10 Jul On This Day in UB History: July 10 (Emmett Cox)

Emmett and Shirley Cox and children.

Emmett D. Cox, 89, passed away July 10, 2015, just a few days before the US National Conference began.

Emmett Cox grew up in the Garnett UB church in Garnett, Kansas, and was converted in 1943. Shirley was the daughter of Rev. and Mrs. Glenn Betterly, who were serving the North Bruce UB church in Port Elgin, Ontario, when Shirley headed off to Huntington College. Emmett and Shirley met at HC and were married on August 14, 1948. They both graduated from Huntington College in 1951. Shirley had a degree in Education. Emmett went on to graduate from the HC seminary.

Emmett and Shirley were missionaries in Sierra Leone over a 20-year period beginning in 1957. During those years Emmett served as a high school principal, business manager, general superintendent, primary school secretary, and field secretary. Shirley also kept busy with various roles over the years, including matron of the Minnie Mull girls’ home and teacher at Centennial Secondary School.

In 1969, Emmett received a Masters in Missions from the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. That year, General Conference elected him to oversee our worldwide mission work as the denomination’s General Secretary of Missions. That ended in 1973, when General Conference decided to give that responsibility to Bishop Duane Reahm, the first person to hold the role which would become known as the “overseas bishop.”

Emmett and Shirley then pastored churches for the next 30 years.

• 1976-1984: Victory UB church (Burbank, Calif.).
• 1984-1985: First UB church (Lake Havasu City, Ariz.).
• 1985-1992: Willshire UB church (Willshire, Ohio).
• 1992-2003: Six Mile Church, a non-UB congregation in Bluffton, Ind.

In retirement, Emmett and Shirley also served short-term as volunteers in Myanmar. They had four children: son Douglas, daughters Diane and Darlene, and foster son Billy Simbo, from Sierra Leone.

09 Jul On This Day in UB History: July 9 (Bishop William Brown)

Bishop William Brown

Michael Brown immigrated from Alsace, located in eastern France on the German border, and settled in the Tulpehocken Valley near Lebanon, Pa. He was considered one of the early converts of the revival movement started by Martin Boehm and William Otterbein.

As he lay dying, Michael, surrounded by family, “exhorted till the place became as the very gate of heaven.” When he finally died, the patriarch’s hand was resting upon the head of a seven-year-old grandson named William.

“From that hour,” wrote biographer Henry Adams Thompson, “the child’s heart was drawn towards God and heaven.”

William Brown, born July 9, 1796, was raised in a Christian home. He said his own conversion occurred at age 16 during a barn meeting in Carlisle, Pa. He recalled, “I was happy day and night for months. Often, after all had retired at night, I would walk out, look up into the starry heavens, and think of Jesus and heaven until, before I was aware of it, I would be running with outstretched arms, praying to Jesus to give me wings to fly home to glory.”

Brown became a licensed United Brethren minister in 1816. For the next eight years, he frequently traveled with Bishop Christian Newcomer, who often referred to Brown in his journal. Upon reaching an appointment, typically Newcomer would preach, and then Brown would preach (Brown was apparently no warm-up act). Brown was known to preach in both German and English.

In 1819, Brown began two years on the Virginia Circuit, which consisted of 30 appointments. It took him four weeks, and 300 miles of travel on horseback, to cover them all.

Brown was a member of the 1821 General Conference which took our first stand against alcohol. He played a key role. One minister offered a resolution saying, “No preacher shall be allowed to carry on a distillery.” Brown proposed replacing “preacher” with “member,” convinced that what was good for preachers was good for everyone. After much debate, the conference settled on, “Neither preacher nor lay member shall be allowed to carry on a distillery.”

In 1833, Brown was among the six Pennsylvania Conference delegates to General Conference, which met south of Columbus, Ohio. The number of bishops was increased from two to three. Brown and Samuel Heistand were elected as rookie bishops, joining Henry Kumler, Sr., who had been serving alone for three years following the death of Christian Newcomer.

William Brown served just four years as bishop. In 1838, he moved to Benton County, Indiana, located on the Illinois border near Lafayette. His father had apparently moved there some years before. Brown covered several circuits, was presiding elder for that area, and according to Thompson, “was preaching more or less all the time.”

Bishop William Brown died May 11, 1868, at age 71, from congestion of the liver. He viewed funeral sermons as improper, and didn’t want one at his own funeral. So there was none.

09 Jul On This Day in UB History: July 9 (Jacob Howe)

Jacob Howe at his desk in the missions office in Huntington, Ind.

Jacob Howe on board a ship en route to Sierra Leone in 1914

Jacob Howe passed away on July 9, 1941. He was secretary of missions for 31 years, 1905-1936. That’s a longer stretch than any other missions director in our history. Sure, Daniel Flickinger went 28 years starting in 1857, and then came back in 1897 for another eight years, for a total of 36 years. But 31 unbroken years is a record. Howe was followed by George Fleming–a person he recruited as a missionary–who served 25 years as secretary of missions.

Very little is recorded in our history books about Howe. He was a minister from Canada…but that’s about it. He was elected at the 1905 General Conference held at Gaines UB church in Caledonia, Mich. That year saw a massive change in leadership, partly a result of a years-long controversy involving our publishing house. Milton Wright, Halleck Floyd, and Horace Barnaby, all of whom had served as bishops since 1889, all left office. We got a new publishing agent, a new denominational editor, a new president of Huntington College. And with the departure of Daniel Flickinger, General Conference elected Jacob Howe to lead our missions program.

Although we don’t know much about Jacob Howe, we can clearly see what he accomplished as secretary of missions.

He advanced the work in Sierra Leone, and kept it going through World War I and the Depression.

He recruited some outstanding missionaries–George and Daisy Fleming, Clarence and Erma Carlson, Lloyd and Eula Eby, Dr. Leslie Huntley, Abbie Swales, Martha Anna Bard. Clarence Carlson and Lloyd Eby would each serve eight years as bishop.

He launched the Sierra Leone field into medical work.

Although our work in China was spearheaded by the Women’s Missionary Association, Howe no doubt was involved.

Jacob Howe may be a forgotten giant.

06 Jul On This Day in UB History: July 6 (The Wrights)

Alan and Marilyn Wright with daughters Carol and Joanne.

Alan Wright and Marilyn Saufley, missionaries in Sierra Leone, were married July 6, 1963. Jerry Datema, then a missionary in Sierra Leone, performed the wedding.

Alan was born in London, England, and graduated from Exeter University. He felt called to serve as a teacher in Sierra Leone. He would become a physics teacher at Centennial Secondary School in Mattru.

Marilyn, the daughter of former Sierra Leone missionaries Charles and Ruth Saufley (1928-1932), Marilyn became a nurse. She wrote, “Having been reared by faithful Christian parents, I cannot recall the time when I did not believe in the Lord. I considered mission work a way to come closer to the Lord. Perhaps this fact, and an early impression that I should serve as a nurse in the country where my parents served, led me to my present position.”

Marilyn served at Mattru Hospital 1960-1963. After their marriage, she and Alan served together at Mattru for two terms, from 1964-1971. They both became members of Salem UB church in Chambersburg, Pa.

Alan passed away September 18, 2013. At the time of Alan’s death, he and Marilyn were living in Abbotsford, British Columbia.

02 Jul On This Day In UB History: July 2 (Martha Anna Bard)

Martha Anna Bard with two African children.

Martha Anna Bard passed away on July 2, 1996. During her 35 years in Sierra Leone, 27 of them as a United Brethren missionary, she raised several African boys. Some of them were her pallbearers at the funeral.

Martha Anna Bard

Martha Anna Bard, born in 1907, grew up on a farm near Corunna, Ind., and as a teen joined the Corunna UB church. She obtained what was called a “Normal” degree from Huntington College, and then taught school for a year. Then she went back for her bachelor’s degree, graduating in 1931.

During a special service at College Park church, Martha was among a number of students who committed her life to fulltime missionary service. Five other students made similar commitments during that service and went on to serve as UB missionaries in Sierra Leone: Mary (Bergdall) Huntley and Leslie Huntley (later Sierra Leone’s first real doctor for the UB mission), Erma (Burton) Carlson, Emma Hyer, and Charles Saufley.

Martha sailed for Sierra Leone in October 1931. She served as a teacher, then matron, at the Minnie Mull School for Girls at Bonthe 1931-1934 and 1937-1940. She returned to Indiana in November 1940 with war approaching.

Knowing the need for healthcare in Sierra Leone, Martha entered Indiana University’s nursing school and graduated as a Registered Nurse in November 1944. Two months later, she became the college nurse an an instructor at Huntington College. That continued until 1947, when she returned to Sierra Leone, this time as a missionary nurse at the dispensary in Gbangbaia.

Dr. Dewitt Baker lived two years at Gbangbaia. He wrote, “Throughout that part of the country, her work at the dispensary was widely recognized.”

In July 1965, Martha concluded 27 years as a UB missionary. She remained in Sierra Leone, but spent the next seven years working for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, which in 1964 had ventured into rutile mining in Sierra Leone. Then she retired, returning to her roots in northeast Indiana.

01 Jul On This Day in UB History: July 1 (Lake View Church)

On July 1, 1984, the Pioneer and South Amboy UB churches officially merged. It was the start of today’s Lake View church in Camden, Mich.

Bruce Strine, a UB preacher’s kid and 1977 Huntington College graduate, was assigned in July 1983 to his first pastorate: a circuit which included Pioneer and South Amboy, located six miles apart—one in northern Ohio, one in southern Michigan. Each averaged about 30 people.

Strine favored merging the two churches. It made good sense. However, he wrote, “Most of my parishioners considered merging a closed subject. It had been tried before, and many felt it should never be tried again.”

In February 1984, Strine met jointly with the two administrative boards and presented their options. Basically, they could continue struggling along as separate congregations, or they could join forces and, hopefully, become a strong, growing church. Strine, of course, recommended that they merge. And he had drawn up a four-phase proposal to make it happen.

Strine gave them three weeks to consider the matter. On March 13, 1984, each administrative board agreed. In one church, it was a 7-6 vote. But in the days and weeks ahead, people who had voted nay began to support it.

The two churches merged on July 1, and on August 15, a nearby UB church named Grace Chapel joined the merger. Three men from Grace Chapel were added to the steering committee, making it a group of ten, and Strine and George Kreger, Grace Chapel’s pastor, shared the title “co-pastor.” Strine noted that having three churches made it harder to draw up sides.

On January 1, 1985, the three churches began meeting at a neutral site. This moved everyone out of their buildings and cut all ties. All properties were sold.

On Easter Sunday—April 7, 1985—they broke ground for the new Lake View UB church in Camden, Mich. They had selected a central location—two miles from one church, four from another, and about eight miles from Grace Chapel. Six months later, they held their first service in the new facility, which seated 250-300.

Lake View, once three struggling congregations, quickly became one of the largest United Brethren churches Michigan.

30 Jun On This Day in UB History: June 30 (Emma Hyer)

Emma Hyer as a young nursing student in the early 1930s, and during her final term in the 1950s.

On June 30, 1936, Emma Hyer, RN, arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The next day, she traveled on to Gbangbaia, where we had a medical dispensary. Since 1934, Dr. Lesley Huntley, our first physician in decades, had been laboring there pretty much on his own. Now, finally, he had a trained nurse to assist him.

Emma was from the United Brethren church in Coleta, Ill. She graduated from Huntington College in 1931 and went on to earn her nursing credentials. She was among six Huntington College students who committed themselves to missions during a special service during the late 1920s, and who went on to spend many years in Sierra Leone. Dr. Huntley and his future wife, Mary Bergdall, were two of those students. Charles Saufley served two terms starting in 1928. Martha Anna Bard gave 27 years of missionary service. Erma Burton, upon arriving in Freetown in 1932, married her longtime fiance Clarence Carlson. All but Charles Saufley were on the field when Emma Hyer arrived.

Nurse Hyer wrote that on her first day at the dispensary, they had 65 patients but, despite a long day of work, could only treat 40. That would become her new normal. When the Huntleys left Africa at the end of June 1937 for a year of furlough, she ran the dispensary on her own—delivering babies, extracting teeth, and the occasional emergency appendectomy. One day she cut out, without anesthetic, the tail of a stingray embedded in the fleshy part of a fisherman’s thumb. George Fleming gave her credit for saving the life of Clarence and Erma Carlson’s young son, Jimmie, who caught whooping cough and needed days and nights of constant care.

The Huntleys returned to Gbangbaia July 1938 to November 1941. During his second term, they treated over 31,000 patients. Emma Hyer was there for most of that time; she took a year of furlough in May 1938, but returned to serve 1939-1942. She entered the military in April 1944 and spent 16 months in Great Britain, attaining the rank of First Lieutenant. She returned to Sierra Leone for one final term in 1952-1955, this time at the new hospital in Mattru.

28 Jun On This Day in UB History: June 28 (Peter Kemp)

Peter Kemp was born June 28, 1749. He became a strong supporter of the movement started by William Ottebein and Martin Boehm.

Kemp lived in a large stone house about two miles outside of Frederick, Md. His home has a firm place in United Brethren history. It apparently became a frequent waystation for Otterbein, Christian Newcomer, and other traveling ministers. But most significantly, Kemp’s home hosted 17 ministers for the 1800 conference during which we officially organized as a denomination and chose Boehm and Otterbein as bishops.

The 1801 conference also met at the Kemp home. Peter Kemp was listed as a minister that year and covered a circuit of churches.

Interestingly, the Kemp family operated a still. Members brought grain to be distilled into alcohol, and barrels of whiskey, according to some accounts, were stored in the basement.

Peter Kemp passed away February 26, 1811.

27 Jun On This Day in UB History: June 27 (Minnie Mull Linker)

Charles and Minnie Linker

Minnie Mull with girls at the home at the Danville station in Sierra Leone.

Minnie Mull and Charles Linker, UB missionaries in Sierra Leone, were married on June 27, 1906, in Freetown, Sierra Leone. At the time, they were the only UB missionaries on the field. They chose June because children at the two homes at the Danville station in Gbangbaia were on vacation.

Four months later, Minnie was dead. And she would not be the only missionary to die there.

In 1900, the Women’s Missionary Association decided to build a home for girls at the Danville station in Gbangbaia. Rev. B. O. and Margaret Hazzard arrived in September 1900 to build the home. Margaret was stricken with beri-beri and, paralyzed, was evacuated to England, where she began a very long recovery. But Rev. Hazzard kept working. The building was ready for occupancy in December 1901. Rev. Hazzard, stricken with blackwater fever, died at Danville the following July.

Minnie Mull went to Sierra Leone in December 1904. She joined Lena Winkel, who had arrived in 1901, in running the new girls’ home. Charles Linker, from Elmore, Ohio, arrived in October 1905.

Minnie became ill in early September 1906 and was taken to the government hospital at Bonthe on September 10. After a couple weeks she returned to Danville to continue recuperating. But in early October, she experienced a relapse, and Charles was advised to get her to the hospital ASAP.

On October 18, she was placed in a boat, and five oarsmen began rowing toward Bonthe, knowing that their passenger was terribly ill. Just minutes from the dock at Bonthe, with Charles at her side, Minnie Linker passed into eternity.

Charles wrote to the Mission office:

“Why I was permitted to live with her so short a time, God only knows. Oh, how I miss her! Now I am alone here, and so much to be done with only one pair of hands. How sad and lonely I feel! I am quite worn out, as I have been waiting on Minnie day and night for more than two weeks….Oh, how dark the days and lonely, but my strength is in God, and in Him will I trust at my post of duty as a faithful soldier, though I die. I am crying and praying day and night, asking God to raise up someone who will come over and help us in this dark land of Africa.”

Cora Loew, executive secretary of the Women’s Missionary Association, wrote of Minnie Linker:

“Minnie was happy in the anticipation of her marriage, and in all the letters from her pen thereafter, expressed her high appreciation of one so true and so manly to whom she could look as an earthly protector, and enjoy their work as missionaries together. We who know Mr. Linker best have the consoling thought that Minnie had every comfort that one pair of human hands could give.”

Charles Linker said he would remain at his post, and he did. Reinforcements arrived on November 19, 1906: Christopher and Bessie Wilberforce. Christopher was the son of a Sierra Leone paramount chief, and had been in the States for five years attending college. He married Bessie Ramsey of Dayton, Ohio, and they made themselves available for missionary service.

Charles Linker returned to America in early 1908, and the work moved along smoothly under the leadership of Christopher and Bessie. But on June 15, 1908, Bessie died minutes after giving birth to her first-born child, a son named Theodore. Once again, shock and sorrow descended on the mission community at Danville.

A month later, Rev. and Mrs. August Stoltz of Ontario Conference arrived, followed soon by John Woodard of North Ohio Conference. They just kept coming.

Charles Linker, after an 18-month furlough, returned to Sierra Leone for one more term in December 1909, and concluded his service in Africa in October 1911.

In 1923, a new home for girls opened in Bonthe. It was named the Minnie Mull Memorial Home.

25 Jun On This Day in UB History: June 25 (Clarence Kopp

Bishop Emeritus Clarence A. Kopp, Jr.

On June 25, 1981, Clarence Kopp was elected as a bishop, a role he would fill for the next 12 years.

Clarence A. Kopp, Jr., was born on May 25, 1927. He described himself as spending most of his life chasing after Clyde Meadows. In 1950, he became the first associate pastor to work under Meadows at King Street UB church in Chambersburg, Pa. Back in Ohio, he became a pastor-superintendent, a role which Meadows held for 27 years. He was elected bishop in 1981, exactly 20 years after Meadows was elected to that position (eight years for Meadows, 12 years for Kopp). Upon relocating to Huntington, Ind., he moved into the house Meadows had built. As bishop, Kopp also served four years, as Meadows did, as president of the International Society of Christian Endeavor.

Of those three years at King Street Kopp wrote: “He set an enduring example for me as a visionary, a motivator, a skilled preacher, and a man gifted in dealing with relationships. I also appreciate the fact that he recognized my own strengths, and gave me the freedom to develop those gifts. My experience at King Street was a wonderful way to begin a lifetime in the ministry.”

They were a great team. Meadows wrote:

At the time, we had about 75 different organizations in the church–seven Christian Endeavor societies, 30-some Sunday school classes, three girl scout troops, etc. We secretly divided these groups between us. He would oversee this group, I would oversee that group. We wouldn’t tell them; we would just look after them on our own. Later, we exchanged some groups.

He would preach one Sunday morning a month. In revival meetings, we would each take a couple nights in a row, with people never knowing who would preach that night. We deliberately worked it so the meetings wouldn’t develop around the personality.

Visitation was a big part of the assistant’s job description, and Clarence Kopp was the best visitor I’ve ever known–much better than I was. He would take half a dozen folders from our church files, put them on the car seat, glance at them before going in to see a family, and be able to talk to them intelligently about their background, interests, ages of children, and church involvement. He visited as many as 2,000 families a year, and those visits resulted in new people coming to church.

In time, we both noticed a problem taking shape: within the same congregation, we were developing a Kopp following and a Meadows following. Clarence didn’t cultivate this, and he didn’t desire it. It’s just that he was good at what he did, and people were drawn to him. A different person in his situation could have split the church, but he didn’t want that any more than I did. There were no problems between us, and I was thrilled to have such a capable associate.

After three years, Kopp’s home conference wanted him back, so he left to pastor his own church. During his years as pastor of Prescott Avenue UB church (Dayton, Ohio), the attendance increased to over 400 and numerous people found Christ. He later became pastor of Redeemer UB church (now Living Word) in Columbus. He was pastoring Redeemer when the General Conference elected him bishop in 1981. After leaving the bishopric in 1993, he spent two years as fulltime superintendent of Central Conference.

In 1998, he helped start Anchor UB church in Fort Wayne, Ind., and attended until declining health made it too difficult to make the weekly journey from Huntington. Anchor was a restart of Third Street UB church, which was Kopp’s home church.

Clarence and Virginia Kopp both graduated from Huntington College. They were married nearly 60 years and gave birth to four children. Together, they traveled to all 50 states, to China, Russia, Australia, New Zealand; and to Europe many times. Most treasured of all were their seven trips to the Holy Land. Virginia passed away January 2, 2015.

Also known as the Eager Eagle, Clarence Kopp inspired folks almost everywhere he went with his contagious smile, his encouraging and positive spirit, and his outgoing, authentic presence. If you asked him how he was doing, he would invariably reply, “Better than I deserve!”

Bishop Kopp passed away September 17, 2007. He was 80 years old.