Rev. Solomon Washington Gladden was born on February 11, 1836, in Pottsgrove, Pennsylvania.

He was an American Congregational pastor, a leader in the Social Gospel movement, and an author. At 16, he worked as an apprentice at the Owego Gazette. In 1854, he became part of the temperance movement and decided to become a minister. He graduated from Williams College, Massachusetts in 1859. He was ordained in 1860 and started his first position at the State Street Congregational Church in Brooklyn, New York, followed by a call to the Congregational Church at Morrisania, New York (1861-1866), and a pastorate in North Adams, Massachusetts (1866-1871). In 1871, he became the religious editor of the New York Independent, a position that has earned him national recognition. In 1875, Gladden became pastor of the North Congregational Church in Springfield, Massachusetts, and in 1882, he moved on to the First Congregational Church in Columbus, Ohio where he served for 36 years. He furthered his national reputation as a religious leader and as a community leader by his preaching, lecturing, writing, and active involvement. He was one of the first leading U.S. religious figures to support the unionization of the workforce; he also opposed racial segregation. In 1885, he took part in forming the American Economic Association and served on its Council. He was a prolific writer, with 66 books and pamphlets to his credit, as well as a number of hymnals. By life’s end, he had received 35 honorary doctorates and lectured, among other places, at Notre Dame, Yale, Oxford, and Harvard.

In 1860, he married Jennie O. Cohoon (1840–1909). He died on July 2, 1918, in Columbus, Ohio.