Biographical Details
Date of Birth: November 19, 1817
Birth Location: Mount Sterling, KY, USA
Graduation Year(s): 1846
Degree(s) Earned: Bachelors
Date of Death: November 10, 1865
Death Location: Spencer, IN, USA
Thomas Pettit Connelly
Life Experience
Thomas Pettit Connelly was born one of eight children. He moved to Lafayette with his family from Kentucky. He attended Wabash College for some time but did not graduate. He graduated from Indiana University in 1846. From 1847 to 1849, he helped found and secure investors for the establishment of North Western Christian University (which later became Butler University). His main occupation was as a preacher of the Gospel in the Christian church. For some time, he was principal of Bedford High School. He held public discussions while practicing medicine in Fayetteville and Spencer, Indiana, on weekdays, and preached on weekends. One of these public discussions, on “Materialism,” was eventually published with Dr. N. Fields of Jeffersonville. Sometime between 1854 and his death in 1865, Connelly appears also to have earned an M.D. from one of the various (now defunct) "Eclectic" Colleges of Medicine (a type of alternative medicine focusing on herbal remedies) in the midwest of that era.
Marriage and Family
Connelly married Emaline "Emma" Ribbey in January 1848 at Bloomington, Indiana. They had four children: Walter in November 1848, Elizabeth in 1850, Alice in 1852, and Eva in 1855. His widow Emma died in 1897. He has several living descendants.
Interesting Anecdote
Theophilus Wiley (Presbyterian minister, college professor, and cousin of IU’s first president, Andrew Wiley) wrote of Connelly, “his defense of the ‘Conscious Existence of the Soul after Death’ was regarded as a true triumph of truth.” Wylie also wrote that Connelly “was highly respected, as a patriot and Christian by all who knew him.” Connelly wrote a book in 1853 entitled, A Debate on the State of the Dead, which was published in its 2nd edition in 1872, seven years after his death.
References
- Wylie
- Findagrave.com
- myheritage.com/names/robert_connely
- rogerconnelly.com/rogerconnelly
- The Indiana State Sentinel 10/15/1846
- New Albany Daily Ledger 03/08/1854
- Shaw, Henry K. (1962) "The founding of Butler University, 1847-1855" Indiana Magazine of History Vol. 58 #3 (September)
- Garner-Wizard, Marianne (2007) "RE: The Rise and Fall of Electic Medical Practice and its Contribution to Modern Herb Use," Herb Clip 03/15/2007
- Thrasher, Thomas N. (2016) The Encyclopedia of Religious Debates, Vol. 1 (A-D) (nanopdf.com)