John Wesley Churchill was born in Fairlee on this day in 1839. Churchill graduated from Harvard in 1865, and continued his studies at Andover Theological Seminary. He became a professor of elocution and years later began lecturing on Sacred Literature.

Churchill became the Bartlet professor of Sacred Rhetoric at Andover and lectured throughout the northeast. He taught at Mt. Holyoke Seminary, Smith, Wellesley, BU, Johns Hopkins, and Harvard Divinity School.

Churchill also taught public speaking at Dartmouth, Amherst, Brown and others, often speaking in small towns to benefit local churches.

Image courtesy the Vermont Historical Society.