Brooks, Elbridge Gerry

BROOKS, ELBRIDGE GERRY: American Universalist; b, at Dover, N. H., July 29, 1816; d. at Philadelphia Apr. 8, 1878. He was licensed at Portsmouth, N. H., 1836; became pastor in West Amesbury, Mass., 1837; in East Cambridge, 1838; in Lowell (First Universalist Church), 1845; in Bath, Me., 1846; in Lynn, Mass. (First Universalist Church), 1850; in New York (Church of our Savior), 1859; in Philadelphia (Church of the Messiah), 1868. He was general agent of the board of trustees of the General Convention, 1867–1868. He was an eloquent preacher, courageous and energetic, an advocate of the Maine liquor law and of the cause of the Union during the Civil War, as well as of the doctrine of remedial punishment in the future world. He published Universalism in Life and Doctrine and its Superiority as a Practical Power (New York, 1863) and Our New Departure, or the methods and works of the 274Universalist Church of America as it enters on its second century (Boston, 1874).

Bibliography: E. S. Brooks, Life-Work of Elbridge Gerry Brooks, Boston, 1881.