Samuel West (March 3, 1730-September 24, 1807), a liberal minister of the Massachusetts Standing Order, was a theological opponent of the doctrines of Jonathan Edwards and an 18th Century forerunner of New England Unitarianism. An ardent patriot during the American Revolution, he played a small but crucial role in the ratification of the United States Constitution.…
Ida Maud Cannon (June 29, 1877-July 8, 1960) was a pioneer in the hospital social service movement which began in Boston in the first decade of the 20th century. She played a pivotal role in developing the theory and practice of medical social work during her 39 years with the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Victor Alonzo Friend (July 21, 1870-January 2, 1952), a well-known Boston-area businessman whose company produced Friend’s Brick Oven Baked Beans, was a prominent Universalist lay leader. He was a trustee of the Massachusetts Universalist Convention and the Universalist Publishing House, and president of the Universalist General Convention.…
Arthur Buckminster Fuller (August 10, 1822-December 11, 1862) was a Unitarian clergyman who endeavored to give the Unitarian Church appeal to all social classes and championed the important liberal reforms of the day. As a United States Army chaplain, he accompanied Civil War soldiers into battle and lost his life to a cause in which he firmly believed.
Charles Harold Lyttle (July 16, 1884-May 2, 1980) was a Unitarian minister and professor of Church History at the Meadville/Lombard Theological School in Chicago for 24 years. He was the author of the definitive history of the Western Unitarian Conference, Freedom Moves West.
Edwin Miller Wheelock (August 30, 1829-October 29, 1901) was a New Hampshire Unitarian minister of abolitionist sympathies who joined the Union army and served as a chaplain during the Civil War. His wartime reports on the labor and education problems created by the emancipation of slaves led to government posts in Texas during Reconstruction.
Charles Henry Appleton Dall (February 12, 1816-July 18, 1886), a Unitarian minister to the poor in the United States and an early Unitarian minister in Canada, was for three decades the only Unitarian missionary to India. He influenced and worked with the leaders of the liberal Hindu Brahmo Samaj movement and, controversially, joined the Brahmos himself.
Frederick May Eliot (September 15, 1889-February 17, 1958), longtime minister of Unity Church, St. Paul, Minnesota and Chair of the Unitarian Commission on Appraisal, served as President of the American Unitarian Association (AUA) for twenty years, guiding the denomination through a period of growth and helping it to better communicate its liberal religious faith.
Sarah Otis Ernst (July 23, 1809-December 25, 1882), one of the most effective radical abolitionists in the West, organized the Cincinnati Anti-Slavery Sewing Circle, whose fairs were a major source of support for the Western Anti-Slavery Society (WASS). When her Garrisonian brand of abolitionism lost favor in the WASS, she organized, financed, and managed the yearly Cincinnati Anti-Slavery Conventions, 1851-1855.…
William Arthur Peacock (August 23, 1905-September 15, 1968) was a British Universalist and Unitarian minister, Labour Party politician, and a journalist in religion and politics. He was minister of the South London Universalist Church and the Wandsworth Unitarian Church, and the first Press Relations officer of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches.
James Freeman (April 22, 1759-November 14, 1835), Minister of King’s Chapel in Boston for 43 years, was the first preacher in America to call himself a Unitarian. Unlike New England liberal Congregationalist ministers, who approached Unitarianism through Arianism, he was Socinian in theology and developed links with Unitarians in England.
William Farwell (January 6, 1749-December 11, 1823), one of the founding generation of American Universalist evangelists, organized societies in the neighborhood of Charlestown, New Hampshire and was the first Universalist preacher in Vermont. A “chimney-corner preacher,” he traveled on horseback throughout northern New England and also visited New York State and Canada East (Quebec).…