Mt. Fuji, Japan 1878 – Maud Simonton Cary was born. She was ordained a Universalist minister in 1919 and held several pastorates before leaving for Japan as a home missionary under the sponsorship of the Universalist Board of Foreign Missions. Her husband, Henry Montfort Cary, went with her. Maude Simonton Cary was popular with the … Continue reading This Day in Unitarian Universalist History September 21

1643 – Lucius Carey, the second Lord Falkland, died. He was a writer of significant learning and one of the first Socinians in England. He was born about 1610 in Burford, Oxfordshire, England. King Charles made him principal secretary of state and privy councilor. Carey fought on the side of the king in the English … Continue reading This Day in Unitarian Universalist History September 20

1836 – The first meeting of the Transcendental Club took place in the home of George Ripley in Concord, with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ferderick Henry Hedge, and Bronson Alcott attending. Read more about George Ripley at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism, or read about transcendentalism in the Harvard Square Library exhibit, “The Living Legacy … Continue reading This Day in Unitarian Universalist History September 19

1887 – This date is celebrated in the state of Meghalaya as Unitarian Day, the date on which Hajom Kissor Singh held the first Khasi Hills Unitarian Church service in Jowai, India. The Unitarian movement spread, and more than 30 churches now claim 10,000 members in the Khasi Hills region. The post September 18 first appeared … Continue reading This Day in Unitarian Universalist History September 18

1775 – General George Washington appointed John Murray, an early leader of Universalism, as chaplain of the Rhode Island Regiment, over the objections of the clergy. Read more about John Murray at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism. The post September 17 first appeared on Harvard Square Library.

1823 – Francis Parkman Jr. was born in Boston, Massachusetts. The son of a Unitarian minister, Parkman traveled extensively in the western United States in spite of physical ailments that left him a semi-invalid. He was a prominent historian and wrote The Oregon Trail (1849) and History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac (1851). Later he published … Continue reading This Day in Unitarian Universalist History September 16

1889 – Frederick May Eliot was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, descending from a long line of Unitarian ministers. He headed the Commission on Appraisal of the American Unitarian Association when it issued its historic report Unitarians Face a New Age in 1936. As president of the American Unitarian Association, he helped to revive the denomination. … Continue reading This Day in Unitarian Universalist History September 15

1638 – John Harvard died at the age of 31. He was a congregational minister in Charlestown, Massachusetts, who left numerous books and some money to a college newly mandated by the General Court to be formed in Newtowne, Massachusetts. The school was then renamed in his honor, and the town’s name was changed to … Continue reading This Day in Unitarian Universalist History September 14

Stargard, Germany 1660 – Jonas Schlichtingius, a lifelong Unitarian who served as a missionary and was imprisoned in Stargard, Germany, for his beliefs, finished his commentaries on the Pauline epistles. His sons and other colleagues published them after Schlichtingius’s death as part of a reference series for Polish Unitarians. The post September 13 first appeared … Continue reading This Day in Unitarian Universalist History September 13

1797 – Samuel Joseph May was born in Boston. He was a popular Unitarian personality and a colleague of William Ellery Channing. A traveling preacher, May went as far south as Washington, D.D. where he saw slavery firsthand. May edited The Liberal Christian and espoused the causes of abstinence, peace, education, women’s rights, abolition, and … Continue reading This Day in Unitarian Universalist History September 12