Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1903- 1923 (Creation)
Extent
4.75 cubic feet
Name of creator
Biographical history
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.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
This collection includes the sermons, teachings, addresses, writings, notebooks, and accounting records of United Brethren Bishop Cyrus J. Kephart. The bulk of the collection are his sermons, that while undated, may have come from during the period when he served as pastor in Iowa and Ohio, 1878-1913.. His teachings and addresses, due to the subjects and audiences being addressed, appear to have been written while serving as Bishop of the United Brethren Church's Southwestern District from 1913 to 1925. Other writings include his studies and possible drafts of his publications.
System of arrangement
This collection is arranged by series and subseries.
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
There are no restrictions regarding this collection.
Physical access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Detailed use restrictions relating to our collections can be requested from the office of the archivist at the General Commission on Archives and History. Photocopying is handled by the staff and may be limited in certain instances. Before using any material for publication from this collection a formal request for permission to publish is expected and required.
Languages of the material
- English
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related archival materials
Related descriptions
Notes element
General note
When citing material from this collection please use the following format: Direct reference to the item or its file folder, Cyrus Kephart Papers, United Methodist Church Archives - GCAH, Madison, New Jersey. Do not make use of the item's call number as that is not a stable descriptor.
Specialized notes
Alternative identifier(s)
Description control element
Rules or conventions
Sources used
Archivist's note
Prepared by Mike Montalbano, Archival Intern; Myong Shin Jeon, Student Assistant and Mark C. Shenise, Associate Archivist
Access points
Subject access points
- Bible--Commentaries
- Bishops
- Child care
- Children
- Christian life
- Christian education
- Church and education
- Church and labor
- Church and industry
- Church and social problems
- Church and state
- Church and the world
- Church colleges
- Church finance
- Church work with alcoholics
- Church work with abused women
- Church work with families
- Church work with young adults
- Church work with youth
- Church youth workers
- City and town life
- Civil War
- Commitment to the church
- Disaster victims
- Drug abuse
- Education
- Education, Higher
- Faith
- Family
- Lord's Supper
- Marriage
- Ministry
- Missions
- Prayer
- Poverty
- Preaching
- Progressive Era
- Public welfare
- Religion
- Religious education
- Sacraments
- Sacraments and Christian union
- Sanctification
- Social action
- Social ethics
- Social Gospel
- Social justice
- Social reformers
- Socialism
- Stewardship, Christian
- Temperance
- Theology
- Theology -Study and teaching
- War
- Women
- Women's rights and spiritualism
- Youth
- Youth--Religious life
- World War, 1914-1918