Page:One of a thousand.djvu/552

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538 SAVAGE. SAVAGE. gaining the consent of his parents, he enlisted in the 42c! Massachusetts regiment, and served with honor and distinction throughout the war. Mr. Savage for years has been identified with the G. A. R., and is past commander of Major Howe Post, No. 47. In 1888 he was appointed by Governor Ames a mem- ber of the commission to establish the boundary line between New Hampshire and Massachusetts, which office he still holds. He is a staunch Republican, and has ever been actively identified with local and state politics. He was elected to the Haverhill com- mon council in 1888, and honored with a re-election to the same body in 1889, and was called by his fellow-members to pre- side over their deliberations. SAVAGE, MlNOT J , son of Joseph L. and Ann S. Savage, was born in Norridge- wock, Somerset county, Maine, June 10, 1841. His father was an industrious farmer, and during his boyhood Mr. Savage stud- ied as he was afforded opportunity, with the idea of ultimately entering college. Ill health prevented, however, but in spite of discouraging circumstances, the early am- bition to enter the ministry constantly in- creased. He had always been a student from the time when he was first able to read. He was brought up in the Orthodox faith, and in 1861 entered the Bangor Theolog- ical Seminary. He was graduated in 1864, and took a commission from the American Home Missionary Society of New York to engage in missionary work, which was his mostearnest ambition. He sailed from New York in September, 1864, for California, via Panama, three days after his marriage. He was assigned to San Mateo, twenty miles south of San Francisco, on the shores of the bay, where he began preaching in the local schoolhouse. He remained here for a year and a half, and then for a year and a half preached in Grass Valley, among the foothills of the Sierras. On his return from California, he preached for a few Sundays in Dr. Webb's church and in the Park Street church in Boston, and subse- quently accepted a call from the Congre- gational church in Framingham. The western fever still possessed him, however, and after two years he accepted a call from Hannibal, Mo. Here he remained for three and a half years, experiencing a decided change in his theological views, becoming convinced that he must leave the Orthodox faith for a freer field. At the end of his Hannibal pastorate he re- ceived flattering calls from Congregational churches in Indianapolis and Springfield, 111., and from the Third Unitarian church in Chicago. His change of opinions led him to accept the call from Chicago. Thus the first time that he ever stood in a Unitarian pul- pit was when he stood in his own. In 1874 Mr. Savage came to Boston to attend the May anniversary meetings, spoke in Music Hall and preached in the Church of the Unity, from which he soon afterwards re- ceived a very complimentary call. Here he has remained ever since, and here he has built up a reputation as one of the most prominent theological teachers of the day. He is one of the shining pulpit MINOT J SAVAGE. lights, not only of Boston but of the coun- try. He is known to thousands who have never seen his face nor heard his voice. His published sermons have a very wide circu- lation, reaching India, South Africa, Aus- tralia and Japan ; and in other literary en- deavors he wields great influence. As an author, his name figures conspicuously in the religious and critical literature not only of our own country, he being an able and faithful contributor to newspapers and magazines, but several of his books have also been republished in London His congregation is eminently an intelli- gent one ; and though a radical of the