Fifty Notable Years: Views of the Ministry of Christian Universalism During the Last Half-Century; with Biographical SketchesAdams, John G. (John Greenleaf)
Religion
Fifty Notable Years: Views of the Ministry of Christian Universalism During the Last Half-Century; with Biographical Sketches
Adams, John G. (John Greenleaf)
Universalism; Universalist Church -- Biography; Universalists -- Biography; Universalists -- United States -- History
One of the most aged living ministers of the Universalist Church is
Rev. CLEMENT FALL LE FEVRE, D. D., of Milwaukee, Wis. He was born in
Berkhamstead, County of Hertfordshire, England, Nov. 12, 1797. He was
christened in the parish church, as was the poet Cowper, who was a
native of the same county. The father of Mr. Le Fevre was a clergyman
and graduate of Oxford University, and was acquainted with the
distinguished poet, and always held his works in high estimation. In
1814 Mr. Le Fevre had a commission in the British navy as second
lieutenant of the Royal Marines, and was appointed to a frigate and
sailed for Halifax. His war record was a short one, however, for with
the peace of 1815 he was put on half-pay. He was never in any
engagement with the enemy, and, as he writes, "my sword was never
stained with American blood, and theirs was never stained with mine,
and that I consider the better." Having no particular employment, he
was for some time adrift as to a life-calling, but subsequently
inclined to his father's profession, and in nautical phrase "bore up
for a parson." His father was educating some young men for the
Universities, and the son joined in their classes. Having by this
means obtained some knowledge of Latin and Greek, he received
ordination, and was adopted by the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel in Foreign Parts. This was in the year 1821. His appointment
was to a church in Canada, in the diocese of Quebec, where he remained
until the close of the year 1829, when, rejecting the doctrine of the
Trinity and endless punishment for the sins of this life, he withdrew
from the ministry and communion of the Church of England.
He next removed to New York, and made his home at Hempstead, L. I.,
the native place of his wife; and here and at several places on the
island and in the city of New York he frequently preached. In 1830 he
received fellowship of the Universalists, at the New York and
Philadelphia Association, met at New Brunswick, N. J. He was next
pastor four years in Troy, N. Y., six in New York city, four in
Hudson, and six in Milwaukee, Wis. In the last-named place he
purchased a farm and settled down for the enjoyment of a permanent
home. Although having no special pastorate, he has been doing much
missionary work, has constantly attended the meetings of the church,
and often written for its publications. His health at this present
writing is quite firm for one of his years, a slight failure of
eyesight and a partial paralysis of the right hand being his principal
infirmity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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