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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).

James E. Keene (1878-1986), American minister, served in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ and Evangelical United Brethren denominations. His pastoral service in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference was as follows: Intercourse (1903-1904), Jacksonville Circuit (1904-1908), Denver (1908-1909), Lititz (1909- 1914), Lancaster (1914-1918), Mont Clare (1918-1926), Pine Grove (1926-1933), Cleona and Pleasant Hill (1933- 1943), Avon (1943-1947), and Coatsville (1947-1950).

Bishop Leontine Turpeau Current Kelly (1920-2012) was born on March 5, 1920 in Washington, D.C., to the Reverend David DeWitt Turpeau and Ila Mashall Turpeau.

The Washington Annual Conference elected Matthew Clair a bishop, the second African American to be elected bishop. Bishop Clair baptized Leontine Turpeau that day.

According to family narratives, Bishop Clair stated on this day, "Oh, how I wish you were a boy so that my mantle might fall upon you." Sixty years later, it did.

Leontine Kelly's life is rooted in Methodism. Her father and brother were both Methodist ministers. Kelly attended West Virginia State College for three years, but left to marry Gloster Bryant Current in 194l after her junior year. They had three children together before their divorce in the early 1950s.

In 1956,Leontine Kelly married Methodist minister James Kelly. She returned to college and completed her B.A. in 1960 at Virginia Union University, and took a position as a social studies teacher. Though Kelly was a certified lay speaker, she did not become a pastor until the death of her husband in 1969, when she accepted an invitation from Galilee Church to be his successor. In 1976 she obtained her master's of divinity degree from Wesley Theological Seminary, thus becoming an ordained minister.

From 1977 to 1983, Kelly was pastor of Asbury-Church Hill United Methodist Church in Richmond, Virginia. In 1983 she became the assistant general secretary of evangelism for the United Methodist General Board of Discipleship in Nashville.

Kelly received her doctor of divinity degree in 1984 from the Garrett Evangelical Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. In July 1984, Kelly and the Methodist Church made history when 64-year-old clergywomen was elected bishop of the California-Nevada Conference. Kelly thus became the first African American woman to be elected bishop, not only in the Methodist Church, but in any major denomination.

She also became the first woman to preach on the National Radio Pulpit, the first woman to serve as assistant general secretary of the Board of Discipleship's Evangelical Unit, and the only woman bishop to participate and be arrested in the Good Friday Livermore Weapons Laboratory protest in 1985. In 1956, Kelly became the first African American female bishop to address an international meeting of Methodists - the World Methodist Council in Nairobi.

Kelly retired in 1988 at the age of 68. She continued her work as a preacher, teacher, and social activist. Some of her numerous post- retirement activities include, serving as visiting professor of evangelism and witness for two years at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, and serving as adjunct professor at Pacific School of Religion and Hartford Seminary.

Continuing her social activism, Kelly became the president of the AIDS National Interfaith Network (ANIN) and president of the Interreligious Health Care ACCESS Campaign. On top of these numerous responsibilities Kelly maintained a full speaking and preaching schedule. Due to her active and historic service Kelly received more than ten honorary degrees, the Martin Luther King Drum Major for Justice award, the Grass Roots Leadership Award for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Ebony Magazine's Black Achievement Award in the area of religion. She was featured in Brian Lanker's book I Dream A World: Portraits of Black Women who have Changed America, as well as in Diana Hayes' book , And Still We Rise. Kelly was her inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York in October 2000.

Cyrus Jeffries Kephart (1852-1932), American Bishop was born in Decatur, Pennsylvania on February 23, 1852 to Reverend Henry and Sarah Kephart. He attended Western College from 1869 to 1874 where he graduated the valedictorian. During his time at Western he entered the ministry in 1871 and married, Sarah Perry, in 1873. He began his ministry in Toledo, Iowa but quickly moved to Dayton, Ohio where he entered Union Biblical Seminary. During this period of his ministry he served as pastor of the Ludlow Street United Brethren Church in Dayton. He graduated Union Biblical Seminary in 1878 and was ordained by Bishop Milton Wright the following year.

Following his completion of training at Union Biblical Seminary he became the principal, and later president, of Avalon Academy (College) in Avalon, Missouri. He remained here until 1885, when after a sabbatical, he and his family returned to Toledo, where he became employed by Western College. For the next twenty years Cyrus Kephart moved back and forth between the clergy and academe. During this time he served as pastor of the East Side United Brethren Church, Summit Park United Brethren Church, in Des Moines, Iowa and in Lisbon, Iowa. He also served as the General Secretary of the Pennsylvania State Sabbath School Association from 1894 to 1897. In academe, Kephart for a second time was president of Avalon College and Western College, which during his time became Leander Clark College in 1905.

In 1908, Cyrus Kephart became the pastor of the First United Brethren Church in Dayton, Ohio. Serving with distinction, he was elected to the office of Bishop in 1913 by the United Brethren General Conference, held in Decatur, Illinois. Afterward he was supervisor of the Southwest District from 1913 to 1925. He retired from active ministry in 1825 and continued to live in Kansas City, Missouri until his death on July 20, 1932.

His published works include: Jesus the Nazarene (1894), The Life of Jesus for Children, The Public Life of Christ, What is a Christian? (1910), Jesus Lord and Teacher (1913), Christianity and the Social Weal (1914), with Dr. W.R. Funk, The Life of Isaiah L. Kephart (1909), and numerous other articles.

*Biographical Information from:

Koontz, Paul Rodes and Roush, Walter Edwin. The Bishops: Church of the United Brethren in Christ. Dayton: Otterbein Press, 1950.

Paul Bentley Kern (1882-1953), American bishop, was born on June 16, 1882 in Alexandria, Virginia. He began his college career at Randolph-Macon College, where his father, John A. Kern, was a professor. After one year of study, Kern transferred to Vanderbilt University and received two degrees: B.A. in 1902 and B.D. in 1905. He was then admitted into the Tennessee Annual Conference in 1905 and served two years as an instructor for the Correspondence School for Ministers while teaching at Vanderbilt and simultaneously serving various local churches. He married Lucy Gorhall Campbell of Nashville, Tennessee, on June 11, 1907. They had three children.

When Southern Methodist University was established in 1915, he became the professor of English as well as Bible and homiletics. By 1920, he was dean of the theological department. In 1926, he went back into the pastoral ministry, and was appointed to the Travis Park Church in San Antonio, Texas. Kern was elected to the episcopacy for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1930. Bishop Kern served in the China from 1930 to 1934.

From 1934 to 1938 he was bishop for both the North and South Carolina areas. In 1938, he was appointed to the Nashville Area with Tennessee, Holston, Florida, and Cuban conferences under his supervision. He was active in the unification of the three Methodist bodies which came together in 1939. Kean also helped in the consolidation of the Epworth League and Sunday School Boards into the Board of Education. Other areas of influence include the Youth Caravan Movement, the Crusade for Christ, and higher education in Methodism. He was chairperson of the board of trustees of Scarritt College. He wrote the Episcopal Address for the General Conference of 1952 which was held in San Francisco. Besides being an author and guest lecturer, he was also a member of many boards and agencies of the Methodist Church and a delegate to the World Council of Churches in 1948. He died on December 16, 1953, at Vanderbilt Hospital, and is buried in Mount Olive Cemetery in Nashville.

Paul R. Koontz (1890-1954) was an Evangelical United Brethren minister and editor. He graduated from Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania in 1911 and completed theological studies at Bonebrake Seminary in Ohio in 1914. Koontz became a member of the Pennsylvania Annual Conference in 1909. He married Elizabeth Lau.

After graduation, he returned to Pennsylvania to serve a few months in Carlisle. He was then assigned to Myersville, Maryland. Koontz also served in Mechanicsburg (1919-1925) and Baltimore (1925-1941). In 1941 the General Conference elected him editor of youth publications. While working as editor, he also was a member of the Department of Christian Education.

Koontz served on several boards of his conference, including Conference Trustees, Council of Administration, and Christian Education. He was on the Board of Trustees of Lebanon Valley College, in Lebanon Valley, Pennsylvania and United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. Six times Koontz was elected a delegate to General Conference. He served on the committee on audio-visual material and the committee of uniform lessons of the National Council of Churches. Koontz was a popular speaker throughout the conference.

One of Koontz's major contributions to the church was the Pennsylvania Conference Choir, which he organized in 1930. He was director of this choir for fifteen years. He was also known for his effective and efficient pastoral services.

Frederick H. Krecker (1816-1889) was the third child of John Philip Krecker and Margaret (Dischinger) Krecker. He was born on May 31, 1816 in Philadelphia. Krecker was married twice, first to Isabella Weidenoyer (1819-1876), and then to Salina Schultz for the last six years of his life. He fathered seven children, five of whom survived to adulthood.

Rev. Krecker's life work was as an itinerant pastor who was converted into the Evangelical belief around the age of sixteen. He began preaching in 1837 in both German and English, continuing for almost fifty years mostly in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania.. His personal diaries mention his travels in service to his church in the following towns: Bethlehem; 1850-52, Fairville; 1866, Hazelton; 1875, Orwigsburgh; 1887-89. All were in eastern Pennsylvania. He was deceased on Dec. 27, 1889 and buried in Cressona, Pennsylvania. "Hallelulah" was the last word he uttered.

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.

Roy Benton Leedy (1883- 1981), American minister, was born February 13, 1883 in Richland County, Ohio, and spent much of his childhood in Fremont, Ohio. He graduated from Northwestern Academy (now North Central College), and from Evangelical Theological Seminary. He received his license to preach in 1907, and his full membership in 1913 in the Ohio Conference of the Evangelical Church. In 1912 he married Rose V. Voigt, and they bore three children. After his first wife's death, Leedy married Margaret Koepnick Faust in 1933. He began his ministry at Bettsville, and later served at Akron, Kenmore, Marion-Salem, Flat Rock, Cedar Hill, Gibsonburg, Huron, Carey, Napoleon, Perrysburg, Green Springs, and Warren- Grace. During his years of ministry, Leedy served as secretary of the General Historical Society of the Evangelical Church, and served for 35 years as historian of the Ohio Conference. After his retirement in 1951 he finished his book, The Evangelical Church in Ohio, which was published in 1959. He received an honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree from Baldwin- Wallace College in recognition of his work in collecting materials of and writing about the history of the Evangelical Church. Leedy died on January 2, 1981 at the Elyria Home in Elyria, Ohio, and is buried in Fremont, Ohio.

Rev. Carroll Summerfield Long, D.D., PhD. (1850-1890) American Methodist Episcopal Church missionary was born on January 2, 1850 in Athens, Tennessee. He was the oldest son of Reverend William R. Long (February 18, 1819-November 4, 1847) and Sarah Elizabeth (Atlee) Long (April 4, 1829-December 5, 1889). He attended East Tennessee Wesleyan College (Athens, Tennessee) with the intent of practicing medicine. However, he had a change in plans and wanted to live a more religious lifestyle. He became licensed to preach on June 22, 1872 under Reverend J. W. Mann. Higher education was important to Long, and he would return to East Tennessee Wesleyan College to complete his studies, receiving a B.A. in the classics in 1878, a M.A. in 1881, followed by an PhD in 1886.

In October 1875, Long was admitted to the Holston Conference and was stationed in Asheville, North Carolina where he would serve for four years as the pastor of the church. During which he would also serve as the president of Candler College for two of those years. In August 1879, he was elected as the principal of Powells Valley Seminary (Well Spring, Tennessee), where he would hold the position for a short five months before accepting an appointment as missionary to Japan. Long and his wife sailed from San Francisco, California on February 28, 1880 and arrived in Nagasaki March 20, 1880. Long was determined to become emerged within the Japanese culture, and took up to the study of the language and customs upon his arrival. Within less than 13 weeks, Long was able to give his first sermon in the vernacular of the people. Reverend Carroll Summerfield Long would serve a total of eight years as a missionary to Japan. Some of his many accomplishments include founding Cobleigh Seminary (1881), becoming the presiding elder of the Nagasaki and Nagoya districts, as well as founding a school for girls in Nagoya (October 1888).

His missionary experiences were not experienced alone, and in many aspects, could not be completed without his family. On June 3, 1879 he married Flora Isadore Smith (1861-1952), the daughter of Reverend William Conway Smith (1830-1881) and Mary Eliza (Hemens) Smith (1835-1929). They met through “Pen Pal,” as Flora loved to read “The Children’s Corner” and began an relationship through the correspondence that the two would have. During their time in Japan, Carroll and Flora would have 4 children: Mary Elizabeth Long Dayharsh (1880-1975), Flora Hortense Long Harrison (1881-1968), Pauline “Haru” Atlee Long (1883-1931) and “Michi” Geraldine Long Bailey (1888-1985).

Reverend Carroll Summerfield Long made his last return trip to the United States on August 17, 1890, and due to bad health, passed away at the home his friend Reverend J.D. Robertson in Asheville, North Carolina on September 4, 1890 and is buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery (Athens, Tennessee).