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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).

Esther Laura Hulbert (1894-1993), American Methodist Church missionary, served in Korea and Cuba for a total of thirty-eight years by the time of her retirement on July 1, 1961. She was born in Colebrook, Ohio, on September 17, 1894 to Newel Eugene Hulbert and Emma Jane Hardy Hulbert. Esther was the third of five siblings, two girls and three boys; both she and her older sister, Jeanette Charlotte Hulbert, became Methodist Episcopal Church missionaries with the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society. Her father was a minister and she was parsonage-raised with her sister Jeannette and their brothers. Esther was educated at Bellaire High School, graduating in 1912, and Ohio Wesleyan University from which she earned a BA in 1917. She completed a masters degree at Teachers College Columbia in 1930 with short courses at Kent State Normal (1919), University of Southern California (1935) and Chicago Theological Seminary (1937). Prior to becoming a missionary, she taught at Thompson High School, Willoughby High School and Madison High School — all in Ohio — and Bethesda High School at which she was both a teacher and principal.

Home church for Esther was Methodist Episcopal church, Geneva, Ohio where she was active as a Sunday School teacher, president of the Young Woman’s Missionary Society and Epworth League president. Later her home church was recorded as Methodist Church, Cienfuegos, Cuba. Esther was commissioned in 1923 and set sail for Korea in November of that year. While in Korea, Esther was at Ewha College where she was engaged in language study and teaching in Seoul at Ewha High School from 1923 to 1928. During those years, she also spent time in Pyenyang at Chung Eui School doing similar work. Esther remained in Korea until November of 1940 when she was evacuated via the S. S. Mariposa. In 1942, she was sent to Cienfuegos, Cuba where she remained, except when on furlough, until 1960 teaching at Eliza Bowman School.

Furloughs were taken from December, 1928-August, 1930, January, 1936-March, 1937, November, 1940-August, 1942, July, 1948-August, 1949 and June, 1954-September, 1956. Esther was in Cuba during the take-over by Fidel Castro. She served for a total of thirty-eight years. Her pre-retirement furlough beginning in 1960 included speaking engagements in Wisconsin, Illinois and Ohio. Upon leaving full-time missions work, she settled in Cleveland where she moved into a municipal housing project and helped to register African-American voters to support the successful mayoral candidacy of Carl Stokes. In 1967, Esther moved to Brooks-Howell Home in Asheville, NC where she remained until her death on November 13, 1993. Like her sister Jeanette Charlotte Hulbert, Esther decided to donate her body to science. After death, her remains were taken to Bowman Gray Medical School, Wake Forest University. Later her body was cremated and the ashes spread around Brooks-Howell’s Memorial Tree.

Jeanette Charlotte Hulbert (1889-1978), American missionary, was born in 1889 on October 17th, Jeanette was the oldest of five children. Her sister Esther was third with brothers Roy Truman, Frederick Leo and Howard Hiram. Her father was a Methodist minister named Newell Eugene Hulbert who served in the North-East Ohio Conference and her mother was Emma Jane Hardy. Jeanette was only fourteen when her mother died and she, as the eldest, assumed considerable responsibility for the care of her siblings. In time, she went on to Ohio Wesleyan University and graduated in 1912. A bout of typhoid fever caused a nine month delay in her deployment, but by 1914 she was on her way to Korea as a missionary.

Jeanette’s years in Korea were spent teaching mathematics, Bible studies and science at Ewha College, later to become Ewha University, in Seoul. The year 1919 marked a tumultuous era in Korea as the country exerted its independence from Japan. Students from her college were jailed and being a Westerner became even more perilous than usual. She was sent home on furlough that year and used the time to complete a master’s degree in education at Columbia Teacher’s College and also attend classes at Union Theological Seminary. She returned to Korea and remained until 1940 when the threat of World War II loomed and forced an evacuation. Furloughs offered opportunities for additional education and she took advantage of this with more study at the University of Chicago and Chicago Theological School.

Jeannette traveled a third time to Korea in 1947 and worked there until the Korean War threatened; she was again evacuated in 1950. Following her years in Korea, Jeanette worked at the ACLU office in Cleveland and for the Women’s Society. Always, she continued to be active in church affairs with speaking engagements and presentations. In time, she moved to Brooks-Howell Home in Asheville, NC where she died on June 14, 1978. She chose to donate her body to Duke University Medical School. Eventually, her remains were cremated and her ashes scattered near the Memorial Tree at Brooks-Howell.