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BALLOU, Hosea, clergyman, born in Richmond, New Hampshire, 30 April 177r; died in Boston, Massachusetts, 7 June 1852. Maturin Ballou, father of Hosea, was a Baptist minister with a large family, two of whom, besides the subject of this notice, became Universalist ministers. Mr. Ballou, St., received no salary for his services as preacher, and was so poor that he could neither send his children to school nor furnish them with materials wherewith to learn to write. Hosea, the future author of numerous books, learned to make his letters with a bit of charcoal on a piece of birch-bark. He united with his father's Church at the age of eighteen, but never attended school until he was twenty, and for this last privilege he seems to have been indebted to an accident that temporarily incapacitated him for physical labor. Hardly had he become a Baptist when his inquiring mind suggested questions and doubts to which no satisfactory answers were forthcoming, and he became a Restorationist, or, as is usually said, a Universalist, a sect then gaining a foothold in this country. He began to preach as soon as he came of age, supporting himself by teaching school, and in 1794 became pastor of a congregation in Dana, Massachusetts, where he remained until 1802, when he removed to Barnard, Vermont, to officiate for that and the neighboring towns of Woodstock, Hartland, and Bethel. Here he wrote and published the first of his numerous works on theological topics, " Notes on the Parables" (1804). Other works on kindred topics followed at short intervals, and in 1807 he became pastor of the Universalist society in Portsmouth, New Hampshire Here he remained until 1815, when, after a short stay in Salem, Massachusetts, he was installed pastor of the second Universalist society of Boston, and the period of his greatest activity and usefulness began. For more than thirty-five years, beginning 17 December 1817, he remained pastor of this Church, founding the" Universalist Magazine" (afterward the" Trumpet "), later the "Universalist Expositor," and still later the "Universalist Quarterly Review." In these undertakings he was assisted by his grandnephew, Hosea Ballou, second grandson of his elder brother Benjamin. He was strongly impressed with the necessity of providing a denominational literature to meet the growing demands of the sect, which he had already done so much to establish in America, and to this end he contributed hymns, essays, and controversial papers to the magazines and other publications. His " Examination of the Doctrine of Future Retribution" (1834) was among the most noteworthy of his books, which, counting sermons, lectures, and verses, most of them in-eluded in the " Universalist Collection," number many volumes, His life has been written by his son, M. M. Ballou, and by the Rev. Thomas Whir-temore.
His grand-nephew, Hosea Ballou, clergyman (b. in Halifax, Vermont, 18 October 1796; died in Somerville, Massachusetts, 27 May 1861), was educated in his native town, prepared for the Universalist ministry, and was settled as pastor of a society in Stafford, Connecticut, about 1815. Thence, in 1821, he removed to Roxbury, where he remained till June 1838. as pastor of a Church. During this time he was associated with his uncle in the editorship of the "Universalist Magazine" and other denominational publications. In 1829 he published "The Ancient History of Universalism" (republished in 1842). In 1833 he edited an edition of Sismondi's "History of the Crusades." His editorship of the periodicals referred to continued during most of his active life. He was for a time a non-resident professor in the Unitarian divinity school, Meadville, Pennsylvania Removing from Roxbury in answer to an invitation from Medford, Massachusetts, he became pastor of the society in that place, and in 1853 was elected first president of Tufts College, which he was largely instrumental in founding. After a visit to Europe for the purpose of studying foreign collegiate methods, he assumed the active duties of his office, and performed them acceptably until just before his death. In 1844 he received the degree of S. T. died from Harvard.*His son. Maturin Murray, journalist (b. in Boston, Massachusetts, 14 April 1820), was fitted for College in the Boston high school, and passed his entrance examination at Harvard, but did not join his class. In early life he was for five years a clerk in the Boston post-office, and subsequently for five years in the United States Treasury department. In 1838 he became connected with the "Olive Branch," a weekly publication, and was remarkably successful in this and other literary undertakings. He was editor and proprietor of "Gleason's Pictorial" and "Ballou's Monthly." He became largely engaged in building operations in the business quarter of Boston. These undertakings included the St. James hotel, at the time one of the most costly structures in Boston, and several of the finest stores on Winter street. He has traveled extensively in both of the American continents, and in Africa, China, India, Japan, the Pacific Islands, and in the summer of 1886 undertook a voyage to the polar regions. In the intervals of travel his literary and journalistic labors have been unremitting. He became in 1872 one of the original proprietors, and was for many years chief editor, of the "Boston Daily Globe." He edited and owned, either in part or altogether, " Ballou's Pictorial," "The Flag of our Union," and the "Boston Sunday Budget." His connection with the Boston press has lasted more than forty years. He is the author of " Due West," " Due South," " The History of Cuba" (Boston, 1854); " Biography of the Rev. Hosea Ballou," and "Life Story of Hosea Ballou." He has edited and compiled "Pearls of Thought" (Boston, 1881) ; "Notable Thoughts about Women"; and "Edge Tools of Speech" (1886).*Moses, clergyman, grandson of Hosea the elder, born in Monroe, Massachusetts, 24 March 1811; died in Atco, New Jersey, 19 May. 1879. Educated at the Brattleboro (Vermont) academy, he was ordained to the Universalist ministry in 1835. His pastoral engagements were in Bath and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Hartford, and New Haven, Connecticut, New York City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Atco, New Jersey In 1837 he was married to Almena died Giddings. tie wrote "A Memoir of the Rev. Merritt San-ford" (New York, 1850), and "The Divine Character Vindicated," a review of Dr. Edward Beecher's "Conflict of Ages" (1854).
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