Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson Gaskell (September 29, 1810-November 12, 1865), a lifelong Unitarian and the wife of an eminent Unitarian minister, was the author of a half-dozen novels, numerous short stories, and a biography of Charlotte Brontë. In her fiction she examined some of the the social issues of her time, particularly those associated with industrialization in mid-19th century England, the rise of the middle class, and the status of women.
William Gaskell (July 24, 1805-1884), minister of Cross Street Chapel in Manchester, England for more than fifty years, was a pioneer in the education of the working-class and women. He helped to train men without previous academic background for the Unitarian ministry.…
Sir John Bowring (October 17, 1792-November 23, 1872), a man of amazing energy and a polymath, was a linguist, political economist, reformer, hymnist, writer and editor, Member of Parliament, and controversial Governor of Hong Kong. He was among the most famous Unitarians of his time.…
Theodore Parker (August 24, 1810-May 10, 1860) was a preacher, lecturer, and writer, a public intellectual, and a religious and social reformer. He played a major role in moving Unitarianism away from being a Bible-based faith, and he established a precedent for clerical activism that has inspired generations of liberal religious leaders.…
Caroline Augusta White Soule (September 3, 1824-December 6, 1903), a novelist, poet, religious writer, editor, and minister, was one of the founders and the first president of the earliest national organization of American church women, the Woman’s Centenary Aid Association.
Ellsworth C. Reamon (July 6, 1895-November 9, 1983), an active Universalist and Unitarian Universalist parish minister for 55 years, held a number of important denominational positions, including the presidency of the Universalist Church of America (UCA), and was a leader in the opposition to Unitarian-Universalist consolidation.
Samuel Chapman Loveland (August 25, 1787-April 8, 1858) was a Universalist minister, scholar, educator and pioneer religious journalist. Many of the ministers he trained went on to become teachers and editors. His unquestioned loyalty and commitment to the denomination allowed him to take active part in the Restorationist controversy while remaining on good terms with both sides.…
Emily Taft Douglas (April 19, 1899-January 28, 1994) was a congresswoman, civil rights activist, early feminist, actress, author, and Unitarian lay leader. Throughout her life she promoted international cooperation for the preservation of peace and for democratic cultural exchange.
Charles Hartshorne (pronounced Harts-horne—as in “deer’s horn”) (June 5, 1897-October 9, 2000) was the 20th century’s leading exponent of process theism. In his long career of more than 70 years, he vigorously defended the thesis that God presides over an everlasting universe as its eminent creative power and is supremely open to creaturely influence.
Paul Dean (March 28, 1783-October 1, 1860) was a prominent Universalist evangelist and minister in the early 19th century, a rival of Hosea Ballou, a leader of the Restorationists, and the only Universalist preacher of his generation to remain a trinitarian.…
Joseph Tuckerman (January 18, 1778-April 20, 1840) was a Unitarian minister widely known in his time for his labor of love with Boston’s poor and for his advocacy of social and political reforms on their behalf. He founded and led the Benevolent Fraternity of Unitarian churches.
Harriot Stanton Blatch (January 20, 1856-November 20, 1940) was a leader in the woman suffrage movement, a writer and an advocate for labor reform. She is credited with modernizing a suffrage movement that, by the opening of the 20th century, was listless and flagging.