Hosea Ballou II

Background

Ballou was born on October 18, 1796in Halifax, Vermont. He was the son of Asahel Ballou and Martha Starr, a descendant of Comfort Starr, one of the original incorporators of Harvard College.

Education

He received his early education in Halifax, where in 1799 his father settled as a farmer and maker of spinning-wheels and chairs.

Career

Notwithstanding marked ability in the district school and under private instruction in Latin from a clergyman in Halifax, he was kept from a college course by the parents' fear of proselyting influences and after three winters of district school-teaching, became assistant at the age of seventeen in the school conducted by his granduncle in Portsmouth, N. H. Having there obtained some theological training, he became a pastor in Stafford, Connecticut, in 1817, with much itinerant preaching throughout the state.

He accepted a larger pastorate in the New Universalist Church of Roxbury, Massachussets, being installed July 26, 1821. Meager salary made it necessary to add the conduct of a private school for boys, a vocation to which he brought genuine scholarship independently acquired. After seventeen years, believing that the church needed another type of ministration, he moved to a pastorate in Medford, Massachussets, May 1838, where as in Roxbury he was prominent in fostering the public schools. During these pastorates he supervised the theological study of ministerial candidates, attempting a course equal to the full theological curriculum.

The most eminent of his pupils were Thomas Starr King, Edwin Hubbell Chapin, Amory Dwight Mayo. He aided in editing the Universalist Magazine (1822), the more scholarly Universalist Expositor (1830 - 40), and the Universalist Quarterly and General Review (1844 - 56), contributing to the last two periodicals 121 historical and exegetical articles.

In 1829 he published a pioneer American monograph in the field of the history of doctrine, having acquired for the task German, French, and Greek in addition to his command of Latin and Hebrew. This was the Ancient History of Universalism, a work which strengthened the confidence of his denomination and ran to four editions. In recognition of his service to scholarship, he was elected to the Board of Overseers of Harvard College, 1843-58. In 1854 he was made a member of the Massachusetts Board of Education.

From the outset also he was urgent for denominational seats of learning and his zeal was rewarded by the incorporation of Tufts College, 1852, over which, after six months' travel in Europe, he was president, 1854-61, combining with that office instruction in history and philosophy.

Achievements

• He made a significant contribution to the establishment of religious seminaries. He also remembered as an author of a number of Universalist publications.

Religion

To his denomination he rendered signal service by efforts to preserve unity in the controversy over future punishment. Although himself believing in retribution beyond death, he resisted the efforts of Jacob Woods and others to bind the denomination to this view.

Connections

He married Clarissa Hatch in 1820, and they had seven children.

Father:

Asahel Ballou

Mother:

Martha (Starr) Ballou

Wife:

Clarissa Hatch

References

• A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for the Use of Universalist Societies and Families
• Ancient History of Universalism: From the Time of the Apostles, to the Fifth General Council; With an Appendix, Tracing the Doctrine to the Reformation (Classic Reprint)