William Greenleaf Eliot: Conservative Radical

EliotFrontCover_UUHHS_New

  by Earl K. Holt III
William Greenleaf Eliot: Conservative Radical

When William Greenleaf Eliot came to the “untamed West” from Boston in 1834, it was to establish the first Unitarian church in St. Louis, then a frontier town of 7,000. Yet Eliot’s vision and efforts, and the generosity of his congregation, led to the founding of Washington University, Mary Institute, the Mission Free School, and the Saint Louis Art Museum. Eliot was president of the St. Louis School Board and fought successfully for public funding of the city’s schools. He helped keep Missouri in the Union, and he proposed and worked tirelessly for the Western Sanitary Commission (forerunner of the American Red Cross). All the while, Eliot preached and taught, visited his parishioners three hours a day, and founded several Unitarian churches in the West. Earl K. Holt III, who succeeded to Eliot’s pulpit at First Unitarian Church in 1974, brings William Greenleaf Eliot to life in this new, expanded edition, which includes 36 illustrations, 3 new appendixes, and a detailed index. Available from Village Publishers, Inc. (www.villagepublishers.com).

Share