John Peter Ingerslew Papers

John Ingerslew (1887-1985), American Methodist minister and missionary to Denmark, was born on Dec. 31,1887 in Asaa Jutland, Denmark, to Martinus Pederson and Dorthea Ingerslew Lauritsen, and immigrated to the United States in 1904. While in the United States he attended Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. He worked as a pastor from 1913 to 1917 at the Norwegian Methodist Episcopal Church, Berlin, New Hampshire, and worked with the Seaman's Mission as pastor of the Scandinavian Methodist Episcopal Church of Baltimore, Maryland from 1917 to 1919. He was married to Anina Fladborg in 1910.

Ingerslew returned to Denmark to be with his dying mother in 1919. On the voyage, he met Bishop William Anderson, who insisted that he move to Copenhagen to assist Anton Bast. Ingerslew returned to the United States for a short time and in November of 1919 moved, with his two children, to Copenhagen. His wife, Anina (Nina) delayed by pregnancy and ill health, joined him nine months later. Ingerslew began work immediately as Bast's secretary and instructor of the Theological School.

Reservations about Bast's behavior had been expressed long before Ingerslew's arrival. Concerns had been raised as early as at the 1912 General Conference about possible financial misconduct. Ingerslew thought the charges might be true, but he wasn't responsible for finances, and therefore didn't occupy himself with the charges.

However, Ingerslew was responsible for the translation of Anton Bast's book, The Central Mission Through Ten Years, for presentation to the General Conference in 1920. Ingerslew was troubled by misrepresentations in the book and the allegations that Bast was selling the book for personal profit. Bast presented the book to the General Conference and returned as Bishop. Ingerslew then succeeded Bast as pastor of the Jerusalem Church in Copenhagen, gaining responsibility for the finances of the Central Mission In 1921 tensions about the financial management, private enterprises and moral conduct of Bishop Bast arose. Ingerslew became the spokesman of the charges brought forward by the trustees of the Jerusalem church. In Denmakr, the duicial process within the Church was blocked and in the United States the authorities did not take seriously the complaints in an early stage. The affair grew to a major crisis. At the end of 1924, when Bast came back frfom a visit in the United State, he was arrested by the police and released after ten days. The Danish Conference in 1925 expelled Ingerslew and eight trustees who continued to carry charges against Bast before Danish courts. Inglerslew also had legal troubles with the new Trustees of the Jerusalem Church. Some of his charges were received by the court, but the Jerusalem church appealed to the Supreme Court where it was finally defeated in 1929. Ingerslew went back to the United States. Bishop Bast was tried in the Court of Copenhagen upon several charges for misappropriation of funds in 1926. All but one were dropped. The jury found Bast guilty on the charge of having made profit from the Missions' weekly paper. Bast had mainteained that the paper made no profit when it did. Bast was sentenced to three months in prison. Only after the State Court decision was there an investigation by the church. The church trial was held at The Hague, Holland, in1927. Bast was permanently suspended from the exercise of the office of bishop

Ingerslew returned to America in April 1929, but was unable to get an appointment, and was forced to live in tents with three of his four children for four months before being appointed to the church at Grant City, Missouri, where he stayed until 1932. In 1929 he was married to Lissa A. Madsen.

Ingerslew served in Edina, Missouri, from 1932 to 1937; Morberly Missouri, from 1937 to about 1939; Milan, Missouri, from 1939 to 1942; and Trenton, Missouri, from 1943 to 1946. After Trenton, he moved to Hannibal, where he worked with the First Methodist Church. In 1951 he transferred to Washington, Missouri and then Eureka, Missouri, where he stayed until 1960. In May 1960 he retired to Hannibal, Missouri. From 1963 to 1970,he served part-time with the Oakwood Methodist Church in Oakwood, Missouri. He later moved to Nebraska and died in Seward, Nebraska on June 4, 1985 at the age of 97.