( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
https://www.amazon.com/Discourse-Concerning-Some-Effects-Civil/dp/136189752X?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=136189752X
He was born on January 28, 1812 in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. His father, William, was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and his mother, Elizabeth (Letig), of German. Five of their sons became preachers, and six of their grandsons. Soon after Lewis' birth the family moved to Chester County and later to West Liberty, not far from Bethany, in what is now West Virginia.
He completed at Pleasant Hill Seminary, West Middletown and in 1831 he went to Trenton, Butler County, Ohio, and for four years studied medicine, supporting himself by teaching.
He began practice medicine in 1834 and the following year settled in Carthage, Ohio. Although successful professionally, he felt impelled to preach, and his evangelical work finally led him in December 1839 to remove to Kentucky and abandon medicine for the ministry.
After short pastorates in New Union and Lexington, he accepted a call to the church at Midway, which he served from 1844 to 1860. Here in the church edifice he opened a school for girls, the Baconian Institute, established the Kentucky Female Orphan School, chartered by the legislature in 1847. For a year, 1848, he edited a monthly magazine, the Christian Mirror; he edited the Kentucky department of the Christian Age, 1853-54; and during the latter year conducted a temperance paper, The New Era. Under the urgency of John B. Bowman, founder of Kentucky University, Harrodsburg, Pinkerton became professor of English in that institution in 1860.
He was commissioned as surgeon in the 11th Kentucky Cavalry in September 1862, and also took upon himself the duties of chaplain. His service was soon terminated by a sunstroke, from the effects of which he suffered for the rest of his life. When Kentucky University was transferred to Lexington in 1865, he removed to that place.
After the war his career was a troubled and somewhat unhappy one. His aggressive support of the Union was resented by many of his coreligionists. Pulpits were closed to him; in 1866 he thought it best to resign his professorship.
For a brief period he was agent of the Freedman's Bureau in Fayette County, but from 1866 to 1873 he had no fixed charge, though he was offered the presidency of Hiram College in 1867. The opposition to him was not due to his politics alone, but also to his liberal theological convictions. He set forth his view in the short-lived Independent Monthly, begun in January 1869, which he edited with John Shackleford, Jr. , and in other periodicals.
Apparently through the influence of his friend James A. Garfield, he was appointed in 1873 special mail agent. While he was on a trip to investigate irregular mail service in the Kentucky mountains in October 1874, an illness began from which he never recovered. He published A Discourse Concerning Some of the Effects of the Late Civil War on Ecclesiastical Matters in Kentucky (1866).
He died on January 28, 1875.
Lewis Letig Pinkerton opened a school for girls, the Baconian Institute, and built for it a schoolroom and dormitory. He was also instrumental in having established the Kentucky Female Orphan School. Branded as a heretic in his day, he is now recognized as perhaps the first to combat a formalism that threatened the vitality of the Churches of Christ and as one who was a liberalizing force in the history of the Disciples. Besides, he was editor of the Christian Mirror, the Kentucky department of the Christian Age and The New Era, Independent Monthly.
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
In 1830, having already become dissatisfied with Presbyterianism, his father's faith, he ardently embraced the views of the Disciples of Christ.
He opposed the legalistic view of religion common among the Disciples, laying emphasis on personal righteousness rather than on conformity to prescribed doctrines and rites; rejected the verbal inspiration of the Bible; sanctioned the admission of the unimmersed into the Church; and advocated the Presbyterian form of church government.
He was a pronounced anti-slavery man and supporter of the Union.
He was known for his piety, his sincerity, courage, unselfishness.
On March 19, 1833, he married Sarah A. Bell.
