Editing Robert G. Ingersoll (section)

==Personal life==
Robert Ingersoll was born in [[Dresden, Yates County, New York|Dresden, New York]]. His father, John Ingersoll, was an [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]]-sympathizing [[Congregationalist]] preacher, whose radical opinions caused him and his family to relocate frequently. For a time, Rev. John Ingersoll substituted as preacher for American revivalist [[Charles Grandison Finney|Charles G. Finney]] while Finney was on a tour of Europe. Upon Finney's return, Rev. Ingersoll remained for a few months as co-pastor/associate pastor with Finney. The elder Ingersoll's later pastoral experiences influenced young Robert negatively, however, as The Elmira Telegram described in 1890:<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.crookedlakereview.com/articles/34_66/41aug1991/41wilson.html|title=A Sketch of the Life of America's Most Noted Agnostic by Rufus Wilson|last=Wilson|first=Rufus R.|work=The Elmira Telegram|date=16 March 1890|access-date=2018-09-16}}</ref>

<blockquote>Though for many years the most noted of American infidels, Colonel Ingersoll was born and reared in a devoutly Christian household. His father, John Ingersoll, was a Congregationalist minister and a man of mark in his time, a deep thinker, a logical and eloquent speaker, broad minded and generously tolerant of the views of others. The popular impression which credits Ingersoll's infidelity in the main to his father's severe orthodoxy and the austere and gloomy surroundings in which his boyhood was spent is wholly wrong. On the contrary, the elder Ingersoll's liberal views were a source of constant trouble between him and his parishioners. They caused him to frequently change his charges, and several times made him the defendant in church trials. His ministerial career was, in fact, substantially brought to a close by a church trial which occurred while he was pastor of the Congregational Church at [[Madison, Ohio]], and at which his third wife appeared as the prosecutor. Upon this occasion, he was charged with prevarication and unministerial conduct. The evidence adduced – the trial is one of the abiding traditions of the dull little town of Madison – was of the most trivial and ridiculous character, but the committee which heard it decided that, though he had done "nothing inconsistent with his Christian character," he was "inconsistent with his ministerial character," and forbade him to preach in the future. Elder John went before the higher church authorities and was permitted to continue his clerical labors. However, he soon removed to Wisconsin, going from there to Illinois, where he died. The Madison trial occurred when young Robert was nine years old, and it was the unjust and bigoted treatment his father received which made him the enemy, first of Calvinism, and later of Christianity in its other forms.</blockquote>

During 1853, "Bob" Ingersoll taught a term of school in [[Metropolis, Illinois]], where he let one of his students, the future Judge Angus M. L. McBane, do the "greater part of the teaching, while Latin and history occupied his own attention". At some time prior to his Metropolis position, Ingersoll had also taught school in [[Mount Vernon, Illinois]].<ref>1887. ''History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin, and Williamson Counties, Illinois''. Goodspeed Publishing Co. 557, 585. As of 1887, Judge McBane still had in his possession Ingersoll's letter of inquiry regarding the school dated May 16, 1853.</ref>

Ingersoll was married, February 13, 1862, to [[Eva Parker Ingersoll|Eva Amelia Parker]] (1841–1923). They had two daughters. The elder daughter, [[Eva Ingersoll Brown|Eva Ingersoll-Brown]], was a renowned feminist and suffragist.<ref>Entry for [https://archive.org/stream/modernrati00mccauoft#page/192/mode/1up Eva Ingersoll-Brown] in A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Rationalists</ref>