John Dumont Reid

John Dumont Reid

9th minister from 1908 - 1917

Biography

From The Story of Unity Church, 1872-1972 by Elinor Otto:

The ninth minister of Unity Church, Reid was born in 1861 in Vevay, Indiana, into a cultured family. His grandmother, Julia Dumont, was a teacher and a well-known literary figure in Indiana. His father was a Presbyterian minister. Reid was educated at Wabash College and Yale University Divinity School. To help defray his college expenses he did some teaching and for a time worked at Marshall Field and Company in Chicago, after which he served Congregational parishes in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Fergus Falls, Minnesota, and Great Falls, Montana. While at this latter post he made the difficult transition to a more liberal religion, accepting the pastorate of the Unitarian church in the same city, At his next church in Greenfield he was ordained a Unitarian minister.

Works

• "Accepting life's limitations," a sermon preached at All Souls Church Greenfield, Massachusetts, 24 March, 1901. Also published as "Accepting Life's Limitations," Tracts of the American Unitarian Association no. 143.

• "The ministry of ill," a sermon preached at All Souls Church, Greenfield, Massachusetts, 5 April, 1903

• "The immortal life," a sermon preached at All Souls Church, Greenfield, Massachusetts, 1906.

• "The National Crisis: A Sermon," 1917.

• "Democracy in Religion," AUA pamphlet no. 266, 19--?

Historical Collection, Anderson Library, Unity Church-Unitarian holdings:

• "The Religion of Humanity," sermon delivered at Unity Church, March 28, 1909.

• "A Peculiar Treasure," sermon delivered at Unity Church, May 23, 1909.

• "The Price of Peace," the Peace Sunday sermon, 1914.

Family

Tales of our Forefathers and Biographical Annals of Families Allied to Those of McPike, Guest, and Dumont

From "Tales of Our Forefathers and Biographical Annals of Families Allied to McPike, Guest, and Dumont" (1898), pp 63-64:

The Rev. John Dumont Reid (son of Julia and grandson of Colonel John Dumont), was born in Vevay, Indiana, January 19, 1861; married June 30, 1891, Bessie Gertrude Basye, at Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Is now (April, 1898)

minister of All Souls' Church (Unitarian) at Greenfield, Mass., and has issue:

i Kenneth Dumont, born at Fergus Falls, Minn., May 14th, 1892.

ii. Margaret, born at Great Falls, Montana, May 19, 1896