Ballon, Hosea

Ballon, Hosea a Universalist minister, was born April 30th, 1771, at Richmond, N. H. At an early age he joined the Baptist Church, of which his father was a minister, but was soon after expelled on account of his embracing Universalist and Unitarian opinions. At the age of twenty-one he became an itinerant preacher of the then new doctrines he had adopted. His ability and eloquence attracting attention, he was invited in 1794 to a permanent charge at Dana, Mass., which he accepted. In 1802 he removed to Barnard, Vt.; in 1807, to Portsmouth, N. H.; and in 1815, to Salem, Mass. Two years later he accepted the charge of the Second Universalist Society at Boston, which he held till his death, June 7th, 1852. Mr. Ballon was an industrious writer. In 1819 he commenced the Universalist Magazine, and in 1831 the Universalist Expositor (now the Universalist Quarterly). He published The Doctrine of future Retribution (1834), and numerous other controversial works, besides Notes on the Parables; A Treatise on the Atonement; and several volumes of Sermons. See Whittemore, Life of the Rev. H. Ballou.