Mrs. Eddy Mentioned Them December 28, 1957 Issue

Reverend William R. Alger, 1822-1905

[Mentioned in Pulpit and Press, p. 6]

William Alger worked hard for his education. When most boys of his age were in school, he was working in the cotton mills of Hooksett, New Hampshire, but he was determined to learn. On a post near his machine he pinned pages from his grammar so that he could memorize the rules as he worked. He utilized the periods during the day when the machines were idle to work out problems in arithmetic on sticks of wood or to read a page or two of history.

In five years Alger had saved enough money and had prepared himself sufficiently to enter the academy at Pembroke, New Hampshire. From there he went to the academy at Lebanon. With this preparation and a half year's private instruction, he enrolled in the Harvard Divinity School.

In 1847 he was ordained the pastor of the Mt. Pleasant Congregational Society in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Eight years later he became pastor of the Bulfinch Street Society of Boston.

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