Samuel Porter Putnam (July 23, 1838 - December 11, 1896) was an American

freethinker Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other methods ...

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and

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Biography

Putnam was born in

Chichester, New Hampshire Chichester is a town in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 2,665 at the 2020 census. History Chichester was granted in 1727 to Nathaniel Gookin and others,Article i''Statistics and Gazetteer of New-Hampshire'' ...

. His father was a minister of a Congregational church. He graduated from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

in 1861, then entered the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to th ...

as a private, and was promoted during the

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to a captaincy.Cooke, Bill. ''Putnam, Samuel Porter (1838-1896)''. In

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. (2007). ''The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief''. Prometheus Books. pp. 624-625. In 1865 he entered the theological seminary in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, where he graduated in 1868, and preached for three years thereafter as a

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs it ...

minister in the pulpits of

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. In 1871 he became a

Unitarian Unitarian or Unitarianism may refer to: Christian and Christian-derived theologies A Unitarian is a follower of, or a member of an organisation that follows, any of several theologies referred to as Unitarianism: * Unitarianism (1565–present ...

minister, and preached for several years in various states. He then renounced the

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesu ...

and became an avowed freethinker. He attacked the

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and Christianity upon the platform, and for 20 years probably making more speeches against them than any other American, speaking almost every day for months together. Putnam was married to Louise Howell for eighteen years, they divorced in 1885 due to religious differences. They had two children. In 1888 with George E. MacDonald he founded the ''Freethought'' journal in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. It dissolved in 1891. He formed the Freethought Federation of America as president in 1892. It merged with the

American Secular Union The American Secular Union (ASU, also sometimes called the "American Secular Union and Freethought Federation") espoused secularism and freethought at the end of the 19th century in the United States. As the National Liberal League suffered crip ...

and became the American Secular Union and Freethought Federation in 1895. Historian Leigh Eric Schmidt discusses Putnam's life in ''Village Atheists: How America's Unbelievers Made Their Way In a Godly Nation'' (2016)."Village Atheists Engagingly Explores a Persecuted American Minority"
PopMatters.

Death

Putnam died from a

gas leak A gas leak refers to a leak of natural gas or another gaseous product from a pipeline or other containment into any area where the gas should not be present. Gas leaks can be hazardous to health as well as the environment. Even a small leak int ...

age on December 11, 1896. His body was found on the floor with twenty year old lecturer May Collins in her hotel room in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

. They had planned to go to the theatre together but were "poisoned by illuminating gas."

Publications

''Prometheus: A Poem''
(1877) * ''Gottlieb: His Life''
''Golden Throne''
* ''Why Don't He Lend a Hand?'' (1880) * ''Ingersoll and Jesus'' (1882)
''Waifs and Wanderings: A Novel''
(1884) * ''Adami and Heva: A New Version'' (1886) * ''The New God'' (1887) * ''The Problem of the Universe'' * ''My Religious Experience'' (1890) * ''Pen Pictures of the World's Fair''
''Four Hundred Years of Freethought''
(New York:

Truth Seeker Company ''The Truth Seeker'' is an American periodical published since 1873. It was considered the most influential Freethought publication during the period following the Civil War into the first decades of the 20th century, known as the Golden Age o ...

, 1894)

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Putnam, Samuel Porter 1838 births 1896 deaths 19th-century American journalists 19th-century American male writers American atheism activists American critics American male journalists Critics of Christianity Freethought writers People from Chichester, New Hampshire Union Army soldiers