Erasmus Manford

Erasmus Manford (1815-1884) was a Universalist minister, editor, and publisher who spent his career spreading Universalism in the American Midwest and Mississippi valley. Ordained in the 1830s, he traveled widely as a preacher and was known for holding public debates with ministers of other denominations, including a three-day oral debate at Milton, Indiana, in 1847. From the 1840s he edited and published a succession of Universalist periodicals that eventually became Manford's Magazine, which he conducted until his death, working from bases including St. Louis and Chicago. His autobiographical Twenty-five Years in the West (1867) recounts his itinerant ministry and debates.

Erasmus Manford — whose memoir Twenty-five Years in the West is also in this collection — against Benjamin Franklin, the great Disciples of Christ editor and debater. Three propositions argued over successive days before an Illinois audience, ranging from the second coming to endless punishment. Two frontier publishing empires met in this contest, and both sides printed it.

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The rollicking memoir of a Universalist circuit-rider and publisher on the frontier. Manford tramped and rode through Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and beyond, preaching universal salvation in courthouses, schoolrooms, and groves, challenging orthodox ministers to public debate, and founding Manford's Magazine to carry the message farther. His account of pioneer travel, camp-meeting religion, and frontier controversy is as much western Americana as denominational history.

(Note: this summary was automatically generated and may be inaccurate.)