Introduction

Biography

Ames mar­ried twice, to Sar­ah Jane Dan­iels and Ju­lia Fran­ces Bak­er.

At age 12, he joined a group called the Free Will Bap­tists. In 1852, he moved with his wife to St. An­tho­ny Falls, Min­ne­so­ta Ter­ri­to­ry (now Min­ne­ap­olis) to or­gan­ize a Free Will Bap­tist church there.

Ames ed­it­ed the first Re­pub­lican news­pa­per in Min­ne­so­ta, and cham­pi­oned the caus­es of tem­per­ance and abo­li­tion.

He even­tu­al­ly joined the Uni­ta­ri­ans, serv­ing in Bloom­ing­ton, Il­li­nois; Cinc­in­na­ti, Ohio; and Al­ba­ny, New York; and or­gan­iz­ing con­gre­ga­tions in se­ver­al Ca­li­for­nia lo­ca­tions.

At the end of his ca­reer, he worked in Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia, and Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts, end­ing with 24 years at the Church of the Dis­ci­ples in Bo­ston.

Works

• Charles Gor­don Ames: A Spir­it­ual Au­to­bio­gra­phy, pub­lished post­hu­mous­ly in 1913