Henry Aiken Worcester

Henry Aiken Worcester (Sept. 25, 1802 – May 21, 1841) was a Yale University alumnus, a vegetarian, and a Swedenborgian minister who worked in Maine and Massachusetts. His "Sermons on the Lord's Prayer"[1] was published posthumously in 1850 .[2]

Biography

He was born in Hollis, New Hampshire to the large Worcester family. His siblings included Congressman Samuel T. Worcester and David Worcester, who was principal of Bangor High School.[3] He graduated Yale University, class of 1828. He studied at Yale Divinity School from 1829-1830.

He married Olive Gay of Gardiner on August 26, 1838, and they had two children, Henry Parker Worcester and Mary Olivia Worcester, who was born after her father died.[4] He died in Portland in 1841 and is buried in the Eastern Cemetery in Portland, Maine.[4] His obituary said: "Mr. Worcester's amiable, frank and social qualities gained him many warm friends, and his character and acquirements were such as to ensure to him universal esteem."[5]

Ministry

He was licensed to preach April 12, 1833.[6] Worcester held ministerial positions at Swedenborgian churches in Abington, Massachusetts, Bath, Maine, Gardiner, Maine and Portland. Maine. He moved to Portland in 1833.[6] He published The Sabbath in 1841.

Vegetarian diet

In 1834 health reformer Sylvester Graham lectured in Portland, Maine on "The Science of Human Life." Rev. Worcester attended and then wrote to his siblings in Hardwick, Vermont about the lectures.[2][3] In his letter housed in the Ernest Bell Memorial Library, he wrote about Graham's recommendations for a vegetarian diet that was mostly vegan, and he wrote:

I confess myself a convert to his mode of life in theory and now in practice.[3]

Also in the letter Worcester wrote:

But I tell you that the physicians, all but one quack, of Portland, a very scientific class of men, have attended the course, and I believe all, to a man, acknowledge the correctness of Graham’s principles. The change that it is making in this city you can hardly conceive of – for a very large portion of the inhabitants have adopted his mode of diet and manner of living.[3]

Food columnist Avery Yale Kamila wrote in the Portland Press Herald that his report was different from "the assessment in [history book] “Vegetarian America” that most doctors of the day ignored Graham’s dietary advice."[2]

Selected publications

References
  1. "Sermons on the Lord's prayer : Worcester, Henry Aiken, 1802-1841. [from old catalog] : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  2. Kamila, Avery Yale (2020-03-29). "A meat-free diet in Maine is nothing new: In the first half of the 19th-century, some Mainers promoted a vegetarian diet". Portland Press Herald. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  3. John, Edmundson (2016-02-19). "1834 Vegan Enthusiasm In Portland Maine". Ernest Bell Library. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  4. "Rev. Henry Aiken Worcester (1802-1841) - Find A Grave". www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  5. "The Worcester Family - Seventh Generation". www.worcesterfamily.com. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
  6. Carter, Nathan Franklin (1906). The Native Ministry of New Hampshire ... Rumford printing Company. ISBN 9781404706910.
  7. "Index:Sermons on the Lord's Prayer (Henry Worcester).djvu - Wikisource, the free online library". en.m.wikisource.org. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  8. WORCESTER, Henry Aiken (1841). The Sabbath. J. S. Hodson.
  9. Zboray, Ronald J. (2013). Literary Dollars and Social Sense A People's History of the Mass Market Book. Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-1-136-72953-9. OCLC 962413201.
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