Caleb Stetson was a Unitarian minister and regular member of the Transcendental Club, which met at least once at his home in Medford, Massachusetts. Though not particularly fervent, he was nevertheless quite intimate with Transcendentalists and Transcendental ideas. He was a prominent member of the audience on 31 August 1837 for
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s oration “The American Scholar” and on 26 August 1841 for
Frederic Henry Hedge’s oration “Conservatism and Reform.” Stetson was also involved in meeting with
Bronson Alcott,
Theodore Parker, Emerson, Thoreau, and others on 15 April 1847 to plan a new journal to succeed the
Dial, the
Massachusetts Quarterly Review.