S. E. (Samuel Ellis) Wishard

Born in 1825, Samuel Ellis Wishard was an Indiana doctor and Presbyterian minister who also wrote on religion and public life. Surviving catalog records connect him with books including The Testimony of the Bible Concerning the Assumptions of Destructive Criticism, and library records identify him as the author of The Mormons.

Wishard’s work reflects the concerns of the late 1800s and early 1900s, when religious controversy, biblical interpretation, and social change were closely intertwined. In addition to his medical career, he was active enough in church history to be associated with a published history of the First Presbyterian Church of Franklin, Indiana.

He died in 1915. Though not widely read today, his books remain useful to listeners interested in American religious history and the voices of educated reform-minded writers from the Midwest.