Samuel McChord Crothers

Born in Oswego, Illinois, on June 7, 1857, Samuel McChord Crothers studied at Wittenberg College, Princeton, Union Theological Seminary, and later Harvard Divinity School. He was first ordained in the Presbyterian ministry and served churches in the American West before eventually joining the Unitarian ministry.

Crothers became minister of First Parish in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and at the same time built a wide readership as an essayist. He wrote with a gentle, conversational style that blended reflection, wit, and moral curiosity, and his essays appeared in major magazines as well as in many books.

He died in Cambridge on November 9, 1927. Today he is remembered less as a system-building thinker than as a graceful observer of human nature whose essays remain appealing for their clarity, kindness, and quiet intelligence.