{"id":29225,"date":"2018-02-15T09:53:43","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T14:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=29225"},"modified":"2018-02-15T09:54:06","modified_gmt":"2018-02-15T14:54:06","slug":"book-burning-in-stamford-connecticut-in-1904","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/book-burning-in-stamford-connecticut-in-1904.html","title":{"rendered":"Book Burning in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1904?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We have all heard of book burning throughout history as a way to eliminate ideas people don\u2019t agree with.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_29227\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29227\" style=\"width: 793px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/photo-0215-2018-book-burning.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29227\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/photo-0215-2018-book-burning.png\" alt=\"Photo: book burning\" width=\"793\" height=\"579\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/photo-0215-2018-book-burning.png 793w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/photo-0215-2018-book-burning-300x219.png 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/photo-0215-2018-book-burning-768x561.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 793px) 100vw, 793px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29227\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: book burning. Credit: LearningLark; Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I was surprised to learn that book burning was encouraged by one of my ancestors, William Kemp.<\/p>\n<p>I have already <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/i-knew-my-ancestor-was-religious-but-the-pastor-had-the-police-eject-him-from-church.html\">written<\/a> about how involved my 2nd-great-grandfather was with the Methodist Church in Stamford, Connecticut.<\/p>\n<p>The Maple Avenue Methodist Church, that William was instrumental in building, was built across the street from his home.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_29231\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29231\" style=\"width: 525px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/photo-1010-2017-methodist-church.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29231\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/photo-1010-2017-methodist-church.png\" alt=\"Photo: Maple Avenue Methodist Church, Stamford, Connecticut\" width=\"525\" height=\"337\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/photo-1010-2017-methodist-church.png 525w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/photo-1010-2017-methodist-church-300x193.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 525px) 100vw, 525px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29231\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Maple Avenue Methodist Church, Stamford, Connecticut. Source: Thomas Jay Kemp.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It was front page news in the <em>Daily Advocate<\/em> (Stamford, Connecticut) when religious book sellers stopped by William Kemp\u2019s home in 1904, selling copies of the multivolume book <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/millennialdawn02russgoog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Millennial Dawn<\/a> by Charles T. Russell. According to the newspaper:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cMr. Camp [correction: Kemp] read only a few pages when he decided to burn it.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_29235\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29235\" style=\"width: 1128px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/doc\/newspapers\/image\/v2:1448A28D6430363D@GB3NEWS-14F5EB7833B796F9@2416638-14F5E86FA4A7D606@0-14F5E86FA4A7D606\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29235\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/daily-advocate-newspaper-0606-1904-william-kemp.png\" alt=\"An article about William Kemp, Daily Advocate newspaper article 6 June 1904\" width=\"1128\" height=\"522\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/daily-advocate-newspaper-0606-1904-william-kemp.png 1128w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/daily-advocate-newspaper-0606-1904-william-kemp-300x139.png 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/daily-advocate-newspaper-0606-1904-william-kemp-768x355.png 768w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/daily-advocate-newspaper-0606-1904-william-kemp-1024x474.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1128px) 100vw, 1128px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29235\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: GenealogyBank, Daily Advocate (Stamford, Connecticut), 6 June 1904, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The local Methodist minister came to the same conclusion:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cRev. W. J. Cady, the pastor of the Maple Avenue Methodist Protestant Church, has burned four volumes which came into his hands, and denounced it in his pulpit yesterday morning and evening.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_29241\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29241\" style=\"width: 356px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/doc\/newspapers\/image\/v2:1448A28D6430363D@GB3NEWS-14F5EB7833B796F9@2416638-14F5E86FA4A7D606@0-14F5E86FA4A7D606\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29241\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/daily-advocate-newspaper-0606-1904-w.-j.-cady.png\" alt=\"An article about W. J. Cady, Daily Advocate newspaper article 6 June 1904\" width=\"356\" height=\"227\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/daily-advocate-newspaper-0606-1904-w.-j.-cady.png 356w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/daily-advocate-newspaper-0606-1904-w.-j.-cady-300x191.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 356px) 100vw, 356px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29241\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: GenealogyBank, Daily Advocate (Stamford, Connecticut), 6 June 1904, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Clearly religion was taken very seriously in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1904!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related Article:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/i-knew-my-ancestor-was-religious-but-the-pastor-had-the-police-eject-him-from-church.html\">I Knew My Ancestor Was Religious, but\u2026 the Pastor Had the Police Eject Him from Church?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An article by Thomas Jay Kemp about discovering that his ancestor, William Kemp, was burning books in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1904.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12557],"tags":[12,2020],"class_list":["post-29225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-stories","tag-genealogy","tag-newspaper-archives"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/photo-0215-2018-featured-graphic-burning-book.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}