Library of Appalachian Preaching
The Library of Appalachian Preaching offers online access to sermons and other addresses delivered within Appalachia, or elsewhere by preachers with ties to the Appalachian region. It is a collaborative effort, involving the Center for Sermon Studies, the MU Libraries, the Department of English, and the Digital Humanities program.
For additional information, please see the "About" page or contact Dr. Robert Ellison, Associate Professor of English and lead curator of the Library.
About the Library of Appalachian Preaching
The Library of Appalachian Preaching is sponsored by Marshall's Center for Sermon Studies, which also publishes Sermon Studies, a peer-reviewed, open access journal.
It began with print and manuscript materials in Marshall’s special collections. It expanded to include print sources in the Internet Archive, the HathiTrust Digital Library, and other repositories; the current focus is videos of sermons in faith traditions other than Protestant Christianity.
This page contains links to presentations and publications that have grown out of the Library; collections of resources in which the Library is represented; and awards the project has received. If users have other items they’d like to be included, they are encouraged to get in touch with the lead curator, Dr. Robert Ellison.
Note: In most cases, the "Link to Full Text" button in the pages below will go to the item’s original “home” in Marshall Digital Scholar. From there, click the "Download" button to access the item itself.
User Guides
These User Guides are intended to make the collection easier to search and navigate. They will be updated frequently, as additional materials are placed online.
Alderson, Lewis Allen, 1812-1881
Alderson was born in what is now Greenbrier County, West Virginia, and graduated from Ohio University in Athens in 1832. His 25 years of ministry in and around Appalachia included organizing Sunday schools throughout eastern Virginia and serving three terms as pastor of the Greenbrier Baptist Church in Alderson (1834-37, 1839-40, and 1847-50). He moved to Kansas in 1858, where he remained until his death in 1881.
Additional information can be found in a biographical sketch, written by his son Joseph, in Souvenir of the 125th Anniversary of the Greenbrier Baptist Church, ed. J. W. Morgan (Huntington, WV: Swan Printing and Stationery Co., 1906).
Allen, Charles Livingstone, 1913-2005
Allen was born in Georgia and spent most of his career at 2 large metropolitan churches: Grace United Methodist in Atlanta (1948-60) and First Methodist in Houston (1960-83). His time in Appalachia included studying at Young Harris College in Towns County, Georgia and Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina; pastoring in Douglasville, Georgia; and speaking several times at the Appalachian Preaching Mission in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Additional information can be found in Allen’s Wikipedia page and Frederick V. Mills’ article in the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
Allen's photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
Altmeyer, Henry B., 1870-1930
Altmeyer was born in Wheeling, West Virginia; was ordained to the priesthood in 1897; and was the pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Huntington, West Virginia, from 1899 to 1930. In addition to the sermons included in the Library, he was the author of Catholic Doctrines: Recent Misrepresentations and Calumnies Answered (Huntington, WV: Paragon Printing & Publishing Co., [1929]) and Practical Essentials of "Codex Juris Canonici" Concerning the Sacraments (Huntington, WV: Paragon Printing & Publishing Co., 1920)
Additional information can be found in a history of St. Joseph Parish and a biographical sketch drawn from Cabell County Annals and Families (Richmond: Garrett & Massie, 1935).
Appalachian Preaching Mission Records
The Appalachian Preaching Mission was an annual event that took place in Johnson City and other Tennessee cities from 1955 to 1986. A 1968 history of the Mission states that its purpose “was to allow the people of the area to hear great preachers that they would not ordinarily have the opportunity to hear” (p. 1). Some of those preachers lived in or near Johnson City; others came from as far away as Arizona, California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
The Appalachian Preaching Mission Records are part of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. We are grateful for ETSU’s assistance and support in incorporating these materials into the Library.
Arter, Jared Maurice, 1850-1930
Arter was born into slavery in what is now Jefferson County, West Virginia. His formal education began in 1873 at Storer College in Harpers Ferry; from there, he attended Pennsylvania State College (now Pennsylvania State University), Michigan’s Hillsdale College, and the Chicago Theological Seminary.
Arter was an educator and a minister. He held teaching positions in Storer; Morgan College and the Baptist Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, Virginia; the J. S. Manning Bible School in Cairo, Illinois; and the West Virginia Industrial School Seminary and College in Hill Top. His pastorates included churches in Chicago and Danville, Illinois; Sun, West Virginia; and the Storer College Church and Curtis Free Will Baptist Church in Harpers Ferry.
Additional information can be found on Arter’s Wikipedia page; an article in A. B. Caldwell’s History of the American Negro: West Virginia Edition (Atlanta: A. B. Caldwell Publishing Co., 1923); and especially Arter’s Echoes from a Pioneer Life (Atlanta: A. B. Caldwell Publishing Co., 1922).
Atkinson, Robert Poland, 1927-2012
Atkinson was born in Washington, D. C. and studied at the University of Virginia and Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. Churches he served included St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Wheeling, West Virginia (assistant rector, 1953-55); Christ Church, Fairmont (rector, 1955-58); Trinity Church, Huntington (rector, 1958-64); and Calvary Church, Memphis, Tennessee (rector, 1964-73). He also served as the fifth Episcopal bishop of West Virginia (1976-88) and the assistant bishop of Virginia (1989-93).
Thus far, Atkinson is the only preacher in the Library to have a Wikipedia page. Additional information can also be found in Chapter XVI of James R. Haworth, Trinity Church, Huntington, West Virginia: Something of Its Story (Huntington, WV: Cook Printing Co., 1964).
Two sermons Atkinson preached during his time at Trinty are housed in the Bokair Family Papers in Marshall’s Special Collections Department. The full text cannot be provided here due to copyright restrictions, but information about the sermons is included in the User Guides. Users may also email Special Collections for more information about the sermons.
Bain, John Wallace, 1833-1910
Bain was a Presbyterian minister and author of such works as God's Songs and the Singer (Pittsburgh: United Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1871); Freemasonry and Kindred Orders Self-Condemned (Pittsburgh: United Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1872); and Pilgrim's Progress, as illustrated by J.W. Bain's Collection of Paintings (New York: Published by J.W. Bain, 1868). His work in Appalachia included pastoring The United Presbyterian Church in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania and the First Presbyterian Church of Altoona (now Providence Presbyterian Church).
Ball, Franklin, 1822-1886
Ball was born in Virginia and spent time teaching and farming before becoming a Methodist Episcopal minister in 1856. Places he worked in what is now West Virginia included Charleston, Morgantown and Wheeling, where he was Presiding Elder from 1873-76. He ended his career in New York, serving churches in Elmira Marcellus, Phoenix, and Towanda.Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883). An obituary appeared in the records of the nineteenth session of the Central New York Conference, which took place in Canandaigua in October 1886.
The Baptist Preacher
Under the editorship of Henry Keeling, the Richmond, Virginia-based Baptist Preacher operated from 1842 to 1859. A statement on the back cover of several issues states that the sermons published there “discuss Doctrine, Discipline, Practice—all that appertains to Christianity in Theory and Morals—in a word, everything common to all evangelical denominations; and besides this, the peculiarities of the Baptists, whence its apparently sectarian name.”
Bascom, Henry Bidleman, 1796-1850
Bascom spent much of his life in Appalachia. He was born in Delaware County, New York, spent part of his adolescence in Cattaraugus County, and, at age 16, was licensed to preach in Highland County, Ohio. His work as a Methodist Episcopal circuit rider and agent of the American Colonization Society took him to the Appalachian regions of Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and what is now West Virginia. He was also the first president of Madison College in Uniontown, Pennsylvania (1827-29). He passed away in September 1850, shortly after his election as a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Additional information can be found on Bascom’s Wikipedia page; in Matthew Simpson, Cyclopaedia of Methodism (Philadelphia: Everts & Stewart, 1878); and especially Moses Montgomery Henkle, The Life of Henry Bidleman Bascom: Late Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (Louisville, KY: Morton & Griswold, 1854).
Bond, Ahva John Clarence, 1875-1958
The staff and members of the Seventh Day Baptist Church in Salem, West Virginia have provided helpful information about Bond's life and work. He was born in Roanoke, West Virginia and educated at Salem College (now Salem University). In addition to pastoring churches in Salem; Milton Junction, Wisconsin; and Plainfield, New Jersey, he served as dean of the Alfred School of Theology in Appalachian New York State and a member of the committee that drafted Seventh Day Baptist Beliefs (Plainfield, N.J.: American Sabbath Tract Society, 1941).
Additional information can be found on pages 13-14 of the August 25, 1958 issue of the Sabbath Recorder, a Seventh Day Baptist periodical published in Plainfield.
Borgmeyer, Dean
Borgmeyer was born in Missouri. He was ordained a Catholic priest in West Virginia in 1981; in 2018, Pope Francis designated him a Chaplain to His Holiness, which bestowed upon him the title of monsignor. Borgmeyer has served parishes throughout West Virginia: Charleston, 1981-83; Martinsburg, 1983-85; Welch and War, 1985-87; Wheeling, 1990-94; Nitro, 1994-2002; Star City, 2002-06; and Weirton, 2006-2012). From 1987-1990, he was a chaplain in the U.S. Navy. Since 2012, he has been pastor of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Huntington.
Additional information can be found in articles published in the Huntington Herald-Dispatch and The Weirton Daily Times.
Bovell, Stephen, 1770-1840
Bovell was born outside Appalachia, in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and studied at Dickinson College in Carlisle. His work in the region took place from 1798 to 1837, when he served in Greeneville, Tennessee and Abingdon, Virginia.
Additional information can be found in Alfred Nevin, Encyclopaedia of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Publishing Co, 1884) and John McClintock and James Strong, Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Volume 12 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1894). His last name is spelled “Bovelle” in the former source and “Bouelle” in the latter, but the information is the same.
Brown, John Newton, 1803-1868
Brown was born in Connecticut and received a degree from Madison College (now Colgate University) in 1823. His work outside Appalachia included teaching at the Academical and Theological Institution of New Hampton, New Hampshire (now the New Hampton School); working at the American Baptist Publication Society in Philadelphia (now part of American Baptist Home Mission Societies; and writing the New Hampshire Confession of Faith of 1833. His time in the region took place from 1845 to 1848, when he served as a pastor in Lexington, Virginia.
Additional information can be found in Brown’s Wikipedia page.
Brown, John Ward, 1885-?
Brown was born in Gladesville, West Virginia and served in France in World War I. He was the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Grafton, West Virginia from 1921 to 1930.
Details of his life and work beyond that have proven difficult to find. An August 19, 1947 article in The Picket, the newspaper of Shepherd College in Shepherdstown, notes that a John Ward Brown was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Martinsburg at the time; it is likely, but not 100% certain, that they are the same person.
Brown, Matthew, 1776-1853
The staff of the First Presbyterian Church of Washington, Pennsylvania have provided helpful information about Brown's life and work. He was born in what is now Union County, Pennsylvania and received a degree from Dickinson College in 1794. His work in Appalachia included serving as pastor of churches in Juniata County, Pennsylvania (1801-05) and First Presbyterian (1805-22), and as president of Washington College (1806-16) and Jefferson College in Canonsburg (1822-45); in 1865, the two institutions merged to become Washington & Jefferson College.
Additional information can be found in Brown’s Wikipedia page; an article on the website of the Dickinson College Archives & Special Collections; David Elliott’s “Biographical Sketch”, published in Joseph Smith, History of Jefferson College (Pittsburgh: J. T. Shryock, 1857); Volume 4 of William Buell Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit (New York, Robert Carter & Brothers, 1858); and Chapters IV and V of Helen Turnbull Waite Coleman, Banners in the Wilderness: Early Years of Washington and Jefferson College (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1956).
Bruce, Robert, 1778-1846
Bruce was born in Scotland and studied at the University of Edinburgh. His career in Pittsburgh included pastoring the First Associate Presbyterian Church (1808-46), and serving two terms (1819-35 and 1836-43) as principal of the Western University of Pennsylvania (formerly Pittsburgh Academy [1787-1819], now the University of Pittsburgh).
Additional information can be found on Bruce’s Wikipedia page.
Campbell, Alexander, 1788-1866
Campbell was born in Ireland and educated at the University of Glasgow. At the age of 21, he came to Washington County, Pennsylvania, where his father was a minister, and was ordained to the ministry himself. In 1840, he founded Bethany College in what is now Bethany, West Virginia. He also edited two religious periodicals: the Christian Baptist (1823-30) and The Millennial Harbinger (1830-66). Though he came to dislike denominational labels, he is sometimes credited with being one of the founders of the Disciples of Christ.
A list of his publications appears in the University of Pennsylvania’s Online Books Page. Additional information can be found on Campbell’s Wikipedia page and a number of other websites. He is also the subject of Robert Richardson, Memoirs of Alexander Campbell (Cincinnati: Standard Publishing Company, 1897).
Campbell, Ernest T., 1923-2010
Campbell was born in New York City, earned degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary, and pastored such churches as Riverside in New York and First Presbyterian in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His time in Appalachia included studying at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina; serving churches in Anniston, Alabama and the First Presbyterian Church in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania; and participating in the February 1964 Appalachian Preaching Mission in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Additional information can be found in Campbell’s Wikipedia page.
Cambell's photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
Carter, John William, 1836-1907
When Carter was very young, his family moved from his birthplace in Virginia to what is now Upshur County, West Virginia. He was licensed to preach in 1859 and ordained the following year; apart from 10 years in Raleigh, North Carolina (1889-99), he spent his ministerial career in West Virginia, pastoring Baptist churches in Upshur County (1860-64), Parkersburg (1864-88), Spencer (1901-07), and Elizabeth (half-time, 1905-07).
Additional information can be found in T. C. Johnson, John William Carter, D.D.: Sketches of His Life, Estimates of His Character and Work, Selections from His Sermons (Charleston, WV: Lovett Printing Co., [1912?]).
Caudill, B. F.
According to the September 30, 1922 issue of The Baptist, a weekly newspaper published by the Northern Baptist Convention (now American Baptist Churches USA), Caudill was twice pastor of the Twentieth Street Baptist Church (now New Baptist Church) in Huntington, West Virginia. He was there from 1904 to 1911, and accepted the position again in 1922. His work in the interim included a 3-year term as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Hamilton, Ohio (1919-22).
Caverlee, Robert F.
According to his sermon in Voices from Templed Hills, Caverlee was the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Logan, West Virginia in the 1920s.
Details of his life and work beyond that have proven difficult to find. Other sources indicate that a Rev. Robert F. Caverlee worked outside of Appalachia, as an Instructor in Biblical Literature at the State Teachers College in Fredericksburg, Virginia (now the University of Mary Washington) and pastor of Fairmont Baptist Church in Richmond (1917-21) and Fredericksburg Baptist Church (1932-61). It is likely, but not 100% certain, that they are the same person.
Chambliss, Alexander Wilds, 1812-1893
Information about Chambliss’ life and work has proven difficult to find. According to the 3 sermons published in the Presbyterian Preacher, he was in Appalachia in the mid-1840s, working in Tuskegee, Alabama. It is likely that the author of those sermons is the same Chambliss who wrote The Catechetical Instructor: In which the Leading Doctrines and Practices of Christianity are Familiarly Exhibited ; Designed for the Use of Families, Sabbath Schools, and Bible Classes; and Especially for the Oral Instruction of the Colored Population (Montgomery, AL: Bates, Hooper & Co., 1847).
Chrisman, Lewis Herbert, 1883-?
Chrisman taught English at German Wallace College (now Baldwin Wallace University) in Berea, Ohio and West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon. His books on literary, historical and religious topics include The English of the Pulpit (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1926); John Ruskin, Preacher, and Other Essays (New York: The Abingdon Press, 1921); and Selections from the Letters and Speeches of Abraham Lincoln (Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 1912).
Clark, James Lawrence, 1814-1903
Clark was born in Baltimore and began his ministry in the Pittsburgh Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His work in West Virginia included serving as Presiding Elder in Charleston, Parkersburg, and Wheeling.Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883). Clark is also mentioned in Prominent Men of West Virginia (Wheeling, WV: W. L. Callin, 1890); an obituary appeared in the Official Journal and Minutes of the Fifty-Seventh Annual Session of the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Clarke, Homer Jackson, 1803-1875
Clarke (sometimes spelled “Clark”) was born in Vermont and began his ministry in Ohio. In addition to serving as a pastor and presiding elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church, he was president of Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania (1837-47) and editor of the Pittsburgh Christian Advocate (1852-56).
Additional information can be found on the Allegheny website and in Volume I of J. N. Fradenburgh’s History of Erie Conference (Oil City, PA: Derrick Publishing Company, 1907).
Collection of Original Sermons
This collection was edited by Thomas P. Akers. It was apparently conceived as a reaction against plans to build a Catholic school for girls in Greensburg, a small town in central Kentucky. Members of several denominations were invited to contribute sermons to a book which would be sold to raise funds to construct a school that would advance “the cause of Protestantism” instead (p. vii). It was republished as Sermons for the Home Circle: A Series of Twenty-Four Sermons by Eminent Ministers of Different Denominations, and Adapted to Supply Valuable Reading to the Family Circle (Boston: Benjamin B. Russell, 1859).
Collins, Charles, 1813-1875
Collins was born in Maine and received a degree from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut in 1837. His work outside Appalachia included serving as president of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania (1852-60) and the State Female College near Memphis, Tennessee (1860-75). His time in the region took place from 1838-52, when he was president of Emory and Henry College in Emory, Virginia.
Additional information can be found on the website of the Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections.
Condit, William Cutter, 1841-1926
Condit was born in Murphysville, Kentucky; graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1866; and was the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Ashland, Kentucky, from 1866-1921. For additional information, see Genealogical Record of the Condit Family (Newark, NJ: Ward & Tichenor, 1885) and a 1927 report honoring recently-deceased Princeton alumni.
Crane, Henry Hitt, 1890-1977
Crane was born in Illinois and studied at Wesleyan University in Connecticut and the Boston University School of Theology. He spent most of his career outside Appalachia, serving churches in Maine, Massachusetts, and Michigan. His time in the region took place from 1928-38, when he was the pastor of Elm Park Methodist Episcopal Church (now Elm Park United Methodist Church) in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Crane’s papers are housed at the University of Michigan. Additional information can be found in the biographical sketch published alongside his sermon in William Stidger, If I Had Only One Sermon to Preach on Immortality (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1929).
Crothers, Samuel, 1783-1855
Crothers was born in Pennsylvania and studied at the Presbyterian seminary in New York. In addition to pastoring churches in Appalachian Ohio (Chillicothe and Greenfield), he spoke in support of abolitionist causes and published Strictures on African Slavery (Paint Valley [Ohio?]: Abolition Society of Paint Valley, 1833) and The Gospel of the Jubilee (Cincinnati: American Reform Tract and Book Society, 1856)
Additional information can be found on Crothers’ Wikipedia page and in Andrew Ritchie, The Life and Writings of Rev. Samuel Crothers, D.D., being Extracts from His Writings Illustrative of His Style, and of the Patriarchal and Mosaic Economy; Interwoven with a Narrative of His Life (Cincinnati: Moore, Wilstach, Keys & Co., 1857).
Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978
Cummings was born in Pickaway, West Virginia and attended the Literary and Bible Training School (now Trevecca Nazarene University) in Nashville, Tennessee and the University of Chattanooga. He was licensed to preach in 1907 and spent his entire career in the West Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church, beginning in Boomer (1901-12) and ending in Glasgow (1947-59).
Cummings also delivered radio addresses on stations WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio and and WCHS in Charleston, West Virginia; wrote newspaper columns, poems, and sacred songs; and published song books with his own work and selections by other artists.
Additional information can be found in the newspaper articles about Cummings and other materials in this section of the Library of Appalachian Preaching.
Curtis, Thomas Fenner, 1815-1872
Information about Curtis’ life and work has proven difficult to find. We know from his published works that he was in Appalachia in the mid-1840s, pastoring a Baptist church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and teaching theology at Howard College (now Samford University) in Birmingham. His books include The Progress of Baptist Principles in the Last Hundred Years (Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1855) and Anastasis…The Temptations of the Wilderness, Bathsheba, and Other Poems (New York: Leavitt & Co., 1850).
Cushman, Robert Earl, 1913-1993
Cushman was born in Massachusetts and earned degrees from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and Yale. He began teaching at Duke Divinity School in 1945 and served as dean from 1958 to 1971. During his time as dean, he traveled to Buckhannon, West Virginia, where he delivered 3 addresses at the June 1969 conference of the West Virginia Area of the United Methodist Church.
Additional information can be found in the description of the Robert Earl Cushman Papers at Duke.
Davis, Homer H., 1923-
Information on Davis' life has been helpfully provided by the staff of the West Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church. He earned his B.A. degree from West Virginia State University in 1949 and served the Conference as a staff member (1979-82), one of the first African-American district superintendents (Charleston, 1982-88), and “minister of reconciliation,” a post to which he was appointed in 1969. In June of that year, he delivered 2 addresses at the annual conference in Buckhannon.
Additional information can be found in “Rev. Homer Davis: Our Champion for Diversity, Equity and Race Relations,” published on pp. 7-9 of the 2017 February Circuit, a publication of the West Virginia Conference.
Davis, William Henson, 1866-?
Davis was born in Appalachia, in Hendersonville, North Carolina and attended Wake Forest College (now Wake Forest University) and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He pastored churches throughout the state and used Hendersonville as kind of a “home base” for his evangelistic efforts in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia.
Additional information can be found in J. C. Owen’s Introduction to Davis’ Sermons and Addresses (Alexander, NC: Crowder’s Printing Press, 1948).
Dedicatory Services of the New Edifice of the Third Presbyterian Church, of Pittsburgh, Penn'a
On June 1, 1863, the Third Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh was destroyed by a fire. Exactly 3 years later, the cornerstone of the new building was laid, and the finished building was dedicated on November 29, 1868. This book was published to commemorate that occasion.
Dix, Daniel H. K., 1828-1911
Dix was born in what is now Upshur County, West Virginia in 1828. He began working as a Methodist Episcopal minster in 1850, in Parkersburg, and went on to serve the church as a Presiding Elder. He also served one term in the state senate, and declined to run for re-election so he could focus on ministry full-time.Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883).
Doan, R. A., 1874-
Doan was born and spent at least part of his adult life in the Appalachian town of Nelsonville, Ohio. In addition to having a successful career as brick manufacturer, he was a devoted layman in the Church of Christ, teaching a men’s Bible class at his church and serving on a commission for foreign missions.
Additional information can be found in the biographical sketch published alongside his essay in William Stidger, The Pew Preaches (Nashville, TN: Cokesbury Press, 1930).
Docherty, George M., 1911-2008
Docherty was born and educated in Scotland and came to the United States in 1950. He was pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. from 1950-76 and was instrumental in having the phrase “under God” added to the Pledge of Allegiance. His time in Appalachia included participating in the February 1958 Appalachian Preaching Mission in Johnson City, Tennessee; teaching at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania in the 1979-80 academic year; and living his final days in Alexandria, Pennsylvania.
Additional information can be found in Docherty’s Wikipedia page.
Docherty's photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
Dodrill, R. M.
At the time Voices from Templed Hills was published in 1927, Dodrill was the pastor of the First Baptist Church of West Union, West Virginia. Articles published in the June 7, 1941 and May 2, 1953 editions of The Indianapolis Star indicate that he left West Union in 1929 to become pastor of Indianapolis' Broadway Baptist Church (now Faithway Baptist Church). In 1941, he was given the position of “lifetime pastor” of the church.
Eddy, W. J.
Details of Eddy’s life and work have proven difficult to find. The only verifiable information comes from his sermon in Voices from Templed Hills, which indicates that he was the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Fairmont, West Virginia at the time the book was published in 1927.
Elbin, Paul Nowell, 1905-?
The librarians at West Liberty University, West Virginia’s oldest postsecondary institution, have provided helpful information about Elbin's life and work. A Methodist minister and longtime college president, he took the helm of West Liberty Academy in 1935. During his 35-year tenure, the school became West Liberty State Teachers College and later West Liberty State College; since 2009, it has been known as West Liberty University.
In addition to his work at West Liberty, Elbin taught part time at Ohio University's Belmont campus (now known as the Eastern Campus) and preached as needed at the First Westminster Presbyterian Church in Steubenville, Ohio.
Additional information can be found in a July 29, 1951 article in The Pittsburgh Press and Chapter Three of Robert W. Schramm, West Liberty State College (Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia, 2001).
Elliott, David, 1787-1874
Elliott was born in Appalachia, in Perry County, Pennsylvania, and received a degree from Dickinson College in Carlisle in 1808. His work outside the region included pastoring a Presbyterian church in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania (1812-29); within Appalachia, he pastored in Washington, Pennsylvania (1829-36); served as acting president of Washington College (now Washington & Jefferson College, 1830-31); and taught theology at the Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny (now Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, 1836-70).
Additional information can be found in Elliott’s Wikipedia page; a biographical sketch on the website of the Dickinson College Archives & Special Collections; and Alfred Nevin, Encyclopaedia of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Publishing Co, 1884).
Evans, Louis H. (Louis Hadley), 1897-1981
Helpful information about Evans' life and work has been provided by the Third Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, which he pastored from 1931-41. He was born in Indiana and received a degree from Chicago’s McCormick Theological Seminary in 1922. Before coming to Pittsburgh, he served in North Dakota (Westhope, 1922-25) and California (Wilmington, 1925-28 and Pomona, 1928-31). He returned to California in 1941, where he pastored the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood until 1953. He also spent 9 years as a Minister-at-Large and participated in the February 1958 Appalachian Preaching Mission in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Additional information can be found in a biographical sketch on ReCollections, a site hosted by the Special Collections department at Wheaton College.
Evans’ photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
Fairchild, Ashbel Green, 1795-1864
Fairchild was born in New Jersey and studied at Princeton College (now Princeton University) and Princeton Theological Seminary. He spent most of his career in the Redstone Presbytery in Pennsylvania, which encompasses the Appalachian counties of Cambria, Fayette, Somerset, and Westmoreland. His longest tenure was at Tent Presbyterian Church in Uniontown, which he served from 1827 until his death in 1864.
Additional information can be found in Alfred Nevin, Encyclopaedia of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Publishing Co, 1884) and John McClintock and James Strong, Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Volume 12 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1894).
Feather, Joseph B., 1833-
Feather was born in what is now Preston County, West Virginia. His family were evangelical Lutherans, but he became affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church in his late teens and went on to serve in churches throughout the state.Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883). Feather is also mentioned in Prominent Men of West Virginia (Wheeling, WV: W. L. Callin, 1890)
Fischbach, Julius, 1894-
Fischbach was born in Huntington, West Virginia, where his family were members of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church. He attended Marshall College (now Marshall University), the University of Michigan, and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Some of the sermons in the Library were preached during his time as the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Lansing, Michigan (now the Christ Community Church of Greater Lansing).
Two of Fischbach's books--Talks for Children on Christian Ideals and The Children's Moment--are still under copyright protection. Scans thus cannot be included in the Library, but information about the sermons is included in the User Guides. Researchers may contact the Special Collections Department to learn more about these books.
Fitch, Alger Morton
Information on Fitch’s life and work has proven difficult to find. The brochure for the February 1965 session of the Appalachian Preaching Mission notes that he earned degrees from Northwest Christian College (now Bushnell University) in Eugene, Oregon and the now-defunct Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma. At the time of his visit to Appalachia, he was serving as the pastor of the Parkcrest Church of Christ (now Parkcrest Christian Church) in Long Beach, California.
Fitch’s photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
Fitzpatrick, James B.
Fitzpatrick was born and began his ministry in Virginia. He ministered in Maryland, Florida, and elsewhere before arriving in Wheeling, West Virginia in 1872.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883).
Forbes, James Alexander, 1935-
Forbes was born in North Carolina; earned degrees from Howard University, Union Theological Seminary, and Colgate Rochester Divinity School (now Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School); and was ordained in both the American Baptist Church and the United Holy Church of America. He taught at Union and Auburn Theological Seminary, and was the first African American to pastor Riverside Church in New York City, where he served from 1989-2007. It appears that his only visit to Appalachia took place in 1973, when he participated in the Preaching Mission in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Additional information can be found in Forbes’ Wikipedia page.
Forbes’ photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
Ford, Leighton, 1930-
Ford was born and raised in Canada, but he has spent his working years in the United States. He has worked with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (associate evangelist and vice president, 1955-85), the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (now the Lausanne Movement; chairman, 1976-92), and Leighton Ford Ministries (president, 1986-present). He visited Appalachia in September 1962, leading a crusade at the First Presbyterian Church in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Additional information can be found in the biographical sketches on the Lausanne and Leighton Ford Ministries websites.
Frame, James F.
The staff of Gassaway Baptist Church in Gassaway, West Virginia and Emmanuel Baptist Church in Charleston have provided helpful information about Frame’s career. He was pastor of Gassaway from September 1914 to January 1917, and again from March 1918 to March 1922; in the interim, he was the pastor of Williamstown Baptist Church. In 1922, Frame left Gassaway to become pastor of Emmanuel. He served there until 1939, the church’s longest-running pastorate to date.
It is very likely that he was the same James F. Frame who, according to a May 3, 1957 article in The Raleigh Register, a newspaper published in Beckley, West Virginia, “was pastor of the Fayetteville Baptist Church for 18 years before his retirement on July 1, 1956” (p. 2).
Freehof, Solomon Bennett, 1892-1990
Freehof was born in England and came to the United States in 1903. His work outside Appalachia included studying at the University of Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College, and serving as rabbi at Congregation Kehillath Anshe Maarav (now KAM Isaiah Israel) in Chicago. His time in the region took place in Pittsburgh, where he was rabbi at Rodef Shalom Congregation from 1934-1966. He was a kind of mentor to Walter Jacob, who succeeded him as rabbi and went on to found The Solomon B. Freehof Institute of Progressive Halakhah in his honor.
Additional information can be found on Freehof’s Wikipedia page; an article in Encyclopedia Judaica; and a Biographical Sketch on the website of the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati.
Fullerton, James Archer, 1850-
Fullerton was born in Ireland, where he also began to preach at the age of 17. He came to the United States in 1871 or 1872 and soon became affiliated with the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He went on to pastor churches in Evansville, Charleston, and other cities, and also served as Presiding Elder of the Parkersburg District.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883). Fullerton is also mentioned in Prominent Men of West Virginia (Wheeling, WV: W. L. Callin, 1890).
Gill, Benjamin, 1843-1912
Gill was born in England, came to America when he was 8 years old, and began his work as a Methodist Episcopal minister in the Boston area. His academic career started in 1872 in Wilbraham, Massachusetts; 20 years later, he moved to The Pennsylvania State College (now Pennsylvania State University), where he taught Latin and Greek and served as the college chaplain.
Additional information can be found on the website for the Benjamin Gill papers in the Penn State library, and in the “In Memoriam” section of Gill’s Sermons and Addresses ([State College, PA] [1913]).
Gilpin, John R., 1905-1974
Gilpin was born, went to school, and spent much of his career in Kentucky; the churches he served included Hickory Grove Baptist in Kenton and First Baptist in Russell.
Additional information can be found in Volume 1 of John S. Ramond’s Among Southern Baptists (Kansas City, MO: Western Baptist Publishing Company, 1936), and in the February 4, 1939 and March 16, 1940 issues of The Baptist Examiner. Gilpin served as editor; digitized copies are now available via the website of the Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church in Chesapeake, Ohio.
Grasty, John Sharshall, 1825-1883
Grasty was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia and pastored Presbyterian churches in Kentucky, North Carolina, Missouri, and Texas. His time in Appalachia included studying at Washington College in Lexington, Virginia (now Washington & Lee University and serving as pastor of Fincastle Presbyterian Church in Botetourt County, Virginia from 1856-67.
Additional information can be found in James M. Holladay, A Partial History of Fincastle Presbyterian Church (Richmond, VA: Whittet & Shepperson, 1902).
Greathouse, William Marvin
Greathouse was born in Arkansas and educated in Tennessee, where he studied at Lambuth College in Jackson and Trevecca Nazarene College (now Trevecca Nazarene University) and Vanderbilt University in Nashville. After pastoring Nazarene churches from 1938-63, he served as president of Trevecca and Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri and was elected General Superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene. His visit to the Appalachian region of Tennessee took place in 1965, when he participated in the February Preaching Mission in Johnson City.
Additional information can be found in Greathouse’s Wikipedia page and William J. Strickland and H. Ray Dunning, Crucified with Christ: The Life and Ministry of William Marvin Greathouse (Nashville, TN: Trevecca Press, 2010).
Greathouse’s photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
Green, Lewis W. (Lewis Warner), 1806-1863
Green was born in Kentucky and earned a degree from Centre College in Danville in 1824. He was ordained in 1838 but spent most of his career in academia, teaching at Centre and the Western Theological Seminary (now Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, 1840-47), and serving as president of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia (1849-56); Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky (1856-58); and Centre College (1858-63).
Additional information can be found on Green’s Wikipedia page, and in Leroy Jones Halsey, Memoir of the Life and Character of Rev. Lewis Warner Green, with a Selection from His Sermons (New York, Charles Scribner & Co., 1871).
Grubbs, James David, 1935-2015
Grubbs was born in Florida and attended high school and college in Indiana. His time in Appalachia took place in Tennessee, where he undertook graduate study at the Emmanuel School of Religion (now Emmanuel Christian Seminary) in Elizabethton and East Tennessee State University in Johnson City; pastored the First Church of God (now Kingsport Community Church) in Kingsport; and served as chairman of the Appalachian Preaching Mission in Johnson City.
Additional information can be found in a biographical sketch prepared for the Preaching Mission and an obituary published in the May 17, 2015 edition of the Dayton, Ohio Daily News.
Grubbs’ photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
Haggai, John E. (John Edmund), 1924-2020
Haggai was an evangelist and founder of Haggai International, a missionary organization whose mission is to “select, equip, multiply, and encourage difference-makers all across the globe.” He worked and traveled around the world; his time in Appalachia included studying at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina; pastoring Woodland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee; and participating in the February 1966 Appalachian Preaching Mission in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Additional information can be found in obituaries published on the websites of Haggai International and Christianity Today.
Haggai’s photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
Hall, Ashford, 1826-
Hall was born in what is now Preston County, West Virginia in 1826. He was licensed to preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1849 and served as a pastor, circuit rider, and Presiding Elder.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883).
Hall, Baynard Rush, 1798-1863
Hall was born in Philadelphia and studied at Union College in Schenectady, New York and Princeton Theological Seminary. An academic as well as a Presbyterian minister, he was the first faculty member of the Indiana State Seminary (now Indiana University). He visited Appalachia in December 1837, preaching a sermon to the “young people” of Bedford, Pennsylvania.
Additional information can be found on Hall’s Wikipedia page.
Harrington. Charles H. (Charles Henry), 1861-1940
Details of Harrington’s life and work have proven difficult to find. The only verifiable information comes from his sermon in Voices from Templed Hills, which indicates that he was the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Charleston, West Virginia at the time the book was published in 1927.
Herron, Francis, 1774-1860
The “byline” for “Duty and Reasons of Christian Diligence,” a sermon published in The Presbyterian Preacher, reads simply “By Francis Herron, D. D., of Pittsburgh.” A December 7, 2017 post on This Day in Presbyterian History identifies the author as “Rev. Francis Herron [1774-1860],” and additional information is provided by Barry Waugh in Presbyterians of the Past. According to Waugh, Herron earned a degree from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania; pastored the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh from 1811 to 1850; and played a major role in founding the Western Theological Seminary (now Pittsburgh Theological Seminary) in Allegheny City (now Pittsburgh).
Hite, George Edgar, 1851-
Hite was born in what is now Guyandotte, West Virginia and studied medicine before his conversion to Christianity in 1870. He began his ministry in 1872, serving first in the Guyandotte District, and later in Rowlesburg, Morgantown, and Wheeling.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883). Hite is also mentioned in Prominent Men of West Virginia (Wheeling, WV: W. L. Callin, 1890).
Hockley, William Harold, 1918-2012
Hockley was born in Canada and came to the United States at the age of 17. His time in Appalachia took place in Tennessee, where he studied at Johnson Bible College (now Johnson University) in Knoxville, served as chairman of the board of the Emmanuel School of Religion (now Emmanuel Christian Seminary) in Johnson City, and participated in the February 1965 Appalachian Preaching Mission, also in Johnson City. Outside the region, he worked in Indiana and spent 34 years as pastor of the Westwood-Cheviot Christian Church (now Whitewater Crossing) in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Additional information can be found in an obituary published in the Columbus Dispatch in September 2012.
Hockley’s photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
Hoge, Moses, 1752-1820
Hoge was born in Frederick County, Virginia. His time in Appalachia included studying at Liberty Hall Academy (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia (1778-80), and pastoring Presbyterian churches in Hardy and Jefferson counties in what is now West Virginia (1782-1807). He finished his career outside the region, serving as president of Hampden-Sydney College from 1807 until his death in 1820.
Additional information can be found in Hoge’s Wikipedia page and Volume 3 of William Buell Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit (New York, Robert Carter & Brothers, 1858).
Holt, John Agee, 1920-2012
Holt was born in Huntington, West Virginia and attended Marshall University and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. In addition to pastoring churches in West Virginia, Washington, D. C., Maryland, and New Jersey, he served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy.
Additional information can be found in Holt’s obituary, made available by the Cox-Gifford Seawinds Funeral Home & Crematory in Vero Beach, Florida.
Hough, Lynn Harold, 1877-1971
Hough was born and educated in Appalachian Ohio, earning a degree from Scio College in Harlem Springs (now the University of Mount Union in Alliance) in 1898. He spent most of his career outside the region; he served at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois (president, 1919-20) and the Drew University Theological School (professor and dean, 1930-47), and pastored Methodist churches in Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York. He was also pastor of the American Presbyterian Church in Montreal from 1928-30.
Hough’s papers are housed at Northwestern and Drew. Additional information can be found in Hough’s Wikipedia page, an obituary in the New York Times, and the biographical sketch published alongside his sermon in William Stidger, If I Had Only One Sermon to Preach on Immortality (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1929).
Howe, John
Information on Howe’s life and work has proven difficult to find. The “byline” for “The Reception of Sinners,” a sermon published in The Presbyterian Preacher, reads simply “By Rev. John Howe, of Greensburgh, KY.” It’s possible that he is also the John Howe who founded what is now known as Munfordville Presbyterian Church in Munfordville, Kentucky.
Hubbard, Benjamin Harrison, d. 1853
It appears that little is known about Hubbard’s early life. We do know that he was licensed to preach in 1835, and that his work in the Hatchie circuit of the Methodist church took him to non-Appalachian cities in Tennessee, including Columbia, Jackson, and Trenton. His work within Appalachia took place in Alabama, first in Huntsville and later in Athens, where he was a professor and president of the Tennessee Conference Female College (now Athens State University).
Additional information can be found in an obituary published in the Nashville Christian Advocate.
Hughes, Edwin Holt, 1866-1950
Hughes was born in Moundsville, West Virginia and studied at West Virginia University in Morgantown. After that, he lived and worked outside Appalachia. He attended Ohio Wesleyan University and the Boston University School of Theology; pastored Methodist churches in Massachusetts; and served as president of DePauw University from 1903-08. As a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, a post to which he was elected in 1908, he oversaw churches in Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco.
Hughes’ papers are housed at DePauw. Additional information can be found in Hughes’ Wikipedia page and the biographical sketch published alongside his sermon in William Stidger, If I Had Only One Sermon to Preach on Immortality (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1929).
Hughes, Thomas Bayless, 1836-1917
Hughes was born in what is now Fayette County, West Virginia. He began his ministry in 1857, pastoring churches throughout the state and serving as Presiding Elder of the Buckhannon District.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883). A more detailed discussion appears in I Was Made a Minister: An Autobiography, published by his son, Edwin Holt, in 1943.
Hunt, Earl Gladstone, Jr., 1918-2005
Hunt spent a good deal of his life in Appalachia. He was born and educated in Johnson City, Tennessee, earning his bachelor’s degree from East Tennessee State College (now East Tennessee State University) in 1941. He pastored Methodist churches in Chattanooga, Kingsport, and Morristown, Tennessee; was president of Emory and Henry College in Emory, Virginia from 1956-64; and spent part of his retirement years in Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, where he was president of the Methodist Church’s Foundation for Evangelism. Outside the region, he served as a bishop in Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Nashville, Tennessee.
Additional information can be found in Hunt’s Wikipedia page and obituaries published by the Bristol, Virginia Herald Courier and the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Hunt’s photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
Hunter, William, 1811-1877
Hunter was born in Ireland and spent all or most of his career in Pennsylvania and Ohio. He taught at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania; was a three-time editor of the Pittsburgh Christian Advocate (1836-40, 1844-52, and 1872-76); and was a presiding elder in the Cleveland District of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He also co-edited The Minstrel of Zion (Philadelphia: Sorin & Ball, 1845) and contributed to Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Solomon's Song (New York: Eaton & Mains), 1909.
Additional information can be found in the “Biographical Notice” that precedes his commentary on Proverbs.
Ison, Benjamin, 1824-1901
Ison was born and licensed to preach in England. He emigrated to the United States in 1844 and arrived in what is now West Virginia the next year. He served Methodist Episcopal churches in cities including Morgantown, Parkersburg, Weston, and Wheeling.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883).
Jacobus, Melancthon Williams, 1816-1876
Jacobus was born in New Jersey and earned degrees from Princeton College (now Princeton University) and Princeton Theological Seminary. He came to Appalachia in 1852, as chair of Oriental and Biblical Literature at the Western Theological Seminary (now Pittsburgh Theological Seminary). He held that post until his death, while also pastoring the Central Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh (1858-1870). His publications include commentaries on several books of the Bible and a series of Catechetical Question Books. The book on Matthew (New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1849) is available at the Internet Archive.
Additional information can be found on Jacobus’ Wikipedia page, and in the Autobiography published in The Christian's Heritage; and Other Sermons (New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1878).
Jefferson, Charles Edward, 1860-1937
Jefferson was born in Appalachia, in Cambridge, Ohio, but spent most of his life outside the region. He attended Ohio Wesleyan University and the Boston University School of Theology, and pastored two churches: Central Congregational in Chelsea, Massachusetts and the Broadway Tabernacle (now the Broadway United Church of Christ) in New York City (1898-1930).
Jefferson’s papers are housed at the Congregational Library & Archives and the New York Historical Society. Additional information can be found in Jefferson’s Wikipedia page; an article in the Encyclopedia Americana; and the biographical sketch published alongside his sermon in William Stidger, If I Had Only One Sermon to Preach on Immortality (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1929).
Jennings, Samuel Carnahan, 1803-1885
Jennings was born in Appalachia--in Washington County, Pennsylvania--and received degrees from Jefferson College (now Washington & Jefferson College) in 1823 and Princeton Theological Seminary in 1827. His work in Appalachia included pastoring a Presbyterian church in Sharon, Pennsylvania (1829-71) and editing the Pittsburgh-based Presbyterian Preacher (1832-37).
Additional information can be found in Alfred Nevin, Encyclopaedia of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Publishing Co., 1884) and Volume 1 of Necrological Reports and Annual Proceedings of the Alumni Association of Princeton Theological Seminary (Princeton, NJ: C. S. Robinson & Co., 1891).
Johnson, Herrick, 1832-1913
Johnson was born in Kaughnewaga, New York, and earned degrees from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York (1857) and Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City (1860). He pastored in Troy, New York; Marquette, Michigan; Chicago, and Philadelphia, and taught at Auburn and McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. His time in Appalachia took place from 1862-1867, when he served as pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh.
Additional information can be found in Johnson’s Wikipedia page; an obituary published in the New York Times; and Charles E. Robinson, Herrick Johnson: An Appreciative Memoir (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1914).
Jones, Samuel Ernest, 1846-
Jones was born in England to an Anglican family. He came to the United States in 1870, arriving in West Virginia in 1873. His ministerial assignments included the Mannington and Bridgeport circuits, as well as the Rowlesburg, Fetterman, and Weston stations.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883).
Kavanaugh, Hubbard Hinde, 1802-1884
Kavanaugh was born in Appalachia, in Clark County, Kentucky, and licensed to preach in the Mount Sterling Circuit of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He worked throughout the state; cities and circuits in which he served included Covington, Lexington, Little Sandy, Louisville, Newport, Salt River, and Shelbyville. He became a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1854; his travels in that role spanned from Tennessee south to the Gulf of Mexico and west to the Pacific coast.
Other information can be found in Matthew Simpson, Cyclopaedia of Methodism (Philadelphia: Everts & Stewart, 1878) and Albert Henry Redford, Life and Times of H.H. Kavanaugh, One of the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (Nashville, n. p., 1884).
Kemper, Clarence Worthington, 1833-
Kemper was the pastor of Temple Baptist Church in Charleston, West Virginia for 11 years. He came to the post from a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, and departed in 1934 to become pastor of the First Baptist Church in Denver, Colorado. He was active in civic and religious affairs during his time in Charleston, holding offices in such organizations as the Ministers Association, the Civic Music Association, and the Davis Child Shelter, part of the Children’s Home Society of West Virginia. He also published Faith Unafraid (1933), Forty Years a Minister (1949), and At Grips with Life (Addresses at Conventions, Anniversaries, and by Radio) (1940).
Additional information can be found in the January 1, 1934 and February 3, 1972 editions of The Charleston Daily Mail.
Kennedy, John Herron, 1801-1840
Kennedy was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania and studied at Jefferson College (now Washington & Jefferson College in Washington and Princeton Theological Seminary. His work outside Appalachia included serving as pastor of the Sixth Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia from 1825 to 1829; within the region, he preached in Bedford and Uniontown, Pennsylvania and taught mathematics and natural history at Jefferson from 1830 until his death in 1840.
Additional information can be found in Alfred Nevin, Encyclopaedia of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Publishing Co, 1884) and Matthew Brown’s “Memoir”, in Joseph Smith, History of Jefferson College (Pittsburgh: J. T. Shryock, 1857).
Ketcherside, William Carl, 1908-1989
Ketcherside was born in Missouri and spent most of his career in St. Louis. He taught Bible classes in various churches, hosted a radio program entitled “The Church of Christ Hour,” edited the Mission Messenger magazine, and published a number of books on religion and theology. His participation in the February 1970 Appalachian Preaching Mission was apparently his only visit to the region.
Additional information can be found in the biographical sketch at the History of the Reformation Movement, a site operated by Scott Harp, a Church of Christ minister in Russellville, Kentucky.
Ketcherside’s photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
Key, Carl R.
Key was born in North Carolina and studied at Elon College (now Elon University) in Elon, North Carolina; Vanderbilt Divinity School; and Yale Divinity School. He was a United Church of Christ pastor in Connecticut, Michigan, Ohio, and Virginia; his connections to Appalachia included serving as an executive of the Council of Churches in West Virginia.
Additional information, and the texts of 11 sermons, can be found in A Timely Message for Our Day (Charlotte, NC: Crabtree Press, 1972), The book is under copyright, so scans cannot be included in the Library, but information about the sermons is included in the User Guides. Researchers may contact the Special Collections Department to learn more.
King, F. H. J., 1834-1916
King was born in what is now Ripley, West Virginia in 1834. He was licensed to preach in 1857 and served in such places as Phillippi, Buckhannon, and Raleigh; he was also the first Presiding Elder of the New River District, which was established in 1880.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883).
Knox, William
Most of the available information on Knox can be found in a publication about the First United Methodist Church of Williamstown, West Virginia, which he served from 1930-34. According that publication, his other pastorates included Seventh Avenue Methodist, Huntington (1939-45); Fourth Street United Methodist, Wheeling (1949-53), and Central Methodist, Buckhannon (1955). He also served as district superintendent in Parkersburg (1945-49) and Huntington (1953-55).
An address Knox gave before the Huntington Ministerial Association in 1954 is housed in the Doris C. Miller Papers in Marshall’s Special Collections Department. It cannot be posted here due to copyright restrictions, but it is included in the User Guides.
The Miller papers also contain other sermons and sermon-related materials that are not included in the Guides due to insufficient information about their authorship and origins. Users may email Special Collections for additional information about these items.
Krauth, Charles Porterfield, 1823-1883
One of the leading Lutheran scholars and theologians, Krauth was born in Martinsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia) and studied at Pennsylvania College (now Gettysburg College) and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (now United Lutheran Seminary). He pastored churches in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and held positions at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (also now United Lutheran Seminary, professor of systematic theology, 1864-83) and the University of Pennsylvania (professor, 1868-83; vice-provost, 1873-83). His work in Appalachia took place in Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia, 1847-48) and Pittsburgh (1855-59); several of his publications are available via the Internet Archive.
Additional information can be found in Krauth’s Wikipedia page; an Article in Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography; and an “In Memoriam” piece published in the April 1883 issue of The Lutheran Church Review.
Lacy, Matthew Lyle, 1833-1912
Lacy was born in Virginia, and studied at Hampden-Sydney College and the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He was an associate of John McElhenney, serving with him at the Old Stone Presbyterian Church in what is now Lewisburg, West Virginia. They were co-pastors from 1869 until McElhenney passed away in 1871; Lacy then served as pastor until 1882. After that, he pastored churches in nearby Monroe County, returning to Lewisburg in 1902 to take charge of a boy's school called The Greenbrier Academy (it later became the Greenbrier Presbyterial School and operated until the end of the 1971-72 academic year).
Additional information can be found in Chapters V and XI of John Fleshman Montgomery, History of Old Stone Presbyterian Church, 1783-1983 (Parsons, WV: McClain Printing Company, 1983).
Lee, Joseph
Lee was born in Ireland and preached in Ireland and Scotland following his conversion to Christianity at the age of 15. He came to West Virginia in 1872, serving churches in such places as Kingwood, Fetterman, Guyandotte, Clarksburg, and Buckhannon.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883).
Levi, Harry, 1875-1944
Levi was born and educated in Cincinnati, receiving degrees from the University of Cincinnati in 1896 and Hebrew Union College in 1897. He was the rabbi of Congregation L’shem Shomayim (now Temple Shalom) in Wheeling, West Virginia from 1897-1911 and Temple Israel in Boston from 1911-39.
Additional information can be found in an obituary in the Blackwell Family Papers in the Library of Congress, and in the biographical sketch published alongside his sermon in William Stidger, If I Had Only One Sermon to Preach on Immortality (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1929).
Levy, J. Leonard (Joseph Leonard), 1865-1917
Levy was born, attended college, and began his rabbinical work in England. His first congregations in the United States were B’nai Israel in Sacramento, CA (1889-1893) and Keneseth Israel in Philadelphia, PA (1893-1901). He finished his career in Appalachia, serving as rabbi of Rodef Shalom in Pittsburgh from 1901 until his death.
Levy also served as editor of the Pittsburgh-based Jewish Criterion and published a number of books in addition to his lectures and address. A list of titles appears at the end of the Jewish Encyclopedia’s article on Levy.
Linger, O. Afton
Linger’s pastorates included First Baptist Church, Cumberland, Maryland and Milton Baptist Church in West Virginia. According to his page in WorldCat, he is the author of Pilot Aboard; Sermonettes (Lake Mills, Iowa: Graphic Pub. Co., 1971), Church Management Guidelines (Hendersonville, N.C.: Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute, [1972]), and a book of poems entitled Linger on the Lines (self-published, 1960),
Linger’s summary of a baccalaureate sermon he preached to the 1957 graduates of Milton High School is housed in the Doris C. Miller Papers in Marshall’s Special Collections Department. It cannot be posted here due to copyright restrictions, but it is included in the User Guides.
The Miller papers also contain other sermons and sermon-related materials that are not included in the Guides due to insufficient information about their authorship and origins. Users may email Special Collections for additional information about these items.
Lyda, Andrew J., 1821-1900
Lyda was born in Maryland and educated at Augusta College, a Methodist school in Augusta, Kentucky. He came to what is now West Virginia sometime in the 1840s and went on to serve in such places as Buckhannon, Clarksburg, Parkersburg, and Weston. For an 18-month period during the Civil War, he was also a chaplain with the Third West Virginia Regiment.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883).
M. Homer Cummings, 1890-1978
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Macartney, Clarence Edward Noble, 1879-1957
Macartney was born in Ohio and received a degree in English literature from the University of Wisconsin—Madison in 1901; other schools he attended included the University of Denver; Yale Divinity School; and Princeton Theological Seminary. He was ordained in 1905; his first two pastorates were at the First Presbyterian Church of Paterson, New Jersey (1905-14) and Arch Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia (1914-1927). From there, he moved to Appalachia, serving at the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh from 1927 to 1953.
Additional information can be found on Macartney’s Wikipedia page and in The Making of a Minister: The Autobiography of Clarence E. Macartney (Great Neck, NY: Channel Press, 1961).
Martin, Gideon, 1815-1902
Martin was born in what is now Barbour County, West Virginia in 1815. He was licensed to preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1836, ministered in what he described as “the hardest and most difficult circuits in West Virginia,” and spent three years as a chaplain in the Union army.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883). He is also mentioned in Prominent Men of West Virginia (Wheeling, WV: W. L. Callin, 1890); an obituary appeared in the Official Journal and Minutes of the Fifty-Sixth Annual Session of the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Masden, Charles P., 1843-1930
Masden was born in Delaware and ministered in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York before moving to West Virginia in 1879. His time in the state was brief; he left the state again after serving for three years as pastor of the Fourth Street Methodist Episcopal Church in Wheeling.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883).
Mauzé, Joseph Layton, 1873-1937
Mauze was born in Virginia and studied at Hampden Sidney College and Union Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. His pastorates included Central Presbyterian Church, St. Louis, Missouri (1902-1917); First Presbyterian Church, Huntington, West Virginia (1917-1928); and Central Presbyterian Church, Kansas City, Missouri (1928-1937).
Additional information can be found in Volume III of Walter B. Stevens’ St. Louis: History of the Fourth City, 1763-1909 (Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1909), and in an obituary published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
McAnally, David Rice, 1810-1895
McAnally was born in Appalachia, in Grainger County, Tennessee. His work in the region included serving as principal of the Knoxville Female Institute (later the East Tennessee Female Institute) from 1843 to 1851. From there, he moved to St. Louis, where he edited the St. Louis Christian Advocate until his death in 1895.
Additional information can be found in Matthew Simpson, Cyclopaedia of Methodism (Philadelphia: Everts & Stewart, 1878) and an article published in the Windsor, Missouri Review on February 20, 1941.
McConaughy, David, 1775-1852
McConaughy (also spelled “M’Conaughy”) was born near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, and worked as a Presbyterian pastor and missionary in the vicinity of Carlisle, Philadelphia, and Gettysburg. His time in Appalachia took place from 1832 to 1849, when he served as president of Washington College (now Washington and Jefferson College).
Additional information can be found in McConaughy’s Wikipedia page; a biographical sketch on the website of the Dickinson College Archives & Special Collections; and Volume 4 of William Buell Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit (New York, Robert Carter & Brothers, 1858).
McConnell, Francis John, 1871-1953
McConnell was born and died in Appalachia, in Trinway and Lucasville, Ohio, and worked for a time in Pittsburgh as a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, a post to which he was elected in 1912. Outside the region, he attended Ohio Wesleyan University and the Boston University School of Theology; pastored churches in Massachusetts and elsewhere; and served as president of DePauw University from 1909-12.
The McConnell Family Papers are housed at the General Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist Church. Additional information can be found in McConnell’s Wikipedia page and in the biographical sketch published alongside his sermon in William Stidger, If I Had Only One Sermon to Preach on Immortality (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1929).
McDanel, Robert B.
Information about McDanel’s life and work has proven difficult to find; all that can be said for certain is that from 1909 to 1913, he was the pastor of the Old Greenbrier Baptist Church in Alderson, West Virginia.
The name does come up in several newspaper articles published around that time. In January 1894, The Philadelphia Inquirer noted that a Robert B. McDanel was pastor of that city’s Wissahickon Baptist Church. A few years later, in October 1907, The Daily Telegram in Clarksburg, West Virginia reported that someone by that name had resigned from the First Baptist Church there to become pastor of the Virginia Avenue Baptist Church in Charleston. Finally, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer, a McDanel was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Covington, Kentucky at the time of its 75th anniversary in October 1913. It is likely, but not 100% certain, that they were all the same person.
McDonald, Royce K.
McDonald was a 1937 graduate of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. His pastorates included Second Presbyterian Church, Norfolk, Virginia (1949-55) and Enslow Park Presbyterian Church, Huntington, West Virginia. He also served terms as moderator of the Kanawha Presbytery in West Virginia, and as a trustee of Davis and Elkins College in Elkins.
The manuscript of “More than Conquerors,” a baccalaureate sermon preached to the 1957 graduates of Huntington High School, is housed in the Doris C. Miller Papers in Marshall’s Special Collections Department. It cannot be posted here due to copyright restrictions, but it is included in the User Guides.
The Miller papers also contain other sermons and sermon-related materials that are not included in the Guides due to insufficient information about their authorship and origins. Users may email Special Collections for additional information about these items.
McElhenney, John, 1781-1871
McElhenney was born in South Carolina and licensed to preach in Virginia in 1808. In addition to pastoring the Old Stone Presbyterian Church in Lewisburg, West Virginia from 1808 until his death, he was deeply involved in missionary work. He preached the inaugural sermon of the new Greenbrier Presbytery in 1838 and was instrumental in expanding the reach of the Presbyterian Church throughout most of what is now the state of West Virginia.
Additional information can be found in the January 1913 issue of the Presbyterian Missionary Survey; Henry Alexander White's sketches of Southern Presbtyerian Leaders (New York: Neale Publishing, 1911); Chapters IV and XI of John Fleshman Montgomery, History of Old Stone Presbyterian Church, 1783-1983 (Parsons, WV: McClain Printing Company, 1983); and especially Recollections of the Rev. John McElhenney, D.D. (Richmond, VA: Whittet and Shepperson, 1893), a collection of testimonials and sermons edited by his granddaughter, Rose W. Fry.
McGill, Alexander Taggart, 1807-1889
McGill was born in Appalachia, in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania and received a degree from Jefferson College in Washington (now Washington and Jefferson College) in 1826. His work outside Appalachia included practicing law in Georgia; teaching at a seminary in Columbia, South Carolina (1852-53) and at Princeton Theological Seminary (1854-83); and pastoring the Second Presbyterian (1838-41) and other churches in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Within the region, he taught at the Western Theological Seminary (now Pittsburgh Theological Seminary from 1842 to 1852 and again from 1853 to 1854.
Additional information can be found in Volume XII of The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: J. T. White, 1892); Barry Waugh’s article in Presbyterians of the Past; the Biographical Note in the Guide to the Alexander T. McGill Papers at the Presbyterian Historical Society; and Volume 1 of Necrological Reports and Annual Proceedings of the Alumni Association of Princeton Theological Seminary (Princeton, NJ: C. S. Robinson & Co., 1891).
McIlvaine, James Hall, 1846-1921
McIlvaine was born in Utica, New York and educated at Princeton University. He pastored both Presbyterian and Episcopal churches, but is classified as Episcopal in the Library. He worked in New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island before coming to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1900. He was rector of Calvary Episcopal Church there until 1916, and also served St. Stephen’s and St. Peter’s. According to obituaries published in religious periodicals The Churchman and The Living Church, he was killed by a “motor truck” that was allegedly “being driven on the wrong side of the street.”
McKim, Randolph Harrison, 1842-1920
McKim was born in Baltimore and earned degrees from the University of Virginia and the Virginia Theological Seminary. He began his ministry as a Confederate chaplain during the Civil War. After the war, he was ordained as an Episcopal priest and served churches such as Holy Trinity in Harlem (1875-76) and the Church of the Epiphany in Washington, D. C. (1888-1920). He lived and worked outside Appalachia, but he delivered at least one sermon in the region, and thus is included in the Library.
Additional information can be found in a biographical sketch at the Archives of the Episcopal Church, and in Harrison’s A Soldier's Recollections, Leaves from the Diary of a Young Confederate, with an Oration on the Motives and Aims of the Soldiers of the South (New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1910).
McMillan, William, 1777-1832
McMillan (sometimes spelled “M’Millan”) was born in Appalachia, in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, and spent much of his life within the region. He received a degree from Jefferson College in Canonsburg (now Washington & Jefferson College in Washington) in 1802 and went on to serve as the school’s president from 1817-1822. He was also the first president of Franklin College in New Athens, Ohio, a position he held from 1825-1832.
Additional information can be found in McMillan’s Wikipedia page.
Melear, James Melville
Details of Melear’s life and work have proven difficult to find. The only verifiable information, taken from the title page of Hopes that Perish, is that he was once the pastor of the Luttrell Street Methodist Episcopal Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The Methodist Episcopal Pulpit
The Methodist Episcopal Pulpit was the work of Davis Wasgatt Clark, who would go on to be elected bishop in 1864, and George Peck, a pastor, publisher, and author of numerous biographies, treatises, and other works. In the words of the Preface, they hoped that the book would be useful to “private individuals and families,” as well as to ministers who could benefit from “models for the improvement of style, for the arrangement and illustration of subjects, [and] for their general discussion” (p. 5).
Moore, Smith William, 1818-1880
Moore was born in North Carolina; he attended Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia in the early 1840s, but left without receiving a degree. His time in Appalachia took place in the late 1840s and early 1850s, when he was a faculty member and president of the Tennessee Conference Female Institute in Athens, Alabama, and vice-president of LaGrange College in Leighton (now the University of North Alabama in Florence). He also pastored in non-Appalachian regions of Tennessee and served as president of the Bascom Female Seminary in Grenada, Mississippi.
Additional information can be found in the Minutes of the Annual Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (Nashville, TN: Southern Methodist Publishing House, 1881).
Morris, Thomas A. (Thomas Asbury), 1794-1874
Morris was born in what is now Kanawha County, West Virginia. He was licensed in 1814 and went on to preach as a circuit rider in Ohio and Kentucky, serve as a presiding elder of the Green River (Kentucky) and Cincinnati Districts of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and act as editor of the Cincinnati-based Western Christian Advocate. He was elected bishop in 1836 and was named Senior Bishop in 1858. Works he published in addition to his sermons include Miscellany: Consisting of Essays, Biographical Sketches and Notes of Travel (Cincinnati: L. Swormstedt & A. Poe, 1854) and The Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Cincinnati: Poe & Hitchcock, 1864).
Additional information can be found in Morris’ Wikipedia page, and in John F. Marlay, The Life of Rev. Thomas A. Morris, D.D., Late Senior Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Cincinnati: Hitchcock and Walden, 1875).
Mouzon, Edwin D. (Edwin Du Bose), 1869-1937
Mouzon was born and educated in Appalachian South Carolina, earning a degree from Wofford College in Spartanburg in 1889. As a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, a post to which he was elected in 1910, he oversaw churches in West Virginia and elsewhere. Other work outside the region included pastoring churches in Texas and Missouri; teaching theology at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas; and doing missionary work in Mexico and South America.
Additional information can be found in articles in the Handbook of Texas and Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, and in the biographical sketch published alongside his sermon in William Stidger, If I Had Only One Sermon to Preach on Immortality (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1929).
Moyer, Earl B.
Details of Moyer’s life and work have proven difficult to find. The only verifiable information comes from his sermon in Voices from Templed Hills, which indicates that he was the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Parkersburg, West Virginia at the time the book was published in 1927. According to an article in the Pittsburgh Press, an Earl B. Moyer was pastor of the Shinnston Baptist Church in Shinnston, West Virginia in 1922; it is likely, but not certain, that they are the same person.
Nevin, John Williamson, 1803-1886
Nevin was born in Pennsylvania and received degrees from Union College in Schenectady, New York in 1821 and Princeton Theological Seminary in 1826. From 1830-1840 he served as chair of Biblical literature at the Western Theological Seminary (now Pittsburgh Theological Seminary). He then left both Appalachia and the Presbyterian Church, taking a position at the Mercersburg, Pennsylvania seminary of the German Reformed Church (now the Reformed Church in the United States); he also served as president of Marshall College in Mercersburg (1841-53), and as a faculty member and president of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster (1861-76). Publications during that phase of his career include The Mystical Presence: A Vindication of the Reformed or Calvinistic Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1846) and Vindication of the Revised Liturgy Historical and Theological (Philadelphia: Jas. B. Rodgers, 1867).
Additional information can be found on Nevin’s Wikipedia page; in Theodore Appel, The Life and Work of John Williamson Nevin, D.D., LL. D. (Philadelphia: Reformed Church Publication House, 1889); and Volume 1 of Necrological Reports and Annual Proceedings of the Alumni Association of Princeton Theological Seminary (Princeton, NJ: C. S. Robinson & Co., 1891).
Ockenga, Harold John, 1905-1985
Ockenga was born in Chicago, began his ministry in New Jersey, and pastored the Park Street Church in Boston from 1937-1969. He also helped to found the National Association of Evangelicals and Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and served as president of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. His time in Appalachia took place in Pittsburgh from 1830-36, when he was a Ph.D. student in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, Clarence Macartney’s pastoral assistant at the First Presbyterian Church (1931), and pastor of Pojnt Breeze Presbyterian (1931-36). He also visited the region in 1958, when he participated in the Appalachian Preaching Mission in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Additional information can be found on Ockenga’s Wikipedia page, a biographical sketch on the Gordon College website, and Garth M. Rosell’s 2006 article in Christian History magazine.
Ockenga's photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
Paulk, Earl Pearly, Jr., 1927-2009
Paulk is perhaps best known as a civil-rights activist and founder of the Cathedral at Chapel Hill, a large Pentecostal church that operated in Decatur, Georgia from 1991-2009. His time in Appalachia included studying at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina; pastoring a Church of God congregation in Buford, Georgia; and participating in the February 1959 Appalachian Preaching Mission in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Additional information, including discussions of sex scandals that emerged in the 1990s and beyond, can be found in Paulk’s Wikipedia page and an obituary published in the April 3, 2009 edition of the New York Times.
Paulk’s photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
Pearson, Abel, 1787-1856
Pearson was the founder of Soddy Presbyterian Church in Appalachian Hamilton County, Tennessee and the author of An Analysis of the Principles of the Divine Government (Athens, TN: Thomas A. Anderson, 1832).
Additional information can be found in John Wilson’s “Hamilton County Pioneers – The Pearsons,” published in The Chattanoogan on May 28, 2006.
Perry, Alfred Tyler, 1858-1912
Perry was a "Professor of Bibliology" at Connecticut's Hartford Theological Seminary before moving to Appalachia to become the sixth president of Marietta College, a school chartered in 1835 in Marietta, Ohio.
Additional information can be found in a biographical sketch on Marietta's site.
Persons, V. H.
Details of Persons’ life and work have proven difficult to find. The only verifiable information comes from his sermon in Voices from Templed Hills, which indicates that he was the pastor of the Temple Baptist Church in Huntington, West Virginia at the time the book was published in 1927.
Pinchbeck, Charles H.
Details of Pinchbeck’s life and work have proven difficult to find. He was the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Parkersburg, West Virginia at the time his sermon in Voices from Templed Hills was published in 1927. A January 1, 1936 article in the Baltimore Sun indicates that he also served for 12 years at the Seventh Baptist Church in that city.
On pages 33-34 of Edward Mathews’ History of Montgomery Baptist Church in Montgomery, Pennsylvania, there is a biographical sketch of a Charles Henry Pinchbeck, who was born in England in 1872 and became pastor of Montgomery in 1894. It is possible, but not 100% certain, that they are the same person.
Plumer, William Swan, 1802-1880
Plumer was born in the Appalachian town of Greersburg, Pennsylvania (now Darlington) and studied at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia and Princeton Theological Seminary. His work in Appalachia included pastoring the Central Presbyterian Church in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now Pittsburgh, 1854-62) and the Second Presbyterian Church in Pottsville (1865-67) and teaching at the Western Theological Seminary (now Pittsburgh Theological Seminary), also from 1854-62.
Additional information can be found on Plumer’s Wikipedia page; Caleb Cangelosi’s article at This Day in Presbyterian History; and Barry Waugh’s article at Presbyterians of the Past. Several of his commentaries, treatises, and other works are available via the Internet Archive.
Popery and Puseyism: Being Two Discourses Prepared Agreeable to a Resolution of the Synod of Pittsburgh of 1843 and Preached Before that Body at Pittsburgh, September 1844
The “Synod” in the title of this book is probably the Third General Synod of the Associate Reformed Church, which met in Pittsburgh in May 1843. The Minutes of that meeting include a Report lamenting that “Popery is securing many victims, in some portions of our territory,” but the Resolution itself is not included in the document.
Porter, Samuel, 1760-1825
Porter was born in Ireland and came to America in 1783. He first settled in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and soon moved to Washington County, in the Appalachian part of the state. He spent his entire career in the region, pastoring Presbyterian churches in Westmoreland County from 1790 until his death in 1825.
Additional information can be found in Alfred Nevin, Encyclopaedia of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Publishing Co, 1884); Volume 3 of William Buell Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit (New York, Robert Carter & Brothers, 1858); and David Elliott’s Biographical Sketch in Discourses and Dialogues of the Late Rev. Samuel Porter (Pittsburgh, PA: J.T. Shryock, 1853).
Pratt, John Wood, 1827-1888
Pratt was born in Georgia, studied for the ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary, and served in Cincinnati, Louisville, and Memphis. His work in Appalachia included teaching English literature at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa; pastoring churches in Lexington, Virginia and Richmond, Kentucky; and serving as president of Central University, a Presbyterian school in Richmond (now the site of Eastern Kentucky University).
Additional information can be found in C. A. Stillman’s Biographical Sketch, published in Given to Christ and Other Sermons (New York: Anson D. F. Randolph & Company, 1889).
The Presbyterian Preacher
Under the editorship of S. C. Jennings, the Pittsburgh-based Presbyterian Preacher operated from 1832 to 1837. As the title pages indicate, it published “original sermons by living preachers in the Presbyterian Church, on the important doctrines of Christianity, presented in a clear and comprehensive manner, for the instruction of the present age, and in defence of the truth.”
Pressly, John T. (John Taylor), 1795-1870
Pressly was born in South Carolina and pastored there after receiving a degree from Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. His time in Appalachia took place in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania (now Pittsburgh) from 1831 to 1870, when he served both a pastor and professor at Allegheny Theological Seminary (now Pittsburgh Theological Seminary). His publications include An Inquiry into the Principles of Church Fellowship (Pittsburgh: United Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1865) and a response to a Baptist pastor who had criticized his lectures on baptism.
Additional information can be found in a Biographical Sketch published at covenanter.org, a website with materials relating to the Reformed Presbyterian Church.
Prickitt, Samuel B. D., 1840-1908
Prickitt was born in Georgia and moved to West Virginia in 1866. He ministered in such places as Wheeling, Charleston, and Huntington, and held administrative posts in the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. According to a memoir published in the 1906 Minutes of the Newark Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he was murdered while performing his duties as the village recorder in Metuchen, New Jersey.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883).
Quinter, James, 1816-1888
Quinter was born in Philadelphia and converted near Pottstown, Pennsylvania at the age of 17. He was called to the ministry in the Church of the Brethren in 1838; his work in Appalachia included pastoring George’s Creek Church in Fayette County, Pennsylvania; publishing periodicals based in Poland, Ohio and Huntingdon, Pennsylvania; and serving as president of Brethren’s Normal College (now Juniata College), also located in Huntingdon.
Additional information can be found in Part I of Life and Sermons of Elder James Quinter (Mt. Morris, IL: Brethren’s Publishing Co., 1891), and in William Kostlevy’s article on the Church of the Brethren website.
Recollections of the Rev. John McElhenney, D.D.
John McElhenney was a Presbyterian pastor and missionary, instrumental in spreading the reach of his denomination throughout what is now the state of West Virginia. This book of "recollections" was compiled by his granddaughter, Rose W. Fry,
Rice, Joseph Sherrard, 1917-2005
Rice was born in Richmond, Virginia; earned degrees from Davidson College, Union Presbyterian Seminary, and Princeton University; pastored Presbyterian churches in Louisiana, South Carolina, and Texas; and served as a Navy chaplain during World War II. His time in Appalachia included pastoring Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church in Huntington, West Virginia and participating in the February 1971 Appalachian Preaching Mission in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Additional information can be found in an obituary published in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana Advocate on April 10, 2005.
Rice’s photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
Riddle, David Hunter, 1805-1888
Riddle was born in what is now Martinsburg, West Virginia and received degrees from Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania (now Washington and Jefferson College in Washington) and Princeton Theological Seminary. He spent part of his career outside Appalachia, pastoring churches in Winchester, Virginia (1828-33) and Jersey City (1857-62). His work within the region included pastoring the Third Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh (1833-1857) and a Presbyterian church in Martinsburg (1868-79), and serving the acting principal of the Western University of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh, 1849-55) and president of Jefferson College (1862-65).
Additional information can be found in Riddle’s Wikipedia page; an obituary published in the Pittsburgh Press on July 17, 1888; and Volume 1 of Necrological Reports and Annual Proceedings of the Alumni Association of Princeton Theological Seminary (Princeton, NJ: C. S. Robinson & Co., 1891).
Roberts, Thomas P., 1872-1956
Roberts was born in Appalachia, in Nicholas County, Kentucky. During his time as a Methodist evangelist, he was based outside Appalachia, in the Jessamine County town of Wilmore, but he conducted revival services throughout the region, in counties including Breathitt, Clinton, Green, Jackson, Knott, Madison, and Wolfe.
Additional information can be found in Roberts’ Highlights of My Life and Ministry in Old Time Revivals (Wilmore, KY: n.p., 1952).
Rowsey, Elwood Anthony, 1898-1973
Information on Rowsey’s life and work has proven difficult to find. He was born in Appalachia, in Buena Vista, Virginia, but spent most of his life outside the region. He earned degrees from Ashland College (now Ashland University) in Ohio, Oskaloosa College in Iowa, and Auburn Theological Seminary in New York. His only known pastorate was the First Westminster Presbyterian Church in Toledo, Ohio, which apparently no longer exists.
Additional information can be found in the biographical sketch published alongside his sermon in William Stidger, If I Had Only One Sermon to Preach on Immortality (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1929).
Ruffner, Henry, 1790-1861
Ruffner was born in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1818. His work in Appalachia took place in the Kanawha Valley of what is now West Virginia, where he taught and preached from 1815-19, and at Washington College in Lexington, Virginia (now Washington & Lee University) , where he was a student (1812-14), faculty member (1819-37) and president (1837-48).
Additional information can be found in Ruffner’s Wikipedia page; articles published in the West Virginia Historical Magazine Quarterly in April and July 1902; and Dennis Bills’ December 2020 contribution to This Day in Presbyterian History.
Russell, T. B.
Information on Russell’s life and work has proven difficult to find. The “byline” of a sermon published in the Southern Methodist Pulpit indicates that he was in Appalachia in the mid-1850s, serving as president of the Oak Bowery Female College in Chambers County, Alabama.
Ryan, Edward W.
Ryan was born in what is now Fayette County, West Virginia. He joined the Methodist Episcopal Church around the age of 19, but other professional interests and the start of the Civil War kept him from devoting himself to ministry full-time. He finally began working in earnest in 1864, serving churches in such places as Charleston, Morgantown, and Wheeling, where he was appointed Presiding Elder.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883). Ryan is also mentioned in Prominent Men of West Virginia (Wheeling, WV: W. L. Callin, 1890).
Sewell, Jesse L. (Jesse Londerman), 1818-1890?
Sewell was born and spent most of his career in Appalachian Tennessee, including the counties of Cannon, De Kalb, Jackson, Overton, Smith, Warren, and White. He began his ministry among the United Baptists but he was expelled from his congregation in 1843 on the grounds that he had adopted the doctrines of Alexander Campbell, who is sometimes credited with being one of the founders of the Disciples of Christ. From then on, he worked as part of what David Lipscomb called simply the “church of Christ.”
Additional information can be found in Lipscomb’s Life and Sermons of Jesse L. Sewell. An Account of His Life, Labors and Character (Nashville: Gospel Advocate Publishing Co., 1891).
Shadegg, Stephen Caroyl, 1909-1990
Shadegg was born in Minnesota, raised in California, and spent much of his adult life in Arizona, where he was a pharmaceutical manufacturer, Republican Party operative, and lay minister in the Episcopal Church. His participation in the February 1958 Preaching Mission in Johnson City, Tennessee was apparently his only visit to Appalachia.
Additional information can be found in Shadegg’s Wikipedia page and a Biographical Note at the Arizona Archives Online.
Shadegg’s photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
Shaffer, Frank L., 1901-1983
Information on Shaffer's life has been helpfully provided by the staff of the West Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church. He was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia and educated at Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College) and Westminster Theological Seminary in Glenside, Pennsylvania. From 1925 to 1969, he served throughout the state, in such places as Bluefield, Clarksburg, Morgantown, and Wheeling. His last assignment was superintendent of the Buckhannon District, a post he held from 1964-68.
Shannon, Frederick F. (Frederick Franklin), 1877-1947
Shannon was born in Kansas, educated at Harvard, and began his ministry in Logan County, West Virginia. From there, he pastored in Brooklyn (Grace Church, 1904-12; The Reformed Church on The Heights, 1912-19), and Chicago (Central Congregational Church, 1920-?).
Additional information can be found in the biographical sketch published alongside his sermon in William Stidger, If I Had Only One Sermon to Preach on Immortality (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1929).
Shontz, Vernon L., 1889-1954
Shontz was born in Canada and attended college and seminary in New York state. He pastored in Chesley, Ontario (First Baptist Church); Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Sheridan Baptist Church, 1918-20); Williamsport, Pennsylvania (Memorial Baptist Church, 1920-25); Beckley, West Virginia (First Baptist Church, 1925-27); Muscatine, Iowa (First Baptist Church, 1927-35); and Springfield, Illinois (Central Baptist Church, 1935-53). He also held positions in the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (now International Ministries) and the Northern Baptist Convention (now American Baptist Churches USA).
Additional information can be found in Volume III of Edgar Rubey Harlan’s A Narrative History of the People of Iowa (Chicago: American Historical Society, 1931) (see page 7 of https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/publications/HD/920523.pdf), and in an obituary published in The Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune.
Simpson, Matthew, 1811-1884
Simpson was born in Ohio and educated at Madison College in Meadville, Pennsylvania (now Allegheny College). He was the pastor of the Liberty Street Methodist Church in Pittsburgh (1835), vice-president of Allegheny and president of Indiana Asbury (now DePauw University), a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the editor of the Cyclopaedia of Methodism (Philadelphia: Everts & Stewart, 1878). He was also a friend of Abraham Lincoln and his family, and preached the sermon at Lincoln’s funeral on May 4, 1865 in Springfield, Illinois
Additional information can be found in Simpson’s Wikipedia page, and in the eulogy on pages 203-224 of John Rhey Thompson’s Burden Bearing and Other Sermons (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1905). He is also the subject of two biographies: George R. Crooks’ The Life of Bishop Matthew Simpson of the Methodist Episcopal Church (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1890) and Robert Donald Clark’s The Life of Matthew Simpson (New York: Macmillan, 1956).
Slaatte, Howard Alexander
Slaatte was a Methodist minister, professor of philosophy at Marshall from the mid-1960s to 1987, and the author of numerous books on religion, philosophy, and ethics. Discovering Your Real Self : Sermons of Existential Relevance (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1980) is a collection of 21 sermons on “the art of finding meaning in human existence from a Christian perspective” (p. vii).
The book is under copyright, so scans cannot be included in the Library, but information about the sermons is included in the User Guides. Researchers may contact the Special Collections Department to learn more.
Sloane, James Renwick Wilson, 1823-1886
Sloane was born in Vermont and educated in Appalachia, attending Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania (now Washington and Jefferson College in Washington). After teaching in Kentucky and Ohio, he studied for the ministry, becoming pastor of New York’s Third Reformed Presbyterian Church in 1856. He served there until 1868, after which he returned to Appalachia to teach theology at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania (now Pittsburgh), a post he held until his death in 1886.
Additional information can be found in the “Biographical” section of Life and Work of J. R. W. Sloane, D. D. (New York: A. C. Armstrong and Son, 1888).
Smith, Conaro Drayton, 1813-1894
Smith spent much of his life in Appalachia. He was born in Buncombe County, North Carolina, and later lived in Macon and Yancey counties. His ministry in the region took him to several places in Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia. He was also an assistant state geologist in North Carolina and author of A Brief History of Macon County, North Carolina (Franklin, NC: Franklin Press, 1891).
Additional information can be found in William S. Powell’s NCpedia article; Volume 4 of Richard Nye Price, Holston Methodism: From its Origin to the Present Time (Nashville, TN: Publishing House of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1912); and Smith’s autobiography in Lloyd R. Bailey, A History of the Methodist Church in the Toe River Valley (Burnsville, NC: Celo Printing, 1986).
Smith, Joseph Edmund, 1830-1910
Smith was born in Maryland and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church upon his conversion to Christianity at age 16. He ministered in Pennsylvania and Delaware before arriving in Wheeling, West Virginia in the early 1880s.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883).
Smith, Kelly Miller, 1920-1984
Smith was born in Mississippi and earned degrees from Morehouse College in Atlanta and Howard University in Washington, D.C. He spent most of his career in Nashville, Tennessee, where he pastored the First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill from 1951-84 and was the first African American to join the faculty of Vanderbilt University Divinity School. He visited Appalachia in February 1969, when he participated in the Preaching Mission in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Additional information can be found in Smith’s Wikipedia page and David E. Sumner’s article in the Tennessee Encyclopedia.
Smith’s photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
Smith, Wiley Winton, 1855-
Smith was born in Appalachia, in Wythe County, Virginia and studied at Roanoke College in Salem. His work as an evangelist took him throughout North America, including several towns in Virginia and West Virginia.
Additional information can be found in Smith’s Men and Religion To-Day and Fifty Years Ago (Wytheville, VA, 1924).
Snider, Charles A., 1876-
Snider was born in Taylor County, West Virginia, and studied at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon; Ohio Northern University in Ada; Soule College in Murfreesboro, Tennessee; and Oskaloosa College in Iowa. He joined the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1901 and served throughout the state.
Additional information, and the texts of 28 sermons, can be found in Memoirs of Rev. Charles A. Snider (New York: Carlton Press, 1967). The book is under copyright, so scans cannot be included in the Library, but information about the sermons is included in the User Guides. Researchers may contact the Special Collections Department to learn more.
Snodgrass, Winfield Columbus, 1849-
Snodgrass was born in what is now Ritchie County, West Virginia in 1849. He entered the ministry at age 16 and served in such places as Wheeling, Morgantown, and Parkersburg.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883).
The Southern Methodist Pulpit
The Southern Methodist Pulpit was edited by Charles F. Deems and published in Richmond, Virginia and Greensborough, North Carolina (now spelled “Greensboro”). Its mission was stated in the “Editor’s Table” at the beginning of Volume I: “we wish to send sermons full of evangelical truth and holy unction, powerful to influence the reason and stir the heart, to thousands of the families of our Israel” (p. 17).
Spillman, William, 1806-1886
Spillman has been called “the classic Victorian example of ‘a man for all seasons.” He was born in Appalachia, in Blount County, Tennessee, and spent much of his adult life in the region, primarily in Columbus, Mississippi. He served in the Mobile, Alabama and Mississippi conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South and was editor of the Meridian-based Mississippi Methodist. In addition to his religious work, he was an 1846 graduate of the Philadelphia Medical School, a paleontologist, and a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (now the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University).
Additional information can be found in Rufus Ward’s article in the Columbus and Starkville, Mississippi Dispatch and Earl M. Manning, ”Dr. William Spillman (1806-1886), Pioneer Paleontologist of Mississippi,” published in the December 1994 issue of Mississippi Geology.
Steele, Samuel, ?-1886
Steele was born in Londonderry, Ireland, and emigrated to the United States in 1848. He was licensed in the Methodist Episcopal Church in Marion County, West Virginia; places he served included Buckhannon, Clarksburg, Huntington, Morgantown, Parkersburg, Weston, Wayne, and Wheeling. He was also a chaplain in the volunteer infantry during the Civil War.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883).
Steele, Samuel E., 1832-1913
Steele was born in Pennsylvania and became affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1850. He studied for the ministry at Bethany College near Wheeling, West Virginia; was licensed to preach in 1856; preached in churches throughout the state; and helped establish Mt. Pisgah United Methodist Church in Cabell County.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883).
Stewart, L. L., 1845-1893
Stewart was born in Pennsylvania and moved to what is now Wood County, West Virginia around the age of 14. He began his ministry in 1870, preaching first in Marshall County and later in places such as Moundsville, Benwood, Point Pleasant, and Fairmont. He also served as Presiding Elder of the Clarksburg District.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883).
Stidger, William L. (William Le Roy), 1885-1949
Stidger’s middle name has been spelled “Leroy,” “LeRoy,” and “Le Roy”; the latter is the one used by the Library of Congress.
The author of a 2002 biography described him as “Evangelism's First Modern Media Star.” He was born in Moundsville, West Virginia and began his education in Appalachia, attending Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. He was ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1914 and pastored in cities including Detroit; Kansas City, Missouri; San Francisco; and San Jose. He also taught preaching at the Boston University School of Theology.
Additional information can be found in Chapter XIII of Edgar Dewitt Jones, American Preachers of To-Day: Intimate Appraisals of Thirty-Two Leaders (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1933).
Stoneroad, Joel, 1806-1884
The “byline” for “Christ the Glorious Builder of the Spiritual Temple,” a sermon published in The Presbyterian Preacher, reads simply “By Joel Stoneroad, of Pennsylvania.” Other sources indicate that there was a Joel Stoneroad (1806-1884) who was born in Appalachia (Mifflin County, Pennsylvania) and earned degrees from Jefferson College (now Washington & Jefferson College) in 1827 and Princeton Theological Seminary in 1830. He spent most of his career in Appalachia as well, pastoring the Presbyterian church in Uniontown, Pennsylvania (1831-42), the Cross Roads Presbyterian Church in Washington County (1843-50), and Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church in Dunbar (1850-78).
Additional information can be found in Samuel Smith Gilson, History of the Presbyterian Church, of Uniontown, Pa. (1876); History of the Presbytery of Redstone (Washington, PA: Observer Book and Job Print, 1889); and Volume 1 of Necrological Reports and Annual Proceedings of the Alumni Association of Princeton Theological Seminary (Princeton, NJ: C. S. Robinson & Co., 1891).
Streeter, S. W., ?-1880
The staff of the First United Church of Christ in Austinburg, Ohio have helpfully provided information about Streeter’s life and work. He was twice pastor of the church, then known as the Congregational Church. His first term took place from 1841 to 1848. In 1869, he was asked to return to help heal some divisions that had arisen within the congregation. He accepted the call, and served until 1874.
Sullivan, Leon Howard, 1922-2001
Sullivan was born in Charleston, West Virginia. His time in Appalachia included studying at West Virginia State College (now West Virginia State University) in nearby Institute and participating in the February 1963 Preaching Mission in Johnson City, Tennessee. Outside the region, he attended Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary and pastored the First Baptist Church of South Orange, New Jersey (1945-50) and Zion Baptist in Philadelphia (1950-84).
Additional information can be found in Sullivan’s Wikipedia page and Connie Mabin’s article in the August 30, 1998 edition of the Charleston Gazette-Mail.
Sullivan’s photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
Swift, Elisha Pope, 1792-1865
Swift was born in Massachusetts and earned degrees from Williams College in Williamstown and Princeton Theological Seminary. He came to Appalachia in 1819, pastoring the Second Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh (1819-33) and the First Presbyterian Church of Allegheny (now Pittsburgh, 1835-64).
Additional information can be found in an article published at This Day in Presbyterian History on April 3, 2013.
Taliaferro, Hardin E., 1811-1875
Taliaferro spent most of his life in Appalachia. He was born in Surry County, North Carolina; studied for a year in Madisonville, Tennessee; and pastored and edited a Baptist periodical in Macon and Talladega counties in Alabama. In addition to his ministerial work, he was a well-known humorist, contributing sketches to the Richmond, Virginia-based Southern Literary Messenger and publishing Fisher's River (North Carolina) Scenes and Characters (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1859).
Additional information can be found in Taliaferro’s Wikipedia page and A. James Wohlpart’s article in the Encyclopedia of Alabama.
Taylor, Myron J., 1924-2015
Taylor was born in Goodwill, West Virginia; studied at Johnson Bible College (now Johnson University) in Knoxville, Tennessee; pastored the Central Christian Church in Portsmouth, Ohio; and taught preaching at Emmanuel School of Religion (now Emmanuel Christian Seminary) in Johnson City, Tennessee for 26 years. He also participated in the February 1968 Appalachian Preaching Mission in Johnson City. His pastorates outside Appalachia included the Westwood Hills Christian Church in Los Angeles and East Point Christian Church in East Point, Georgia.
Additional information can be found in an obituary published on DignityMemorial.com.
Taylor’s photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
Teague, Eldred Burder, 1820-1902
Teague was born in South Carolina and raised in Alabama. He earned two degrees from the University of Alabama and spent most of his career in the state, including the Appalachian counties of Jefferson, Shelby, and Talladega. He also served in the Confederate Army of Tennessee and was an editor of The Alabama Baptist, a weekly newspaper that was founded in Marion in 1843 and is now based in Birmingham.
Additional information can be found in Teague’s Wikipedia page.
Teasdale, Thomas Cox, 1808-1891
Teasdale was born in New Jersey. He studied at Hamilton Theological and Literary Institution (now Colgate University) in Hamilton, New York, but poor health kept him from completing his degree. He began his ministry in Bennington, Vermont (1830-32) and went on to serve in Philadelphia (1832-35); Camden and Newton, New Jersey (1835-40); New Haven, Connecticut (1840-45); Springfield, Illinois (1850-53?); and Washington, D.C. (1853?-). His work in Appalachia included pastoring Grant Street Baptist Church in Pittsburgh (1845-50) and the Thirteenth Street Baptist Church in Columbus, Mississippi, and teaching rhetoric and elocution at East Tennessee University (now the University of Tennessee) in Knoxville.
Additional information can be found in Teasdale’s Reminiscences and Incidents of a Long Life (St. Louis, MO: National Baptist Publishing Co., 1887).
Temple Israel, Charleston, WV
Temple Israel is one of two Jewish congregations in Charleston, West Virginia (the other is Congregation B'nai Jacob, led by Rabbi Victor Urecki). According to its website, it was "informally organized" in 1856 and "legally chartered" in 1873, and took up its current location in 1960. A "founding member of the Union for Reform Judaism," it stands as "one of the oldest and most renowned congregations in the American Jewish experience."
Since 2018, the congregation has been led by Rabbi Joe Bair, a Virginia native and graduate of the University of Virginia, the College of William and Mary law school, and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia. In addition to his rabbinical duties, he has held various positions with the Gamliel Institute and Jewish Values Online.
More information is available on the Temple's website and Facebook page.. The Library is grateful to Rabbi Joe for agreeing to include his sermons in the project, and to Eric Dillon for cataloging the sermons preached from October 2020 to April 2022.
Thompson, John Rhey, 1852-1904
Thompson was born and educated in Ohio and was assigned to the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1873. He began his ministry in Morgantown and served as president of West Virginia University from 1877-1881; after resigning from the school, he served churches in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York City.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883). Other mentions appear in Prominent Men of West Virginia (Wheeling, WV: W. L. Callin, 1890); an 1889 issue of The Treasury; a Magazine of Religious and Current Thought for Pastor and People; and the 1904 Minutes of the New York East Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Tinker, Reuben, 1799-1854
Tinker was born in Massachusetts and educated at Amherst College and New York’s Auburn Theological Seminary. Soon after his ordination in 1830, he sailed to do missionary work in the Sandwich Islands (now known as the Hawaiian Islands). He returned to the United States in 1840 and spent the next 4 years in Madison, Ohio. His time in Appalachia came at the end of his life; he served as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Westfield, New York from 1845 until his death in 1854.
Additional information can be found in M. L. P. Thompson’s Biographical Sketch, published in Tinker’s Sermons (New York: Derby & Jackson, 1856).
Tyler, S. Roger, 1878-1963
The staff of Trinity Episcopal Church in Huntington, West Virginia have provided helpful information about Tyler’s life and work. He studied at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia; Vanderbilt University; and the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. He spent most of his career at Trinity, which he served as rector from 1916-1953. After retiring from Trinity, he helped form St. John’s Church and served other churches throughout the state as needs arose. For a time, he also served as president of the Huntington Ministerial Association.
Additional information can be found in Chapters XI-XIV of James R. Haworth, Trinity Church, Huntington, West Virginia: Something of Its Story (Huntington, WV: Cook Printing Co., 1964).
Uniting Conference Addresses
The West Virginia Area of the United Methodist Church held its 1969 annual conference June 11-15 in Buckhannon. As stated in the introductory letter, this 40-page booklet contains “morning devotional addresses…as well as the other special features of the Conference program.”
Voices from Templed Hills: Selected Sermons
Voices was edited by G. E. Bartlett, a Baptist minister and graduate of Bucknell University (1906) and Crozer Theological Seminary (1909; now Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School). As he states in the Foreword, the book was intended to “pass on, by means of the printed page, the heart throbs” of men who “have been preaching Jesus to our rapidly growing people” (p. 15). His hope was that “men reading may understand; that understanding, may believe; and believing, may have a more abundant life” (p. 16).
Webb, J. Wesley, 1826-
Webb was born in Virginia, where he was a teacher and medical student before entering the ministry in 1850. His work as a Methodist Episcopal minister in what is now West Virginia began in 1854; he went on to serve as Presiding Elder of the Morgantown and Guyandotte Districts.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883). Webb is also mentioned in Prominent Men of West Virginia (Wheeling, WV: W. L. Callin, 1890).
Weed, Henry R. (Henry Rowland), 1789-1870
Weed was born in Ballston, New York and earned degrees from Union College in Schenectady (1812) and Princeton Theological Seminary (1815). After working in Long Island and Albany, he came to Appalachia, pastoring the First Presbyterian Church in what is now Wheeling, West Virginia from 1832 to 1870.
Additional information can be found in an article published at This Day in Presbyterian History on July 20, 2015.
Welch, Edgar T., 1881-1963
Welch was born in New Jersey and spent time in Appalachia, studying at Williamsport-Dirkinson Seminary (now Lycoming College) in Williamsport, Pennsylvania and living at least part of his adult life in Westfield, New York. The son of the founder of Welch’s Grape Juice, he held several positions in the company, becoming its president in 1926. He was also active in the work of the Methodist Episcopal Church, giving money to support its missionary efforts and delivering lay sermons, some of which are in the Special Collections Department at Syracuse University.
Additional information can be found in the biographical sketch published alongside his sermon in William Stidger, The Pew Preaches (Nashville, TN: Cokesbury Press, 1930).
Wertz, David Frederick, 1916-2013
Wertz was born in Appalachia, in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, and earned degrees from Dickinson College in Carlisle and the Boston University School of Theology. He pastored several churches in Pennsylvania and was bishop of the Washington Area of the United Methodist Church from 1980 to 1984. His work in Appalachia included serving as superintendent of the Williamsport, Pennsylvania District; president of Lycoming College in Williamsport (1955-68); and bishop of the West Virginia Area (1968-80).
Additional information can be found in Wertz’s Wikipedia page, and in an obituary published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette on October 24, 2013.
The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church
The West Virginia Pulpit was compiled by George W. Atkinson, a lawyer and scholar who served as governor of West Virginia from 1897 to 1901. He was also the co-editor, along with Alvaro F. Gibbens, of Prominent Men of West Virginia (Wheeling, WV: W. L. Callin, 1890). As the subtitle indicates, it contains “biographical sketches of representative men in every honorable vocation”; many of the preachers in The West Virginia Pulpit are included there as well.
Wickes, Thomas, 1814-1870
Wickes was born on Long Island and received undergraduate and theological degrees from Yale in 1834 and 1837. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in Troy, New York in 1839, but spent most of his career in Congregational churches in Appalachia. He was pastor of the First Congregational Church in Marietta, Ohio from 1840 to 1869; from there, he went to Jamestown, New York, where poor health forced him to retire shortly before his death in November 1870.
Additional information can be found in Stephen Wickes, Thomas Weekes, Emigrant to America 1635 and the Lineage of His Descendant, Thomas Wickes of Huntington, Long Island (1905) and Cornelius Evarts Dickinson, A Century of Church Life. A History of the First Congregational Church of Marietta, Ohio, with an Introduction by Rev. John W. Simpson ([Marietta, OH]: E.R. Alderman & Sons, 1896).
Wilding, George Cleaton, 1846-1925
Wilding was born in Wales, came to Pennsylvania in 1851, and arrived in what is now Mason County, West Virginia in 1855. He entered the ministry in 1872 and went on to serve in such places as Point Pleasant, Parkersburg, and Wheeling. He served as a Presiding Elder in Parkersburg, and as secretary of the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Additional information can be found in the Personal Sketch published in The West Virginia Pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Wheeling, WV: Frew, Campbell, & Hart, 1883).
Wiley, Ephraim Emerson, 1814-1893
Wiley was born in Massachusetts and received a degree from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut in 1837. He spent most of his career in Appalachia, as professor and president of Emory and Henry College in Emory, Virginia, and as president of Martha Washington College in Abingdon (which merged with Emory and Henry in 1918).
Additional information can be found in Matthew Simpson, Cyclopaedia of Methodism (Philadelphia: Everts & Stewart, 1878) and a “Biographical Note” on the website of Appalachian State University Special Collections.
Wilson, Robert G., 1768-1851
Wilson was born in North Carolina and graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1790. His work in Appalachia included pastoring Presbyterian churches in Chillicothe and South Salem, Ohio, and serving as president of Ohio University in Athens from 1824 to 1839.
Additional information can be found in a biographical sketch on the website of the Ohio University Libraries Digital Archival Collections.
Wilson, Samuel Jennings, 1828-1883
Wilson spent much of his life in Appalachian Pennsylvania. He studied at Washington College (now Washington and Jefferson College) and the Western Theological Seminary (now Pittsburgh Theological Seminary). He also taught at Western for 25 years while pastoring several churches, including the Sixth Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh (1861-76).
Additional information can be found in W. H. Jeffers’ memoir, which was published as part of Wilson’s Occasional Addresses and Sermons (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1895).
Wood, M. L.
Details of Wood’s life and work have proven difficult to find. The only verifiable information comes from his sermon in Voices from Templed Hills, which indicates that he was the pastor of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church in Huntington, West Virginia at the time the book was published in 1927.
Woodruff, Hezekiah N. (Hezekiah North), 1763-1833
Information on Woodruff’s life and work has proven difficult to find. According to “The Records of the Middle Association of Congregational Churches of the State of New York 1806-1810”, he was born in Connecticut, educated at Yale, and ordained in Stonington, Connecticut in 1789. He later moved to New York, becoming a pastor in Scipio in 1804. At some point, he went to the Appalachian part of the state, taking up another pastorate in the Tioga County town of Elmira.
Woods, John Franklin, 1865-
Woods was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Huntington, West Virginia in 1881. Shortly after his ordination in 1907, he left his job with the C&O railroad to devote himself to ministry full-time; his career included pastoring Huntington’s Pilgrim Holiness Church and serving as a district superintendent of the Apostolic Holiness Union and Church of West Virginia.
Additional information can be found in Chapters I, III, V, VII, and IX of God’s Marvelous Grace to Me, a collection of sermons and personal narratives Woods privately published in 1936.
Woofter, Emery Judson, 1867-
Woofter was born in Gilmer County, West Virginia and studied at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. He was licensed to preach in 1894 and served churches in Bridgeport, Glenville, Harrisville, and Troy; from 1907 to 1937, he was the pastor of the Salem Baptist Church in Salem. He also served as president of the Baptist General Association of West Virginia, associate editor of the Baptist Banner, and president of Alderson-Broaddus College (now University), a Baptist institution in Philippi, West Virginia.
Records of his time in Salem are held in the archives of West Virginia University. Additional information can also be found in Volume III of History of West Virginia, Old and New (Chicago: American Historical Society, 1923), and Dorothy Belle Davis’ Salem, West Virginia, 1776 ~ 1976 (Bloomington, IN: Author House, 2011).
Young, Robert Terry, 1935-2009
Young was born in Woodfin, North Carolina and participated in the February 1974 Appalachian Preaching Mission in Johnson City, Tennessee. His work outside Appalachia included studying and pastoring in Scotland and serving as minister to Duke University.
Additional information can be found in obituaries published in the Charlotte, North Carolina Observer and Duke Today.
Young’s photo is courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian Preaching Mission Records.
