John G. (John Greenleaf) Adams

Born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on July 30, 1810, he was ordained as a Universalist minister in Rumney in 1833. Over the course of his career he served churches in places including Claremont, Malden, Worcester, Providence, Lowell, Cincinnati, and Melrose, where he died on May 4, 1887.

He was known not only as a preacher but also as an energetic writer and editor. Harvard Divinity School Library describes him as active in moral reform, the anti-slavery movement, and the promotion of Sunday schools, and notes that he wrote hymns, edited several hymnals, and published theological, historical, and biographical works that were widely read among Universalists.

Among the works linked with him are Hymns for Christian Devotion, The Gospel Psalmist, Vestry Harmonies, and Fifty Notable Years, his survey of the Universalist movement. Late in life he also received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Buchtel College in 1877.