John Pierpont
John Pierpont (born April 6, 1785 in Litchfield , † August 27, 1866 in Medford ) was an American poet who later worked as a teacher , lawyer , businessman , and clergyman of the Unitarians . His most famous poem is called The Airs of Palestine .
Life
Born in Litchfield, Connecticut , John Pierpont worked as a teacher, lawyer, businessman and minister. In 1816 he began his religious work as a theology student, first in Baltimore and later in Harvard . Then one accepted a calling to pastor at Hollis Street Church in Boston (1819–1845). During his tenure, Pierpont was instrumental in founding the Boston English Classical School in 1821 and gained national recognition as a teacher. He published two well-known early US school readings, The American First Class Book (1823) and The National Reader (1827). But Pierpont's later years at Hollis Street Church were marked by contrasts. Through his social commitment to moderation and the abolition of slavery, he angered some parishioners and, after a long public struggle, finally gave up his job in 1845.
After his resignation, Pierpont served as a pastor at a Unitarian Church in Troy, New York (1845-1849) and then led the First Parish Church (Unitarian) in Medford , Massachusetts (1849-1856). He ran for Massachusetts as governor during the 1840s as a candidate for the Liberty Party and in 1850 as a Free Soil Party candidate for the US House of Representatives. After two weeks of service as a 76-year military chaplain with the 22nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War, Pierpont was appointed to the Treasury Department in Washington, where he worked until shortly before his death (1861). He died in Medford, Massachusetts in 1866 .
John Pierpont was also the maternal grandfather of banker J. Pierpont Morgan . For more genealogy information, see 20> 16232 in "PIERPONT (PIERREPONT [E], PIERPOINT, etc.) GENEALOGIES, With Focus on the New England Pier (re) ponts of America."
Literary works
Pierpont made a literary name for himself through his book Airs of Palestine: A Poem (1816), republished as an anthology under the same name in 1840. He also published moral literature such as Cold Water Melodies and Washington Songster (comp. 1842). He may also be the anonymous co-author of The Drunkard; or, The Fallen Saved (1844), attributed to WH Smith , an actor and stage manager in Moses Kimball's Boston Museum (theater) . The Drunkard quickly became one of the most famous plays of the moderation movement in the United States.
Pierpont's many published sermons include The Burning of the Ephesian Letters (1833), Jesus Christ Not a Literal Sacrifice (1834), New Heavens and a New Earth (1837), Moral Rule of Political Action (1839), National Humiliation (1840) ), and A Discourse on the Covenant with Judas (1842). With the publication of Phrenology and the Scriptures (1850) Pierpont became known not only as a reform lecturer, but also as an expert in phrenology and spiritualism.
Pierpont was an important influence on pre-war poets who were open to reform. Along with John Greenleaf Whittier's poetry, Pierpont's poems were regularly read at public anti-slavery meetings. Oliver Johnson, a leading anti-slavery publisher and colleague of Garrison, published Pierpont's Anti-Slavery Poems in 1843. The collection includes poems that were predominantly published in the poetry columns of The Liberator and The National Anti-Slavery Standard . Pierpont's writings have also been included in many anti-slavery poetry collections, such as William Allen's Autographs of Freedom (1853).
John Pierpont is not the author of the Christmas carol Jingle Bells as incorrectly stated by Robert Fulghum in his collection of essays It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It (1989). "Jingle Bells" was written by his son James Lord Pierpont , who lived in Savannah, Georgia , was a soldier in the Allies during the Civil War and wrote songs for the United States of America, such as: B. also "Our Battle Flag", "Strike for the South" and "We Conquer or Die".
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Samuel Atkins Eliot, Heralds of a liberal faith , Volume 2 , American Unitarian Association, 1910, p. 185
- ↑ PIERPONT (PIERREPONTE, PIERPOINT, etc.) GENEALOGIES ( English ) University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Pierpont, John |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American clergyman and poet |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 6, 1785 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Litchfield, Connecticut |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 27, 1866 |
| Place of death | Medford, Massachusetts |