Algernon Sidney Crapsey

Algernon Sidney Crapsey (1847–1927) was "an Episcopal clergyman who in 1906 was defrocked after a celebrated heresy trial."

Algernon Sidney Crapsey was born in Fairmount, Ohio on June 28, 1847. His parents were Jacob Tompkins Crapsey (1808-1882) and Rachel M. Morris Crapsey (1815-1881). His maternal grandfather Senator Thomas Morris left Virginia because he opposed slavery to help settle Ohio. Morris was an Abolitionist. He a served a term served in the United States Senate. Algernon "identified deeply" with his grandfather Morris. To the boy, Morris was "a seer, a prophet, a hero, and a martyr."

Algernon's father was a lawyer whose office was in nearby Cincinnati. Algernon had eight siblings.

When his father got into financial difficulty, Algernon quit school at age eleven and took a job in a dry good store. When, after two years, his father recovered financially, Algernon returned to school, but because he was the oldest boy in his class, he felt uncomfortable and quit school again and took a job in a hardware factory. After a co-worker called him "worthless," in August 1862, at age fourteen, Algernon joined the army during the American Civil War. However, he was given a medial discharge the first winter after his enlistment and sent back to his home in Fairmount, Ohio.

At home, Algernon was bored, both at home and at his father's law office. However, there was a library in the same building. Algernon took advantage of the library to educate himself. He read Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, Washington Irving, Thomas Babington Macaulay, William Makepeace Thackeray, H. F. M. Prescott, and the Bible. One evening in Cincinnati, Algernon attended a service at Christ Church. He later looked back on the experience "as the hour of his conversion."

In 1863, Algernon took a job as storekeeper in a salt yard in West Virginia. By the beginning of 1864, he was back in Cincinnati. He found a job there as a bookkeeper in a printing company. To improve his qualifications for the job, he attended night classes. Nevertheless, Algernon was fired. His next job was in the Dead Letter Office in Washington, D.C. for six months.

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