Jenkin Lloyd Jones (November 14, 1843 – September 12, 1918) was a
Unitarian minister in the United States, and also the uncle of
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
. He founded All Souls Unitarian Church in
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
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, subdivision_name ...
, as well as its community outreach organization, the Abraham Lincoln Centre. A radical modernist, he joined the "Unity Men" and stressed a creedless "ethical basis" as the common element for churches.
[Excerpt from Robinson, David. ''The Unitarians and the Universalists'', 1985, available at .] He tried to move Unitarianism away from a Christian focus and became a prominent pacifist at the time of World War I. He was a founder and long-time editor of ''Unity'', a liberal religious weekly magazine.
[Tauscher, Cathy and Peter Hughes]
"Jenkin Lloyd Jones"
Early life
![Llandysul-panorama](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Llandysul-panorama.jpg)
Jenkin Lloyd Jones was born near
Llandysul
Llandysul is a small town and community in the county of Ceredigion, Wales. As a community it consists of the townships of Capel Dewi, Horeb, Pontsian, Pren-gwyn, Tregroes, Rhydowen and the village of Llandysul itself. Llandysul lies in sout ...
, a farming town in
Cardiganshire, Wales. He was the seventh of ten children born to Richard Lloyd Jones and Mary Thomas James. In 1844, the family emigrated to the United States and settled in
Ixonia, Wisconsin
Ixonia is a town in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, Jefferson County, Wisconsin. The population was 4,385 at the time of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. The unincorporated communities of Ixonia (CDP), Wisconsin, Ixonia and Pipersville, W ...
, supported by Richard's brother, also named Jenkin. After ten years, Richard and his family moved to
Spring Green, Wisconsin
Spring Green is a village in Sauk County, Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, ...
.
Civil War service and its influence
Jones, often called "Jenk", enlisted in 1862 in the 6th Battery of the Wisconsin Volunteer Army. His military service included the battles of
Vicksburg Vicksburg most commonly refers to:
* Vicksburg, Mississippi, a city in western Mississippi, United States
* The Vicksburg Campaign, an American Civil War campaign
* The Siege of Vicksburg, an American Civil War battle
Vicksburg is also the name of ...
,
Missionary Ridge
Missionary Ridge is a geographic feature in Chattanooga, Tennessee, site of the Battle of Missionary Ridge, a battle in the American Civil War, fought on November 25, 1863. Union forces under Maj. Gens. Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, a ...
,
Chattanooga
Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...
,
Lookout Mountain
Lookout Mountain is a mountain ridge located at the northwest corner of the U.S. state of Georgia, the northeast corner of Alabama, and along the southeastern Tennessee state line in Chattanooga. Lookout Mountain was the scene of the 18th-centu ...
and
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
. He suffered a broken foot at Missionary Ridge that required him to walk with a cane for the rest of his life. His experiences during the war convinced him that people must find another way to settle their differences. After he was
mustered out of the army, Jones became an outspoken pacifist.
Jones returned to the family farm in Wisconsin after the war. He soon told his family that he had had a religious experience and decided to study for the ministry. In 1866, he enrolled in the Meadville Theological School in
Meadville, Pennsylvania
Meadville is a city in and the county seat of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. The city is within of Erie and within of Pittsburgh. It was the first permanent settlement in Northwestern Pennsylvania. The population was 13,388 at the 2010 censu ...
, a Unitarian institution that later became part of
Meadville Lombard Theological School
The Meadville Lombard Theological School is a Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist seminary in Chicago, Illinois.
History
Meadville Lombard is a result of a merger in the 1930s between two institutions, a American Unitarian Associati ...
. Many of his classmates were also veterans of the war, and he soon became a class leader. He examined the implications of the theory of evolution on ideas about God in his commencement paper, "Theological Bearings of Development Theory."
Marriage and family
![Susan Charlotte Barber Jones](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Susan_Charlotte_Barber_Jones.png)
Jones met Susan Charlotte Barber during his time in Meadville. Susan Barber was born May 15, 1832 in New York as the eldest daughter of English immigrants, John Barber and Susan Cartwright. The Cartwrights were Unitarians and had moved to Meadville seeking a like-minded community. Susan studied informally at the theological school while working as secretary to the school's founder, Harm Jan Huidekoper, and his son, Professor Frederic Huidekoper.
[Tauscher, Cathy and Peter Hughes."Susan Charlotte Barber Lloyd Jones."](_blank)
/ref> They married after Jones graduation in 1870 and spent their honeymoon in Cleveland, Ohio at the annual meeting of the Western Unitarian Conference (WUC). Then the couple returned to Spring Green, where Jenk's mother died soon after.
Jenkin and Susan had two children: Mary and Richard Lloyd Jones
Richard Lloyd Jones (April 14, 1873 – December 4, 1963) was an American journalist who was the long-time editor and publisher of the now defunct ''Tulsa Tribune''. He was noted for his controversial positions on political issues. The son of a n ...
; Richard became the owner of the ''Wisconsin State Journal
The ''Wisconsin State Journal'' is a daily newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin by Lee Enterprises. The newspaper, the second largest in Wisconsin, is primarily distributed in a 19 county region in south-central Wisconsin. As of September ...
'' and then of the ''Tulsa Tribune
The ''Tulsa Tribune'' was an afternoon daily newspaper published in Tulsa, Oklahoma from 1919 to 1992. Owned and run by three generations of the Jones family, the ''Tribune'' closed in 1992 after the termination of its joint operating agreement w ...
''.
Career as a Unitarian minister
Missionary work
Jones became the minister of the Liberal Christian Church in Winnetka, Illinois
Winnetka () is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, located north of downtown Chicago. The population was 12,316 as of 2019. The village is one of the wealthiest places in the nation in terms of household income. It was the second- ...
in 1870. However, he resigned this position in less than a year because he felt it too limiting. He returned to Wisconsin to become a traveling missionary. As a missionary, he founded churches in Racine, Madison, Baraboo and Whitewater. He also worked with the First Independent Society of Liberal Christians in Janesville.
In 1875, the WUC hired Jones part-time as Missionary Secretary. He travelled extensively, going as far as California, from then until 1882. His work in this position included helping to find ministers to fill vacant pulpits and attending conferences, installations, ordinations and dedications. In 1876, he was also named Corresponding Secretary of the WUC and liaison to the American Unitarian Association
The American Unitarian Association (AUA) was a religious denomination in the United States and Canada, formed by associated Unitarian congregations in 1825. In 1961, it consolidated with the Universalist Church of America to form the Unitarian Uni ...
(AUA). Jones was also one of the founders of ''Unity'', a weekly publication, in 1878. He became editor the following year and held that position for the rest of his life.
The combination of pastoral duties and missionary work caused health problems, so Jones decided to quit his missionary position in 1880. Instead, the WUC made the Missionary Secretary a full-time position. Jones resigned the Janesville pastorate and retained his WUC job. He and his family moved to the new WUC headquarters in Chicago.
All Souls Church (Chicago)
The Jones family travelled to Wales in 1882, where Jenk preached and met with family members and other Unitarians. After they returned to Chicago, he met with a dozen members of the nearly defunct Fourth Unitarian Church. By the following year, he had led its reorganization as All Souls Church. In 1884, he resigned his position with the WUC to serve the rest of his life as minister of All Souls.
In 1895, the church bought land for a new building that would house both the church and its related social services. The latter included a gymnasium, classrooms, library and reading rooms. This building was completed in 1905 and named the Abraham Lincoln Centre.
Peace advocacy
At the turn of the twentieth century, most Unitarians were peace advocates. Although Jones had served in the Civil War and believed that the ending of slavery was a positive outcome, he also believed that war was a bad thing. This caused him to preach openly against the Spanish–American War
, partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence
, image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg
, image_size = 300px
, caption = (clock ...
and the subsequent American intervention in the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
.
In 1915, Henry Ford sponsored an international conference in Stockholm. He chartered a ship, thereafter known as the Henry Ford Peace Ship, to bring a large delegation of American peace activists to the conference. Jones was one of this delegation. The conference failed to stop the war and was largely discredited in the American press. Support for the war grew until the United States joined the conflict in 1917. The Chicago Peace Society did not speak out against the war, angering Jones to the point of withdrawing his membership.
He continued to publicly oppose the war, both in speaking and writing. In 1918 Chicago's postmaster, citing the Emergency Act of 1917, prohibited the mailing of ''Unity''. Jones petitioned to have the suspension lifted. This was granted shortly before his death.
Later years
His wife's health began to decline in the mid-1890s. She suffered from hearing loss and severe headaches, which prevented her from participating in Jenk's work. Susan died of appendicitis in 1911.
In 1915, Jones married Mrs. Edith Lackersteen, a long-time co-worker at the Abraham Lincoln Centre.
Jones died on September 12, 1918 in Tower Hill, Wisconsin. An obituary listed the cause of death as "shock following an operation."[''New York Times'']
"Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones"
September 13, 1918. Accessed October 31, 2010. His body was interred in the churchyard of Unity Chapel.
Footnotes
External links
Abraham Lincoln Centre
founded by Jones
"Heralds of a Liberal Faith: Jenkin Lloyd Jones (1843-1918)"
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Jenkin Lloyd
1843 births
1918 deaths
People from Ceredigion
People from Crawford County, Pennsylvania
People from Chicago
People of Wisconsin in the American Civil War
People from Ixonia, Wisconsin
People from Spring Green, Wisconsin
Welsh emigrants to the United States
American Unitarian clergy
American magazine editors
Union Army soldiers
American anti-war activists
Frank Lloyd Wright