This collection contains the sermons of C. Willard Fetter. The original collection contained nearly one thousand sermons. However, the first two hundred folders were donated by Fetter to United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. The remaining collection of nearly seven hundred sermons is located at the United Methodist Church Archives.

Fetter's sermons document his ministerial career from 1941 and 1990. Fetter placed each sermon in a folder on which he noted the title and sermon number. On most of the sermons, he also noted the date and location where he preached the sermon. The majority were preached in Akron and Dayton, Ohio, from the late 1940s to the early 1970s.

Most of the sermons are typed. A few are handwritten. Many contain draft, revision, and alternate copies. Fetter kept news clippings and articles that supported or related to a sermon. These clippings and articles have been photocopied onto acid free paper and kept with the sermon. In addition, church bulletins from the service in which a sermon was preached are included in the folder.

The first folder of the collection contains a typed index to the sermons. This index is organized in numerical order. Fetter assigned a classification number to each sermon. His classification scheme allowed him to organize his sermons by topics.

Regular sermons are numbered one to five hundred. The first two hundred of these sermons are located at United Theological Seminary. Church-theme sermons are labeled in the five hundreds. Sermons on stewardship are found in the six hundreds. Sermons on communion themes are numbered in the seven hundreds. Advent sermons are found in the eight hundreds. The nine hundred series contains Christmas sermons. Lenten sermons begin at one thousand. The eleven hundred range contains Easter-theme sermons. Sermons on topics of the Christian home are found in the twelve hundreds. The thirteen hundreds contains mission-theme sermons. Holiday sermons are in the fourteen hundreds. Some of his holiday themes are on Armistice Day, New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Election Day, and Labor Day. Sermons commemorating special days such as Reformation Day, Children's Day, Youth Sunday, Boy Scout Sunday, Pentecost, Anniversary Day, Thanksgiving are numbered in the fifteen hundreds. Finally, special sermons begin in the sixteen hundreds. These sermons include high school, college, and seminary graduation addresses, funeral sermons, and a memorial tribute to John F. Kennedy.

One folder contains fifteen pamphlet versions of Fetter's sermons. The pamphlets were published by the First Evangelical United Brethren Church in Dayton, Ohio. Some of the pamphlets correspond to typed sermons in the collection, and small tabs of paper inside the front cover indicate the stack location of that sermon. Other pamphlets do not correspond to any sermon in this collection.

The last box of the collection contains a card catalog Fetter used to organize his sermons. The cards contain the sermon title, scripture reference, and sermon number. All the cards have been arranged alphabetically.

The collection includes clippings that pertain mainly to the union of the Methodist Church, a eulogy for Lawson, program for "Judge Lawson Day" at the Liberty Methodist Church, opinions of the Court of Appeals, court decisions, and an original signed copy of the opinion of the Judicial Council of the Methodist Episcopal Church South on the matter of the unification of Methodism. The collection also includes several booklets and periodicals; an October 1932 edition of the newspaper Christian Standard, Volume 7 of The Methodist Layman for 1930, a June 1956 edition of the Missouri Methodist, a 1939 edition of the Christian Advocate and several other booklets discussing Methodism. There are many letters, to and from Martin E. Lawson, photographs, a biography of the judge and ephemera concerning the fifth and sixth Ecumenical Conferences.

This collection primarily documents the work and ministry of the Evangelical Church's annual conferences and local churches from the middle nineteenth century to the middle twentieth century. To a lesser degree there are records that reflect the ministry of the general church as well. There are other records that pertain to filial denominations such as the Evangelical Association, United Evangelical Church, Church of the United Brethren in Christ (United Brethren Church), and the Evangelical United Brethren Churches are also found in this collection. Leedy was an avid collector of church related information so that the topical landscape of this collection is broad enough to cover information ranging from local church ministries and histories to denominational theological beliefs and social concerns. Most of the paper records center on church work in the Ohio region though not to the exclusion of other geographic areas within the continental United States and Germany. All in all this collection provides a nice overview of the diversified life within the Evangelical tradition and is an excellent resource for those who wish to understand more fully the Evangelical Church's historical influence within the ongoing traditions of United Methodism.