Jesse Babcock Ferguson (January 19, 1819-September 3, 1870), a renowned orator and minister in the Antebellum South, converted to universalist and unitarian beliefs. His conversion created turmoil in his own large Nashville church and throughout the region.
Angus de Mille Cameron (June 9, 1913-November 23, 1996) was one of a small group of Canadian ministers whose introduction into Canada in the 1940s of the topics and issues promoted in the United States under the rubric of Unitarian Advance, began a period of revitalization for the Canadian Unitarian churches.
Nathan Appleton (October 6, 1779-July 14, 1861) was a merchant, manufacturer, financier, politician and philanthropist, best known as a pioneer in establishing textile manufacturing in New England. Repelled by the human suffering and social disruption that accompanied the rise of the factory system in Britain, he sought to develop an American alternative that would rival the success of British manufacturing while avoiding its demoralizing effects.…
John Cordner (July 3, 1816-June 22, 1894) was unquestionably the most influential figure in setting the tone for the emerging Unitarian movement in nineteenth-century Canada. Not only was he skilled at presenting his views effectively, but during his 35-year ministry in Montreal, then the leading city in Canada by a wide margin, he attracted a congregation largely composed of persons prominent in the business and professional life of the city and country.
Margaret Fuller (May 23, 1810-July 19, 1850) “possessed more influence on the thought of American women than any woman previous to her time.” So wrote Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in their 1881 History of Woman Suffrage. Author, editor, and teacher, Fuller contributed significantly to the American Renaissance in literature and to mid-nineteenth century reform movements.…
Ephraim Peabody (March 22, 1807-November 28, 1856), an early Unitarian missionary to the (then) western United States and later a prominent and beloved minister of King’s Chapel in Boston, was widely recognized as an insightful and inspiring preacher. His theology of character was a central concept for antebellum Unitarian moralists.
Henry Solly (November 13, 1813-February 27, 1903), British Unitarian minister and social reformer, was one of the most remarkable social innovators of his time. He was the instigator and founder of three important social organisations in Britain—Working Men’s Clubs, the Charity Organisation Society and the Garden City movement—that had a significant influence on the provision made for the working classes in late Victorian Britain.
Noah Worcester (November 25, 1758-October 31, 1837), entirely self-educated after the age of 15, studied and thought his own way to unitarian doctrine and also to pacifism. A formally unschooled farmer and school teacher, he became a respected and influential minister, author, editor and peace advocate, honored by two institutions of higher learning and a “father of the American peace movement.”…
William James Potter (February 1, 1829-December 21, 1893), born in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, was a Unitarian minister, a founder, Secretary and President of the Free Religious Association, and President and later Editor of The Index. For more than forty years Potter was perhaps the leading public citizen of New Bedford, Massachusetts.…
Samuel Atkins Eliot II (August 24, 1862-October 15, 1950) was the first president of the American Unitarian Association (AUA) to be given executive power; he held this office from 1900 to 1927. In 1925 the two major American Unitarian organizations, the AUA and the National Conference of Churches (NCC), were merged under his leadership.…
Béla Bartók (March 25, 1881-September 26, 1945), the greatest Hungarian composer, was one of the most significant musicians of the twentieth century. He shared with his friend Zoltán Kodály, another leading Hungarian composer, a passion for ethnomusicology. His music was invigorated by the themes, modes, and rhythmic patterns of the Hungarian and other folk music traditions he studied, which he synthesized with influences from his contemporaries into his own distinctive style.
Charles Francis Potter (October 28, 1885-October 4, 1962) was a Unitarian minister, theologian and author who changed, over half a century, from an evangelical Baptist to a radical Humanist. Such a transformation reflects remarkable openness to new ideas, flexibility of personality, and capacity for intellectual and theological growth.