On Monday, May 1, 1882, the Columbus Avenue Universalist Church celebrated the thirty-fourth anniversary of the pastorate of Rev. ALONZO AMES MINER, D. D., LL. D., who entered upon his duties as a colleague of the late Rev. Hosea Ballou, pastor of the Second Universalist Society in Boston, in place of Rev. Dr. E. H. Chapin, called to New York. Mr. Miner was born in Lempster, N. H., Aug 17, 1814. His ancestors on both sides were distinguished by good sense and firm physical constitutions. His remote American forefather, Thomas Miner, landed at Boston in the same year with the elder Winthrop (1630), and removed to Connecticut with the company of the younger Winthrop about 1646. His grandfather, Charles Miner, served in the Revolutionary War, and removed to New Hampshire soon after its close. Thomas Miner, his ancestor, was a descendant of Henry Bulman of the Mendip Hills, Somersetshire, England, who furnished Edward III., when on his way to embark for the wars of France, with an escort of one hundred men, selected from his servants and from the men employed in his mines. For this service the king honored him with a coat of arms, and changed his name to Miner. Dr. Miner was so feeble in his youth that it seemed doubtful whether he would grow up into mature life. But good care and judicious training wrought a change for the better, which was doubtless aided by a vigorous will. His education was gained at village schools and academies in New Hampshire and Vermont. He began teaching between terms when he was sixteen years of age, and in 1835 took entire charge of the Scientific and Military Academy at Unity, N. H. His first discourse in the pulpit was delivered in February, 1838. In 1839 he received ordination, and was settled in Methuen, Mass. In 1842 he removed to Lowell, where he became an efficient yoke-fellow with the pastor of the First Universalist Church, and where they made good proof of their ministry in the pulpit and through the press. Dr. Miner remained in Lowell as pastor of the Second Society until the removal of Rev. E. H. Chapin from Boston to New York, when he was called to take his place as colleague with Rev. Hosea Ballou at the Universalist Church in School St. On the death of Mr. Ballou, he became pastor of the church, which office he still retains. His health failing him partially in 1851, he visited Europe, and on his return found that his church edifice had been remodelled during his absence, at a cost of $20,000. Subsequently, in 1872 the building in School Street was put to secular uses, and the edifice now occupied on Columbus Avenue was erected at a cost of $150,000. During his long pastorate, two colleagues have been settled with him, Rev. Roland Connor, for a short time, and Rev. Henry I. Cushman, now pastor of the First Universalist Church in Providence, R. I.