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Sylvanus C. Breyfogel (1851-1934), American Evangelical bishop, was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, on July 20, 1851, the son of the Rev. and Mrs. Seneca Breyfogel.

Breyfogel was licensed in the East Pennsylvania Conference and ordained in 1877. He served in the pastorate and as district superintendent until 1891, when he was elected bishop at the General Conference in Indianapolis. He continued in this office for thirty-nine years until he retired at the General Conference in 1930.

Breyfogel helped to form the retirement program, known as the Superannuation Fund. He also was especially influential in the development of Albright College in Reading.

Breyfogel traveled throughout the United States and Canada, and also visited Europe, Japan and China. And worked with the Federal Council of Churches.

Breyfogel also served as president of the Evangelical School of Theology at Reading, and was the chief sponsor of the Evangelical Correspondence College, organized in 1885.

He wrote several books: Landmarks in the Evangelical Association, 1800-1877; Great Sermons by Great Preachers; The Preachers Assistant; and The Polity of the Evangelical Association. He was married in 1877 to Kate Boas, a member of a prominent Evangelical family. She died August 1, 1928. Breyfogel died at his home in Reading on November 24, 1934.

William Burt (1852-1936), an American pastor, missionary, and bishop, was born in Padstow, Cornwall, England, on October 23, 1852. His family immigrated to the United States. Burt graduated from Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut, in 1879, and from Drew Theological School in Madison, New Jersey, in 1881. Eventually, he received honorary doctorates from Grant, Wesleyan, and Syracuse Universities and Dickinson and Allegheny Colleges.

Joining the New York East Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1881, Burt served St. Paul's Church and De Kalb Avenue Church in Brooklyn before being transferred to the Italy Annual Conference in 1886. In 1888 he moved to Florence, establishing a theological school, and became superintendent of the Italy Mission. Coming to Rome in 1890, Burt was instrumental in establishing the Methodist Building, the Boy's College, a Theological School, Publishing House, and Young Ladies College. He also led in building several churches and schools in other parts of Italy.

On May 20, 1904, Burt was elected a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and appointed resident Bishop of Europe. While in charge of the work in Europe, he organized the France Mission Conference, the Austria- Hungary Mission Conference, the Russian Mission Conference, and the Denmark and Finland Annual Conferences. In 1910 he organized all the Methodist work in Europe into the European Central Annual Conference.

On several occasions the Board of Bishops designated Burt to be an Episcopal visitor in other areas of the world. In 1906 he was Fraternal delegate to the British and Irish Wesleyan Conference, and in that same year made the Quadrennial visit to Methodist missions in Africa. In 1917 he visited the Methodist work in the Orient including China, Japan, the Philippines, India, Korea, and the Malay Peninsula. Finally in 1919 Burt was called upon to study post-war conditions in Europe with the purpose of rebuilding Methodist Episcopal churches.

Burt's contributions and honors were many. He wrote ten books and translated the Discipline into Italian. King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy knighted him in 1903. He was received by the kings of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden as well as by the queens of Italy and Bulgaria, the Emperor of Germany and the Shah of Persia.

Bishop Burt returned to the United States in 1912 assuming episcopal leadership of the Buffalo, New York area. He retired in 1924 and died at Clifton Springs, New York on April 9, 1936. He is buried in Lynn, Massachusetts.

Burt married Helen Bartlett Graves (born April 14, 1856) on April 14, 1881. They had five children.

Elmer Edwin Burtner (1881-1923) was a Church of the United Brethren in Christ minister. He attended Shenandoah Institute in Dayton, Virginia, and received a B.A. from Otterbein College in 1906. Burtner also received a B.D. (1909) and M.A. (1910) from Yale Divinity School. He earned a Ph.D. from Otterbein College in 1918. In 1910 he married Maude Truxall.

Burtner was ordained in 1909 by the Congregational Church, and during college he preached. After graduation he began a pastorate at the First Congregational Church in Missoula, Missouri. He later served the Congregational Church in Spokane, Washington. In September 1915 Burtner transferred his membership to the Southeast Ohio Conference of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. He served in Westerville, Ohio, from 1915-1923.

Luther Olin Burtner (1858-1910) was a United Brethren Church missionary. He attended Shenandoah Institute in Virginia, and graduated from Bonebrake Theological Seminary in 1888. In 1885 he was licensed to preach by the Virginia Conference, and in 1888 he was ordained. Burtner then transferred to the Maryland Conference and began his first pastorate at Keedysville, a position he held for four years. From 1892 to 1893 he served at Walkersville.

Later in 1893, he sailed for Sierra Leone, where he was the superintendent in charge of the work of the Foreign Missionary Board of the United Brethren Church. His first furlough was taken in 1896, and while in the United States, he attended the General Conference. Burtner returned to Sierre Leone in 1897, and was one of the few missionaries to escape the massacre of 1898.

Upon his return to the United States, Burtner was appointed to the Hagerstown (Maryland) circuit. In 1898 he was named the presiding elder of the Maryland Conference.

A second missionary tour of duty began in 1901 when he arrived in the Philippines to oversee the work of the Women's Missionary Association. After three years of work, he took a furlough. Between the period of 1904 and 1909 he suffered from failing health and was only able to serve periodically in the home and foreign mission fields.

He married Jennie Light Burtner who served with him on the mission field.

Charles Wesley Christman, Jr. (?-2004) was a United Methodist minister. He was ordained in 1933 and became a member of the New York Annual Conference. He retired in 1980 and died in 2004.

Christman attended seminary at Union Theological in New York City. He had a longstanding interest in the history of United Methodism in the northeastern United States Christman became active in the Northeastern Jurisdiction Commission on Archives and History, as well as its predecessor organizations. He served that agency in many capacities, including serving as president, and was for many years the editor of its newsletter.

Matthew Walker Clair, Jr. (1890-1968) was a Methodist Church bishop. He received his B.A. from Howard University in 1915, a bachelor of sacred theology from Boston University in 1918, and a doctor of divinity from Gammon Seminary in 1936.

Clair's first appointment was to Bedford, Virginia in 1918, and this was followed by appointments in Martinsburg, West Virginia, in 1919; Roanoke, Virginia, in 1920; Daytona Beach, Florida (1924-1925); and Denver, Colorado (1925-1928). In 1929 he was appointed to the Board of Home Missions. Clair was professor of Practical Theology at Gammon Theological Seminary from 1936 until 1940, when he became pastor at St. Mark Church in Chicago.

During World War I Clair served as a United States Army chaplain. Elected to the episcopacy by the Central Jurisdictional Conference in 1952, he was sent by the Council of Bishops to review and appraise Methodist work in several parts of the world. He visited Africa in 1954, Singapore in 1956, Central and South America in 1958, and Europe in 1961

Clair was a member of several church wide organizations. He also served as president of the Board of Trustees of Philander Smith College. In 1964, after eight years as the bishop in charge of the work of the Central Jurisdiction, Clair retired.

Elmer Talmadge Clark (1886-1966) was a pastor, newspaper correspondent, editor, publicity manager, missionary secretary, and church historian. He joined the St. Louis Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1909 and served pastorates in the St. Louis area. During World War II, he was a correspondent for the New York Tribune. In 1918 he became publicity and promotion director for the Missionary Centenary, a movement which raised more than fifty million dollars for home and foreign missions. He also served in a similar capacity for the Christian Education campaign.

After those campaigns Clark became editorial secretary of the Board of Missions and editor of World Outlook. In 1948 he was elected executive secretary of the Association of Methodist Historical Societies (AMHS). At Oxford, England, in 1951, he was elected secretary for the Western Hemisphere of the World Methodist Council (WMC).

Clark founded and edited World Parish, the bulletin issued jointly by these two organizations. In 1952 he resigned his office in the Board of Missions and moved to Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, to carry on the work of the AMHS and the WMC and to ensure the construction of the World Methodist Building. In 1961 he became secretary emeritus of the WMC.

Clark was editor-in-chief of The Journal and Letters of Francis Asbury, wrote twenty-seven mission study books, thirteen volumes of The Missionary Year Book, numerous articles, and helped compile the Encyclopedia of World Methodism.

Arthur R. Clippinger (1878-1958) was a Church of the United Brethren in Christ minister and bishop. He was a public school teacher and a Sunday School superintendent at the age of eighteen. Clippinger enrolled in Lebanon Valley College in 1900 and graduated in 1905. While he was a student he received a ministerial license and probationary membership from the Pennsylvania Conference in 1903.

As a student he served in Greencastle and New Cumberland, Pennsylvania. In 1907 he married Ellen Mills (1882-1955) and enrolled in Yale Divinity School, from which he graduated in 1910. During his studies there he served Congregational churches.

In 1910 he became pastor of Summit Street Church in Dayton, Ohio. A year later, he was ordained in that church. Under his direction, the congregation grew, and built a new church on Dayton's Euclid Avenue, and renamed Euclid Avenue Church. In 1918, the Miami Conference elected him superintendent, and in 1921 he became a bishop of the Central Area of Ohio, where he served until retiring in 1950. He was a strong force in bringing together the Evangelical Church and the Church of the United Brethren in Christ in 1946.

Clippinger served on nearly every board or department of the various agencies of his denomination. He was a member of the Federal Council of Churches. During World War II he served on the National Chaplains' Commission. As a bishop he visited mission fields in China, Japan, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo. He was also present at the first assembly of the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam in 1948.

Wayne Clymer (1917-2013), minister, bishop, educator, and psychologist, was born in Napoleon, Ohio, on September 24, 1917, son of Grace Susan Hulvey and George A. Clymer, a minister in the Evangelical Church. Clymer attended Asbury College, receiving his B. A. in 1939. In the fall of that year he entered Columbia University, and while attending there he became pastor of Immanuel Evangelical Church in Ozone Park, New York, and then St. Paul's Evangelical Church in Forest Hills. He completed his M.A. in 1942. Clymer went on to receive a B.D. from Union Theological Seminary in 1944.

In 1946, Clymer was appointed to the faculty of Evangelical Theological Seminary (ETS) as professor of pastoral theology. While there, he continued his graduate studies toward a Ph.D. at New York University, receiving his degree in 1950.

Clymer was ordained by Evangelical United Brethren Bishop John S. Stamm, and was a member of the Atlantic Conference. He went on to post-doctoral work at the New School for Social Research, Columbia University, the William Alanson White School for Psychiatry, and took clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Saint Luke's Hospital in New York City. In 1957 Clymer was elected dean of ETS, succeeding Paul Eller. In 1967 he was he was chosen as President.

Clymer was ordained by Evangelical United Brethren Bishop John S. Stamm, and was a member of the Atlantic Conference. He went on to post-doctoral work at the New School for Social Research, Columbia University, the William Alanson White School for Psychiatry, and took clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Saint Luke's Hospital in New York City. In 1957 Clymer was elected dean of ETS, succeeding Paul Eller. In 1967 he was he was chosen as President. The year prior, 1966-1967, Clymer and his wife lived overseas where he served as consultant to the United Church of Christ in the Philippines on ministerial training, and taught at both Saint Andrew's Theological Seminary in Manila and at Trinity College in Singapore.

The North Central Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church elected Wayne Clymer to the episcopacy in 1972, and he was assigned to the Minnesota Area, where he served for eight years before being assigned to the Iowa Area in 1980. In 1976, Clymer was appointed president of the United Methodist Committee on Relief. Clymer traveled extensively during his tenure as bishop, visiting countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Clymer and his wife retired to Minnesota in 1984. Bishop Clymer died from a stroke on November 25, 2013, while delivering a eulogy at Brooklyn Center United Methodist Church in Minnesota.

William Colbert (1764-1833) was a Methodist Episcopal Church minister who served several circuits in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, and Virginia. He was admitted on trial to the Philadelphia Conference in 1790. Colbert served most of his time as a traveling minister and had a traveling connection with the Baltimore Conference until 1811, when he located. In 1826 he was readmitted as a supernumerary in the Philadelphia Conference. He was instrumental in forming the Strousburg (Pennsylvania) and Milford circuits.

In November 1804 he married Elizabeth Stroud, whose parents were the original founders of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. The Colberts had six children.