MATTISON, Hiram, clergyman, born in Norway, New York, 11 February, 1811; died in Jersey City, New Jersey, 24 November, 1868. He entered the Methodist ministry in 1835, was appointed agent of the American Bible society for the state of New Jersey in 1841, and, resuming pastoral work the next year, was successively stationed in Watertown and Rome, New York From 1846 till 1860 he was largely employed in the preparation of works on astronomy and in lecturing. In 1856-'7 he was pastor of churches in Adams and Syracuse, New York, and took an active part in anti-slavery movements. By correspondence with the Methodists of Great Britain in 1859, he obtained the names of about 85,000 petitioners to the general conference of 1860, praying that body to extirpate slavery from the Methodist Episcopal church, and a like paper from 45,000 petitioners in central New York was largely due to his efforts. In November, 1861, he withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal church, because, as he affirmed, of its toleration of slave-holding, soon afterward becoming pastor of St. John's independent Methodist church of New York city. He returned to his former connection in 1865, and was stationed in Jersey City, where he vehemently opposed the claims of the Roman Catholic church, and published a tract on the case of Mary Anne Smith, a Methodist, whose father, a Roman Catholic, he alleged, had unjustly caused her arrest and detention in a Magdalen asylum, in New York city. His controversies with the Roman Catholics led to his appointment in 1868 as district secretary to the American and foreign Christian union. His numerous works include " The Trinity and Modern Arianism" (New York, 1843); "Tracts for the Times " (1843) ; "Elementary Astronomy, accompanied by Maps " (1846); Burritt's " Geography of the Heavens," edited and revised (1850); " High-School Astronomy" (1853); " Spirit-Rapping Unveiled" (1854); " Sacred Melodies " (1859) ; "impending Crisis" (1859) ; "Immortality of the Soul" (1866) ; "Resurrection of the Body" (1866) ; "Defence of American Methodism " (1866); and "Popular Amusements " (1867). See "Work Here, and Rest Hereafter, a Life of Reverend Hiram Mattison," by Reverend Nicholas Vansant, with an introduction by Reverend Edward Thomson (New York, 1870).