Showing 7 results

The Eben Samuel Johnson Collection is primarily composed of the Bishop' s papers but also includes records from his immediate family as well. The collection does not end with the death of the Bishop. It continues with correspondence between Sarah Tilsley Johnson and her children, especially with Samuel Darlow. The collection reflects the close interconnected relationships within the Johnson family. These were individuals whose characteristics were unique to themselves yet found a commonality within their love for each other and the church.

There are a total of nine series which cover a variety of subjects and record types. Included are correspondence, a journal, various writings, clippings, biographical material, and a racoon coat. Topics embrace David Livingstone, various church organizations, mission work, cultural anthropology, educational institutions, industry, cannibalism, governments, sermons, world events, etc. Much of Johnson's autographs are written in Pitman shorthand.

A large section of this collection consists of almost ninety years of correspondence between the Hartzlers and their friends and relations. It begins with some of Lucy's earliest letters as a young child. It also includes much correspondence dating from Coleman and Lucy's courtship. Later letters describe, in great detail, their days as missionaries, with Lucy striving to include almost every small detail of their lives in her letters. As their sons grew up and moved away, the letters between them and their parents become a central feature of the collection. Also present is a signed letter from John Kennedy to Coleman Hartzler, dating from Kennedy's 1960 election campaign. The diaries are Lucy Padrick Hartzler's accounts of both missionary and family life in Africa and the United States. Written in long hand, they give brief insights into Lucy's devotion to her husband, family, and church. They are personal in nature and quite informative.

In the first diary there is a short genealogical record of the Padrick family (1851-1957). Those records that center primarily on Coleman Hartzler are located in the Sermons and Administrative series. The former series reflects Hartzler's philosophy of ministry, Christianity, hermeneutics, ethos, and world-view. Most of the sermons are in outline form and are type scripted. There are research notes attached to a few of the sermons. Some of the sermons are dated. Supporting documentation for Hartzler's sermon preparation is comprised of notes, proto-addresses, quotes, prayers, poems, and litanies. The latter series, Administrative, contains three primary elements. The records in the first element reflects his professional life as a minister and a missionary. Subjects include the mission work in the Congo, financial accounts, job descriptions, and the Collins Pension Fund.

The second element contains personal/family administration. The third and final element encompasses those travel documents that both Coleman and Lucy Hartzler used throughout their lives. The series containing photographs and biographical information are a mix of different family members both immediate and extended. It here that the genealogist will want to start their research. The photographs series cover the geographic areas of Africa and the United States. They are primarily portrait in orientation but also include a church facade (unknown) and weddings of variously connected relatives. The biographical series contains subjects that cover clergy, baptismal, and death certificates. Other subjects include various family members funeral services and education. The final series is located in a general file which covers such topics as pastoral records, African holidays, historic sites, friends, obituaries, and a historical calendar of the Congo mission. The bits of information contained within this small series fills the intellectual gaps left out by the preceding series.

A great deal of the work, biography, and family life of John Talbot Gracey is contained in this document. Gracey wrote a great deal of sermons in his life, many of which exist in this document. Some of these are completely written out, while some are still in outline form. Also included are many newspaper and magazine articles written by Gracey about various aspects of his life. There are articles about mission work, about other religions, and about his own Christian faith. The majority of these would have been published in a Christian newspaper or magazine, such as The Methodist.

Much of Gracey's missionary life is documented, from articles written about his experiences to notes he took while on different mission trips, to photographs of mission work. Gracey had many journals, some of which can be found in this collection.

As for his biography and family life, there are correspondences between Gracey and different members of his family. Some of his wife's writings are included in this collection, as well as responses to her work. Also included is information about his daughter Ida's missionary work in China. An interesting thing to note is the copy of marriage licenses from his wife Annie's father during his pastorate. This provides a bit of family history for the Gracey household.

This collection includes dossiers, correspondence, letters, records of annual conferences and agencies, subject files, manuscripts, articles, personal and family papers, photographs, negatives, clippings, and other printed matter. Bishop Springer's papers primarily document the interaction of American social and ecclesiastical structures forged at the edge of the American frontier with a region of the African continent which was undergoing the process of civilization. Reflected also among these materials is the impact which such interaction had upon Americans who went to spend their lives in the African mission fields, as well as the impact upon Africans themselves. See the published guide, "Preliminary Inventory of the Papers of Bishop John McKendree Springer" (issued by the General Commission on Archives and History, 1982) for individual series descriptions.

This collection documents the ministry of Roger Stillman Guptill both on the mission field and his subsequent teaching and administrative positions at Gammon Theological Seminary. Though not extensive, the collection gives a clear window into Guptill's life. The Methodist Episcopal Church had a strong connection between African missions and Gammon Theological Seminary. It was at this institution that a number of African-American and African Nationals were trained for full-time ministry in both the United States and Africa.

The first seriesilluminates the early stage of Guptill's adult life when he was sent as a missionary by the Methodist Episcopal Church to Africa's Belgian Congo. Topics include observations on general Congo mission work as well as a detailed account of Guptill's own mission work in the area. He also wrote and published a biography on Melville B. Cox.

Within this series documents a point of transition which takes place regarding Guptill's shift in career appointments after service with the local and general church. He was the editor and manager of a serial called " The Foundation." This was published under the auspices of Gammon Theological Seminary, which Guptill was a faculty member. "The Foundation" was a quarterly publication printed in the interest of Gammon Theological Seminary, alumni, The Stewart Missionary Foundation for Africa, and the School of Missions. The serial published news on African missions, alumni, campus events such as lecture series, as well as articles on philosophical and practical theology. Guptill was an important participant in many of the above mentioned organizations.

Given this transitional point, the second seriesbegins to expand the scope of, and enter into, a new phase of Guptill's work at Gammon. Here we have a number of items directly related to both the Stewart Missionary Foundation for Africa and Gammon Theological Seminary. Topics include institutional histories, a biography on William Fletcher Stewart who founded and endowed the Stewart Missionary Foundation, various opinions about the feasibility and value of starting the Foundation, Stewart Foundation School of Missions, charters and by-laws, courses of study, and a constitution and by-laws of the Friends for Africa.

The third series, Africa, gives the largest picture of that which profoundly influenced Guptill's life. The series contains information on the development of the Congo mission, a history of Methodist missions in Africa, general information about the continent, biographical material which includes Henry M. Stanley, World Service, African studies, medical missions, the beginnings of Protestant mission work in hte Congo, native education, native economics, native literature, and a missionary conference report.

The Roy Stinson Smyres Collection documents the life of a person and his family whose multifaceted ministerial career exemplifies a dedication to United Methodist Church work in the twentieth century. This dedication is well documented through a variety of record types within the collection. Smyres kept an ongoing journal (1914-1990) and date books (1913-1990) that reveal his intimate experiences as a missionary, minister, and family member. The journals from his missionary days discuss the ongoing work of the mission as well as documenting Smyres' trek across West Africa in 1919, as well as other related trips. Additional entries record interviews with missionaries and indigenous people alike. Also included are discourses and reflections on sociology, anthropology, theology, politics, and life in general.

The date books list mundane things such as financial expenditures, appointments, etc. Some of the entries are in shorthand. The correspondence between Roy Smyres and his family, friends, and colleagues are just as illuminating as the journals, date books, and images. Most of these letters were collected by Nell Smyres and were given to Roy after her death.

While in Africa, Smyres made it a point to write home at least once a week whenever possible. Roy saved copies of letters that he wrote home while serving as a missionary to Africa, which is the reason for some duplication from Nell's files. A few letters were written on the back of older ones for economy. His early pen name to his family was Bud. Record types include correspondence, Christmas letters, and postcards. There are a few letters between Roy and Esther's children with each other which due to the lack of volume were incorporated into Roy's sub-series. Roy's earlier letters (1914-1929) contain personal observations on student life at Northwestern, mission work, missionaries, cannibalism, and "frontier justice" in Africa. These letters also document formal and casual reports from the mission field, photography, and hand-drawn diagrams of architectural features of mission buildings in the Congo.

The African travel accounts tell of the dangers of living in the jungle. Family matters are sprinkled throughout the correspondence. Most of the letters are addressed to Smyres' immediate family. Correspondence from 1930 to 1949 focuses on teaching, church work in Ithaca, and the beginning of a cooperative store in Ithaca - the first of its kind in that city. Roy was greatly interested in politics and peace issues.

Smyres' early work for the mission board is discussed here as well. The letters dating from the 1950's and early 1960's revolve around his continued work for the mission board, trips, publishers, and family. Included in the mission board correspondence was his involvement with the Advance Program.

After Smyres' retirement, the correspondence documents voluntary mission work in India, the Vietnam War, and other peace issues. Subjects found in correspondence from 1970 to 1992 document articles that Smyres published, speaking engagements, ministerial activities, work for the Religious News Service, and global trips. Also during this time period family issues are recorded which include the death of his first wife, Esther, and his second marriage to Mary Fraley, and extended family events. There are social and political remarks about Vietnam, peace, The Human Needs and Security Bill of 1984, El Salvador, the Lebanon conflict, opposition to the United States government appointing an ambassador to the Vatican, and the Persian Gulf War. Most of these letters were written to government officials who had a direct influence in these issues. Another aspect of this correspondence involves his photographic commissions and subsequent loans of images to publishers and missionaries.

Esther Smyres' correspondence ranges from 1920 to 1968 with the bulk of the letters dated from 1920 to 1937. Though not as voluminous as Roy's, they do illustrate in some detail the domestic work in a missionary home as well as documenting a spouse's missionary work in the Belgian Congo. There are casual references to African geography and society. Later correspondence documents Esther's work as a school teacher, her various travels, local church work, and family. Another value of Esther's correspondence is that they often fill in points of information that Roy leaves out of his correspondence of the same time. This is especially true during their years on the mission field and ministry in the local church. Most of the correspondence is directed to Mary Hannah Brown Smyres and Nell Smyres. Mary Fraley Smyres correspondence dates from 1972 to 1980 with bulk dates of 1973 to 1975. Most of these letters relate to family events and friends. Nell Smyres incoming and outgoing correspondence documents her early childhood, college life, family news, trips, and theology.

Some of the letters are from Roy and Esther's children and grandchildren, who express their embracing of Pentecostalism and faith healing. The last group of letters is from Roy's parents. Recipients of these letters include their children as well as extended family. Topics include family news, missionary work, spirituality in the church, and theology in general.

Mary's correspondence ranges from 1911 to 1947, with the bulk of the correspondence from 1919. Luther's correspondence dates from 1916 to 1920, with the bulk of the letters from 1919-1920. Family records are general in nature and revolve around four people: Roy, Esther, Nell, and Joan Smyres. Joan was Roy and Esther's daughter-in-law who died of cancer at an early age. Joan's sub-series documents her funeral.

The rest of the material reflects the childhood, marriage, and careers of Esther and Roy. Nell's records contain her Master's Thesis written at Ohio Wesleyan on the expansion of Christianity in Russia. Nell also collected reports written by her nephew, Eugene Stockwell, a missionary in Africa.

The Writings Series contains manuscripts (1917-1990), sermons (1929-1966), prayers (1937-1988), and publications (1939-1987) authored by Roy Smyres. Included in this section are two books that Roy wrote: Thoughts of Chairman Smyres, and his autobiography. Both these volumes were published in the late 1980s. Other publications include articles and photographs. The sermons (1929-1966) illuminate a variety of topics including missions, politics, theology, liturgy, world communion, cooperatives, and stewardship. Formats include radio and children sermons as well as pulpit sermons. Some of the sermons are in shorthand. The prayers relate to the various aspects of Smyres' ministry within the church. Smyres' professional life in the ministry of the church revolved around three sub-series: local church, annual conference, and the General Board of Global Ministries. Local church records contain worship bulletins and miscellaneous church papers. Annual conference records contain reports and ephemera.

The General Board of Global Ministries sub-series documents Smyres' work in DOM Committee material, reports, gift programs, IDOC International records, Advance Program Support Funds, Central America, financial records and journals, treasurer codes, notebooks, and newsletters. Roy created and collected maps that attest to geographic areas that he served or visited. The African maps are of special interest to those researchers whose historical focus is either missions or the Belgian Congo political boundaries during his years as a missionary. The hand-drawn maps are especially enlightening. The largest series in the collection contains Smyres' photographic images. These images are the spotlight of the collection. His photographic abilities and style were sought out by a number of religious organizations. Record types include glass lantern slides, 35 mm slides, negatives, photographs, and contact sheets. Geographic areas include countries from each of the populated continents as well as Oceania.

The images cover a vast array of topics too numerous to list. In some instance's Roy kept log books that identify certain images with corresponding narrative via his unique cataloging system. It should come as no surprise that family images are in abundance as well.

The Walter Russell Lambuth collection reflects the Bishop's activities outside the United States in a series of manuscripts, articles and letters. There is one typed manuscript of his book, Medical Missions: The Twofold Task. There is a good chance that most, if not all, of the other typed manuscript articles of Lambuth's trips around the world were published by the Southern Methodist Church in their various periodicals. The correspondence is addressed to family, friends, colleagues and associated groups. Clippings are either death notices and/or tributes for both Lambuth and his wife.