Page:One of a thousand.djvu/25

ALGER. ALLEN. I I Mr. Alger has been actively identified with the Democratic party in politics. He has held the positions of chairman and secretary of the Democratic city committee of Cambridge. He is also a member of the congressional district committee. In 1S84 he was chosen alder- man, and acted on the committees on claims, police, ordinances, and a new bridge to Boston. In 18S6 and '87 he was a member of the Senate, serving as chairman on the committee on engrossed bills and mercantile affairs, and as member of the committees of public service, expe- diting legislative business, judiciary, bills in the third reading, rules and liquor law. He was also a member of the state committee sent to the Centennial Exhi- bition at Philadelphia. He is secretary and treasurer of the Bay State Club, a member of the Middlesex County Demo- cratic Club, and of the Nevvetowne and Central clubs of Cambridge. He is a popular Mason, being a member of the Amicable F. & A. M., Cambridge chap- ter, and also of the Boston Commandery. He has held the different offices in the St. Omer Lodge of Knights of Pythias, and Pomonah Tribe of the Improved Order of Red Men. ALGER, William Rounseville, son of Nahum and Catherine Sampson (Rounse- ville) Alger, was born in Freetown, Bristol county, December 28, 1822. He attended the common schools from the age of four to ten, then began to work for a livelihood ; he worked five years in a cotton mill at Hookset, N. H., studied attentively in all available hours, educating himself in the various branches of an aca- demic course. He attended an academy in Pembroke, N. H., two years, and one year at Lebanon, N. H. He entered the divinity school of Harvard University in 1S44, and was graduated in the class of 1847. He was pastor of the Unitarian church in Roxbury, from 1847 t0 l8 5S ; then settled in Boston until 1873 ; then four years minister of Church of the Messiah in New York City. He is now engaged in preach- ing, lecturing and literary work. Mr. Alger was married in Roxbury, in September, 1S47, to Anne Langdon, daughter of Giles and Abigail Harris (Langdon) Lodge. Of this union were seven children: Henry Lodge, Abby Lang- don, Caroline Rounseville, Arthur Marti- neau, William Ellerton, Philip Rounseville and Anne Langdon. He has held many offices and deliv- ered many addresses in Masonic bodies, and lectured for twenty-five years very extensively through the country before lyceumsand literary societies. When chap- lain of the Massachusetts House of Repre- sentatives in 1S63, the prayers he offered were so much appreciated, that the speaker,. Hon. Harvey Jewell, had them taken down by a stenographer, and the members had them published in a volume enti- tled " Legislative Prayers," which passed through several editions. He gave the annual election sermon before the Legislature in 1863. He gave the Boston Fourth of July ora- tion in 1857, which created a sensation by its bold treatment of the slavery ques- tion. The city government refused the usual vote of thanks and request for publication. Seven years later, when the prophecies of the orator had been fulfilled, the city government gave him a unanimous vote of thanks and ordered the oration printed. He has published, besides a multitude of articles in reviews, and occasional dis- courses, the following books : "Symbolic History of the Cross of Christ"; "The Poetry of the Orient," a volume of trans- lations from the Persian, Arabic and San- scrit tongues (four editions); "The Genius of Solitude" (eleven editions); "The Friendship of Women" (eleven editions) ; " A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life" (fourteen editions) ; "The Life of Edwin Forrest, the American Tragedian, with a History of the Dramatic Art " — two royal octavo volumes. He is now preparing for publication a work in two vol- umes entitled, " The Greatness of Human Nature and the Glory of Human Life." ALLEN, Alexander Viets Griswold, the son of Rev. Ethan and Lydia Child (Burr) Allen, was born in Otis, Berkshire county, May 4, 1841. His early education was received in the public schools of Nantucket. He entered Kenyon College, Ohio, 1S59, and was grad- uated therefrom 1862. He began his theological studies in the Theological Seminary at Gambier, Ohio, and pursued them later on in Andover Theological Seminary, graduating therefrom 1865. Mr. Allen was ordained deacon in 1865 and priest in 1866. He became rector of St. John's Church, Lawrence, the same year, this church having been established by him as a mission in 1865. In 1867 he was called to the profes- sorship of ecclesiastical history in the Episcopal theological school, Cambridge, where he has since remained.