15,  1872,  at  East 
Braintree,  Massachusetts,  far  from  the  lovely  Irish  town  of 
Bandon  from  which  Patrick  and  Joanna  Sullivan  had  come  to 
America  only  the  year  before.  Neither  he  nor  she  dreamed 
that  they  were  welcoming  a  son  whose  gifts  of  mind  and  heart 
were  to  win  for  him  a  place  among  the  intellectual  and  spiritual 
leaders  of  his  time. 

The  boy  showed  early  a  love  for  books,  and  at  the  age  of  five 
read  the  "Lives  of  the  Saints"  and  was  so  filled  with  fervor  that 
he  then  chose  the  name  of  the  martyr  Laurence  as  the  name  that 
should  become  his  at  confirmation.  His  father  was  a  man  full 
of  impetuous  enthusiasms,  but  he  died  when  the  boy  was  only 
fourteen  and  the  lad  grew  into  manhood  under  the  guidance  of 
his  gentle  mother. 

The  family  had  moved  to  Quincy  in  William's  infancy,  and 
it  was  in  the  public  schools  there  that  he  began  his  student  life. 
He  made  rapid  progress  in  his  studies  and  excelled  in  athletics, 
especially  baseball.  From  the  Quincy  High  School  he  went  to 
Boston  College  and  thence  to  St.  John's  Seminary  in  Brighton. 
He  was  distinguished  in  English  studies  and  the  classics,  and  in 
his  second  year  at  the  Seminary  won  the  coveted  Fulton  medal 
for  excellence  in  public  debate.  Two  years  later,  in  1896,  he 
received  the  degree  of  Ph.B.  and  in  1899  and  1900  the  degrees 
of  S.T.B.  and  S.T.L.  from  the  Catholic  University  of  America. 
To  these,  Meadville  Theological  School  added  a  D.D.  in  19 17, 
and  Temple  University  of  Philadelphia  an  LL.D.  in  1934. 

Following  his  decision  made  in  boyhood,  he  was  ordained  to 
the  Catholic  priesthood  in  1899  and  became  a  member  of  the 
Paulist  community.  For  several  years  he  was  Professor  of 
Sacred  Scripture  and  Theology  at  St.  Thomas's  College.  While 
teaching  there  he  became  interested  in  the  Modernist  movement 
then  gathering  strength  among  the  Catholic  clergy  of  both  Eu- 
rope and  America.      Despite  valiant  efforts  to  retain  his  belief 


236  WILLIAM  LAURENCE  SULLIVAN 

in  the  dogmas  of  his  inherited  faith,  he  was  constrained  by  the 
strength  of  his  convictions  to  withdraw  from  the  CathoHc  Church 
two  years  before  Pope  Pius  X  issued  the  encyclical  against  Mod- 
ernism. At  the  time  of  his  retirement  he  was  the  priest  of  a 
Paulist  church  near  the  University  of  Texas  in  Austin. 

His  mother,  whom  he  deeply  loved,  had  died  just  before  his 
ordination  and  he  had  no  strong  family  ties.  For  two  years  he 
lived  in  Kansas  City,  Missouri,  in  great  loneliness  and  consider- 
able privation.  In  the  autumn  of  1910  he  moved  to  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  where  he  engaged  in  tutoring  for  several  months,  and 
while  there  found  his  way  to  the  Unitarian  Church,  then  under 
the  ministry  of  Minot  Simons.  His  stay  in  Cleveland  was  brief, 
however,  as  he  accepted  an  invitation  to  teach  English  and  history 
in  the  Ethical  Culture  School  of  New  York  City.  But  as  his 
whole  soul  was  centered  in  religious  matters  he  could  not  long 
remain  satisfied  in  other  work.  Accordingly,  in  October,  19 12, 
he  entered  the  Unitarian  ministry,  and  was  installed  as  minister 
of  the  newly  organized  Church  of  All  Souls  in  Schenectady,  New 
York. 

It  was  not  long  before  his  brilliant  preaching  and  consecrated 
personality  attracted  wide  attention.  As  a  result  he  was  called 
to  the  associate  pastorate  of  the  Church  of  All  Souls,  New  York 
City.  He  accepted  the  call  on  the  condition  that  he  might  carry 
on  for  at  least  a  year  the  work  in  Schenectady.  During  this 
double  ministry  he  gave  many  lectures  and  addresses,  so  many  in- 
deed that  his  health,  never  robust,  necessitated  a  leave  of  absence 
for  several  months  in  19 15.  But  the  next  year  saw  him  on  a  mis- 
sion for  the  American  Unitarian  Association  to  the  Pacific  Coast, 
where  in  the  month  of  September  he  preached  more  than  forty 
sermons.      In  19 17  he  was  the  Dudleian  lecturer  at  Harvard. 

By  1922  the  Church  of  All  Souls,  of  which  Dr.  Sullivan  had 
become  minister  upon  the  death  of  Dr.  Sheer  in  19 16,  celebrated 
the  hundredth  anniversary  of  its  founding,  and  he  felt  free  to 
accept  the  urgent  invitation  of  the  Unitarian  Laymen's  League 
to  become  its  Mission  preacher.  The  two  years  spent  in  this 
work  were  exhausting  but  fruitful. 

The  Church  of  the  Messiah,  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  was  in  need 


WILLIAM  LAURENCE  SULLIVAN  237 

of  a  pastor  and  Dr.  Sullivan  took,  charge  there  in  1925,  expect- 
ing to  remain  for  three  months.  He  stayed,  however,  for  three 
years.  During  the  summer  of  his  first  year  in  St.  Louis  he 
taught  in  the  Meadville  Theological  School  and  during  his  entire 
stay  in  the  West  he  gave  an  incredible  number  of  lectures  and 
addresses.  Had  he  been  obliged  to  write  his  addresses  he  could 
not  have  made  half  of  them,  but  from  a  well-stored  mind  he 
drew  a  wealth  of  wisdom  and  he  spoke  extemporaneously  with  an 
English  diction  not  often  equaled. 

In  1928  he  withdrew  to  Mt.  Gretna,  Pennsylvania,  hoping  to 
devote  himself  to  writing,  but  after  a  year  and  a  half  he  accepted 
the  unanimous  call  of  the  Unitarian  Society  of  Germantown, 
Pennsylvania.  In  December  1929  he  took  up  his  ministry  there, 
and  remained  in  the  happiest  association  with  that  congregation 
until  his  death,  October  6,  1935. 

Dr.  Sullivan  had  a  creative  mind  of  a  high  order.  His  ser- 
mons belonged  to  the  "literature  of  power";  a  rhythmic  style  of 
utterance  was  natural  to  him.  Some  of  his  paragraphs  read 
like  chants.  The  sermons  were  majestic  in  diction,  commanding 
in  rnoral  imperatives,  profound  in  spiritual  insight.  They  com- 
bined the  reasonable,  the  dutiful  and  the  devout. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  in  a  life  so  filled  with  speaking  and 
traveling  Dr.  Sullivan  should  have  had  little  time  for  writing. 
But  he  did  publish  "Letters  to  His  Holiness,  Pius  X,"  1910; 
"The  Priest,"  1912;  "From  the  Gospels  to  the  Creeds,"  1919; 
"Readings  for  Meditation:  First  Series,"  1922,  "Second  Series," 
1935.  Two  articles  of  his  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly:  "Our  Spir- 
itual Destitution,"  March  1929,  and  "The  Anti-Religious  Front," 
January  1930,  were  widely  read  and  quoted.  For  six  years  he 
reviewed  books  for  the  New  York  Herald  Tribune.  In  addition 
to  his  published  work  he  left  an  autobiography,  published  later 
under  the  title  "Under  Orders,"  and  a  collection  of  "Epigrams 
and  Criticisms  in  Miniature." 

One  of  the  extraordinary  features  of  Dr.  Sullivan's  relation 
with  other  denominations  than  the  Unitarian  may  be  mentioned 
— they  called  on  him  to  speak,  to  preach,  to  conduct  retreats  for 
their  ministers,  even  for  their  theological  students,  as  if  he  be- 


238  WILLIAM  LAURENCE  SULLIVAN 

longed  to  all  of  them.  In  fact,  the  last  service  he  rendered  out- 
side his  own  church  was  giving  a  retreat  for  Congregational  min- 
isters in  September  1935. 

His  brilliant  mind,  his  devout  spiritual  nature,  his  keen  sense 
of  humor,  his  fervent  eloquence,  his  charity  toward  all  in  thought 
and  deed,  and  his  modest  opinion  of  his  own  attainments  en- 
deared him  to  all  with  whom  he  came  in  contact.  The  old  found 
him  tender  and  full  of  courtesy,  the  young  were  sure  of  his  un- 
derstanding sympathy  and  yielded  him  a  pure  devotion. 

At  Schenectady  Dr.  Sullivan  was  succeeded  by  Addison  Moore,  who 
was  born  in  Dutchess  County,  N.  Y.,  in  1870.  He  graduated  at  Colum- 
bia University  in  1892  and  then  studied  at  both  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
in  England.  On  his  return  he  was  ordained  to  the  Baptist  ministry  in 
New  Haven,  Conn.  He  quickly  gave  demonstration  of  his  ability  and 
had  a  distinguished  ministry  at  the  Fifth  Avenue  Baptist  Church  in  New 
York  City.  It  was  evidence  of  his  sincerity  and  courage  that  he  with- 
drew from  that  conspicuous  pulpit  and  in  1914  entered  the  Unitarian 
fellowship.  The  change  from  the  great  metropolitan  church  to  the  small 
Unitarian  Church  in  Schenectady  proved  his  sincerity,  but  he  greatly  en- 
joyed the  freedom  of  his  new  fellowship.  To  him,  religion  was  just  a  way 
to  more  abundant  living;  it  was  a  radiant  experience,  touched  with  laugh- 
ter, companioned  with  good  fellowship  and  challenged  by  the  quest  for 
unconquered  worlds. 

After  five  3^ears  of  service  at  Schenectady,  he  was  for  eleven  years  in  the 
church  at  Chestnut  Hill,  Mass.,  and  his  love  of  beauty  is  exemplified  in  the 
interior  of  the  church  there.  It  is  also  illustrated  in  the  liturgical  services 
which  he  arranged  for  his  congregation.  Always  a  pioneer  and  never  con- 
cerned about  personal  advantages,  he  left  Chestnut  Hill  to  take  charge  of 
a  small  church  in  Richmond,  Va.,  and  had  there  a  highly  successful  min- 
istry until  his  death  on  October  28,  1936. 

At  the  Church  of  All  Souls  Dr.  Sullivan  was  succeeded  by  MiNOT 
Simons  who  was  born  at  Manchester,  New  Hampshire,  on  September  24. 
1868,  the  son  of  Langdon  Simons  and  Sarah  Frances  Fifield.  He  died  in 
New  York  City  on  May  25,  1941. 

The  Simons  family  came  to  this  country  early  in  its  history.  As  far  back 
as  1635  the  records  show  that  one  of  Dr.  Simons'  ancestors,  William 
Simons,  ran  the  ferry  and  did  various  other  things  in  the  town  of  Ipswich, 
Mass.  When  Minot  was  sixteen  years  of  age  his  father,  who  was  a  jew- 
eller, died.  Thereafter  he  lived  in  the  home  of  his  paternal  grandfather. 
He  attended  the  Manchester  High  School  and  then  for  a  year  he  was  a 
student  of  Phillips  Exeter  Academy,     That  single  year  endeared  the  school 


WILLIAM  LAURENCE  SULLIVAN  239 

to  him;  and  in  later  life  he  served  it  as  a  member  of  its  Board  of  Trustees 
and  frequently  as  a  preacher. 

In  the  autumn  of  1887  Simons  entered  Harvard.  Then  and  there  be- 
gan an  association  that  all  his  life  meant  more  to  him  than  anything  else 
except  his  family  and  his  church.  He  loved  the  very  sound  of  the  name 
Harvard  and  could  not  bear  to  think  of  missing  any  reunion  of  his  class 
or  other  gathering  of  Harvard  men.  Upon  graduation  in  1891,  his  class- 
mates made  him  a  member  of  their  permanent  Class  Committee  and  treas- 
urer of  the  Class  for  life.  His  last  report  as  treasurer  was  made  less 
than  a  month  before  he  died.  For  many  years  he  was  also  Class  Agent 
of  the  Harvard  Fund.  At  one  time  or  another  Simons  was  secretary  and 
president  of  the  Harvard  Club  of  Cleveland,  secretary  and  then  president 
of  the  Associated  Harvard  Clubs  (the  only  minister  ever  to  hold  that 
office),  vice-president  and  director  of  the  Harvard  Alumni  Association,  a 
member  of  the  Harvard  Board  of  Preachers,  a  member  of  the  Board  of 
Overseers.  He  spoke  the  invocation  on  Alumni  Day  at  the  tercentenary 
celebration  in  September,  1936.  In  New  York  he  was  a  member  of  the 
Board  of  Managers  of  the  Harvard  Club  from  1925  to  1928  and  was  re- 
elected to  this  Board  for  another  term  in  January  of  the  year  of  his  death. 

Simons  graduated  at  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  in  1894.  Later  in 
his  life,  in  1921,  the  Meadville  Theological  School  conferred  on  him  the 
honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity.  On  18  December,  1894,  at  Bos- 
tcm,  he  married  Helen  Louise  Savage,  the  daughter  of  Dr.  Minot  J.  Sav- 
age.    One  son,  Langdon  Savage  Simons,  was  born  of  this  marriage. 

On  January  i,  1895,  he  was  ordained  minister  of  the  old  First  Parish 
Church  in  Billerica,  Mass.,  and  there  he  remained  for  five  years.  In 
1900  he  accepted  a  call  to  the  First  Unitarian  Church  of  Cleveland,  Ohio, 
and  had  there  a  notable  ministry  of  nineteen  years.  He  found  there  a 
church  which  was  located  in  what  had  become  a  downtown  section  from 
which  most  of  the  parishioners  had  moved.  His  first  business  was  to  build 
a  new  church  in  a  residential  area.  He  set  himself  immediately  to  the  task 
and  in  a  few  years  there  was  erected  on  Euclid  Avenue  a  beautiful  and 
fully  adequate  church  building. 

In  the  realm  of  community  service  while  in  Cleveland,  he  was  for  seven- 
teen years  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Preachers  of  Western  Reserve  Uni- 
versity, president  of  the  Saturday  Night  Club  (for  social  workers  of 
Cleveland),  president  of  the  Drama  League,  president  of  the  Cleveland 
Peace  Society,  vice-president  of  the  Samuel  Gridley  Howe  Society  (for 
publishing  books  for  the  blind),  chairman  of  the  Citizens  Advisory  Com- 
mittee of  the  City  Hospital,  secretary  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the 
Associated  Charities,  member  of  the  Social  Service  Committee  of  the  Fed- 
erated Churches,  member  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Society  for 
Advancing  the  Interests  of  Colored  People,  chaplain  of  the  New  England 
Society,  chaplain  of  the  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution,  president  of  the 


240  FRANCIS  TIFFANY 

Sociological  Council,  president  of  the  Men's  League  for  Equal  Suffrage, 
president  of  the  Philosophical  Club,  director  of  the  Cleveland  Chamber 
of  Commerce,  director  of  the  University  Club  of  Cleveland,  member  of 
the  Mayor's  Committee  on  Unemployment.  He  frequently  served  as 
mediator  in  labor  disputes  after  both  sides  had  appealed  to  him  out  of 
respect  for  his  fairness  and  broad-mindedness,  and  in  this  way  he  settled 
at  least  five  strikes  in  the  Cleveland  district. 

From  1919  to  1923  Simons  served  as  Secretary  of  the  Department  of 
Church  Extension  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association.  His  headquar- 
ters were  in  Boston  and  his  journeyings  were  constant  and  took  him  to 
almost  every  part  of  the  country. 

Upon  coming  to  New  York  in  1923,  he  found  a  condition  not  unlike 
that  which  had  confronted  him  when  he  first  went  to  Cleveland.  The 
Church  of  All  Souls  was  located  at  20th  Street  and  Fourth  Avenue,  a 
district  from  which  nearly  all  of  its  parishioners  had  moved  away.  From 
the  beginning  of  his  ministry  there  he  had  in  mind  the  relocation  of  the 
Church  farther  uptown.  In  spite  of  many  difKculties  he  accomplished  his 
purpose,  and  in  1932  the  building  at  80th  Street  and  Lexington  Avenue 
was  dedicated  for  public  worship. 

Minot  Simons  was  a  builder.  He  built  the  beautiful  church  in  New 
York ;  he  built  the  lovely  house  of  worship  in  Cleveland ;  and  scattered  all 
over  the  country  are  churches  started  by  his  initiative  and  made  strong  by 
his  energy.  But  most  of  all  he  built  character.  To  an  extraordinary  de- 
gree he  had  the  ability  to  win  the  confidence  and  aflfection  of  men  and 
women,  young  and  old,  and  to  implant  in  them  the  desire  for  the  good  life. 
Himself  full  of  the  joy  of  life  and  possessing  a  consciousness  of  his  own 
sonship  to  God,  he  gave  to  others  a  realization  of  the  beauty  and  dignity 
of  right  living. 


FRANCIS  TIFFANY 

1827-1908 

Francis  Tiffany  was  born  at  Baltimore,  Md.,  February  16, 
1827.  He  early  manifested  a  student's  zeal,  a  love  for  litera- 
ture, and  a  keen  interest  in  human  welfare,  so  he  turned  to  the 
work  of  the  ministry.  He  graduated  from  Harvard  in  1847 
and  from  the  Divinity  School  in  1852.  He  was  ordained  at  the 
Church  of  the  Unity  in  Springfield,  Mass.,  December  30,  1852, 
and  remained  the  minister  of  that  church,  which   rapidly  in- 


FRANCIS  TIFFANY  241 

creased  in  numbers  and  influence,  until  1864.  During  that  ex- 
citing period  of  our  history  he  was  a  prominent  and  forcible 
speaker  upon  every  question  which  concerned  true  liberty  and 
an  undivided  country. 

For  a  brief  period  he  was  Professor  of  English  literature  and 
rhetoric  at  Antioch  College;  but  in  1866  he  returned  to  the 
settled  ministry  at  West  Newton,  where,  with  a  brief  interrup- 
tion he  remained  until  1883,  when  he  resigned  and  gave  himself 
more  exclusively  to  literary  pursuits. 

His  preaching  had  great  charm  of  literary  style.  He  thor- 
oughly enjoyed  setting  forth  his  ideas  in  incisive  and  sometimes 
dramatic  forms  of  speech.  There  was  a  stimulating  pungency 
and  prophetic  element  in  all  his  utterances.  The  keenness  of 
his  criticism  and  the  strength  of  his  reasoning  appeared  in  two 
essays  on  "The  Fourth  Gospel"  and  the  "Theory  of  Evolution." 
Two  of  his  books,  "The  Life  of  Dorothea  Lynde  Dix"  and  "The 
Life  of  Charles  Francis  Barnard,"  are  among  the  best  exam- 
ples of  American  biography. 

There  was  always  something  boyish  in  the  twinkle  in  his  eyes 
and  the  play  of  his  thought.  His  humor  was  both  keen  and 
kindly,  and  he  had  no  capacity  for  enmity  or  envy.  He  died  at 
Cambridge  on  September  3,   1908. 

Mr.  TifFany  was  succeeded  at  West  Newton  by  Julian  Clifford 
Jaynes,  who  was  born  in  Springvale,  Va.,  January  18,  1854,  the  son  of 
Charles  L.  and  Martha  Jaynes.  The  Civil  War  caused  his  parents  to 
remove  to  the  State  of  Wisconsin,  where  the  boy  was  educated,  graduat- 
ing from  the  University  of  Wisconsin  in  the  class  of  1875.  He  was  then 
accepted  as  master  of  the  high  school  in  Virginia  City,  Nev.,  where  he 
spent  several  years.  In  1880  he  entered  the  Harvard  Divinity  School 
and  upon  graduation  cast  his  lot  with  the  society  in  West  Newton  and 
served  there  for  thirty-eight  years.     It  was  his  only  parish. 

His  personality  was  unique.  His  charm  was  great  and  there  was  a 
something  about  him  which  claimed  a  quick  and  permanent  attraction  for 
those  who  came  in  contact  with  him.  It  was  a  ministry  which  was  rich  in 
accomplishment  and  far-reaching  in  effect.  He  died  on  June  7,  1923,  just 
at  the  end  of  the  journey  to  his  summer  home  on  Prince  Edward  Island. 
A  volume  of  his  sermons  was  published  under  the  title,  "Magic  Wells." 


242  CHARLES  RICHMOND  WELD 

CHARLES  RICHMOND  WELD 

1849-1918 

Charles  Richmond  Weld's  inheritance  was  such  as  was  bound 
to  produce  the  liberal  spirit.  He  came  from  a  long  line  of  dis- 
tinguished ancestors,  seven  of  whom  were  clergymen.  The  first 
of  the  Welds  coming  to  America  was  the  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  Weld, 
deposed  rector  of  Terling  Church,  Essex  County,  England.  He 
settled  in  Roxbury,  Massachusetts,  in  1632,  becoming  minister 
of  the  First  Parish.  In  1636  he  became  one  of  the  original 
members  of  the  Board  of  Overseers  of  Harvard  College,  and 
at  the  same  time  was  a  contributor  to  the  famous  Bay  Psalm 
Book.  In  1 641  he,  together  with  the  Rev.  Hugh  Peters,  was 
sent  to  England  by  the  colonists  to  represent  them  and  he  died 
in  England  in  1661. 

Dr.  Weld  was  born  at  Cazenovia,  New  York,  in  May  1849, 
and  died  in  Norwich,  England,  September  11,  19 18.  After 
attending  Antioch  College  he  entered  the  Harvard  Divinity 
School,  graduating  in  1872.  On  January  2,  1873,  he  was  or- 
dained and  installed  as  minister  of  the  First  Independent  Church 
of  Baltimore  City,  where  he  remained  for  twenty-five  years,  be- 
coming minister  emeritus  on  November  15,  1898.  In  i897Berea 
College  conferred  upon  him  an  LL.D.  Less  than  a  month  be- 
fore he  resigned,  he  married  Miss  Frances  Eaton  of  Baltimore, 
in  New  York  City,  where  the  ceremony  was  performed  by  Dr. 
Minot  J.  Savage. 

His  ministry  in  Baltimore,  his  only  pastorate,  was  marked  by 
resolute  and  aggressive  leadership.  He  found  the  church  bur- 
dened with  debt,  and  still  suffering  from  the  dissensions  caused 
by  the  Civil  War.  Being  a  man  of  strong  physique,  vigorous 
personality,  and  ardent  social  passion,  he  soon  made  his  church 
the  center  of  many  vital  social  activities.  Successively  he  organ- 
ized a  Christian  Union  for  children  where  "morality,  ethics  and 
good  manners"  were  taught.  In  turn  there  followed  the  organ- 
ization of  Christian  educational  classes,  the  Loyalty  League  for 
citizenship   training,   the   Industrial   School   for   boys,    and   the 


CHARLES  RICHMOND  WELD  243 

Household  School  for  girls,  a  Guild  for  workers,  a  Post  Office 
Mission  and  a  Flower  Guild.  At  the  same  time  he  crusaded 
for  woman's  suffrage,  the  abolition  of  war,  a  humane  treatment 
of  the  Insane,  and  he  helped  to  organize  the  Prisoner's  Aid  Con- 
gress. 

Temperamentally  Dr.  Weld  was  a  consistent  high  churchman. 
He  held  to  the  priestly  rather  than  the  prophetic  conception  of 
the  ministry.  His  sermons  were  an  eloquent  combination  of 
thought  and  feeling;  yet  with  him  the  sermon  was  at  no  time 
the  chief  part  of  the  service.  He  was  pre-eminently  an  apostle 
of  beauty  In  the  sanctuary.  A  natural  ritualist,  almost  a  medi- 
evalist, he  aimed  to  make  all  worship  beautiful  and  satisfying, 
not  only  to  the  minds  and  hearts  but  also  to  the  eyes  and  ears  of 
the  worshipers.  He  sought  and  used  a  sacramental  approach 
to  the  social  expression  of  religion.  His  achievements  in  this 
field  offer  convincing  proof  of  the  truth  that,  without  compro- 
mise or  concessions  of  any  sort,  congregational  worship  can  be 
enriched  and  its  influence  thereby  increased. 

Preaching  with  him  was  no  easy  work.  There  was  no  un- 
studied or  unbalanced  freak  of  thought,  no  hasty,  ill-digested  and 
easily  changed  opinions,  but  patient  study,  careful  reflection,  set- 
tled convictions.  There  was  nothing  startling  or  sensational  in 
his  manner  or  words.  All  was  quiet,  dignified  and  wonderfully 
appealing. 

Though  he  wrote  no  books,  and  only  a  few  articles  written  for 
religious  journals  survive,  yet  the  record  of  his  work  and  minis- 
try is  eloquent  testimony  of  his  catholic  spirit  and  magnanimous 
heart.  He  was  content  to  offer  up  his  gifts  upon  the  altar  of 
the  common  good  diffused,  "whose  music  is  the  gladness  of  the 
world." 


244  CHARLES  WILLIAM  WENDTE 

CHARLES  WILLIAM  WENDTE 

1 844-1 93 1 

Some  ministers  excel  as  parish  priests,  some  as  powerful 
preachers,  some  as  leaders  in  education  or  in  social  reforms. 
Dr.  Wendte  was  distinguished  as  a  pioneer  in  the  field  of  inter- 
national and  interdenominational  good  will.  He  was  born  in 
Boston  on  June  11,  1844,  and  died  in  San  Francisco,  Septem- 
ber 9,  1 93 1.  His  travels  took  him  to  every  part  of  Europe  and 
some  parts  of  Asia,  and  he  had  friends  and  correspondents  in  all 
lands.  He  had  command  of  several  languages  and  spoke  and 
wrote  fluently  in  both  German  and  French.  He  was  of  German 
parentage  and  his  father  and  mother  were  among  the  liberals 
who  had  found  refuge  in  America  from  the  agitations  and 
reactionary  tyrannies  that  disturbed  their  native  land  in  the 
1840's.  The  father  died  young  and  the  heroic  little  mother 
supported  her  family  by  teaching  German  in  Boston  households. 
Then  a  chance  came  to  remove  to  California  and,  at  the  age  of 
fourteen,  Charles  went  to  work  in  a  store  and  later  in  a  bank  in 
San  Francisco,  gaining  an  experience  in  business  which  helped 
him  in  later  years. 

In  i860  Thomas  Starr  King*  arrived  in  San  Francisco  to 
become  minister  of  the  Unitarian  Church  and  young  Wendte 
soon  felt  his  inspiring  influence.  He  too  must  give  whatever 
strength  and  capacity  he  possessed  to  the  ministry  of  a  free 
church.  So  in  1866  he  headed  east  and,  though  without  colle- 
giate training,  gave  such  evidence  of  his  ability  that  he  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  and  graduated  there  in 
1869.  In  the  same  year  he  was  ordained  minister  of  the  Fourth 
Unitarian  Society  of  Chicago  and  soon  demonstrated  his  versa- 
tility and  his  capacity  for  vivid  and  animating  speech.  In  1876 
he  accepted  a  call  to  the  older  and  larger  First  Unitarian  Church 
of  Cincinnati.  There  he  quickly  identified  himself  with  many  of 
the  literary  and  philanthropic  activities  of  the  city,  and  his  con- 
gregation included  many  families  prominent  in  the  social  and 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  191. 


CHARLES  WILLIAM  WENDTE  245 

cultural  life  of  the  community.  He  worked  so  persistently  that 
his  health  was  threatened  and  in  1882  he  accepted  a  call  to  a 
less  exacting  charge  and  became  minister  of  the  Channing  Church 
in  Newport,  R.  I.  There,  with  his  customary  elasticity,  health 
was  soon  restored  and  his  boundless  vivacity  renewed. 

In  1885  Wendte  was  appointed  superintendent  of  the  Church 
Extension  work  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association  in  the 
Pacific  Coast  States  and  for  the  next  twelve  years  he  traveled  up 
and  down  the  coast  preaching,  lecturing,  organizing.  He  planted 
a  number  of  new  churches.  Not  all  of  them  survived  for  he  was 
too  much  in  a  hurry  to  see  that  they  got  well-rooted.  He  was 
forever  hastening  on  to  some  other  inviting  field  of  opportunity 
or  rushing  east  to  secure  ministers  with  a  pioneer  spirit  and 
ready  to  nourish  and  nurture  the  young  societies.  His  intellec- 
tual processes  and  the  habits  of  his  life  were  as  mobile  as 
quicksilver.  He  made  his  headquarters  in  Oakland,  and  he  is 
counted  as  the  founder  and  first  minister  of  the  church  there. 
For  a  year  he  supplied  the  pulpit  of  the  church  in  Los  Angeles 
and  his  name  is  carried  on  the  list  of  its  ministers.  Every- 
where he  went  he  was  a  vivifying  though  somewhat  evanescent 
influence. 

Then  came  his  great  opportunity — a  challenge  that  he  met  with 
unconquerable  zeal  and  matchless  efficiency.  In  May  of  1900  the 
American  Unitarian  Association,  in  celebrating  the  seventy-fifth 
anniversary  of  its  organization,  invited  to  its  meeting  in  Boston 
a  number  of  the  outstanding  representatives  of  liberal  religion 
in  different  parts  of  the  world.  -  Men  of  light  and  leading  came 
from  Britain,  France,  Belgium,  Holland,  Norway,  Germany, 
Switzerland,  Hungary,  India,  and  Japan.  They  found  them- 
selves in  rather  unexpected  accord  and  proceeded  to  band  them- 
selves together  as  the  "International  Council  of  Unitarian  and 
Other  Liberal  Religious  Thinkers  and  Workers."  They  de- 
clared their  purpose  to  be  "to  open  communication  with  those 
in  all  lands  who  are  striving  to  unite  pure  religion  and  perfect 
liberty  and  to  increase  fellowship  and  co-operation  among  them." 
Dr.  J.  Estlin  Carpenter  of  England  was  elected  President  and 
Charles  W.  Wendte,  Executive  Secretary.     To  this  task  Wendte 


246  CHARLES  WILLIAM  WENDTE 

brought  a  buoyant  optimism,  an  exhaustless  enthusiasm,  ingenu- 
ity, resourcefulness  and  fertihzing  imagination.  He  derived  his 
support  partly  from  his  appointment  as  Secretary  for  Foreign 
Relations  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association  and  partly  by 
taking  charge  successively  of  churches  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Boston — Newton  Center  (where  he  made  his  home),  the  Parker 
Memorial  in  Boston,  and  the  First  Parish  of  Brighton.  He 
was  a  hard  man  to  keep  up  with  for  he  was  forever  on  the  move. 
He  spent  part  of  every  year  in  Europe,  visiting,  encouraging, 
organizing,  discovering  liberal  Christians  in  all  sorts  of  unex- 
pected places.  Often  volcanic  in  speech  he  proved  to  be  granitic 
in  purpose  and  persistence.  He  never  indulged  in  understate- 
ments. He  always  commended  patience  but  was  more  inclined 
to  precipitancy.  Under  his  enlivening  guidance  great  biennial 
meetings  of  the  Council  were  held  and  attended  by  statesmen, 
scholars,  teachers,  preachers  and  men  of  large  affairs.  The  first 
meeting  was  held  in  London  in  May,  1901,  with  an  attendance 
running  up  to  two  thousand  representing  fifteen  different  nations 
and  twenty-one  different  church  fellowships.  There  followed 
Congresses  in  Amsterdam  in  1903  where  Dutch,  English,  French 
and  German  were  the  official  languages  and  translations  of  the 
addresses  were  furnished  to  the  delegates.  In  August,  1905, 
the  Council  met  in  Geneva  in  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Peter  and  in 
the  halls  of  the  University.  In  1907  the  Council  returned  to 
Boston.  Nearly  three  thousand  persons  registered  as  members 
and  visitors,  representing  sixteen  nationalities  and  thirty  church 
communions.  One  hundred  and  twenty-two  delegates  came  from 
Great  Britain  and  representative  religious  leaders  were  present 
from  Australia,  Bohemia,  Canada,  Denmark,  France,  Germany, 
Holland,  Hungary,  India,  Italy,  Japan,  New  Zealand,  Sweden, 
and  Switzerland.  The  19 10  Congress  met  in  Berlin  and  the 
1 9 13  meeting  was  in  Paris,  again  with  large  attendance  and 
notable  addresses.  The  proceedings  of  all  these  Congresses 
were  gathered  in  massive  volumes  and  published  usually  in 
three  languages — English,  French,  and  German.  Dr.  Wendte 
— he  received  his  doctorate  from  the  University  of  Geneva  in 
1909 — had  a  very  active  part  in  compiling  and  editing  these  books 


CHARLES  WILLIAM  WENDTE  247 

and  he  often  had  a  hand  in  the  translations.  At  the  Berlin  Con- 
gress in  1 9 10  the  official  name  was  changed,  in  the  English  form, 
to  "International  Congress  of  FVee  Christians  and  Other  Reli- 
gious Liberals."  The  first  World  War  interrupted  all  these 
activities  and  after  the  war  the  official  leadership  passed  into 
European  hands  and  the  Secretaryship  was  filled  by  the  election 
first  of  a  genial  and  scholarly  Englishman  and  then  of  an  earnest 
and  devoted  Hollander. 

Meanwhile  Dr.  Wendte's  nervous  energy  was  hunting  for  new 
adventures.  His  unresting  mind  and  organizing  ability  soon 
launched  another  significant  enterprise,  the  "National  Federa- 
tion of  Religious  Liberals."  This  again  was  a  successful  en- 
deavor to  unify  and  concentrate  the  forces  which  make  for  reli- 
gious freedom,  sincerity,  and  tolerance  in  the  United  States.  In 
a  sense  the  Federation  was  the  offspring  of  the  International 
Council  and  it  met  in  the  alternate  years.  It  sought  to  foster 
a  co-operative  good  will,  both  religious  and  racial,  and  to  pro- 
mote a  fellowship  of  the  spirit  based  on  character  and  conduct 
rather  than  on  creed  and  traditionary  rites.  The  Federation 
was  organized,  at  Dr.  Wendte's  incentive,  in  1908  and  held  its 
first  meeting  at  Philadelphia  in  April,  1909.  Of  course  Dr. 
Wendte  was  the  manager  and  Executive  Secretary.  More  than 
a  thousand  members  registered,  not  only  from  the  avowedly  lib- 
eral fellowships — Unitarians,  Universalists,  Friends,  and  Re- 
formed Jews — but  also  Baptists,  Congregationalists,  Episcopa- 
lians, Methodists,  and  Swedenborgians.  At  the  closing  sympo- 
sium the  speakers  belonged  to  fourteen  different  denominations. 
Again  the  proceedings  were  edited  by  Dr.  Wendte  and  published 
under  the  title  "The  Unity  of  the  Spirit."  Subsequent  meetings, 
largely  attended  and  harmonious  in  spirit,  were  held  in  New 
York  City  ( 1 9 1 1 )  and  in  Rochester,  N.  Y.  ( 1 9 1 2 ) .  Again  war 
Interfered  and  meetings  had  to  be  discontinued.  The  Federa- 
tion survived  for  a  while  under  the  name  of  "The  Free  Church 
Fellowship"  but,  without  Dr.  Wendte's  invigorating  direction,  it 
dwindled  Into  comparative  Insignificance. 

The  disruptions  of  the  War,  the  breaking  of  so  many  ties  of 
friendship,  the  ruin  of  his  valiant  hopes  of  a  United  Free  Church, 


248  CHARLES  WILLIAM  WENDTE 

broke  Dr.  Wendte's  heart.  He  did  not  resume  his  endeavors  for 
the  great  causes  he  had  served  so  diligently  and  effectively.  For 
a  year  or  two  he  acted  as  President  of  the  Free  Religious  Associ- 
ation, and  in  19 15  he  was  President  of  the  Unitarian  Ministe- 
rial Union.  His  election  to  these  offices  gave  evidence  of  the 
confidence  and  affection  of  his  fellow  workers,  but  he  soon  with- 
drew, returned  to  California,  and  made  his  home  there  for  the 
remaining  years  of  his  life.  There  he  interested  himself  chiefly 
in  the  affairs  of  the  Pacific  Unitarian  School  for  the  Ministry — 
now  known  as  the  "Starr  King  School" — an  institution  which  he 
had  helped  to  found. 

During  his  long  and  fruitful  life  Dr.  Wendte  published  many 
books  and  sermons  and  wrote  many  magazine  articles  on  an 
extraordinary  variety  of  subjects.  He  wrote  acceptable  verse 
and  many  hymns.  For  his  hymns  he  often  composed  the  tunes, 
for,  among  his  many  accomplishments,  he  was  a  competent  musi- 
cian. In  his  days  of  missionary  preaching  he  would  often  speak 
or  read  from  the  pulpit  and  then  spring  to  the  organ  console  and 
lead  the  singing  with  voice  and  instrument.  He  would  give  a 
learned  lecture  on  Bach,  perhaps  in  German,  and  with  illustra- 
tions on  more  than  one  instrument — and  then  jump  to  a  children's 
party  and  get  everybody  singing  nursery  songs.  In  1900  he 
compiled  and  published  a  hymnbook  for  young  people,  "Jubilate 
Deo,"  and  it  had  a  wide  circulation.  He  never  blunted  or  con- 
cealed his  own  rehgious  convictions,  but  his  genuine  understand- 
ing of  other  people's  ideas  and  usages,  his  sincere  appreciation  of 
other  people's  ways  of  looking  at  things,  his  respect  for  the  in- 
tegrity of  people  who  did  not  share  his  liberal  views,  combined  to 
make  him  a  welcomed  friend  and  fellow  worker  in  all  lands.  His 
genius  was  diffusive  and  his  energies  required  scope  and  range. 
He  was  a  good  deal  of  a  visionary,  but  he  made  his  dreams  come 
true.  He  combined  German  diligence,  California  optimism  and 
New  England  idealism.  Always  a  loyal  and  outspoken  Uni- 
tarian, he  was  gladly  received  in  the  churches  of  many  com- 
munions. Always  an  ardent  and  patriotic  American,  he  was,  in 
the  best  sense,  a  citizen  of  the  world.  He  widened  the  horizons 
of  men's  thoughts  and  hopes. 


CHARLES  WILLIAM  WENDTE  249 

At  Cincinnati  Dr.  Wendte  was  succeeded  by  his  Divinity  School  class- 
mate, George  Augustine  Thayer,  who  was  born  in  Randolph,  Mass., 
December  6,  1839.  He  was  educated  in  the  public  schools  of  Randolph 
and  Braintree  and,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  began  teaching  at  Westminster, 
Vt.  While  there  he  became  interested  in  the  Unitarian  Church  across  the 
river  at  Walpole,  N.  H.,  and  relinquished  his  membership  in  the  Baptist 
Church  in  which  he  had  been  reared.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War 
he  enlisted,  served  through  the  war,  and  came  out  a  captain.  All  his  life 
he  liked  best  to  be  addressed  as  "Captain."  He  entered  the  Harvard  Divin- 
ity School  and  graduated  in  1869.  While  a  student  he  was  one  of  the 
nine  men  who  gathered  at  the  house  of  Dr.  Cyrus  Bartol  and  formed  the 
"Free  Religious  Association."  He  was  ordained  minister  of  the  Hawes 
Church  in  South  Boston  on  September  9,  1869,  James  Freeman  Clarke 
preaching  the  sermon.  He  worked  there  for  thirteen  years  and  was  active 
in  the  administration  of  a  number  of  the  city's  institutions,  notably  as  a 
member  of  the  Boston  School  Committee.  He  also  became  a  trustee  of 
Thayer  Academy  at  Braintree,  a  place  he  held  for  fifty  years,  the  last 
twenty-fi%'e  as  President  of  the  Board.  In  1882  he  accepted  the  call  to 
Cincinnati  and  there  he  labored  for  forty-three  years,  thirty-four  as  active 
minister  and  nine  as  pastor  emeritus.  Antioch  gave  him  his  doctorate  in 
1886,  but  to  most  people  he  was  still  "Captain"  rather  than  "Doctor." 
He  was  always  a  valiant  citizen,  soldierly  in  bearing,  uncompromising  in 
his- liberalism,  alert  to  serve  many  good  causes.     He  died  on  October  3, 

1925. 

Dr.  Wendte  was  succeeded  at  Oakland  by  Clarence  Reed,  who  was 
born  in  Jerseyville,  111.,  on  September  16,  187 1.  He  graduated  at  DePauw 
University  in  1892  and  was  ordained  into  the  Methodist  ministry.  Later 
he  studied  at  Harvard  and  at  the  University  of  Chicago  and  gradually 
read  himself  out  of  his  inherited  Methodism.  He  entered  the  Unitarian 
fellowship  in  1906  and  soon  became  an  outstanding  leader  in  the  whole 
San  Francisco  Bay  area,  serving  the  Unitarian  churches  in  Alameda, 
Palo  Alto  and  Oakland.  He  made  himself  an  expert  in  his  knowledge 
of  art  and  literature  and  went  often  to  Europe,  collecting  material  for 
lectures.  His  knowledge  of  the  Dutch  and  Flemish  paintings  w^as  unsur- 
passed and  his  book  review  evenings  attracted  large  audiences.  He  founded 
and  fostered  the  Oakland  Book  Lovers'  Club,  led  the  Oakland  Forum,  and 
was  a  member  of  the  Commonwealth  Club  of  San  Francisco.  He  also 
served  as  a  trustee  of  the  Starr  King  School  and  as  director  of  the  Ameri- 
can Unitarian  Association.     He  died  at  Oakland  on  January  19,  1945. 


250  EDWIN  MILLER  WHEELOCK 

EDWIN  MILLER  WHEELOCK 

1829-1901 

Edwin  Miller  Wheelock  was  born  in  New  York  City  August 
30,  1829,  graduated  at  Harvard  Law  School  in  1853,  and  from 
the  Divinity  School  in  1856 — facts  which  indicate  some  interest- 
ing mental  history.  He  was  settled  in  Dover,  N.  H.,  in  1857. 
In  the  second  year  of  his  settlement  occurred  the  eventful  raid 
of  Captain  John  Brown  into  Virginia,  followed  by  his  arrest  and 
execution.  The  same  natural  and  uninstructed  conscience  that 
prompted  John  Brown  to  take  justice  into  his  own  hands  led 
Mr.  Wheelock  to  become  his  enthusiastic  champion.  His  ser- 
mon on  the  subject  made  a  great  stir.  It  was  repeated  before 
Theodore  Parker's  congregation  in  Music  Hall,  Boston,  was 
quoted  widely  by  the  newspapers.  North  and  South,  and  Mr. 
Wheelock  had  a  price  set  upon  his  head  by  the  State  of  Virginia, 
a  reward  of  $1,500  offered  for  his  capture,  alive  or  dead. 

Mr.  Wheelock  was  a  fearless  man  and  held  positive  convic- 
tions, not  only  about  slavery  but  also  about  the  liquor  traffic 
and  about  social  injustices  of  all  kinds.  Most  of  the  members 
of  his  parish  were  conservative  and  the  usual  difficulties  arose. 
Mr.  Wheelock  stuck  to  his  post  but  the  parish  found  it  increas- 
ingly difficult  to  raise  his  salary. 

In  1862  he  enlisted  as  a  private  in  a  New  Hampshire  regiment. 
He  was  soon  appointed  chaplain  of  the  regiment,  and  accom- 
panied the  expedition  of  General  Banks  in  the  Southwest.  Trans- 
ferred to  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  he  did  good  service  in  Louisi- 
ana and  Texas  during  the  latter  part  of  the  war  and  as  long 
as  the  bureau  existed,  being  specially  commended  by  Generals 
Banks  and  Canby.  After  the  war  Mr.  Wheelock  held  a  posi- 
tion in  the  customhouse  at  San  Antonio.  Then  in  San  Antonio 
and  in  Austin  he  edited  newspapers,  classed  as  Republican  in  the 
South,  but  not  so  recognized  in  the  North.  He  served  in  Texas 
as  State  Superintendent  of  Schools,  and  for  several  years  as  re- 
porter of  the  Supreme  Court. 


WILLIAM  ORNE  WHITE  251 

In  1887  he  resumed  the  thread  of  his  profession,  and  organ- 
ized the  Unitarian  Society  in  Spokane,  Washington.  At  the  end 
of  two  successful  years  he  was  obliged  to  return  to  the  South  on 
account  of  the  health  of  Mrs.  Wheelock.  In  Austin  he  organ- 
ized a  Unitarian  Church  and  for  eight  years  he  preached  to  an 
attentive  and  progressive  congregation.  He  was  a  man  of  quiet 
manners  and  attractive  personality  but  one  who  had  the  courage 
of  his  convictions  and  never  hesitated  to  express  them,  however 
unpopular  they  might  be.  It  was  said  of  him  that  he  "was  bet- 
ter fitted  by  nature  for  the  bar  than  for  the  pulpit,"  but  in  all 
his  varied  occupations  he  was  a  forceful  and  versatile  leader  of 
men. 


WILLIAM  ORNE  WHITE 

1821-191 I 

William  Orne  White  was  born  in  Salem,  Massachusetts,  on 
February  12,  182 1,  the  son  of  Daniel  Appleton  White,  judge 
of  the  Probate  Court.  He  was  educated  at  Phillips  Exeter 
Academy,  Harvard  College,  and  the  Harvard  Divinity  School. 
At  the  time  of  his  death,  he  was  the  last  survivor  of  the  Class 
of  1840  of  Harvard  College,  and  also  the  last  survivor  of  the 
Class  of  1844  of  the  Divinity  School.  His  first  parish  was  in 
Eastport,  Maine,  where  he  preached  for  five  months;  and  dur- 
ing the  year  1 846-1 847  he  supplied  the  pulpit  of  the  Church  of 
the  Messiah,  St.  Louis,  while  the  minister  of  that  church  was  in 
Europe.  On  September  25,  1848,  he  married  Margaret  Eliot 
Harding,  daughter  of  the  well-known  portrait-painter,  Chester 
Harding. 

He  was  ordained  minister  of  the  church  in  West  Newton, 
Mass.,  on  November  22,  1848,  and  remained  for  two  years  in 
that  parish.  From  1851  to  1878,  he  was  minister  of  the  Unita- 
rian church  in  Keene,  New  Hampshire.  He  then  removed  to 
Brookline,  Mass.,  where  he  spent  the  rest  of  his  life.  After 
supplying  the  pulpit  in  Sharon,  Mass.,  for  two  seasons,  he  defi- 


252  WILLIAM  ORNE  WHITE 

nitely  retired  from  the  active  ministry.  On  February  17,  191 1, 
five  days  after  completing  his  ninetieth  year,  he  died  at  the  home 
which  he  deeply  loved. 

The  long  pastorate  in  Keene  was  happy  and  fruitful,  though 
unmarked  by  events  of  picturesque  character.  The  chronicle  of 
these  years  is  a  record  of  quiet  service  in  a  well-ordered  parish. 
Primarily  ministering  to  individual  lives,  he  yet  found  time  for  a 
multitude  of  public  and  semipublic  activities  of  the  kind  that 
build  up  the  spiritual  life  of  a  community. 

With  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  Mr.  White's  leadership 
in  his  own  parish  and  in  the  community  was  tested  and  not  found 
wanting.  He  spoke  from  the  pulpit  with  courage  and  candor, 
and  when  one  of  his  parishioners  got  up  and  left  the  church  in 
the  middle  of  a  patriotic  sermon,  the  preacher  was  sorry  but  kept 
straight  on.  The  fact  that  two  of  Mrs.  White's  brothers  were 
in  the  Northern  army  and  two  in  the  Southern  must  have  given 
them  both  many  hours  of  anguish,  but  there  was  no  wavering  of 
their  loyalty  or  of  their  clear  conviction  as  to  the  rights  of  the 
struggle.  The  church  became  a  center  for  all  kinds  of  war  work, 
soldiers  off  for  the  front  received  from  their  minister  the  fitting 
words  of  encouragement  and  benediction,  and  in  a  hundred  differ- 
ent ways  the  morale  of  the  people  at  home  was  sustained  and 
strengthened.  One  sentence  from  a  Thanksgiving  Day  sermon 
will  illustrate  the  quality  of  his  leadership:  "When  we  grow  too 
much  absorbed  in  buying  and  selling  and  getting  gain,  then  the 
memory  of  their  valor,  their  unselfish  offering  of  their  very  lives 
for  truth,  honor,  justice  and  liberty,  will  fill  us  with  scorn  of  our- 
selves, if  we  do  not  wisely  and  generously  devote  the  lives  made 
worth  the  living  only  through  their  sacrifice,  to  ends  akin  to  those 
great  objects  for  which  they  poured  out  their  blood." 

After  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  Mr.  White  remained  for 
twelve  years  in  Keene,  building  up  his  parish  so  that  a  new 
church  had  to  be  constructed  to  take  the  place  of  the  earlier  one 
which  had  been  outgrown.  He  preached  the  liberal  gospel 
with  persuasive  power  yet  retained  the  cordial  friendship  of  his 
orthodox  brethren.  He  did  his  share  in  various  denominational 
enterprises,  and  maintained  his  strong  interest  in  the  intellectual 


WILLIAM  ORNE  WHITE  253 

movements  of  America  and  Europe.  In  particular,  a  friendship 
with  Dr.  James  Martineau,  which  began  with  correspondence 
about  a  hymnbook,  ripened  into  a  happy  and  lifelong  fellowship 
which  served  as  one  of  the  links  binding  American  Unitarianism 
to  the  great  leader  of  British  liberalism.  When,  in  1878,  he 
finally  resigned  from  the  church  which  he  had  served  for  nearly 
thirty  years,  Mr.  White  discovered  the  full  strength  of  the  ties 
which  bound  him  not  only  to  his  own  parish  but  to  the  entire 
community. 

In  her  charming  "Life"  of  her  father,  Miss  Eliza  Orne  White 
has  printed  many  of  the  letters  which  he  wrote  to  her  when  she 
was  a  child,  and  these  letters  reveal  the  secret  of  his  power  over 
young  lives.  Mr,  White  was  one  of  those  rare  men  who  never 
cease  being  boys.  In  one  sense,  he  never  grew  up.  And  then, 
too,  as  his  daughter  points  out,  he  had  the  endearing  habit  of 
closing  his  eyes  to  the  faults  of  children  and  young  people.  This 
did  not  blind  him  to  their  good  points  or  their  possibilities,  and 
many  a  man  has  testified  to  the  influence  upon  his  life  which 
Mr.  White's  expression  of  confidence  once  had.  He  possessed 
an  unbounding  faith  in  human  nature,  of  every  age,  and  this  was 
perhaps  the  chief  reason  for  his  success  as  a  preacher  and  pastor. 
Once,  when  he  was  on  the  School  Committee  in  Keene,  he  went 
to  call  on  a  young  woman  who  was  to  begin  teaching  the  next 
day  and  dreaded  lest  she  should  prove  a  failure.  "Stop  right 
there,"  he  said  to  her;  "you  never  will  succeed  if  you  let  yourself 
feel  like  that."  And  years  afterward  she  told  him  how  great  a 
difference  his  words  had  made  in  her  life. 

This  strong  faith  in  human  nature  was  what  lay  behind  his 
own  serene  and  beautiful  old  age.  Those  who  knew  him  only 
in  the  later  years,  in  the  lovely  Brookline  home,  where  he  was 
the  center  of  a  wide  circle  of  affection,  may  sometimes  have 
wished  that  they  might  have  known  him  in  the  days  of  his  greater 
physical  vigor;  but  in  truth  he  was  always  the  same  man,  and  to 
have  known  him  at  any  one  period  in  his  life  was  to  have  known 
him,  in  a  sense,  at  all.  The  courage  which  took  him  out  for  his 
daily  walk  after  dark  even  after  he  had  been  attacked  one  evening 
by  a  "thug,"  the  humor  which  never  failed,  the  happy  spirit  that 


254  THEORORE  CHICKERING  WILLIAMS 

made  each  succeeding  year  seem  the  best  yet,  the  simple  joy  in 
being  alive  in  God's  world — these  characteristics  of  his  last  years 
were  in  reality  lifelong  qualities  of  his  soul. 


THEODORE  CHICKERING  WILLIAMS 

1855-1915 

Theodore  Chickering  Williams  distinguished  himself  as  a  per- 
suasive young  preacher  in  a  metropolitan  pulpit,  as  the  first  head- 
master and  the  builder  of  Hackley  School,  as  the  author  of 
several  dear  and  familiar  hymns  and  as  the  expert  translator  of 
the  Latin  poets.  Though  his  life  was  divided  into  fragments 
by  periods  of  delicate  health,  it  was  harmonized  and  unified  by 
a  deeply  religious  spirit  and  purpose. 

He  was  born  in  Brookline,  Mass.,  on  July  2,  1855.  Well- 
grounded  in  the  fundamentals  of  a  classical  education  at  the 
ancient  Roxbury  Latin  School,  he  entered  Harvard  College  with 
the  Class  of  1876.  At  College,  in  the  free  atmosphere  of  the 
newly  established  elective  system,  his  inborn  scholarly  instincts 
and  taste  for  literature  and  the  fine  arts  had  full  scope.Through- 
out  his  course  he  held  high  rank  in  scholarship,  was  a  member  of 
Phi  Beta  Kappa,  and  was  chosen  to  be  the  Class  Day  orator. 
Deeply  studious  and  industrious,  he  was  also  a  genial  comrade, 
popular  and  beloved  among  his  classmates.  After  a  year  of 
school  teaching,  he  returned  to  Cambridge  to  study  for  the  min- 
istry at  the  Harvard  Divinity  School.  There  also  he  made  his 
mark  as  a  brilliant  student  and  leader  of  his  fellows.  His  first 
charge  was  in  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Winchester,  where  he  was 
ordained  in  1882.  This  happy  pastorate  lasted  but  a  year,  for 
In  1883  the  Church  of  All  Souls  in  New  York  City  discovered 
the  exceptional  promise  of  the  twenty-eight-year-old  minister 
and  installed  him  as  successor  to  Dr.  Henry  W.  Bellows,*  one 
of  the  most  notable  preachers  and  leaders  in  the  history  of  liberal 
Christianity.     Here  was   indeed   a   trial   of  youthful   strength. 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  23. 


THEODORE  CHICKERING  WILLIAMS  255 

For  thirteen  years,  Theodore  Williams  met  tiie  challenge  with 
all  the  winning  and  magnetic  qualities  of  his  spirit.  Having  the 
simplicity  of  a  poet  and  the  depths  of  a  philosopher,  his  preach- 
ing made  a  lasting  impression  not  only  upon  his  congregation,  but 
upon  the  larger  life  of  the  great  city.  He  took  with  him  to 
New  York  his  bride,  Velma  Curtis  Wright  of  Boston,  in  whom 
throughout  his  life  he  found  the  rest  and  strength  of  a  perfect 
companionship.  Together  they  compiled  a  hymnbook,  "Amore 
Dei,"  which  found  acceptance  in  many  churches.  Mrs.  Williams, 
who  survived  him  for  twenty-five  years,  carried  on  a  vital  kind 
of  ministry  herself  and  has  left  a  memorial  in  Senexet  House, 
established  by  her  untiring  efforts  as  a  place  for  spiritual  refresh- 
ment and  the  deepening  of  religious  life. 

The  ministry  at  the  Church  of  All  Souls  ended  in  1896  when 
Mr.  Williams  resigned  because  of  ill-health  and  went  for  two 
years  of  rest  and  recuperation  to  Europe.  Upon  his  return,  he 
spent  a  year  in  Oakland,  California,  supplying  the  pulpit  of  the 
Unitarian  Church  there.  Just  at  this  time,  plans  were  being 
formulated  for  the  foundation  of  Hackley  School  at  Tarrytown, 
N.  Y.,  to  fulfill  the  generous  purposes  of  Mrs.  Caleb  B.  Hackley. 
Theodore  Williams  responded  enthusiastically  to  the  invitation 
to  become  the  first  headmaster.  His  scholarly  interests  and  his 
appealing  personality  were  natural  qualifications  for  the  post. 
Moreover,  during  the  five  years  at  Hackley  he  showed  remark- 
able ability  in  the  tasks  of  organization  and  building.  Hackley 
School  today  owes  much  of  the  beauty  of  its  setting  and  equip- 
ment, as  well  as  its  traditions  of  scholarship  and  character,  to 
the  personal  influence  of  its  first  headmaster.  His  delicate  or- 
ganism, however,  at  the  end  of  five  years  succumbed  again  to 
fatigue,  and  he  resigned  to  seek  once  more  refreshment  and  re- 
newal in  Europe,  Upon  his  return  in  1907  he  resumed  educa- 
tional work  for  a  brief  two  years  as  the  headmaster  of  the 
Roxbury  Latin  School.  This  was  an  agreeable  occupation  but 
arduous  for  him,  and  ill-health  again  made  his  withdrawal  neces- 
sary. After  three  years  of  enforced  idleness,  he  renewed  a 
happy  ministerial  experience  amid  the  beauties  of  Santa  Barbara, 
California,  where  he  supplied  the  Unitarian  pulpit  for  a  year. 


256  THEODORE  CHICKERING  WILLIAMS 

The  flame  of  vitality  was  flickering,  however,  and  after  his  return 
to  Boston  he  died  on  May  6,  1915. 

WilHams  was  a  preacher,  a  minister  and  a  schoolmaster,  but 
in  all  these  callings — and  first  of  all — he  was  an  artist.  His 
poetic  gift  found  expression  in  a  notable  translation  of  Virgil 
and  in  noble  and  well-loved  hymns,  among  them  the  familiar 
"When  thy  heart  with  joy  o'erflowing."  More  than  this,  he 
touched  everything — his  work,  his  play,  and  his  human  relation- 
ships— with  a  creative  hand  and  heart,  so  that  he  is  remembered 
and  honored  as  one  who  made  of  life  itself  a  fine  art. 

Mr.  Williams  was  succeeded  at  the  Church  of  All  Souls  in  New  York 
by  Thomas  Roberts  Slicer,  who  was  born  April  16,  1847,  in  Washing- 
ton, D.  C,  the  son  of  Henry  Slicer,  a  distinguished  Methodist  preacher, 
a  presiding  elder,  and  for  eight  years  Chaplain  of  the  United  States  Sen- 
ate. He  was  educated  at  the  Baltimore  schools,  at  the  Baltimore  City 
College,  and  took  the  degree  of  A.M.  at  Dickinson  College,  Carlisle,  Pa. 
Later,  Brown  University  made  him  a  Doctor  of  Divinity.  He  began 
preaching  as  a  Methodist  before  he  was  twenty-one  and  was  ordained  in 
1869.  Gradually  his  religious  convictions  changed  and  in  1880,  in  order 
to  be  honest  with  himself,  he  withdrew  from  the  Methodist  ministry  and 
enrolled  with  the  Unitarians.  He  served  effectively  in  the  First  Church 
in  Providence  from  1881  to  1890.  Then  he  had  a  rich  and  fruitful  pas- 
torate in  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  1 890-1897,  and  in  1897 
he  was  called  to  the  Church  of  All  Souls  in  New  York.  Dr.  Slicer  was 
a  virile  preacher,  a  loyal  friend,  a  citizen  identified  with  many  civic  and 
political  reforms.  Because  of  his  humor,  his  never-failing  supply  of  perti- 
nent anecdotes  and  his  gift  of  penetrating  speech,  he  was  much  in  demand 
as  a  spokesman  at  all  sorts  of  civic  occasions,  and  he  was  constantly  in  bat- 
tle against  social  and  industrial  wrongdoing.  He  thoroughly  enjoyed  stir- 
ring up  the  decorous  dullness  of  an  audience,  rousing  quiescent  imagina- 
tions, putting  some  yeast  into  the  solid  cake  of  custom,  lifting  people  out 
of  the  ruts  of  habit.  A  certain  sinewy  and  sturdy  manliness  characterized 
all  that  he  said  and  did.  He  made  goodness  exciting  and  religion  the 
most  interesting  thing  in  all  the  world.  He  had,  too,  a  way  of  punctur- 
ing shams  and  bubbles  that  made  some  people  a  bit  afraid  of  him.  In  Buf- 
falo he  was  in  the  thick  of  the  fight  for  the  reform  of  the  city  govern- 
ment. In  New  York  he  was  again  fighting  political  corruption  with  voice 
and  pen,  and  as  a  trustee  of  the  City  Club.  He  was  also  chairman  of  the 
National  Commission  on  Prison  Labor,  a  member  of  the  Council  of  the 
Immigration  League,  a  trustee  of  the  People's  Institute  and  of  the  Hackley 
School. 


SAMUEL  HOBART  WINKLEY  257 

Dr.  Slicer  enjoyed  the  hurly-burly  of  debate.  He  never  failed  to  see 
the  humorous  side  of  things  and  had  an  ahnost  impish  audacity  of  wit. 
He  did  not  disdain  the  spotlight  which  was  frequently  directed  at  him 
and  he  had  no  inclination  to  make  of  life  "a  solitary  pilgrimage  of  pain." 
Sturdy  of  body,  alert  and  supple  in  mind,  epigrammatic  in  speech,  he 
preached  and  lived  a  gospel  of  good  cheer  and  joyous  fellowship.  He  was 
the  spokesman  of  a  city's  conscience  and  his  summons  to  the  duties  of  citi- 
zenship had  the  call  of  trumpets  and  the  roll  of  drums.  Above  all,  he  was 
an  expectant  believer  in  the  goodness  of  God  and  in  the  possibilities  and 
dignity  of  humanity.  His  books  had  a  large  reading:  "The  Great  Affirma- 
tions of  Religion"  (1898),  "The  Power  and  Promise  of  the  Liberal  Faith" 
(1900),  "The  Foundations  of  Religion"  (1902),  "The  Way  to  Happiness" 
(1907).  A  collection  of  his  "Meditations"  was  posthumously  published 
in  1919.     He  died  in  Washington,  May  29,  1916. 


SAMUEL  HOBART  WINKLEY 

1 8 19-19 1 1 

Samuel  Hobart  Winkley  was  born  in  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  on 
April  5,  1 8 19,  and  died  in  Dublin,  N.  H.,  on  August  i,  191 1. 
His  life  was  devoted  to  what  was  known  as  the  "ministry-at- 
large,"  founded  by  Joseph  Tuckerman  in  1826  in  Boston,  to 
minister  to  the  unchurched,  the  unfortunate,  and  all  in  need  of 
friendly  aid. 

Mr.  Winkley  came  of  a  sturdy  New  England  family.  His 
father,  "Captain  John,"  commanded  the  privateer  Fox  in  the 
War  of  1 8  12;  and  his  great-great-grandfather,  "Captain  Fran- 
cis," served  at  the  capture  of  Louisburg.  The  first  of  his  family 
in  America  was  Samuel  Winkley,  from  Clitheroe,  Lancashire,  who 
settled  in  Portsmouth  in  1680.  On  his  mother's  side  he  was 
descended  from  Samuel  Hobart  of  Exeter,  N.  H.,  distinguished 
as  a  patriot,  soldier  and  statesman.  From  such  an  ancestry  he 
inherited  not  only  "a  sound  mind  in  a  healthy  body,"  but  qualities 
and  virtues  which  made  him,  too,  a  worthy  soldier  of  the  Lord 
and  a  brave  "Captain"  for  righteousness  and  peace. 

Religiously,  the  family  was  orthodox  and  Samuel,  at  the  early 
age  of  seven,  used  to  attend  prayer  meetings  and  distribute  tracts. 


258  SAMUEL  HOBART  WINKLEY 

At  twelve  he  tried  his  best  to  be  converted  in  the  orthodox  fashion 
and  attended  a  great  revival  for  the  purpose.  But  he  found  it 
of  no  use  and  finally  gave  it  up. 

Then  followed  nine  years  of  business  in  dry  goods  stores  in 
Boston  and  Providence,  during  which  time  he  was  reading  and 
thinking  and  working  in  church  and  Sunday  School.  His  study 
of  the  New  Testament  made  him  a  Unitarian.  He  was  largely 
instrumental  in  establishing  a  mission  Sunday  School  in  Provi- 
dence, and  when  in  Boston  he  had  a  class  in  the  Howard  Sunday 
School,  at  Pitt's  Street  Chapel.  His  heart  was  already  enlisted 
in  the  kind  of  work  which  later  became  his  for  life.  In  1843 
he  entered  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  and  graduated  in  1846, 
in  the  same  class  with  Octavius  B.  Frothingham,  Samuel  John- 
son and  Samuel  Longfellow.  In  1865  he  received  the  honorary 
degree  of  Master  of  Arts. 

Immediately  after  graduation  he  accepted  a  call  to  the  min- 
istry-at-large,  and  he  was  ordained  at  the  Pitt's  Street  Chapel 
on  October  11,  1846.  In  1869  Bulfinch  Place  Chapel  was  built, 
largely  due  to  Mr.  Winkley's  efforts,  and  there  his  ministry  con- 
tinued, covering  in  all  a  period  of  sixty-five  years.  Mr.  Winkley 
was  married  twice;  in  1840  to  Clarinda  Richmond  Andrews  of 
Providence,  and  in  1849  to  Martha  Wellington  Parker  of  Boston. 
He  had  seven  children,  three  of  whom  survived  him. 

Mr.  Winkley  was  quite  unlike  the  conventional  ministers  of 
his  generation.  He  was  eminently  human  and  companionable. 
People  quickly  learned  to  love  him.  He  surprised  them  by  the 
directness  of  his  appeal  and  the  frankness  of  his  advice.  He 
was  a  lover,  but  also  a  leader,  of  his  flock,  and  they  followed 
gladly,  recognizing  his  sincerity  and  wisdom. 

He  knew  no  dividing  lines  between  rich  and  poor,  learned  and 
ignorant,  good  and  bad.  All  were  children  of  God,  and  wher- 
ever there  was  need  he  would  go.  His  was  the  spirit  of  a  pure 
democracy,  the  spirit  of  brotherly  interest  and  good  will.  No 
wonder  the  church  and  Sunday  School  flourished.  No  wonder 
he  became  the  unmitered  "Bishop"  of  a  parish  covering  not  only 
the  West  End  of  Boston,  but  reaching  out  into  twenty-eight  sur- 
rounding towns — a  ministry-at-large  indeed !     There  was  a  time 


SAMUEL  HOBART  WINKLEY  259 

when  the  Sunday  School  numbered  three  hundred  and  fifty,  with 
fifty  or  sixty  teachers  drawn  from  the  other  Unitarian  churches. 
His  activities  were  incessant,  including  teachers'  meetings, 
classes  for  Bible  study,  natural  history,  sewing,  gymnastics,  and 
especially  for  the  development  of  what  he  called  "the  higher 
life." 

One  of  Mr.  Winkley's  special  gifts  was  that  of  training  and 
inspiring  his  teachers.  He  was  himself  a  master  in  the  art  of 
teaching.  His  method  was  that  of  asking  questions.  He  was 
known  among  his  brother  ministers  as  the  "interrogator."  He 
would  analyze  a  subject  and  teach  it  by  questions,  thus  stimu- 
lating the  pupil's  own  thought.  He  would  argue  not  by  taking 
sides,  not  by  direct  statements,  but  by  drawing  out  his  opponent's 
answers  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  him  see  the  truth  and  acknowl- 
edge it. 

Mr.  Winkley  rendered  notable  service  by  the  preparation  of 
a  series  of  lesson-books  upon  the  Bible  and  practical  religion,  or, 
as  he  liked  better  to  say,  practical  piety.  Several  of  these  were 
published,  in  many  editions,  by  the  Sunday  School  Society.  The 
best  known  were  "The  Son  of  Man,"  "A  Man's  True  Life,"  and 
"The  Higher  Life."  These  filled  an  important  place  for  many 
years  and  were  supplemented  later  by  a  question-book  for  normal 
classes  and  by  four  characteristic  "Lecture-Talks"  delivered  in 
1887  in  Boston  for  the  Sunday  School  Society. 

Mr.  Winkley  was  also  a  teacher  of  ministers.  He  gave  a 
course  of  lectures  on  the  ministry  at  the  Harvard  Divinity  School 
in  1869—70,  and  at  Meadville  in  1872.  But  his  chief  work  was 
that  of  a  pastor.  He  was  interested  in  community  problems, 
but  his  genius  lay  in  reaching  and  influencing  individuals.  His 
Sunday  School  pupils  were  his  children;  his  congregation  was  his 
family;  his  parishioners,  far  and  wide,  his  best  friends.  Success- 
ful in  the  pulpit,  where  his  sermons  were  often  like  heart-to-heart 
talks,  he  believed  that  his  best  work  was  in  the  homes  of  his 
people  or  in  the  little  "bandbox"  of  a  study,  where  by  appoint- 
ment he  would  meet  them  individually  and  talk  face  to  face. 
Sometimes  it  would  be  like  a  confessional,  that  little  room;  some- 
times a  council  chamber  for  conference;  and  many  times  a  "Holy 


26o  SAMUEL  HOBART  WINKLEY 

of  Holies"  where  visions  of  God  and  duty  and  Heaven  would 
be  revealed. 

Mr.  Winkley's  home  was  for  many  years  in  Louisburg  Square, 
not  far  from  the  spot  on  which  the  first  settler  of  Boston,  Wil- 
liam Blackstone,  had  his  rose  garden  and  orchard.  This  was 
typical  of  Mr.  Winkley's  joy  in  life;  but  when  pain  or  sorrow 
came  he  would  exclaim,  "I  suppose  some  people  would  think  the 
good  Father  ought  to  manage  things  differently,  but  I  know  that 
he  has  other  ways  of  teaching  us  lessons  than  by  joy.  Some  of 
the  best  lessons  have  come  to  me  by  experiences  I  thought  mighty 
hard." 

The  charm  of  his  character  was  its  overflowing  geniality  and 
good  cheer;  and  the  secret  of  his  happiness,  in  youth  as  in  old 
age,  was  his  entire  submission,  in  strength  or  weakness,  to  the 
Father's  will.  It  was  the  child  relationship  that  touched  him 
most  deeply.  "Father,"  he  would  say,  "what  wouldst  Thou 
have  me  to  do  today?" 

Mr.  Winkley's  associate  and  successor  at  Bulfinch  Place  was  Christo- 
pher Rhodes  Eliot.  He  bore  an  honorable  name  and  was  born  into  a 
goodly  heritage.  He  was  the  youngest  son  of  Dr.  William  G.  Eliot,* 
for  fifty  years  the  minister  of  the  Church  of  the  Messiah  in  St.  Louis  and 
founder  and  President  of  Washington  University.  He  was  named  for 
Christopher  Rhodes,  an  outstanding  citizen  and  devoted  member  of  his 
father's  church.  Two  of  Dr.  Eliot's  sons  entered  the  ministry,  the  elder 
going  west  to  be  for  sixty-eight  years  the  best  beloved  citizen  of  Portland, 
Oregon,  and  minister  of  the  Unitarian  Church  there,  the  younger  going 
east  to  be  for  fifty-one  years  the  minister-at-large  in  Boston.  Their  sons, 
m  their  turn,  became  distinguished  Unitarian  ministers. 

Christopher  was  born  in  St.  Louis  on  January  20,  1856.  He  gradu- 
ated at  Washington  University  in  1876  and  from  the  Harvard  Divinity 
School  in  1 88 1.  He  was  ordained  minister  of  the  First  Parish  in  Dor- 
chester on  February  2,  1882,  and  had  there  a  happy  pastorate  of  nine  years. 
In  1894  he  became  Dr.  Winkley's  colleague  and  then  successor  in  the 
ministry-at-large  with  special  charge  of  the  Bulfinch  Place  Church.  There 
he  continued  until  his  death  at  his  home  in  Cambridge  on  June  20,  1945, 
being  in  his  ninetieth  year.  Punctually  and  effectively  he  served  a  great 
variety  of  good  causes.  He  was  president  of  the  Unitarian  Temperance 
Society  and  of  the  Unitarian  Historical  Society  and  moderator  of  the  Bos- 
ton Association  of  Ministers.     He  was  president  of  the  Lend-a-hand  So- 

*  See  Volume  III,  p.  90. 


SAMUEL  HOBART  WINKLEY  261 

ciety  for  forty  years  and  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Boston  Federation  of 
Churches,  now  the  Boston  Area  Council.  He  was  its  first  secretary  and  for 
many  years  a  director  and  vice-president.  He  was  the  longtime  secretary 
of  the  Massachusetts  Convention  of  Congregational  Ministers  and  of  the 
Alumni  Association  of  the  Harvard  Divinity  School.  Everywhere  peo- 
ple looked  to  him  for  good  counsel  and  for  self-forgetting  service.  His 
time  seemed  to  be  always  elastic  and  stretched  to  each  new  demand.  He 
was  gentle  in  speech  and  unassuming  in  demeanor  but  his  outgiving  friend- 
liness and  all  embracing  good  will  endeared  him  to  his  fellow  workers. 
He  could  not  forgive  his  enemies,  for  it  is  impossible  to  believe  that  he 
ever  had  any.  A  serviceable  body  enabled  him  to  keep  on  working  and 
helping  far  beyond  the  usual  span  of  life.  A  good  understanding  made 
him  wise  both  in  the  things  of  the  spirit  and  in  the  affairs  of  a  workaday 
world.  A  devout  heart  gave  him  assurance  of  unseen  allies.  In  all  rela- 
tions he  was  "zealous,  beneficent,  firm." 

The  "ministry-at-large"  has  been  the  field  of  service  for  a  number  of 
Unitarian  ministers.  Notable  among  them  was  George  C.  Wright,  who 
was  born  in  New  York  City  in  1849  and  moved  at  an  early  age  to  Alabama 
where  he  received  his  early  education.  He  graduated  from  what  is  now 
the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  in  New  York,  but  then  decided  for 
the  ministry,  entered  the  Meadville  Theological  School  and  graduated  in 
1884.  His  first  parish  was  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Northfield,  Mass., 
and  in  1886  he  became  minister-at-large  in  Lowell  and  served  there  for 
forty-four  years.  For  this  office  he  was  exceptionally  qualified.  As  pas- 
tor of  the  Free  Church  he  discharged  all  the  duties  of  a  parish  minister; 
as  a  missionary  to  the  needy  he  exercised  tact,  patience,  judgment,  sym- 
pathy. He  was  a  good  man  of  business  and  rendered  strict  account  of  all 
relief  extended  and  all  money  disbursed.  He  was  a  trusted  leader  in 
every  form  of  social  service,  and  in  1894  was  trustee  and  distributor  of  the 
emergency  relief  fund  raised  after  a  disastrous  explosion  in  South  Lowell. 
He  was  for  many  years  Chaplain  of  Pentucket  Lodge  of  Masons  and  Chap- 
lain at  the  State  Infirmary  at  Tewksbury.  He  died  at  Concord,  Mass., 
December  20,  1930. 

Another  outstanding  "minister-at-large"  was  William  Tait  Phelan, 
who  was  born  in  Shemogue,  New  Brunswick,  July  30,  1832,  the  third  of 
ten  children.  His  father  came  from  north  of  Ireland  ancestry  and  his 
mother  was  born  in  the  lowlands  of  Scotland. 

The  family  got  their  living  from  a  farm  situated  in  a  rather  sparsely 
settled  district  of  the  province.  There  were  few  advantages  for  growing 
children,  religious,  educational,  or  social.  Working  on  his  father's  farm 
and  attending  school  as  he  could,  William  Phelan  arrived  at  the  age  of 
fifteen  years.  Then  he  determined  to  go  out  into  the  w^orld  and  strike 
out  for  himself.  In  this  state  of  mind  he  sought  work  in  Sackville,  N.  B., 
and  became  apprenticed  to  a  carpenter  there.     Upon  the  termination  of  his 


262  SAMUEL  HOBART  WINKLEY 

apprenticeship  and  accompanied  by  an  elder  brother,  he  went  to  Chelsea, 
Mass.,  where  he  worked  at  his  trade  for  three  years.  While  taking  pleas- 
ure in  making  things  with  his  hands,  he  continued  to  feel  the  urgent  de- 
sire for  more  education.  Applying  for  admission  to  Wilbraham  Academy, 
he  was  accepted  by  that  institution.  He  had  been  brought  up  a  Metho- 
dist and  so  naturally  went  to  a  school  of  that  denomination,  for  his  purpose 
was  to  fit  himself  to  be  a  Methodist  preacher. 

Upon  graduating  at  Wilbraham  Academy  after  the  regular  course  of  four 
years,  during  which  he  supported  himself  mainly  by  working  at  his  trade 
Saturdays  and  in  vacations,  he  went  to  Sterling,  Mass.,  to  teach  school, 
but  his  mind  was  constantly  on  the  Christian  ministry  as  his  life's  work. 
For  some  years  his  mind  had  been  hospitable  to  liberal  ideas  in  religion  and, 
in  Sterling,  he  made  the  decision  to  study  for  the  Unitarian  ministry.  He 
therefore  entered  the  Meadville  Theological  School,  joining  the  class  of 
1862.  It  was  during  his  course  at  the  school  that  the  Civil  War  broke 
out.  He  applied  for  admission  into  the  army,  where  two  of  his  brothers 
were  serving,  but  on  account  of  physical  incapacity  was  not  accepted. 
Failing  in  this  ambition  to  serve  his  adopted  country,  he  strove  the  more 
ardently  to  fit  himself  thoroughly  for  his  coming  life  work,  and  after  leav- 
ing Meadville  he  attended  lectures  for  several  months  at  the  Divinity 
School  of  Harvard  University. 

At  the  close  of  the  school  year  in  1863,  when  he  was  thirty-one  years  old, 
he  accepted  a  call  to  the  First  Parish  Church  in  Mendon,  Mass.  Here 
was  the  consummation  of  his  years  of  earnest  striving,  self-sacrifice,  and 
devotion.  Here  was  the  chance  he  had  been  fitting  himself  for — to  help 
bring  in  the  Kingdom  of  God  among  men.  While  at  Mendon  he  married 
Miss  Ellen  C.  Childs  of  Leyden,  Mass.  Mrs.  Phelan  was  devoted  to  the 
professional  interests  of  her  husband  and  was  a  tower  of  strength  to  him 
all  his  life. 

After  three  years  in  the  Mendon  church,  he  accepted  a  call  to  the  Unita- 
rian church  in  Ashby,  Mass.  After  an  uneventful  pastorate  of  two  years, 
he  received  a  call  from  the  trustees  of  the  ministry-at-large  in  Portland, 
Maine,  to  take  up  work  in  that  city.  This  type  of  Christian  service  ap- 
pealed to  him  very  strongly  and  in  January,  1869,  he  took  up  the  work  at 
what  was  popularly  known  as  Preble  Chapel.  For  nearly  thirty-six  years 
he  performed  the  functions  of  pastor  of  that  church — preaching  the  liberal 
gospel,  directing  the  activities  of  a  large  Sunday  School,  conferring  daily 
with  people  about  their  material  and  spiritual  troubles,  supplying  their 
physical  needs,  offering  himself  as  their  "friend,  philosopher,  and  guide," 
and  in  every  way  trying  to  increase  their  temporal  and  spiritual  welfare. 
Through  the  long  years  of  his  service  he  saw  ever-increasing  results  in 
people  regenerated,  dismal  homes  made  attractive,  and  the  hold  of  his 
gentle  and  friendly  personality  upon  the  respect  and  affection  of  all  classes 
rendered  firm  and  enduring.     In  1904  he  resigned  his  charge,  but  was  im- 


JAMES  EDWARD  WRIGHT  263 

mediately  appointed  pastor  emeritus  by  the  trustees.  He  died  at  his  home 
June  5,  1910. 

During  his  active  years  in  Portland,  Mr.  Phelan  was  closely  connected 
with  many  reformatory,  philanthropic,  and  other  social  welfare  organiza- 
tions. He  was  one  of  the  founders  and  the  secretary  for  many  years  of  the 
Fraternity  Club.  He  was  a  vice-president  of  the  Associated  Charities  for 
a  long  time;  agent  of  the  Portland  Provident  Association  for  twenty-five 
years ;  chaplain  at  the  City  Home  for  nineteen  years ;  and  a  member  and 
director  of  other  benevolent  bodies.  To  help  people  in  lowly  station  to  a 
better  life  was  his  consuming  ambition.  His  efforts  in  this  direction  were 
more  than  palliative,  they  were  constructive. 

Another  devoted  and  efficient  "minister-at-large"  was  Arthur  Gooding 
Pettengill  who  w-as  born  in  Brewer,  Maine,  on  October  30,  1858,  and 
died  in  Portland,  as  he  was  delivering  a  Thanksgiving  sermon,  on  No- 
vember 24,  1935.  He  was  a  graduate  of  Bowdoin  College  and  studied 
for  the  Congregational  ministry  at  the  Yale  Divinity  School.  He  was  for 
several  years  minister  of  the  Congregational  Church  in  Warren,  Maine, 
and  then  sought  fellowship  with  the  Unitarians,  He  served  brief  pastor- 
ates at  Yarmouth,  Maine,  and  Hyde  Park,  Mass.,  and  then  found  the  per- 
fect place  for  the  exercise  of  his  gifts  of  mind  and  heart  at  the  Preble 
Chapel  and  the  ministry-at-large  in  Portland  in  succession  to  Mr.  Phelan. 
For  thirty-one  years  he  worked  among  and  for  the  neglected  people  of 
the"  city,  bringing  good  cheer  as  well  as  material  relief  into  many  homes. 


JAMES  EDWARD  WRIGHT 

1839-1914 

"The  Little  Bishop  of  Northern  Vermont" — such  was  the  sin- 
cere, affectionate  title  given  to  Dr.  Wright  by  hundreds  of  people 
who  recognized  his  ministry  to  be  something  larger  and  more 
inclusive  than  the  charge  of  a  single  church.  It  was  an  honor- 
able distinction,  all  unconsciously  achieved,  modestly  accepted, 
and  well-deserved. 

James  Edward  Wright  was  born  in  Montpelier,  Vt.,  July  9, 
1839,  and  died  there  on  September  15,  1914.  His  early  educa- 
tion was  in  a  local  Academy  until  his  family  removed  to  Boston 
where  he  entered  the  Boston  Latin  School.  He  won  the  Ben- 
jamin Franklin  medal  and  many  prizes  for  declamation.  He 
graduated  from  Harvard  with  the  Class  of  1861.  Having 
chosen  the  ministry  as  a  desired  calling  he  went  immediately  to 


264  JAMES  EDWARD  WRIGHT 

the  Theological  Seminary  in  Andover,  Mass.  After  one  year 
of  study  there  he  made  a  difficult  decision  but  one  wholly  con- 
sistent with  his  active,  courageous  spirit.  He  dropped  theology 
and  took  up  arms  in  the  cause  of  human  freedom.  From  August, 
1862,  to  June,  1863,  he  served  in  Co.  F,  44th  Massachusetts, 
first  as  a  private  and  later  as  a  sergeant,  and  took  part  in  many 
engagements.  In  September,  1863,  he  returned  to  Andover  and 
resumed  his  training  for  the  ministry.  Never  able  to  accept 
some  of  the  leading  doctrines  of  the  popular  theology,  although 
surrounded  by  orthodox  influences  from  childhood  (his  grand- 
father. Rev.  Chester  Wright,  was  pastor  of  the  [Trinitarian] 
Congregational  Church  in  Montpelier  for  twenty-two  years),  he 
was  still  less  in  accord  with  his  inherited  orthodoxy  when  he 
graduated  from  Andover  in  1865.  He  served  as  acting  pastor 
of  a  Christian  church  in  Eastport,  Maine,  for  six  months  but 
declined  an  invitation  to  remain  for  he  had  heard  the  siren  call 
of  "the  West,"  and  he  traveled  through  several  of  the  Western 
States  until  he  was  ordained,  "a  minister  of  Jesus  Christ,"  in 
Henry,  Marshall  County,  Illinois,  and  became  the  pastor  of  a 
Christian  church  newly  organized  in  Jacksonville.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1869  he  returned  to  visit  his  family  in  his  native  Mont- 
pelier and  preached  in  the  Unitarian  church  which  bears  the 
name.  The  Church  of  the  Messiah.  The  minister  had  gone  on 
a  vacation  in  Europe  and  when  he  learned  that  the  young  preacher 
had  met  with  approval  he  resigned  and  Wright  was  invited  to 
become  his  successor.  He  accepted  November  14,  1870,  and 
remained  with  the  church  for  forty-five  years.  At  the  Harvard 
Commencement  in  1901  he  was  honored  with  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Divinity.  His  son  Chester  received  an  A.M.  on 
the  same  day.  President  Charles  W.  Eliot,  in  awarding  the 
degree,  made  the  following  citation : 

His  service  was  not  only  vast,  varied,  efficient,  highly  intelligent,  but  it 
was  marvellously  personal.  For  thirty  years  the  counselor  and  comforter 
of  three  generations,  in  the  fair  country  round  about  his  church — to  be 
this  involved  the  strength  of  a  giant,  the  mind  of  a  statesman,  the  heart 
of  the  Christ.  Such  a  man  cannot,  even  if  he  would,  do  other  than  live 
on  endlessly  in  the  hearts  and  lives  of  those  he  has  redeemed,  transformed, 
counseled,  inspired,  cheered  and  blessed. 


MERLE  ST.  CROIX  WRIGHT  265 

To  the  end  of  Dr.  Wright's  life  he  gave  to  the  Unitarian 
church  in  Montpelier  and  to  the  Unitarian  cause  a  devoted 
service.  He  extended  his  parish  in  all  directions  from  his 
church.  So  energetic  and  vital  was  his  character  that  he  gave 
to  his  native  city  and  state  a  service  of  patriotism  and  leader- 
ship which  was  widely  recognized  by  all  as  a  high  and  shining 
example  of  what  a  devoted  and  highly  trained  minister  can  con- 
tribute for  the  general  well-being. 

Dr.  Wright  married  Julia  A.  Whitney,  of  Cambridge,  Mass., 
in  1876.  They  had  three  children,  Chester  Whitney,  Rebecca 
Whitney,  and  Sibyl,  all  born  in  Montpelier,  Vt. 


MERLE  ST.  CROIX  WRIGHT 
1859-1925 

There  never  was  another  American  minister  like  him,  nor  will 
one  such  ever  happen  again.  In  appearance  he  resembled  the 
bearded  Robert  Browning  he  so  much  admired,  and  he  wrote 
poetry  of  the  same  involute  pattern.  He  was  a  stocky  man  with 
very  broad  shoulders,  muscular  but  supple  and  surprisingly  agile. 
In  his  Harvard  days  he  starred  in  lacrosse  and,  in  summertime, 
he  was  an  expert  yachtsman.  He  was  seldom  still,  and  radiated 
an  unbounded  vitality  of  body  and  mind. 

Dr.  Wright  preached  fluently  and  powerfully,  lectured  elo- 
quently, and  conversed  best  of  all.  To  hear  him  for  the  first 
time  was  rather  a  startling  experience.  His  address  was  sure  to 
be  rich  with  surprises,  with  pertinent  allusions  and  with  quota- 
tions in  several  languages,  all  uttered  with  an  almost  explosive 
vehemence.  On  the  title  page  of  his  book  of  poems,  so  aptly 
named  "Ignis  Ardens,"  he  describes  himself  well: 

I  am  as  Hercules  upon  his  pyre, 

A  phoenix  from  the  cinders  of  its  sire: 

I  burn — I  am  consumed — and  I  aspire. 

Wright  was  born  in  East  Boston  in  1859  to  Judge  E.  W. 
Wright,  a  prominent  Mason,  and  the  former  Helen  Maria  Curtis, 
of  a  family  of  clipper  shipbuilders.     He  came  of  good  stock 


266  MERLE  ST.  CROIX  WRIGHT 

and  had  every  advantage  of  birth  and  education.  He  gradu- 
ated from  Harvard  in  the  Class  of  1881,  and  taught  at  St.  Mark's 
School  for  three  years  before  continuing  his  studies  at  the  Har- 
vard Divinity  School. 

Meanwhile,  in  the  then  fashionable  Harlem  section  of  New 
York  City,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Thomas  Wilson  and  their  friends  were 
gathering  in  a  hall  on  East  129th  Street  a  group  of  liberals  who 
did  not  care  to  travel  all  the  way  downtown  to  All  Souls'  at 
20th  Street,  or  to  The  Church  of  the  Messiah  at  34th  Street. 
In  1887  they  called  young  Wright  to  be  their  minister.  Under 
his  vigorous  leadership  they  soon  raised  the  money  to  build  a 
church  at  Lenox  Avenue  and  120th  Street,  and  in  1895  the  min- 
ister married  the  Wilsons'  daughter,  Louisa.  In  that  Lenox 
Avenue  Church  he  preached  until  19 19.  It  was  his  first,  last, 
and  only  church ;  for,  though  often  invited  elsewhere,  he  refused 
to  take  another  charge.  In  one  of  his  last  addresses  he  could 
say,  "I  came  to  New  York  to  found  a  church  on  the  basis  of 
ethical  theism.  I  have  kept  the  faith."  His  congregations  were 
severely  selective  but  they  included  many  thoughtful  and  schol- 
arly people,  and  his  hearers  were  always  stimulated  and  enriched. 

Dr.  Wright  was  without  doubt  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
extemporaneous  speakers  America  has  ever  known.  He  had  an 
adventurous  mind  and  it  was  stored  with  the  best  literature  of 
the  world.  His  intellectual  appetite  was  insatiable.  He  read 
continuously  and  voluminously  and  he  had  a  retentive  memory. 
He  could  discourse  at  a  moment's  notice  on  almost  any  subject 
in  the  fields  of  art,  music,  literature  (especially  poetry),  history, 
and  philosophy.  In  only  one  field  of  human  thought  was  he 
an  indifferent  observer.  He  was  suspicious  of  psychology,  par- 
ticularly of  psychoanalysis,  which  he  considered  a  newfangled  fad. 

This  attitude  apparently  stemmed  from  two  sources.  He  had 
little  interest  in  or  understanding  of  individual  human  beings. 
He  held  aloof  from  them  and  their  problems.  He  did  not 
always  appreciate  that  other  men  did  not  possess  his  exceptional 
physical  capacity  and  mental  grasp,  so  that  people  sometimes 
found  him  brusque  and  a  bit  disdainful.  It  is  said  that  he  was 
never  known  to  make  a  pastoral  call.     He  gave  as  his  whimsical 


MERLE  ST.  CROIX  WRIGHT  267 

excuse,  that  he  couldn't  abide  "golden  oak."  furniture.  The 
other  reason  for  his  dislike  of  psychology  was  apparently  that 
he  was  really  afraid  of  what  was  in  his  own  deeper  self.  He 
confessed  as  much  in  one  of  his  verses: 

And  blank  I  gaze 

Into  the  fire, 

In  dumb  amaze, 

And  never  tire  .  .  . 

Nor  close  inquire, 

Lest  I  see. 

In  habit  checked,  in  instinct  free, 

The  whole  inhibited  hidden  Me, 

Mind's  Freudian  menagerie! 

It  is  a  great  loss  that  Dr.  Wright  did  not  leave  behind  In 
printed  form  some  of  his  brilliant  addresses.  Besides  the  hun- 
dred and  one  short  poems  published  posthumously  in  "Ignis 
Ardens,"  he  left  only  a  translation  of  Jose  Maria  de  Heredla's 
French  sonnets.  Out  of  a  ministry  of  thirty  years  one  would 
expect  at  least  one  volume  of  sermons.  But  none  remains.  He 
never  wrote  his  sermons.  He  might  take  a  few  brief  notes 
Into  the  pulpit  but  he  neglected  them  to  launch  Immediately  Into 
a  brilliant  sermon  which  would  hold  his  audience,  mostly  men, 
enthralled  for  an  hour  or  more.  There  was  always  fecundity 
In  his  utterances  and  his  congregations  enjoyed  the  fruits  of  his 
vast  reading,  his  keen  critical  sense  and  his  broad  outlooks.  His 
rapid  delivery  was  the  despair  of  the  stenographers  occasionally 
employed  by  parishioners  to  preserve  some  of  his  sermons.  In- 
deed, no  printed  page  could  carry  the  Impression  made  by  his 
vitalizing  personality. 

His  reputation  as  an  accomplished  linguist  was  established  to 
scholars  by  his  faithful  translation  of  Heredla's  sonnets,  and  to 
the  general  public  on  the  occasion  when  Maurice  Maeterlinck 
caused  consternation  In  crowded  Carnegie  Hall  by  unexpectedly 
lecturing  in  French.  Dr.  Wright  rose  dramatically  from  the 
audience  and  translated  the  address  Immediately  into  vibrant 
English. 

St.  Lawrence  gave  him  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  In 
1909,  and  he  died  in  New  York  on  April  26,  1925. 


INDEX 


Adams,  John  Quincy,  4 

Agassiz,  Louis,  76 

Aitkin,  Martha  Chapman,  57,  59 

Albee,  Harriet,  113 

Alden,  John,  214 

Alden,  Priscilla,  214 

Alger,  Arthur  Martineau,  3 

Alger,  Horatio,  3 

Alger,  Nahum,  3 

Alger,  William  Rounseville,  xviii,  3—6 

Allen,  Hannah  Dean,  36 

Ames,  Charles  Gordon,  xviii,  xx— xxi,  7— 

14,  122 
Ames,  Oliver,  85-86 
Ames,  Thomas,  7 

Andrews,  Clarinda  Richmond,  258 
Anthony,  Susan  B.,  144 
Applebee,  John  H.,  72 
Arnason,  Gudmundur,  194 

Backus,  Wilson  Marvin,  xviii,  15-17 

Bacon,  Francis,  44 

Bagley,  Rebecca,  84-85 

Bainbridge,  William,  154 

Baker,  Fanny,  12 

Baldwin,  William  H.,  Jr.,  114 

Ball,  George  Sumner,  35 

Ballou,  Adin,  41-42 

Ballou,  Hosea,  90 

Bancroft,  George,  63 

Banks,  Nathaniel  Prentiss,  General,  250 

Barber,  Henry  Hervey,  xviii,  xxi,  19—23, 

221 
Barber,  Hervey,  19 
Barber,  Margaret,  24 
Barber,  Susan,  167 
Barnard,  Charles  Francis,  241 
Barnes,  William  H.,  29 
Barnes,    William    Sullivan,    xviii,    xxii, 

27-29 
Barnett,  Samuel  Augustus,  155 
Barrows,  John  Henry,  172 
Barrows,    Samuel    June,    xviii,    xx— xxi, 

xxxi,  30-32 


Bartol,  Anna  (Given),  32 
Bartol,  Cyrus  Augustus,  32,  249 
Bartol,  George  Murillo,  xix,   12,   32-33, 

34.  37 
Batchelor,  George,  xx,  38—40,  43 
Beach,  Curtis,  47 
Beach,  Reuel  W.,  47 

Beach,  Seth  Curtis,  xviii,  xxi,  43-47,  162 
Beane,  Elizabeth  S.,  50 
Beane,  Samuel  Collins,  48-50,  52 
Beard,  John  Relly,  156 
Beatley,  Margaret  B.,  14 
Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  100 
Beecher,  Lyman,  152 
Bellows,  Henry  W.,  38,  120,  182,  226,  254 
Bentley,  William,  49 
Bergson,  Henri,  115 
Bigelow,  Caroline,  26 
Bixby,  Annie  O.,  37 
Bixby,  James  Thompson,  xx,  23 
Blackstone,  William,  260 
Blackwell,  Antoinette  Brown,  xxvi,  52— 

53,  59 
Blackwell,  Elizabeth,  54-55 
Blackwell,  Henry,  53 
Blackwell,  Samuel  C,  53 
Blake,  James  Vila,  xxi,  144,  162-163 
Blanchard,  Ira  H.,  20-21 
Blanchard,  Margaret  Bromfield,  20 
Bond,    Henry   Frederick,   xviii— xix,    59— 

62 
Bowen,  Clayton  Raymond,  24 
Brackett,  Sarah  C,  147 
Brewster,  William,  41,  139 
Bronson,  Louise  M.,  107 
Brooks,  John  Graham,  113,  213 
Brooks,  Phillips,  158 
Brooks,  Preston,  4 
Brown,    Howard    Nicholson,    xviii,    xx, 

xxii,  62-65,  223 
Brown,  John,  Captain,  250 
Brown,  Joseph,  52 
Brown,  M.  C,  62 
Brown,  Sarah  A.,  62 


INDEX 


269 


Brown,  William,  54 

Browning,  Robert,  146,  170,  265 

Bryant,  William  Cullen,  162 

Buck,  Florence,  xx,  56,  58,  228 

Bulfinch,  Stephen  Greenleaf,  162 

Burleigh,  Celia    (Mrs.  William  H.),  55 

Burns,  Antony,  105 

Bushnell,  Horace,  i8i 

Butler,  Ellery  Channing,  xviii,  66-68 

Calthrop,  Elizabeth,  69 

Calthrop,   Samuel  R.,  xvii-xviii,  xx,   35, 

69—70,  72 
Calvin,  John,  210 

Canby,  Edward  Richard  Sprigg,  250 
Capek,  Norbert  Fabian,  xvii,  xix,  73—74 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  xvii,  106 
Carpenter,  J.  Estlin,  245 
Carpenter,  Philip,  156 
Carter,  Caroline,  89 
Cary,  George  L.,  221 
Cary,  George  Lovell,  67 
Cary,  John,  67 
Cary,  Mary  Adelaide,  67 
Chadwick,  John  White,  xviii,  xx— xxi,  35, 

55,  75-79,  82,  144,  162 
Chaffin,  William  Ladd,  xix,  35,  82-87 
Chaney,  George  L.,  xix,  88—90,  123 
Channing,  Elizabeth  P.,  227 
Channing,   William   Ellery,   xxi,  xxv,   5, 

12,  81,  116,  120,  140,  142—143,  145,  158, 

219 
Chapin,  Isabel  Hayes,  31 
Chapin,  Samuel,  185 
Childs,  Ellen  C,  262 
Christie,  Francis  A.,  22,  24—25 
Clapp,  Dexter,  49 
Clarke,  James  Freeman,   ii-i2,  87,  122, 

162,  249 
Clarke,  Lucy  Caroline,  90 
Coffin,  Lucretia  Flagge,  186 
Coffin,  Peter,  186 
Coffin,  Tristam,  186 
Coil,  Elijah  Alfred,  xviii,  91-93 
Coleman,  Albert  J.,  23 
Collyer,  Robert,  xvii— xxi,  77,  84,  94-103, 

122,   158,   162,   182,  204,  208-210,  213- 

214,  233 
Collyer,  Samuel,  94—95 
Conant,  A.  H.,  xxi,  103 
Conway,  Moncure  D.,  xviii,  xxi,  8,  104— 

106 
Cook,  Janet  Maria,  41 
Cooke,  George  Willis,  57 


Cooke,  Mary  Leggett,  xxi,  57,  59 

Cordner,  John,  27 

Covell,  Chester,  xviii— xix,  35—36 

Cowan,  William  H.,  120,  123 

Crane,  Augustus  W.,  56 

Crane,  Caroline  Bartlett,  xxvi,  56,  59 

Crooker,  Florence  Kollock,  217 

Crooker,  Joseph  Henry,  xx-xxi,  123,  217 

Crothcrs,  Samuel,  107 

Crothers,   Samuel   McChord,  xviii,  xxii, 

43,  107-110,  146,  221 
Cudworth,  Warren,  55 
Cummings,  Edward,  155 
Curtis,  George  William,  81 
Curtis,  Helen  Maria,  265 
Custer,  George  Armstrong,  General,  31 

Daniel,  John,  104 

Daniels  Sarah  Jane,  12 

Dante,  Alighieri,  146 

Darwin,  Charles,  71,  78,  170 

David,  Francis,  146 

Dearmer,  Percy,  Canon,  163 

De  Long,  Henry  Clay,  36 

Dennison,  Louise,  65 

Dennison,  William,  65 

De   Normandie,   James,   xviii,   xxvi,   35, 

86,  111-113 
Derby,  Mary  Jane,  195 
Dickens,  Charles,  213 
Dillingham,  Pitt,  xix,  91 
Dix,  Dorothea  Lynde,  xxi,  241 
Doan,  Frank  Carleton,  25 
Dodge,  Anna  S.,  207 
Dodge,  Ella  Godfrey,  207 
Dodge,  John  S.,  207 

Dodson,  George  Rowland,  xviii,  114— 115 
Dole,   Charles  Fletcher,   xviii,  xx,  xxvi, 

35,  H6-119 
Dole,  Nathan  Haskell,  119 
Dorpfeld,  Wilhelm,  30 
Douthit,     Jasper    Lewis,     xviii-xxi,     35, 

120-121 
Douthit,  Winifred,  120 
Drummond,  Frances,  118 
Drummond,  James,  118 
Drummond,  Winifred,  119 
Duncan,  James  Cameron,  xvii,  xix,  36 
Dwight,  J.  S.,  xxi 

Eaton,  Frances,  242 
Eddowes,  Ralph,  230 
Edgarton,  Sarah  Carter,  90 
Effinger,  John  R.,  16 


270 


INDEX 


Eisenlohr,  Gustav  William,  124 
Eisenlohr,  Hugo  Gottfried,  xix,  35,  124- 

125 
Eliot,  Charles  W.,  146,  196-197,  209,  264 
Eliot,  Christopher  Rhodes,  xix— xx,  xxvi, 

260-261 
Eliot,  Frederick  May,  xiv 
Eliot,  John,  iii 

Eliot,  Samuel  A.,  xiii,  xxvii,  205 
Eliot,    Thomas    Lamb,    xviii,    xxvi,    35, 

125-130 
Eliot,  William  G.,  126,  211,  231,  260 
Eliot,  William  G.,  Jr.,  130 
Emerson,  Charlotte,  54 
Emerson,   Ralph   Waldo,   xxi,    109,    113, 

143—146,  162,  170-171,  189,  214 
Emlen,  Samuel,  lo 
Evans,  Elizabeth  Wallis,  211 
Everett,   Charles   Carroll,   155,   181— 182, 

196,  202,  219 
Everett,  Edward,  xxi,  141,  151 
Everett,  Martha  Elizabeth,  40 
Everett,  Oliver,  151 

Fenn,  Dan  Huntington,  134 

Fenn,  Hannah  (Osgood),  130 

Fenn,  William  Wallace,  130-134,  221 

Fessenden,  Nancy,  84 

Fisher,  Faith  Huntington,  134 

Flint,  James,  49 

Foote,  Henry  Wilder,  162 

Foote,  Henry  Wilder,  H,  201 

Forbes,  Elmer  Severance,  135—136 

Forbes,  John  Perkins,  137-139 

Forbes,  Roger,  139 

Francke,  Professor,  197 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  263 

Freeman,  George  Rudolph,  25 

Frothingham,  Nathaniel  Langdon,  139 

Frothingham,  Octavius,  xviii,  xxi,  xxvi, 

77,  120,  162,  258 
Frothingham,  Paul  Revere,  139—142 
Fukuzawa,  Yukichi,  178 
Fumio,  Yano,  178 
Furness,   William   Henry,   99,    162,    187, 

226 

Galloway,  Brother,  44 

Gannett,  Ezra  Stiles,  142—143 

Gannett,   William   Channing,  xviii,  xx- 

xxi,  xxvi,  140,   142-146,   158,   162-163, 

169,  214,  225 
Garfield,  President  James  A.,  50 
Garlin,  Anna,  32 


Garver,  Austin  Samuel,  xviii,  xxvi,  147- 

150 
Gatchell,  Marion,  218 
Gates,  Mary,  37 
Gibson,  Jonathan  Christopher,  xix,  120, 

123 
Gilman,  Bradley,  52 
Gilman,  Nicholas  Paine,  xx,  25-26 
Gilmore,  Frank  Albert,  217,  219 
Goldsmith,  Oliver,  95 
Gooding,  Alfred,  xxvi,  35,  113 
Gordon,  Eleanor  Elizabeth,  55—57,  59 
Gordon,  George  A.,  64,  158 
Gough,  John  B.,  100 
Gould,  Allen  Walton,  17 
Grant,  Ulysses  S.,  General,  202 
Graves,  Mary  Hannah,  55,  59 
Gunsaulus,  Frank  Wakeley,  169 


Hackley,  Caleb  B.,  255 

Hale,  Amelia  Porter,  154 

Hale,  Edward,  154—155 

Hale,  Edward   Everett,  xviii— xxi,  xxvi, 

35,  48-49,  120,  148,  150-155,  203,  211, 

226 
Hale,  Nathan,  151 

Hall,  Edward  Henry,  xviii,  xxi,  46,  110 
Hall,  G.  Stanley,  150 
Hankinson,  Hannah,  157 
Harding,  Chester,  251 
Harding,  Margaret  Eliot,  251 
Harrington,  Timothy,  34 
Harte,  Bret,  9 
Hathaway,  Annie,  77 
Hawkes,  H.  W.,  179 
Hawley,  Fred  Vermilia,  xviii,  17—18 
Heddaeus,  Christian,  124 
Hedge,  Frederic,  62-63,  7^  162,  226 
Helvie,  Clara  C,  55 
Heredia,  Jose  Maria  de,  267 
Herford,  Brooke,  xvii,  xx-xxi,  140,  156- 

161 
Herford,  John,  156 
Hill,  Octavia,  10 
Hirsch,  Emil  Gustav,  Rabbi,  169 
Hitchcock,  Edward,  20 
Hoar,  George  F.,  Senator,  152,  212 
Hobart,  Samuel,  257 
Holmes,  John  Haynes,  102—103 
Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  109,  162 
Horst,  Carl  G.,  57 
Horton,  Edward  Augustus,  xx— xxi,  228- 

229 


INDEX 


271 


Hosmer,   Frederick   Luclan,   xx-xxi,    16, 

144,  161-164 
Howe,  Frederick  C,  58 
Howe,  Julia  Ward,  55 
Howe,  Marie  Jenney,  57 
Hugenholtz,    Frederick    William    Nico- 

laas,  xvii,  xix,  194—195 
Huidekoper,  Edgar,  211 
Huidekoper,  Frederic,  84,  167,  221 
Huidekoper,  Harm  Jan,  211,  221-222 
Hultin,  Ida  C,  56 
Humphreys,  Charles  A.,  225-226 
Hutcheon,  Robert  James,  xvii,  26 
Huxley,  Thomas  Henry,  78 

Jackson,  Abraham  Willard,  xxi,  26 

Janson,  Kristofer,  192 

Jason,  Charles,  231 

Jaynes,  Charles  L.,  241 

Jaynes,  Julian  Clifford,  241 

Jenney,  Marie,  55 

Johnson,  Eastman,  187 

Johnson,  Harriet  C,  187 

Johnson,  Samuel,  162,  258 

Jones,  Jenkin  Lloyd,  xvii,  xix-xx,  xxvi, 

i6,  144,  164-173,  214 
Jones,  Mary  Lloyd,  165 
Jones,  Richard  Lloyd,  165-166 
Jordan,  David  Starr,  170 
Judd,  Frances  Hall,  45-46 
Judd,  Sylvester,  46 
Judy,  Arthur  Markley,  174-175 
Justice,  Elizabeth  Bacon,  189 

Kanda,  Saichivo,  179 

Kaneko,  Kentaro,  178 

Kendall,  James,  35 

Kennedy,  Margrette,  223 

Kepler,  Johannes,  191 

Kerr,  Thomas,  xvii,  175-176 

Keyes,  Prescott,  43 

Kimball,  Elizabeth,  34 

Kimball,  John  C,  68 

King,  Thomas  Starr,  9,  88,  90,  126,  244 

Knapp,  Arthur  May,  xviii-xix,  177-180, 

182,  225 
Kroell,  August,  124 

Ladd,  William,  83 
Lamb,  Charles,  109 
Landsberg,  Max,  Rabbi,  145-146 
Langworthy,  Jane,  228 
Langworthy,  Nathan  H.,  228 
Lappala,  Risto,  xvii,  xix,  195 


Latimer,  George  D.,  6 

Lawrance,     William     L,    xviii-xx,     179, 

228-229 
Lea,  Henry  C,  188 

Lee,  Robert  Edward,  General,  36,  52 
Leland,  Hannah,  19 
Lesley,  Mary,  11 
Lesley,  Peter,  11 
Lesquereux,  Jennie,  124 
Lewis,  Mary  Thorn,  143 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  8,  96,  212,  226 
Lincoln,  Samuel,  187 
Livermore,  Abiel  Abbot,  23,  162,  221 
Locke,  John,  44 
Locke,  Warren  A.,  205 
Long,  John  D.,  187 
Longfellow,  Samuel,  76-77,  144,  162-164, 

188,  258 
Lonsbury,  Florence,  204 
Lord,  Augustus  Mendon,  xviii,  183-184 
Lord,  Frances,  183 
Love,  Harry,  9 
Lovell,  Emily,  120 
Lowe,  Charles,  8,  127 
Lowell,  James  Russell,  xxi,  162 
Lowell,  John,  Judge,  64 
Lunt,  William  P.,  139 
Lyman,  Arthur  T.,  64 
Lyon,  Henry,  65 
Lyon,  William  H.,  65-66 

MacCauley,     Clay,     xviii-xix,     179-182, 

212 
McChord,  James,  107 
McClanathan,  Diana,  121 
McHale,  Francis  M.,  123 
Mack,  Henrietta  Robins,  126 
Madge,  Travers,  157 
Maeterlinck,  Maurice,  267 
Manchester,  Alfred,  61-62 
Mann,  Horace,  45,  119 
Mann,  Newton,  xx-xxi,  146 
Marshal,  John,  34 

Martineau,  James,  xxi,  157,  219,  253 
Masaryk,  Thomas  G.,  74 
Mason,  Eugenia  (Anderson),  184 
Mason,  Joseph,  184 

Mason,  Loammi  Walter,  xviii,  184-186 
May,  Joseph,  xviii,  35,  186-189 
May,  Joseph,  Colonel,  186 
May,  Samuel  Joseph,  67,  71,  186,  214 
Mayo,  Amory  D.,  xviii-xix,  90 
Mead,  Edwin  D.,  118 
Metcalf,  Joel  Hastings,  xviii,  189-191 


272 


INDEX 


Miller,  Milton  Jennings,  36 
Milliken,  Emily  Jose,  154 
Moore,  Addison,  238 
Morehouse,  Daniel  Webster,  51-52 
Morehouse,  Polly  Jane,  51 
Morrison,  Harriet  Hilton,  36 
Morse,  Rowena,  147 
Mott,  Lucretia,  99 
Mumford,  Thomas  J.,  10,  211 
Murdoch,  Marion,  55-56,  59 

Newman,  Francis  William,  157 
Norman,  Amandus,  xvii,  xix,  191-193 
Norton,  Andrews,  162 

Owen,  Thomas  Grafton,  xix,  120,  122- 
"3 

Palfrey,  Cazneau,  135 
Pardee,  Joseph  Nelson,  36-37 
Parker,  Martha  Wellington,  258 
Parker,  Theodore,  xxi,   5,  81,   122,  143- 

145,  162 
Peabody,  Andrew  P.,  196 
Peabody,  Ephraim,  195,  211 
Peabody,  Francis  Greenwood,  xviii,  xx- 

xxi,  35,  64,  109-110,  120,  133,  195-202, 

205 
Peabody,  Francis  W.,  201 
Peebles,  Stephen,  xviii-xix,  120-121 
Perkins,  Emily,  152 
Peters,  Hugh,  242 
Peterson,  Abbot,  64 
Pettengill,  Arthur  Gooding,  xix,  263 
P6tursson,   Rognvaldur,   xvii,   xix,    193- 

194 
Phelan,  William  Taft,  xvii,  xix,  35,  261- 

263 
Phillips,  Wendell,  100 
Pierce,  Ulysses  Grant  Baker,  xviii,  xxii, 

35,  201-204 
Pierpont,  John,  162 
Pius  X,  Pope,  236 
Plympton,  Sylvanus,  228 
Potter,  William  J.,  140 
Powell,  Enoch,  xvii,  50-51 
Pratt,  Eliza  Hapgood,  20 
Prentice,  John,  34 
Priestley,  Joseph,  156,  230 
Primrose,  Elizabeth,  70 
Proctor,  Richard,  190 
Putnam,  George,  114 
Putnam,  Helen  Crane,  57 


Quincy,  Dorothy,  186 

Randall,  Robert,  86 

Reed,  Clarence,  249 

Reese,  Curtis  Williford,  18 

Rhodes,  Christopher,  260 

Rihbany,    Abraham    Mitrie,    xvii-xviii, 

xxi,   13—14 
Robinson,  George  Dexter,  49 
Rodman,  Zoe,  211 
Rogers,  Mary  Otis,  206 
Roosevelt,  Theodore,  President,  52,  109 
Root,  Elihu,  Senator,  214 
Rounseville,  William,  3 
Russell,   Charles   Frank,   xviii-xix,   204- 

206 

Sabatier,  Paul,  200 

Safford,  Mary  Augusta,  55-59 

St.   John,    Charles   Elliott,   xviii,   40-41, 

185 
St.  John,  Thomas  E.,  40 
Sampson,  Catherine,  3 
Savage,  Helen  Louise,  239 
Savage,    Minot    Judson,    xviii-xxii,    93, 

102,  162,  206-210,  212,  239,  242 
Savage,  Philip,  210 
Sears,  Edmund  Hamilton,  162 
Seigle,  Alice  May,  13 
Servetus,  Michael,  210 
Sewall,  Dorothy,  186 
Sewall,  Samuel,  i86 
Seward,  William  H.,  31 
Shakespeare,  William,  95 
Shattuck,  Phebe,  83-84 
Shaw,  George  Stetson,  xix,  37 
Shippen,  Charles  E.,  230 
Shippen,  Henry,  Judge,  211 
Shippen,  Priscilla  E.,  230 
Shippen,   Rush   Rhees,   xviii,   xx,   85-86, 

211-213 
Shirley,  William,  185 
Sill,  Edward  Rowland,  9 
Simmons,  Henry  Martyn,  xviii,  xx,  214- 

217 
Simons,  Langdon  Savage,  239 
Simons,  Minot,  210,  236,  238-240 
Simons,  William,  238 
Skaptason,  Magnus  Josephsson,  194 
Slicer,  Henry,  256 
Slicer,  Thomas  Robert,   xviii,  xx,  xxvi, 

236,  256-257 
Smith,  Edward,  156 
Smith,  Preserved,  19 


INDEX 


273 


Snow,  Sydney  Bruce,  23,  223-224 
Southworth,    Franklin    Chester,    xix,    16, 

23,  220-223 
Spaulding,  Henry  George,  xx,  225-228 
Spaulding,  Reuben,  225 
Speight,  H.  E.  B.,  64 
Spencer,  Anna  Garlin,  58-59 
Spencer,  Herbert,  78,  170,  206-207 
Spencer,  William  Henry,  32,  58 
Staples,  Carlton  Albert,  230-233 
Staples,  Jason,  230 
Staples,    Nahor    Augustus,   77,    81,    230- 

232 
Stearns,  Oliver,  23,  49,  221 
Stebbins,  Calvin,  150 
Stebbins,  Horatio,  9,  126-127,  130 
Stebbins,  Rufus  Phineas,  23,  221 
Stephens,  Walter,  20 
Stewart,  Samuel  Barrett,  37 
Stone,  Lucy,  53-54 
Stuart,  Reed,  xviii,  233-234 
Sullivan,  John,  General,  29 
Sullivan,  Patrick,  235 
Sullivan,   William   Laurence   xviii,   xxi- 

xxii,  235-238 
Sumner,  Charles,  Senator,  5,  105,  226 
Sunderland,  Jabez  T.,  xvii,  xix-xxi,  219 
Swing,  David,  169 

Thayer,  George  Augustus,  249 

Thayer,  Nathaniel,  34 

Thayer,  William  Sydney,  72,  131,  202 

Thomas,  Hiram  W.,  169 

Thompson,  James,  117 

TiflFany,  Francis,  xviii,  xxi,  226,  240-241 

Tikkanen,  Milma  Sophie,  195 

Tilden,  Anna  Linzee,  142 

Tolstoi,  Leo,  42 

Toy,  Crawford  Howell,  202 

Tschudy,  H.  B.,  174 

Turner,  Mary  Alice,  29 

Utter,  David,  134 

Wallace,  Alfred  Russell,  208 
Ware,  Henry,  120,  140,  162,  220 
Warland,  Lucy,  228 
Warner,  Charles  Dudley,  227 
Washburn,  Edward,  Captain,  34 
Washburn,  Francis,  General,  34 


Washburn,  Harriet  Webster  (Kimball), 

34 
Washburn,  Mary,  17 
Washington,  Booker  T.,  89,  ii8 
Weld,  Charles  Richmond,  xxii,  35,  242- 

243 
Weld,  Cora,  196 
Weld,  Thomas,  242 
Wendte,  Charles  William,  xx-xxi,  xxvi, 

57,  162,  244-249 
Wheelock,  Edwin  Miller,  250-251 
White,  Alfred  T.,  199 
White,  Andrew  D.,  187 
White,  Daniel  Appleton,  251 
White,  Eliza  Orne,  253 
White,  William  Orne,  251-254 
Whitney,  Herbert,  58 
Whitney,  Julia  A.,  265 
Whitney,  Mary  Traffern,  58-59 
Whitney,  William  D.,  9 
Wicks,  Inez  A.,  62 
Wicksteed,  Philip,  161 
Wilbur,  Earl  Morse,  128 
Wilkes,  Eliza  Tupper,  57 
Wilkins,  Caroline,  185 
Williams,  Theodore  Chickering,  xi-xii, 

162,  205,  254-256 
Wilson,  Daniel  Munro,  68 
Wilson,  John  Henry,  43 
Wilson,   Lewis   Gilbert,  xx-xxi,   14,  41- 

43,  162 
Wilson,  Thomas,  266 
Winde,  Helen  Florence,  223 
Winkley,  Samuel,  257 
Winkley,   Samuel  Hobart,  xix,  35,  257- 

260 
Winter,  Alice  Ames,  14 
Wonson,  Sarah,  42 
Woodbury,  Augustus,  84 
Woolley,  Celia  Parker,  58-59 
Woolley,  J.  H.,  58 
Wordsworth,  William,  146 
Wright,  Chester,  264 
Wright,  E.  W.,  Judge,  265 
Wright,  George  C,  xix,  35,  261 
Wright,    James   Edward,    xix,    35,    263- 

265 
Wright,  Merle  St  Croix,  265-267 
Wright,  Velma  Curtis,  255 

Yeaton,  Lydia  Ann,  29 
Young,  Joshua,  226 


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