Costen Jordan Harrell (1885-1971), American Bishop, was born on February 12, 1885 in Gates, Colorado. Harrell was a Methodist Bishop and Seminary Professor. He began his ministry as student sully pastor at Park Avenue (Nashville, Tennessee). In 1910 he joined the North Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Harrell was ordained deacon in 1911 while serving the Epworth Church (Raleigh, North Carolina). He served the Trinity Church of Durham, North Carolina (1916-1919); First Church, Wilson, North Carolina (1919-1920); First Church, Atlanta, Georgia (1920-1925); Epworth Church, Norfolk, Virginia (1929-1933); West End Church, Nashville, Tennessee, 1933-1944. Harrell was fraternal messenger from the Methodist Episcopal Church, South to the General Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church, Columbus, Ohio (1932). He served as a member of the Commission on Budget and the Commission on Course of Study of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He was an alternate to the World Conference on Faith and Order. Harrell was the secretary of the General Commission on World Service from 1940-1944; In 1944 he was elected to the Episcopacy by the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference and assigned to the Birmingham area. As Bishop he beceame the Chairman of the Commission on the Study of the Local Church (1948-1952). He was also a member of the Board of Pensions and chairman of the Legislative Committee (1948-1952). Harrell was assigned to the episcopacy of the Charlotte area in 1949. Bishop Harrell was the vice-chairman of the Advance For Christ and His Church (1948-1956) and the Week of Dedication Program. He was elected as a member of the Executive Committee of the Council of Bishops (1952-1953). Bishop Harrell retired in 1956 from the Episcopacy and accepted a position as visiting professor of Homiletics and Methodist Polity and Discipline (1956). His parents were Samuel Isaac and Isa Costen Harrell. He received an A. B. degree in 1906 from Trinity College (Duke University). He then went on to receive a Bachelor of Divinity and Master of Arts Degree in 1910. Randolph-Macon College awarded him the Doctory of Divinity Degree in 1929. He also earned a Litt. D. from Birmingham-Southern in 1945 and the LL.D. Degree from American University in 1953. He married Amy Patton Walden of Athens, Georgia on June 6, 1917. They had one son. Bishop Harrell passed away in 1971.
Quentin Charles Lansman (1920-1969) was a minister and educational administer in the Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) Church and later the United Methodist church. He served as both a pastor and later as a General Officer in the Board of Christian Education for the EUB Church and following its merger, as the Associate Director in the Department of Campus Ministry of the Division of Higher Education of the United Methodist Church.
Born in Shelby County, Iowa on September 6, 1920, he was the son of Charles and Johanna Lansman. He was educated in Audubon, Iowa and attended Westmar College at Lemars, Iowa, receiving his B.A in 1943. Lansman subsequently attended Evangelical Theological Seminary in Naperville, Illinois and received his Bachelor of Divinity in 1946. Lansman served two congregations in the Iowa Conference of the EUB Church: at Noble Center EUB in Griswold, Iowa and at Waterloo First EUB Church. Lansman enrolled in the Northwestern University PhD program and lived in Naperville Illinois during his resident work, serving as Associate Minister at Naperville First EUB Church. From 1959 to 1968 Lansman was a General Officer in the Board of Christian Education of the Evangelical United Brethren Church, based in Dayton, Ohio. Following its merger with the Methodist Church in 1968, Lansman became the Associate Director in the Department of Campus Ministry of the Division of Higher Education of the newly formed United Methodist Church, in Nashville, Tennessee. Lansman completed his doctorate at Northwestern in June, 1969 with his dissertation entitled, An Historical Study of the Development of Higher Education and Related Theological and Educational Assumptions in the Evangelical United Brethren Church: 1800-1954.
Lansman died unexpectedly on December 28, 1969 at the Lloyd Geweke ranch near Ord, Nebraska. Sections of his dissertation were posthumously published as a book with the title Higher Education in the Evangelical United Brethren Church, 1800-1954 in 1972 by the Board of Education of The United Methodist Church.
Eben Samuel Johnson (1866-1967), Bishop and chaplain, was born in Warwickshire, England on February 8, 1866. He is a direct descendent from one of John Wesley's original helpers. Johnson was raised and educated in England. He married Sarah Tilsey (born August 4, 1863) in 1884. At the age of sixteen he was preaching on an English Methodist circuit and later spent several years as a newspaper reporter in London.
When Johnson was ten years old he was admitted to the Queens Hospital in Birmingham, England. During his twelve week stay a number of events happened which shaped the rest of his life. The first was the impact of the amount of sickness, suffering, and dying of those who were around him. This created such a compassion for others within him that he knew then and there that the ministry was to be his life's calling. The second and third events happened simultaneously when his brother sent young Johnson two books. The first was a book on Pitman shorthand. Johnson quickly learned this type of writing and subsequently used it throughout his ministry. The second book was about David Livingstone. After reading this biography Johnson felt a strong conviction to serve the church in Africa. Later, when his mother was visiting him in the hospital, Johnson expressed this high calling to her. To which she replied that if God wanted him to serve in Africa, then it would come to pass. To his dying day Johnson felt that his mother's reply was his confirmation to serve as a missionary in Africa. All of these influences are elucidated in this collection.
In 1889 Johnson moved to the United States and was admmitted on trial sight unseen with the Northwest Iowa Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. While serving various churches within the conference he attended Mornnigside College in Souix City, Iowa.
When the Spanish-American War broke out Johnson became the chaplain for the Iowa 52nd Volunteers. He was mustered out of active service within a year but remained active in the National Guard until he was elected a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church. his final rank was that of major.
After recieving a degree from Oxford University in 1906, Johnson returned to Iowa to take up his pastoral duties. By 1915 he had become the district superintendent of the Souix City District. During this time period he was appointed secretary of the Northwest Iowa Annual Conference which lasted for twelve consecutive years. Johnson was elected a delegate to the General Conference in the years of 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1916. Being a proficient stenographer, he served as journal secretary to the General Conference in those four above mentioned sessions.
At the 1916 General Conference, Johnson was elected missionary bishop for Africa. His childhood dream being fulfilled, he quickly moved into the episcopal residence at Umtali, Rhodesia. The 1920 General Conference voted to empower him as a general superintendent. Johnson then moved the episcopal residence to Cape Town, South Africa to establish a new mission work. To his credit Johnson overcame many odds and established a firm work that included many indigenous pastors in key leadership roles.
Bishop Johnson retired in 1936 and took up residence in Oregon. He died on December 9, 1939, in Veteran's Hospital, Portland, Oregon and is buried in Riverview Abbey, Portland. He was survived by his wife, Sarah, and their three children. Sarah Tilsley Johnson died on March 29, 1967. Children include Samuel Darlow Johnson (Methodist minister in Oregon), Arthur Holmes Johnson (medical doctor in Alaska), and Dorothea Spears (who was married to an archivist in Cape Town, South Africa).
John Wesley Robinson (1866-1947) was born at Moulton, Iowa, January 6, 1866 and married Elizabeth Fisher in 1891. Having begun his career as a printer before he entered the ministry, he was educated at Garrett Biblical Institute. Robinson was ordained in the Des Moines Conference and after two years was transferred to the North India Conference. After a number of varied appointments he was elected in 1912 as a missionary bishop for Southern Asia, and in 1920 he was elected a General Superintendent. From 1912 when the National Missionary Council was organized in India until 1936 when he retired, he participated prominently in inter-church activities.
After retiring Robinson made his home in California briefly, but then returned to India to assume the editorship of The Indian Witness. In 1940 he administered the Lucknow and Hyderabad Conferences. He was again called from retirement this time to superintend the Delhi Conference. He died in India May 30, 1947. His grave is in the Kaladungi Cemetery near Nain Tal.
Reverend Edward Pearce Hayes (1895-1979) was a missionary who spent thirty years in China. He was born on July 18, 1895, in Hazen, Maryland, to Reverend Edward and Ella Pearce Hayes. He attended Johns Hopkins for both undergraduate and graduate degrees, graduating with a Bachelors in 1916 and a Masters in 1921. He also received a Bachelors of Divinity (B.D.) from Drew Theological Seminary in 1917 and an honorary Doctorate of Divinity (D.D.) from Western Maryland College in 1945.
In 1917, he was appointed to organize a YMCA at Fort Howard. He later established a YMCA headquarters at Fort McHenry and opened branches at smaller posts around the Baltimore Harbor. He was the YMCA War Work Secretary from 1917 to 1919 and then the first full time YMCA Secretary at Johns Hopkins, from 1919 to 1921. He was also licensed to preach in the First Church Baltimore, now known as Lovely Lane Church.
Lily May Anderson Hayes (1895-1988) was married to Reverend Edward Pearce Hayes and a missionary who spent a little under thirty years in China. She was born on November 6, 1895, to Charles Horace Anderson and Clara Amelia Nixdorrf Dowell. She attended Peabody Conservatory of Music after graduating from Western High School in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1914. Edward Pearce met Lily around 1914. They were married in 1917 at the First Church Baltimore. They had three children, Ann Dowell Hayes (Valois), Edward Bruce Hayes, and Donald Pearce Hayes.
In 1921, the Methodist Episcopal Church Board of Foreign Missions sent both Edward Pearce and Lily to Foochow, Fukien Province in China. He was appointed as the District Missionary of the same area. Edward Pearce Hayes supervised the development of churches, schools, and hospitals, including raising funds for their support. He also served as a middle man in negotiations between bandit bands and lawful authorities; was on the committee serving one million lepers in the province; and was the superintendent to three hospitals and the head of three schools. Lily Anderson Hayes taught English and music at the local high school while in China, in addition to entertaining guests and hosting traveling missionaries.
From 1936 to 1952, Edward represented Chinese churches at General Conference. He stayed in China throughout World War II, while Lily did not. Lily rejoined him in 1947 for the Centennial Anniversary of Methodism in China and they stayed in there until January 1951. While most missionaries left China during the Communist Revolution in 1949, they stayed for two more years to serve as liaison to government officials in order to assure an orderly transfer of educational, medical, and social institutions. After their time in China, Edward Pearce took two study trips around Asia, in 1952 and 1955.
In 1952, he raised money to open the Japan International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan. Later, he helped to raise funds for many different projects in Southeast Asia. In 1965, he became the West Coast representative for the Ludhiana Christian Medical College and Hospital in Northwest India. In 1962, he was the recipient of the Freedoms Foundation Award. He retired fully in 1971 due to illness and on June 27, 1979, he passed away of a stroke before his 84th birthday. Lily Anderson Hayes passed away in her sleep on January 23, 1988 at the age of 92.
Jeremiah S. Fitterer (1848-1924) was an Evangelical Association and Evangelical Church minister. In 1874 he united with the Pike Evangelical Church west of Bellevue, Ohio. He received a license to preach in 1881 and served the following churches: Tontogany Circuit, Broken Sword, Bucyrus, Richland County, Columbus, Bradner, Bettsville, Flat Rock, and Mt. Cory. Fitterer was granted supernumerary relation with the Ohio Conference in 1900. He married Rosena E. Mook.
Reuben Herbert Mueller (1897-1982), American Evangelical United Brethren Church minister, general church officer, and bishop, was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He served in the U.S. Army in World War I. He married Magdalene Stauffacher on December 26, 1919. They had one daughter, Margaret Magdalene.
After studying at the Evangelical Theological Seminary and North Central College in Gainesville, Illinois, Mueller was licensed to preach in 1916 by the Evangelical Association.
He was given his first pastorate in 1921, ordained deacon in 1922, and elder in 1924. He served pastorates in Minnesota and Indiana before becoming a district superintendent in 1937.
In 1943, Mueller was chosen executive secretary of the Board of Christian Education of the Evangelical Church, and later of the Evangelical United Brethren Church,. In 1954, he was elected bishop. At the sixth General Assembly of the National Council of Churches in December 1963, Mueller was elected president, and served one three-year term. In the United Methodist Church (1968), he was assigned to the Indiana Area. He retired in 1972.
Barbara B. Troxell (1935-2018) is a United Methodist clergywomen, academic, former district superintendent, and leader. She was raised in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in King's Highway Methodist Church where her father was the choir director. Troxell graduated high school from the Berkeley Institute in Brooklyn in 1952, her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Swarthmore College in 1956, and in 1959 her Bachelor of Divinity (with an emphasis in New Testament and Religion and Psychology) from Union Theological Seminary.
Troxell was ordained deacon in The Methodist Church in 1958 and elder in 1961. She was appointed pastor at Commmunity Methodist Church in 1960 in Cold Spring Harbor, New York followiing a year abroad doing graduate theological courses at New College at the University of Edinburgh. She served three years at Community before transitioning to campus ministry, first at Ohio Wesleyan University as the Executive Director of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and the Associate Chaplain for three years. She would leave Ohio for Stanford University to become the Executive Director of the YWCA there until 1970.
In 1970, Troxell went back to the local church to serve as an associate pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto, California. During this time she held consulting and part-time instructor roles at the Pacific School of Religion and California State University. In 1978 she was appointed as the Golden Gate District Superintendent of the California-Nevada Annual Conference. Troxell was the first woman district superintendent in the Western Jurisdiction. She would serve as a DS until 1983, and during this time discerned a calling to run for the episcopacy, a discernment that led her to not put her name forward.
Troxell was the chair of the California-Nevada Commission on the Status and Role of Women from 1974-1976 and served as a member of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women (COSROW) from 1972-1980. She would then go on to serve as a member of the former General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns from 1980-1988. She was a delegate to the 1980 General Conference and the 1980 and 1984 Western Jurisdictional Conferences.
In 1984, Troxell was brought on staff at Pacific School of Religion as Dean of Students. In 1987 she served for a year as the Associate Pastor at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church in Oakland, California. In 1988, she would move to the Chicago area, and eventually was hired and appointed as the Acting Director of Field Education at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. After a year she became Assistant Professor of Practical Theology, Director of Field Education and Spiritual Formation. She would retire from Garrett in 2000 as the Associate Professor of Practical Theology. She would be granted the title Professor Emerita of Spiritual Formation in 2003. During her time there she co-authored the book "Shared Wisdom: A Guide to Case Study Reflection in Ministry."
Troxell's research focused on questions of practical theology, spirituality and authority - primarily the relation of clergywomen to authority. Troxell led retreats for a number of organizations both before and during her retirement, including the Council of Bishops. Troxell currently resides in Claremont, California with her husband Rev. Gene Boutilier a United Church of Christ pastor.
Marjorie Swank Matthews (1916-1986), first female bishop consecrated in The United Methodist Church, was born circa July 11, 1916 to Jess A. and Mae (Chapman) Swank. Before entering the ministry, Matthews was secretary and assistant treasurer for an automotive parts corporation. Matthews began her ministry in 1959 at Mt. Pleasant Methodist Church in Michigan. She was ordained as a local elder in 1965. Matthews also served Pleasant Valley-Leaton, Vermontville-Gresham, Sunfield-Sebewa Center, Evart, Ashley-Bannister, and Napoleon Methodist charges, all in Michigan. While at seminary, Matthews served LeRoy and Barre Center Presbyterian Churches in New York. Matthews was received as a Full Member into the West Michigan Conference in June of 1969. In 1976, she was appointed District Superintendent of the Grand Traverse District. On July 17, 1980, Matthews was elected United Methodism's first female bishop by the North Central Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church, she was appointed to the Wisconsin Conference, where Matthews served until her retirement in 1984. Matthews was a champion of women’s issues in the church and led many workshop for clergywomen and pastors’ wives. Matthews had a considerable academic career. She was awarded a Bachelor of Arts from Central Michigan University in 1967 and a Bachelor of Divinity from Colgate Rochester Divinity School in 1970. Matthews received a Master of Arts in 1971 and Doctorate in Philosophy in Humanities in 1976, both from Florida State University. Her doctoral dissertation was entitled “Issues and Answers in the Book of Job and Joban Issues and Answers in Three Twentieth Century Writers: Carl Jung, Robert Frost, and Archibald Macleish." Matthews had one son, William, and three grandchildren, Robbie, Lori, and Greg. She died after a prolonged bout with cancer on June 30, 1986. Matthews is interred in the Alma Cemetery, Alma, Michigan.
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.