The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-09-18
REV. A. H. LONGLEY.
SKETCH OF AN OLD PIONEER PREACHER OF
THE UNIvERsAIIsT FAITH.

ABNER HIXoN LoEGLEY was borl
in Mason county, X, near the tow
of Maysville, on farm. His fathe
was New Y orker, and his mother ;
Jersey woman, of average English edu
cation. The name Longley was then
and remained for half a century, almost
unknown in the Western States. Il
was brought over from England by
three brothers, who Settled in Massa
chusetts soon after the landing of the
''Mayfiower." OF these three brothers
the history of but ODE is known; and
that is on record that he and all his
family except one son were massacred
by the Indians. That son was rescued
and from him have sprung the now
somewhat large nilnber of families
bearing his name.
The father of Abner removed with
his large family to Butler county, Ohio
within three miles Of Oxford, where he
died, February %, 1878, aged seventy
two. The mother, whose maiden name
was Martha Hixon, survived him until
1914; kept the family together, and SC
trained young Abnersthat he cultivated
literary turn of mind which shaped his
future course in life. She lived to be
eighty years old, and died in Lebanon.
Indiana. OF five sons, John became a
New Light preacher ,sssnd besides raising
family of twenty-five children, or,
rather, becoming the father of that
number, for the larger portion of them
died in childhood, as might be expected
he pursued his ministerial calling in
Indiana most of the time until he was
eighty-six years old, when he died in
Lafayette.
Abner II. Longley learned the trade
of cabinet maker, and pursued it
faithfully for number of years, at the
same time that he was pursuing the
higher studies of liberal education in
the then young Miami University in
Oxford. The distinguished scholar
and author, VIM. IL McGuffey, was
then just beginning his famous career
as an educator, and the subject of our
sketch was one of his most promising
pupils. Among his fclass- mates were
such afterward preminent men as
Gen. Charles Anderson, Gen. Robert
G. Schenck, Hon. Samuel Galloway,
and others. Before saishing his edu-
cation, he began NpI9sshing The same
reformatory Christian doctrines that
were promulgated by his older brother.
But it so happened that that pioneer
Universalist preacher, Jonathan Kid
well, had just located in Oxford, and
begun publishing his first periodical in
advocacy Of his new doctrines, and Mr..
LOngley's attention was attracted to
them. The result was that he espoused
them, and began preaching the then
heretical doctrines about the year 1920.
His field of itineracy was wherever he
was called, and he preached the gospel
as he understood it, to few or many,
and generally without money or price.
He also devoted much time writing
for the periodicals devoted to Univer-
salism, throughout his long life. lie
always spoke and wrote in clear, fOrei-
BILE, argumentative style, and was lis
tened to and read with interest. His
earlier preaching was in Butler, Preble,
and Warren counties, Ohio; but after
moving to Lebanon, Boone county,
Ind, he improved every opportunity to
disseminate the faith of future univer-
sal salvation from sin and consequent
misery.
In 1889 Mr., L0ngley lost his first wife,
whose maiden name was Mary Stephen
son, and whom he married in Lebanon.
Ohio. In less than a year he married
again, this time Mrs, Sophronia Snow
Bassett, Of Cincinnati, and he removed
his family of five boys and two daugh-
ters to that city. One object he cher
ished in his mind in removing to Gin
cinnati was to give his children bet
ter education than could be obtained
in the then unimproyed county of
Boone. In this he partially, if not
wholly to his satisfaction, succeeded.
He also was enabled to devote more of
his time to preaching, though he never
became settled pastor over any con-
siderable congregation. For several
years he preached regularly, once or
twice a month, to organized churches
in Delhi and Mt. Healthy, near Gin
cinnati, Goshen, Clermont county, Will
liamsburg, and elsewhere in the same
county. He also, ON quite number of
occasions, preached in both the Uni
versalist churches in Cincinnati.
In 1914 Mr.. LOngley's mind was
directed to an examination of the doc
trines of Charles Fourier, the French
socialist, who wrote and published a
very elaborate scheme for benefiting
the human race by more equitable
distribution of the rewards of labor and
money. A society was formed, con
sisting of intelligent and well-meaning
men, to solve the problem of associated
labor and consolidated or a unitary
household. 1t was a joint-stock enter