Joseph Wheless
Joseph Wheless ( Montgomery County, Tennessee 1868-1950) was an American lawyer who wrote promoting the Jesus myth theory during the early years of the 20th century. He was son of Joseph Wheless Sr. (1830–1899), grandson of Aquilla Wheless. His mother Myra McCall, died when he was young, and his brothers and sisters were by his father's second wife. Wheless was raised Southern Methodist but later questioned the verity of the scriptures, studying their sources in detail. As a lawyer he defended American free-thinking and atheist organizations, was instructor in military jurisprudence at the University of Arkansas and held the rank of major in the department of the Judge Advocate General.Clinton Bennett In search of Jesus: insider and outsider images - Page 210 2001 Also self-taught, Wheless was a successful lawyer and a very outspoken Jesus-was-a-myth writer. He studied for the bar while articled in his uncle's firm. Wheless served as counsel for several American free-thinking or ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Montgomery County, Tennessee
Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 220,069. The county seat (and only incorporated municipality) is Clarksville. The county was created in 1796. Montgomery County is included in the Clarksville, TN– KY Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The county was named for John Montgomery, a soldier in the American Revolutionary War and an early settler who founded the city of Clarksville. It was authorized on 9 April 1796, when the western portion of Tennessee County, which since 1790 had been part of the Territory South of the River Ohio, became part of the new state of Tennessee. (In 1790, North Carolina had ceded its western lands to the Federal government to create what was also known as the Southwest Territory.) The eastern portion of old Tennessee County was, at the same time Montgomery County was formed, combined with land taken from Sumner County to form Robertson County, Tennessee. Late ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of choice and agency. Dreiser's best known novels include ''Sister Carrie'' (1900) and ''An American Tragedy'' (1925). Early life Dreiser was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, to John Paul Dreiser and Sarah Maria (née Schanab).Finding aid to thTheodore Dreiser papersat thUniversity of Pennsylvania Libraries/ref> John Dreiser was a German immigrant from Mayen in the Rhine Province of Prussia, and Sarah was from the Mennonite farming community near Dayton, Ohio. Her family disowned her for converting to Roman Catholicism in order to marry John Dreiser. Theodore was the twelfth of thirteen children (the ninth of the ten surviving). Paul Dresser (1857–1906 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Julien Offray De La Mettrie
Julien Offray de La Mettrie (; November 23, 1709 – November 11, 1751) was a French physician and philosopher, and one of the earliest of the French materialists of the Enlightenment. He is best known for his 1747 work '' L'homme machine'' (''Man a Machine''). La Mettrie is most remembered for taking the position that humans are complex animals and no more have souls than other animals do. He considered that the mind is part of the body and that life should be lived so as to produce pleasure ( hedonism). His views were so controversial that he had to flee France and settle in Berlin. Early life La Mettrie was born at Saint-Malo in Brittany on November 23, 1709, and was the son of a prosperous textile merchant. His initial schooling took place in the colleges of Coutances and Caen. After attending the Collège du Plessis in Paris, he seemed to have acquired a vocational interest in becoming a clergyman, but after studying theology in the Jansenist schools for some years, his ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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James Hervey Johnson
James Hervey Johnson (August 2, 1901 in Oregon - August 6, 1988 in San Diego, California) was an American atheist freethinker, writer and editor of '' The Truth Seeker'' (founded 1873), formerly run by Charles Lee Smith. Early years Born in Oregon, his family moved to San Diego in his youth. He attended the San Diego Army-Navy Academy. His father was in the real estate business, and he became a partner. By age 30 he was a self-made millionaire. In the 1930s Johnson was elected county tax assessor, but lost reelection when he advocated the taxation of churches. Freethought leader After becoming a freethinker early in life, Johnson became prominent in the San Diego area Freethought movement, eventually hosting annual dinners in honor of his heroes Robert Green Ingersoll and Thomas Paine. He was also a fan of ex-Roman Catholic priest Freethought and Rationalist writer Joseph McCabe, and stocked his large collection of Little Blue Books from Girard, Kansas. ''The Truth Seeker'' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Robert G
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honour, praise, renown" and ''berht'' "bright, light, shining"). It is the second most frequently used given name of ancient Germanic origin. It is also in use as a surname. Another commonly used form of the name is Rupert. After becoming widely used in Continental Europe it entered England in its Old French form ''Robert'', where an Old English cognate form (''Hrēodbēorht'', ''Hrodberht'', ''Hrēodbēorð'', ''Hrœdbœrð'', ''Hrœdberð'', ''Hrōðberχtŕ'') had existed before the Norman Conquest. The feminine version is Roberta. The Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish form is Roberto. Robert is also a common name in many Germanic languages, including English, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Scots, Danish, and Icelandic. It can be use ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rupert Hughes
Rupert Raleigh Hughes (January 31, 1872 – September 9, 1956) was an American novelist, film director, Academy Award, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, military officer, and music composer. He was the brother of Howard R. Hughes Sr. and uncle of billionaire Howard Hughes, Howard R. Hughes Jr. His three-volume scholarly biography of George Washington broke new ground in demythologizing Washington and was well received by historians. A staunch anti-Communist, in the 1940s he served as president of the American Writers Association, a group of anti-Communist writers. Early life Hughes was born on January 31, 1872, in Lancaster, Missouri, the son of Jean Amelia (née Summerlin; 1842–1928) and Judge Felix Moner Hughes (1837–1926). He spent his early years in the Lancaster area until age seven when the family moved to Keokuk, Iowa, where his father established a successful law practice. Hughes first published a poem while still a child growing up in Lancaster. After receiving his basi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Baron D'Holbach
Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach (; 8 December 1723 – 21 January 1789), was a French-German philosopher, encyclopedist, writer, and prominent figure in the French Enlightenment. He was born Paul Heinrich Dietrich in Edesheim, near Landau in the Rhenish Palatinate, but lived and worked mainly in Paris, where he kept a ''salon''. He helped in the dissemination of "Protestant and especially German thought", particularly in the field of the sciences, but was best known for his atheism and for his voluminous writings against religion, the most famous of them being ''The System of Nature'' (1770) and '' The Universal Morality'' (1776). Biography Sources differ regarding d'Holbach's dates of birth and death. His exact birthday is unknown, although records show that he was baptised on 8 December 1723. Some authorities incorrectly give June 1789 as the month of his death. D'Holbach's mother, Catherine Jacobina (''née'' Holbach; 1684–1743), was the daughter of Johannes Jacob ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kersey Graves
Kersey Graves (November 21, 1813 – September 4, 1883) was a skeptic, atheist, rationalist, spiritualist, reformist writer, who was popular on the American freethought circuit of the late 19th century. Life Graves was born in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. His parents were Quakers, and as a young man he followed them in their observance, later moving to the Hicksite wing of Quakerism. According to one source, Graves did not attend school for more than three or four months in his life, but another source says that he received an "academical education", and at the age of 19 was teaching in a school at Richmond, a career he was to follow for more than twenty years. He was an advocate of Abolitionism, also interested in language reform, and became involved with a number of radical freethinkers within Quakerism. In August 1844, he joined a group of about fifty utopian settlers in Wayne County, Indiana. In the same month, he was disowned by his Quaker meeting group due to his neglect o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born anarchist political activist and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the 20th century. Born in Kaunas, Lithuania (then within the Russian Empire), to an Orthodox Lithuanian Jewish family, Goldman emigrated to the United States in 1885.University of Illinois at ChicagBiography of Emma Goldman. UIC Library Emma Goldman Collection. Retrieved on December 13, 2008. Attracted to anarchism after the Chicago Haymarket affair, Goldman became a writer and a renowned lecturer on anarchist philosophy, women's rights, and social issues, attracting crowds of thousands. She and anarchist writer Alexander Berkman, her lover and lifelong friend, planned to assassinate industrialist and financier Henry Clay Frick as an act of propaganda of the deed. Frick survived the attempt on his life in 1892, and Berkman was sentenced to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Isaac Goldberg
Isaac Goldberg (1887 – July 14, 1938) was an American journalist, author, critic, translator, editor, publisher, and lecturer. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Boston to Jewish parents, he studied at Harvard University and received a Bachelor's degree, BA degree in 1910, a Master's degree, MA degree in 1911 and a Doctorate, PhD in 1912. He traveled to Europe as a journalist during World War I writing for the Boston Evening Transcript. He wrote biographies of H. L. Mencken, Havelock Ellis, W. S. Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, and George Gershwin, books on theatrical and musical appreciation, books of Spanish -American Literature and contributed articles for many magazines. He also founded, published, and edited a monthly news magazine called Panorama (American magazine), Panorama. He was fluent in Yiddish language, Yiddish, Spanish language, Spanish, French language, French, German language, German, Italian language, Italian, and Portuguese language, Portuguese and translated a variety of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Marshall Gauvin
Marshall Jerome Gauvin (April 3, 1881 – September 23, 1978), best known as Marshall J. Gauvin was a Canadian atheist author and speaker in the freethought movement. Gauvin was born near Moncton, New Brunswick. He was a contributor to the ''Truth Seeker'', a publication devoted to freethought. His collected writings are part of the collection of the University of Manitoba. The description of the collection at the Directory of Special Collections of Research Value in Canadian Libraries states that "The collection is noted for its comprehensive holdings in free thought and rationalist literature." and " ...there is substantial material on atheism, biblical studies, science, oratory, early women's studies, and English literature and history Selected publications *''The Gauvin-Olson Debates on God and the Bible'' (1921)''Did Jesus Christ Really Live?''(1922) *''The Illustrated Story of Evolution'' (1921) *''The Fundamentals of Freethought'' (Peter Eckler Publishing Company, 1922) *'' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Helen Gardener
Helen Hamilton Gardener (1853–1925), born Alice Chenoweth, was an American author, rationalist public intellectual, political activist, and government functionary. Gardener produced many lectures, articles, and books during the 1880s and 1890s and is remembered today for her role in the freethought and women's suffrage movements and for her place as a pioneering woman in the top echelon of the American civil service. Biography Early years Alice Chenoweth, best remembered by her pen name, Helen Hamilton Gardener, was born near Winchester, Virginia, on January 21, 1853. She was the youngest of six children born to Rev. Alfred Griffith Chenoweth, an Episcopalian minister who had become a Methodist circuit rider, and his wife, the former Katherine A. Peel.Adelaide Washburn"Helen Hamilton Gardener,"in Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer (eds.), ''Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume 2.'' Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |