In 1814 he started a dry goods business with his brother in-law, Joseph Lord, and lifelong friend,
John Neal. After a stint in debtor's prison as a result of the failure of the "Pierpont, Lord, and Neal" dry goods store chain in 1815, Pierpont sent his wife and children to live with her family in Connecticut, pawned the family silver, and isolated himself in
Baltimore until he had produced
The Airs of Palestine. This poem made him one of America's best-known poets in 1816, the same year he cofounded a literary society called the
Delphian Club. Selling the poem's copyright paid for his move to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Neal gave the poem a poor review in his 1824–25 critical work
American Writers and the two men stopped corresponding for a year afterward. Pierpont began his religious work as a theology student in 1816, first in Baltimore and then at
Harvard, afterwards accepting an appointment as pastor at the
Hollis Street Church in
Boston (1819-1845). During his tenure, Pierpont was instrumental in establishing Boston's
English Classical School in 1821 and gained national recognition as an educator. He published two of the better-known early school readers in the United States,
The American First Class Book (1823) and
The National Reader (1827). However, Pierpont's latter years at the Hollis Street Church were characterized by controversy. His social activism for temperance and abolition angered some parishioners, and after a long public battle, he resigned in 1845. After his resignation, Pierpont served as pastor of a Unitarian church in
Troy, New York from 1845 to 1849, and then led the
First Parish Church (Unitarian),
Medford, Massachusetts from 1849 to 1856. He ran for Massachusetts governor during the 1840s as a
Liberty Party candidate, and in 1850 as a
Free Soil Party candidate for the
U.S. House of Representatives. On September 12, 1861, during the
Civil War, 76-year-old Pierpont enlisted as the
Chaplain of the
22nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry at
Camp Schouler. He was commissioned on the staff of the regiment on October 8, and they moved by train to
Washington. Pierpont and the
22nd Massachusetts served on duty at Hall's Hill, Virginia, as part of the
Defenses of Washington. He resigned his commission on November 5, 1861 due to poor health, and was given an appointment in the
Treasury Department in Washington, which he held from the end of 1861 until his death.
Literary works Pierpont gained a literary reputation with his book
Airs of Palestine: A Poem (1816), re-published in an anthology by the same name in 1840. He also published moral literature, such as
Cold Water Melodies and
Washingtonian Songster (comp. 1842). In addition, he is probably the anonymous "gentleman" who co-authored
The Drunkard; or, The Fallen Saved (1844), attributed to
W. H. Smith, an actor and stage manager at
Moses Kimball's
Boston Museum (theatre).
The Drunkard quickly became one of the most popular temperance plays in America. Pierpont's many published sermons include, among others,
The Burning of the Ephesian Letters (1833),
Jesus Christ Not a Literal Sacrifice (1834),
New Heavens and a New Earth (1837),
Moral Rule of Political Action (1839),
National Humiliation (1840), and
A Discourse on the Covenant with Judas (1842). With publication of
Phrenology and the Scriptures (1850), Pierpont became known not only as a reform lecturer, but also as an expert on phrenology and spiritualism. Pierpont was an important influence on reform-minded antebellum poets. Along with
John Greenleaf Whittier’s verse, Pierpont’s poems were frequently recited at public antislavery meetings. Oliver Johnson, a leading antislavery publisher and Garrison associate, published Pierpont’s
Anti-Slavery Poems in 1843. The collection contains poems that had appeared mostly in the poetry columns of
The Liberator and
The National Anti-Slavery Standard. Pierpont’s writings were also anthologized widely in antislavery poetry collections, such as William Allen’s
Autographs of Freedom (1853). John Pierpont did not write the song "Jingle Bells" as erroneously claimed by
Robert Fulghum in his collection of essays It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It (1989). "Jingle Bells" was composed by his son
James Lord Pierpont, who lived in Savannah, Georgia, and who was a Confederate soldier during the Civil War, composing songs for the Confederate States of America, including "Our Battle Flag", "Strike for the South", and "We Conquer or Die." He did, however, compose a hymn for the
250th anniversary of the incorporation of the town of
Dedham, Massachusetts.
Activism Pierpont may be called "the poet of the
abolition movement". His poem "The Tocsin", written just after the destruction of
Pennsylvania Hall (Philadelphia), was published in
The Liberator, the country's leading anti-slavery paper. Pierpont was also involved in
women's rights issues and spoke about
women's suffrage. ==Personal life==