[1] His parents intended for him to become an Episcopal priest, but when Himes was twelve, his father fell into financial ruin when a ship captain disappeared with a valuable cargo, leaving Stuckeley in immense debt.

[2] In October 1824, Elizabeth filed for divorce from Himes' father (a court order stated that Stuckeley was now a "yeoman...residing in parts unknown").

There he rose to prominence, reviving a church that was near death, and becoming active in the educational, temperance, peace, and abolitionist reform movements of the day.

In 1836, he left First Christian Church (some scholars claim that he was forced out of his position because of his single-minded focus on social reform movements).

Himes published his defense, first in The Boston Post, then in periodicals like The Liberator, refuting some of the more serious accusations made against him, the movement, and its impact on followers.

When this failed he became a leader of the Evangelical Adventist Church and their American Millennial Association (1858), opposing Sabbatarian Adventism and their understanding of the sanctuary as well as those who believed in conditional immortality and the re-establishment of Israel before Christ's Second Coming.