Alexander Campbell: Spokesman for a Movement

• Life and Times of Alexander Campbell

• Sept. 12, 1788 – Born in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland.

  • Educated by his father.

  • Assisted his father as a tutor at his academy

• 1808 – Departed for America, but was shipwrecked off the coast of Scotland.

  • When his ship wrecked, he promised to become a minister if the Lord would save him and his family.

  • 1808-1809 – Studied at the University of Glasgow in

Scotland

• 1809 – Arrived in America and read his father’s Declaration and Address – Agreed to live by the principles of this document.

• 1810 – Preached his first sermon – Great success!

• 1811 – Married Margaret Brown (died 1827).

• 1811 – He and his father formed of the Brush Run Church in Western Pennsylvania.

  • Thomas served as elder, Alexander served as preacher.

  • From its beginning, this church offered the Lord’s Supper on a weekly basis.

• 1812 – Accepted immersion as the New Testament form of baptism and was baptized.

• 1813 – Alexander’s father-in-law, John Brown, gave him a farm to keep the family from moving out of the area.

• 1816 – Preached his most famous sermon, “The Sermon on the Law”.

• 1818 – Opened the Buffalo Seminary in his home – Closed the seminary in 1822.

• Prominent debater – Successfully discussed numerous religious topics with numerous opponents:

  • 1820 – Debated Presbyterian John Walker.

  • 1823 – Debated Presbyterian W. L. McCalla

  • 1829 – Debated Skeptic Robert Owen

  • 1827 – Debated Roman Catholic Bishop John B. Purcell

  • 1843 – Debated Presbyterian Nathan L. Rice

• Became a prolific publisher and writer:

  • 1823-1830 – Monthly Periodical: Christian Baptist

  • 1830-1866 – Monthly Periodical: Millennial Harbinger

  • 1826 – First modern translation of the New Testament in the U.S.: Living Oracles

  • 1831 – “Delusions,” the first scholarly review of the newly published Book of Mormon

• 1828 – Married Selina Bakewell after the death of his first wife, Margaret Brown.

• 1829 – Served in the Virginia Constitutional Convention.

• 1841 – Opened Bethany College and served as President.

• 1847 – Toured Great Britain with massive crowds – Briefly imprisoned in Scotland.

• 1849 – American Christian Missionary Society formed with Alexander Campbell as president.

• 1857 – Preaching to Washington, D.C., crowd that included President Buchanan, then had a private diner with the President.

• March 4, 1866 – Died at his home in Bethany, West Virginia.

• Additional Resources:

  • Campbell, Selina Huntington – Home Life and Reminiscences of Alexander Campbell

  • Cherok, Richard J. – Debating for God: Alexander Campbell’s Challenge to Skepticism in Antebellum America

  • Cochran, Louis – *The Fool of God: A Novel Based Upon the Life of Alexander

Campbell*

• Grafton, Thomas W. – Alexander Campbell: Leader of the Great Reformation of the Nineteenth Century

• Richardson, Robert – Memoirs of Alexander Campbell

• Wrather, Eva Jean – Alexander Campbell: Adventurer in Freedom (3 Vols.)

• Websites:

  • Historic Bethany - https://www.bethanywv.edu/about-bethany/historic-bethany/

  • Outrageous Campbellite - http://www.outrageouscampbellite.com/