This Day in Unitarian Universalist History February 18

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1719 – The English Parliament repealed the Schism Act, an extreme High Tory measure to prevent nonconformists and Catholics from educating their own children. Queen Anne died on the day the Act was to take effect in 1714. It was repealed because her successor, King George I, did nothing to enforce it.

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Read more at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.

This Day in Unitarian Universalist History February 17

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1958 – Frederick May Eliot, president of the American Unitarian Association, died at age 68. Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Eliot descended 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. Eliot worked towards the consolidation of the Unitarians and Universalists, accomplished after his death. Read more about Frederick May Eliot at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.

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This Day in Unitarian Universalist History February 16

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1791 – Samuel Gilman was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard College in 1811, taught school and mathematics at Harvard College from 1817 to 1819, and was ordained to the Unitarian ministry in Charlston, South Carolina. His song “Fair Harvard” is still sung at every Harvard University commencement. Read more about Samuel Gilman at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.

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This Day in Unitarian Universalist History February 15

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1820 – Susan Brownell Anthony was born in Adams, Massachusetts. Her family were Quaker but also active members of the First Unitarian Church in Rochester, New York, where she recieved guidance from the church’s minister. Anthony organized the National Woman Suffrage Association with Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1869. In 1872, she went to the polls in Rochester, claiming the right to vote as a citizen under the Fourteenth Amendment. She was arrested and fined $100, which she refused to pay. Read more about Susan Brownell Anthony at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.

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This Day in Unitarian Universalist History February 14

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1772 – Josiah Quincy was born in Boston. He served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives. The people of Boston elected Quincy as mayor in 1823, an office he filled until taking over as president of Harvard University. He was a member of the Federal Street Church of Boston, where William Ellery Channing was minister. Read more about Josiah Quincy at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.

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This Day in Unitarian Universalist History February 13

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1730 – Josiah Wedgwood, the founder of Wedgwood Pottery, was born in England. Along with the simple designs and pure colors of his art, he invented the manufacturing processes for his famous pottery. He was a devoted Unitarian, philanthropist, and friend of Joseph Priestley.

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Read more at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.

This Day in Unitarian Universalist History February 12

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1791 – The industrialist, inventor, and philanthropist Peter Cooper was born in New York City. His ironworks in Baltimore, the first in America to use the Bessemer process to refine iron from ore, produced Tom Thumb, the first steam locomotive built in the United States. Cooper was also the president of two telegraph companies that together connected communication cross the Atlantic Ocean and North America. In 1859, he founded the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. He was a leading member of the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York. Read more about Peter Cooper at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.

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This Day in Unitarian Universalist History February 11

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1819 – William Rathbone was born in Liverpool, England. He was a merchant, ship owner, member of Parliament, and lifelong Unitarian. He refused a peerage because it would entail expense that he wanted saved for charity.

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Read more at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.

This Day in Unitarian Universalist History February 10

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Caroline Veatch, in back, with sister Della Evans

1945 – The North Shore Unitarian Church was founded in Long Island, New York. It is now the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Shelter Rock in Manhasset, New York. As part of its founding outreach, the congregation contacted an Episcopalian named Caroline Veatch, who provided for the church to receive income from her oil fields in Germany after her death. This is now the largest single source of funding for the Unitarian Universalist Association and its work. Read more about Caroline Veatch and the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Shelter Rock at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.

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This Day in Unitarian Universalist History February 9

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1917 – Conrad Wright was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At Harvard Divinity School, where he became professor of American church history in 1969, he was an authority on American Unitarian history. His books included The Beginnings of Unitarianism in America (1955). Read more about Conrad Wright at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.

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