Lloyd C. Douglas

Who was Lloyd C. Douglas?

Lloyd Cassel Douglas born Doya C. Douglas, was an American minister and author. He was born in Columbia City, Indiana, spent part of his boyhood in Monroeville, Indiana, Wilmot, Indiana and Florence, Kentucky, where his father, Alexander Jackson Douglas, was pastor of the Hopeful Lutheran Church. According to the 1910 Census Douglas was listed as a Lutheran Clergyman. He was married to Bessie I. Porch. They had two children: Bessie J. Douglas, 4 at the time and Virginia V Douglas, 2 at the time. They employed a cook, Ms. Josephine Somach. He died in Los Angeles, California.

Douglas was one of the most popular American authors of his time, although he did not write his first novel until he was 50.

After receiving the A.M. degree from Wittenberg College in Springfield, Ohio, in 1903, Douglas was ordained in the Lutheran ministry. He served in pastorates in North Manchester, Indiana, Lancaster, Ohio, and Washington, D.C.. From 1911 to 1915, he was director of religious work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The next six years, he was minister of The First Congregational Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan, from there moving to Akron, Ohio, and serving as the Sr. Minister of the First Congregational Church of Akron from 1920–26 then to Los Angeles, California and finally to the St. James United Church at Montreal, Quebec, from which pulpit he retired to write. His biographer, Louis Sheaffer, comments, "he never stated publicly why he changed denominations."