Author ignites religion

UNION SPRINGS - Wednesday marked the first lecture in the Frontenac Historical Society series which covered “The Burned Over District” by Lawrence Maxwell.

The story of The Burned Over District is not the story of a historic fire, but the history of evangelism, spirituality and the start of new spiritual movements in central New York during the early to mid-19th century. Some of the movements were fads that are mostly lost, but others remain with many followers today. Mormonism, the Shakers, Pentecostalism, Millerism and even spiritualism came out of this period of spiritual exploration.

The phrase “burned over” was used by Whitney Cross in a book he wrote in 1950 about the over-evangelization of central New York. Quoting from the back cover, “The wooded hills and the valleys of western New York were swept by fires of the spirit. The fervent religiosity of the region caused historians to call it 'the burned-over district.'”