Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1918-05-30
DEATH Of REV.
M|N0T J.. SAVAGE
Famous Clergyman Who Once
Shocked Evangelical Churches
by Espousing Darwinism

Boston, May 23.-The Rev. Mnot J.
Savage, one Of the most widely known
clergymen In America, died suddenly yes
terday morning in his room at the Parker
House Of cerebral hemorrhage. He was
found lying on the floor beside the bed
by his son, the Rev. Maxwell Savage,
who reached the room by climbing a lad
der.
Dr.. Savage, who was rs years old. was
to have been married within a short
time to Miss Katherine Payne Jones of
Brockton.
DR.. Savage was born in Norridgewock,
Ne. June 10. 1&1. During a revival in
that town in 1855, when only 10, he deter
mined to become minister. He fitted
for Bowdoin College, but did not study
there because of il-health. In 1864 he
was graduated from the Bangor Theologi-
cal Seminary. He received his DID. de-
gree from Harvard in 1896.
In 1864 he married Ella A. Dodge. daugh-
ter of the Rev. John and Ann S. Godfrey
Dodge Of Harvard, Mass. He took up the
work of Congregational home mission
airy in California.
The young missionary was in love with
his work in San Mateo and Grass Valley,
but when he had been there three years
he was much needed at the home of his
parents and he returned and took them
to his Massachusetts home. Here he
preached several Sundays in DR.. Webbs
church the Shawmut CONGREGATIONAL
and at Park street. both of which ten
dered him call for temporary service,
which he did not accept. He settled in
Framingham. but had caught the western
FEVER and when In 1859 a call from Hanni-
bal, Mo-, came. he accepted.
But the creeds born In Geneva were too
rigid for him and gradually he became
convinced that he could no longer with
honesty and with Justice to himself. pro
claim them. His Congregational church
waived that change of belief and urged
him to stay. but he resigned to take the
pastorate of the Third CONGREGATIONAL
Church In Chicago. from which he came
to the Church Of the Unity in Boston in
1874.
Here he shocked the EVANGELICAL
churches. and before long he astounded
his Unitarian brethren by espousing the
Darwinian theory of evolution, then new
to the world. family understood even bv
the most advanced students and most
liberal thinkers, aand rejected, by nearly
the whole religious world.
1t has been said that Dr. Savage event.
ually attained more popularity In Boston
tHaH any OtneF ''llDeraI preacher since
the days Of Starr King. Theodore Parker.
Claiming, Alger and James Freeman
Clark. He left Boston In 1896 against the
wishes of his society. and going to the
pastorate of Robert Collyer's church. (the
Church of the Messiah) in New York. be-
cause even more widely known.
The greatest furore created by DR.. Saw
age In recent years was when he set all
New York society by the ears by his ut
terances before the Unitarian club in
1908. while he was still a pastor In New
York. His most pointed sentences were {:
New York women are society crazed"
and 'If they cannot get into society In
this world, they are willing to take their
chances in the next"
For years DR.. Savage had been one of
tho most prominent and enthusiastic
members Of the Society for Psychcal
Research. Becoming interested In the
phenomena of modern spiritualism, he
made the closest investigation. and be-
came convinced that there was a basis for
the belief In communication with the spir-
II world.
He resigned his New York pastorate
May 81. 1905. went to Redlands. Cal. to
recover from nervous breakdown. Later
he entered private sanitarium. and with
In a short time was his old self again.
Since 1906, however. he had done no ac-
tive work.