William Rounseville Alger (December 28, 1822 – February 7, 1905) was an American Unitarian minister, author, poet, hymnist, editor, and abolitionist.

[1][2] Alger graduated from the Harvard Divinity School in 1847 and was ordained as a Unitarian minister in Roxbury, Massachusetts, where he preached until 1855.

[3] After 1855, Alger went to the Bulfinch Street Church in Boston, and preached around the country including in New York, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Louisiana, and Rhode Island.

[4] Alger was an active abolitionist and Free Mason, and a contributor to various periodicals including the Christian Examiner, which he co-edited in the 1860s.

[9] Harvey Jewell, the speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives was impressed by Alger's prayers and asked for his words to be taken down by the stenographer and published.