Williamson, Isaac Dowd, Dd

Williamson, Isaac Dowd, D.D.

a Universalist clergyman, was born at Pomfret, Vt., April 4, 1807. He had no better early educational advantages than a district school, and learned the clothier's trade; but force of character and thirst for knowledge made amends for lack of external aid, and in 1827 we find him preaching in Springfield. Subsequently he labored as supply ill Langdon, N.H.; as pastor, in 1828, at Jeffrey; in 1829 at Albany, N. Y., where he lived seven years, and published his first book, An Argument for Christianity; removed to Poughkeepsie in 1837; to Baltimore in 1839; to New York city in 1841;

to Mobile, Ala., three years later; to Memphis, Tenn., two years later; to Lowell, Mass., in 1850; to Louisville, Ky., in 1851; to Cincinnati, O., in 1853; and in 1856 to Philadelphia, where he spent three years. He died in Cincinnati, Nov. 26, 1876. Dr. Williamson was largely engaged during' his ministerial career as editor and publisher of the Gospel Anchor, in Troy, N.Y., in 1830; the Religious Inquirer, in Hartford, Conn.; the Herald and Era, in Louisville, Ky., in 1852; and for ten years was connected with the Star in the West as joint proprietor and editor. Besides the above-named Argument for Christianity, he published An Exposition- and Defense of Unriversialism (1840, 18mo): — An Examination of the Doctrine of Endless Punishment (1847, 18mo): — Sermons for the Times and People (1849, 18mo): — The Philosophy of Universalism, or Reasons for our Faith (1866, 12mo): — besides other valuable works. He was essentially a pioneer, emphatically a self-made man, a man of strong convictions and robust intellect, and a prominent member of the Odd-fellows Society. He was logical, sincere, lucid, ingenious, and magnetic. See Universalist Register, 1878, p. 82.