Born: Frankfort, Kentucky, 1790.Died: Bloomington, Illinois, 1867.
Born: Frankfort, Kentucky, 1790.
Died: Bloomington, Illinois, 1867.
For many years this name was as familiar to the people of Bloomington as the name of the city itself. He was educated at Georgetown, Kentucky, and came to Bloomington in 1835. His removal to Illinois grew out of his aversion to negro slavery. He was a descendant of the Huguenots and was a man of earnest religious convictions.
For six years he was a member of the Baptist Church, but in 1830 he was excluded from the fellowship of that body because he held and advocated religious views which he believed to be more in harmony with the Bible than those preached by the Baptists at that time. It was in this way that he came thus early into the movement looking to the reproduction of the New Testament church. He was the leading spirit in the organization of the Christian Church in Bloomington. He built, almost single-handed, its first house of worship. Through the active years of his life he gave the congregation his thought, prayers, time, energy and means. When no minister was present, he preached, and frequently baptized candidates. He presided well at the Lord's table and exhorted his brethren to fidelity and good works. While the orthodoxy of the Disciples was for years a perennial question with his religious neighbors, Mr. Major knew whom and what and why he believed, and was as immovable as a mountain.
The growth of the city and his foresighted investments brought to him considerable property. He was a public-spirited citizen. The first public hall for general uses was erected by him at the southeast corner of Front and East Streets, in 1852. In this the first Republican State convention was held in May, 1856. In this year he also founded Major Seminary, which, next to his church, he loved and prized.