Eddy, Richard, 1828-1906

Richard Eddy (1828-1906) studied at the Clinton Liberal Institute in Clinton, New York, from 1848 to 1850. He was ordained to the Universalist ministry in 1852 at Frankfort, New York. He served parishes in Rome, Buffalo, and Canton, New York; Franklin and Gloucester, Massachusetts; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During the Civil War, he served as chaplain for the 60th New York Volunteer Infantry. The Rev. Eddy was a longtime advocate of the temperance movement and was for many years the head of the Independent Order of Good Templars. He delivered over 2,000 lectures in support of temperance and published Alcohol in History, an Account of Intemperance in All Ages; Together with a History of the Various Methods Employed for its Removal (1887) and Alcohol in Society: an Arraignment of the Drink System as an Enemy of the Public Good (1888) for the New York City based National Temperance Society. The Rev. Eddy is best remembered for his two-volume history, Universalism in America (1884-1886), which covers the history of Universalism from 1636 to 1884.