Elias Smith, Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetElias Smith
American journalist
Date of Birth: 17-Jun-1769
Date of Death: 29-Jun-1846
Profession: journalist
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Gemini 
About Elias Smith
- Elias Smith (17 June 1769 – 29 June 1846) was a preacher, physician, journalist and clergyman.
- Smith, along with the preacher Abner Jones, founded a group of Christian Churches in New England that eventually merged with other like-minded, regional groups to become the denomination known as the Christian Connexion.
- Smith founded The Herald of Gospel Liberty in 1808, which he claimed (in his autobiography) to be "the world's first religious newspaper".
- It was not the first in the world, but may have been the first in the U.S.
- The Herald had two purposes: (1) reporting news of revivals and (2) promoting "religious liberty", by which he meant an end to tax supported churches.
- (Several states had official tax supported churches at the time.)Smith proved to be a controversial figure in the Christian Connexion, leaving the denomination for several years to become a Universalist.
- Smith's apostacy to Universalism encouraged the Christian Connexion to more clearly define the boundaries of their beliefs and identity.
- Smith publicly renounced Universalism in 1823, but was not well received and reverted to it for a couple of years.
- Smith again attempted a re-entry to the Connexion with another repudiation of Universalism in 1827.
- His brethren were understandably hesitant to accept him, but his home congregation of Portsmouth, NH received him back in fellowship in 1840.Smith spent his later years as a vigorous proponent and practitioner of the Thomsonian system of herbal medicine, though he and Thomson had a public dispute and falling out in 1827.
- Smith died in Lynn, Massachusetts.
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