Biography

Crane, Caroline Bartlett

Caroline Bartlett Crane (August 17, 1858-March 24, 1935) was a Unitarian minister, suffragist, civic reformer, and social gospel advocate. Among the first wave of American college-educated women, she broke gender barriers as a journalist, newspaper editor, and minister before leaving the ministry to develop a new career as a “municipal housekeeper”—applying “womanly” principles of housekeeping to the public sphere.…

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Ballou Family

The Ballou family of New England produced some of the most well-known and distinguished American Universalists, including Hosea Ballou, the leading theologian and evangelist of early 19th-century Universalism; Hosea Ballou 2d, Universalist historian and first president of Tufts University; and Adin Ballou, a significant theorist of pacifism and the founder of the Hopedale utopian community.

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Wilbur, Earl Morse

Earl Morse Wilbur
Earl Morse Wilbur

Earl Morse Wilbur (April 26, 1866-January 8, 1956), a Unitarian minister and scholar, was an organizer, dean, and president of the Pacific Unitarian School for the Ministry (now Starr King School for the Ministry). His magisterial two-volume study, A History of Unitarianism, was the first comprehensive account of Unitarianism in both Europe and America.

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Cummings, E. E.

Edward Estlin Cummings
Edward Estlin Cummings

Edward Estlin Cummings (October 14, 1894-September 3, 1962) was one of America’s leading 20th century poets. A prolific poet and painter, Cummings (in his poetry he often ignored the rules of capitalization and has sometimes been referred to as e.

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Fisher, Ebenezer

Ebenezer Fisher
Ebenezer Fisher

Ebenezer Fisher (February 6, 1815-February 21, 1879), Universalist minister and educator, was the first president of the Theological School at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. He led the school through its difficult formative years.

The second of eight children of Ebenezer and Sally Johnson Fisher, Ebenezer was born in Plantation Number Three (later known as Charlotte, Washington County, Maine), 14 miles from the coastal town of Eastport.

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Bradley, Franklin

Franklin Bradley
Franklin Bradley

Franklin Bradley (February 2, 1831 – May 3, 1909) was a Non-Subscribing Presbyterian minister in Northern Ireland and England and the first minister to Unitarians in Auckland, New Zealand. Subsequently he was a pioneer farmer, Justice of the Peace, and community leader in Arapohue, New Zealand.

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West, Samuel

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.…

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Cannon, Ida Maud

Ida Maud Cannon
Ida Maud Cannon

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.

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Friend, Victor

Victor FriendVictor 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.…

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Fuller, Arthur Buckminster

Arthur Buckminster Fuller
Arthur Buckminster Fuller

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.

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Lyttle, Charles

Charles Harold Lyttle
Charles Harold Lyttle

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.

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