Edward Payson Powell

Background

He was born on May 9, 1833 in Clinton, New York, United States, the son of John and Mary (Johnson) Powell.

Education

He was educated in the public schools and in 1853 graduated from Hamilton College. After a year as head teacher in the Clinton Academy, he entered Union Theological Seminary, graduated in 1858.

Career

He served the Congregational church in Deansville, New York, as stated supply. In 1861 he received a call to the Congregational church in Adrian, Michigan, where he was ordained, October 29, 1861, by the Detroit Association. His pastorate of ten years here was notably successful.

From 1871 to 1874 he was pastor of the Mayflower Congregational Church in St. Louis, Missouri. He was then called upon to decide whether he would continue along the old religious paths or accept the invitation which had come to him from the Third Unitarian Church in Chicago. The Chicago call seemed to offer him a free pulpit in which he could express and develop his changing religious views. A further attraction was the fact that in that city was the Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, a kindred spirit, with whom he was to become associated (1894 - 96) in the editing of Unity, a Unitarian weekly.

He published a series of popular lectures in 1887 under the title Our Heredity from God. The book went through several editions and served as a textbook in many study clubs of the period. His second volume, Liberty and Life (1889), was of much the same character as the first. His historical studies resulted in the publication of Nullification and Secession in the United States (1897).

In 1877 ill health forced him to retire from his Chicago pulpit to the ten-acre family homestead near Clinton. Although horticultural interests soon became dominant in his life he never ceased to be a preacher with voice and pen. For six years he preached to the Independent Religious Society in Utica, composed of like-minded friends who gathered about him. He continued to be a regular contributor to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and the New York Independent.

He died at Sorrento, Florida.

Achievements

• Under his leadership was built one of the largest Congregational churches in New York. Powell became widely known for his influence among young me, styled "friend of boys" and "pastor of New York". Besides, he was associate editor of the Arena, and contributed to many other periodicals. He became widely known for only his religious works as Liberty and Life, but also for his delightful series of books on gardening: Hedges, Windbreaks, Shelters and Live Fences, The Orchard and Fruit Garden

Works

More photos

• book

  • Sermons on recent national victories, and the national sorrow. Preached, April 23d, 1865, in the Plymouth Church

    (This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)

  • The Country Home

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • Liberty and Life: Discourses

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • How To Live in the Country

    (EXACT reproduction of the original book HOW TO LIVE IN TH...)

Views

He preached the new vision of life, nature, and history which was just being introduced to the world through Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

Quotations: "I hope that those, who lost faith in authoritative Revelation may find satisfaction in that revelation of Eternal Life and Truth which is steadily unfolded to us by Science. "

Personality

He had kindliness of manner coupled with simplicity of speech and clarity of thought. He loved to plant and prune and build, increasing the loveliness and the fruitfulness of the world and inspiring others to a like enthusiasm.

Connections

On August 4, 1874, he married Lucy Maltbie of Sedalia, Missouri. He had four children.

Father:

John Powell

Mother:

Mary (Johnson) Powell

Spouse:

Lucy Maltbie

associate:

Jenkin Lloyd Jones