Bellows, Henry Whitney

BELLOWS, HENRY WHITNEY: American Unitarian; b. in Boston June 11, 1814; d. in New York Jan. 30, 1882. He was graduated at Harvard 1832, and at the Cambridge Divinity School 1837; was ordained pastor of the First Congregational Society (Unitarian), Chambers Street, New York, Jan. 2, 1838, and remained there till death; during his pastorate the church was twice moved, to Broadway between Spring and Prince Streets and the name changed to the Church of the Divine Unity, and again to 4th Avenue and 20th Street, where it took the name of All Souls' Church. Dr. Bellows was the organizer, president, and chief administrator of the United States Sanitary Commission (1862–78), and during the Civil War he superintended with rare efficiency the distribution of supplies valued at $15,000,000 and $5,000,000 in money; at a later period he was president of the first civil service reform association organized in the country. He was president of the National Unitarian Conference 1865–79. He wrote much for the periodicals of his denomination and was the chief originator of The Christian Inquirer (New York, 1846) and for five years its principal contributor. He also published a number of books, of merely personal and transient interest.