Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Peabody, Ephraim

PEABODY, Ephraim, clergyman, b. in Wilton, N. H., 22 March, 1807; d. in Boston, Mass., 28 Nov., 1856. He was graduated at Bowdoin in 1827, studied theology at Cambridge, and began to preach in 1830 at Meadville, Pa. He was minister for four years in Cincinnati, and pastor of a Unitarian church at New Bedford, Mass., in 1838-'46, and for the remainder of his life of King's chapel, Boston. He was the originator of the Boston provident society, and was otherwise largely interested in devising measures for the relief of the poor. During 1853 he travelled in Europe to benefit his health, and spent the winter of 1855-'6 in St. Augustine, Fla., with the same object. He was favorably known as a pulpit orator. His sermons, with a memoir, were published in 1857, and a volume of his writings, entitled “Christian Days and Thoughts,” also appeared (1858).