author
E. (Erasmus) Manford
1815–1884
A nineteenth-century Universalist preacher, editor, and reformer, he wrote from the middle of the fast-changing American West. His best-known work, Twenty-five Years in the West, blends memoir, religious history, and a firsthand view of frontier life.
1 Audiobook
Twenty-five years in the West
by E. (Erasmus) Manford
About the author
Born in 1815, Erasmus Manford became known as a Universalist minister and public debater whose work reached across the American Midwest. Records of his publications identify him as E. (Erasmus) Manford, and his 1867 book Twenty-five Years in the West presents itself as the autobiography of a minister deeply involved in the spread of Universalism.
Manford was also active as an editor and publisher. Contemporary and bibliographic sources connect him with a long-running religious periodical often referred to as Manford's Monthly Magazine, and his writing shows a strong interest in both church life and the broader social changes shaping the nineteenth-century West.
Sources about his life also describe him as an advocate for antislavery and women's rights, adding a reformer's voice to his religious career. He died in 1884, leaving behind sermons, debates, and autobiographical writing that still offer a vivid window into American religious life on the frontier.