Although born in new York in 1833, Robert Green Ingersoll spent much of his life in Southern Illinois.
His father was a minister of the Gospel who moved the family to Illinois when Robert was only 12. Having been raised in a religious household, it is strange that Ingersoll became one of the country's most outspoken agnostics, but he was always, while witty and prankish, a brilliant but unconventional thinker.
As soon as he finished his education in local schools, he got a teaching job in Metropolis, Ill., but was fired before he finished the first term.
His dismissal was brought about by a remark he reportedly made at the local grocery store where the men were sitting around the old pot-bellied stove arguing about the proper method of baptism.
Ingersoll said, "I think the best method of baptism is immersion - that is, if the candidate has properly soaped up before the plunge.
The staunch Baptists considered this remark heretical, and the young teacher was promptly removed from his job as unfit to teach the young people.
Ingersoll then went to Shawneetown, Ill., where he was appointed deputy county clerk and began to study law.
After the Civil War, in which he served as colonel with a Union cavalry unit, he became one of the country's leading corporation lawyers and served a term as attorney general for the state of Illinois.
While remaining active in Republican politics, he never gave up his eloquent attacks on religion.
Known variously as an atheist and an agnostic, he engaged in famous religious debates with some of the nation's most formidable clerics.
Ingersoll was a silver-tongued orator, and some of his lectures such as "The Gods" in 1876, "Some Mistakes of Moses" in 1876, and "Superstition" in 1898, became nationally famous.
Wherever he spoke, he drew large crowds that paid fabulous prices to hear him.
At the conclusion of one such lecture in Carlinville, Ill., Ingersoll went to the auditorium manager to collect his fee for speaking. He found that the manager had skipped town with all the proceeds, whereupon Ingersoll was reported to have said, "If there is not a hell, there should be one for that culprit."
A reporter only partially overheard the remark, and the next morning's newspaper carried the headline, "Ingersoll Confesses There Is A Hell," which was not what he said at all.
One time a minister, the Rev. Brooks, was lying critically ill and requested that all visitors be turned away. However, when Ingersoll called, the minister asked that he be admitted.
"I'm flattered," Ingersoll said, "that you should receive me after refusing to see your closest friends."
"I don't know whether you should be," replied the minister. "The reason I wanted to see you is that I am quite certain to see my other friends in the next world, while this may be my last opportunity to see you."
When Ingersoll died in 1899, by reason of his Civil War service his remains were taken to Arlington National Cemetery for burial. He did not wish to be buried in a churchyard.
