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.

24 Jun On This Day in UB History: June 24 (Mexico and the Philippines)

The 2005 General Conference met on June 24, 2005, in Huntington, Ind., following four (long) days of meetings by the US National Conference. They welcomed two new national conferences: 21 churches in Mexico, and 17 churches in the Philippines. They joined the seven “charter” national conferences from the 2001 General Conference.

Up to that point, every national conference involved churches which United Brethren people had pioneered. We started the churches in the US, Canada, Sierra Leone, Jamaica, Honduras, Hong Kong, and Nicaragua. But with Mexico and the Philippines, we were adopting churches which wanted to affiliate with us. The same would be true of the churches in Guatemala, which joined as a national conference in 2005.

In the Philippines, there were 17 churches (about 1000 people) which had been started since the 1980s by Rev. Prudencio Lim, a gifted evangelist. The UB connection began in 1999 through the Franklin UB church in New Albany, Ohio. Pastor Mike Brown and an evangelistic team helped Pastor Lim hold a crusade in Luzon, and persons returned nearly every year to help conduct additional crusades (all of which resulted in new churches). In 2004, the Filipino pastors unanimously requested to join the United Brethren church.

The process was more direct in Mexico. Denis Casco, as director of Latin American Ministries, developed relationships with a number of churches in Mexico. When Latin American Ministries was discontinued, Casco continued leading the churches in Mexico.

For the 2005 General Conference, each national conference could send two delegates, plus additional delegates depending on the size of the conference. The United States qualified for 12 delegates. Sierra Leone qualified for four delegates, but none, in the aftermath of 9/11, were able to secure visas (they were told their applications would be processed in October 2005). The other five national conferences each sent two delegates. (We don’t do proportional representation now; each conference, regardless of size, gets two delegates.)

The meeting consisted mostly of verbal updates from the national conferences about their work. The main item of business was accepting two new national conferences into the United Brethren worldwide community.

In 2004, Peter Lee and Mark Choi of Hong Kong Conference met with the Filipino leadership and found their governing documents to be in order. In February 2005, Brian Magnus (Canada), Francisco Raudales (Honduras), and Gary Dilley (US) met with the Mexican leadership. Their documents got a thumbs-up.

And thus, we increased from seven to nine national conferences.

23 Jun On This Day in UB History: June 23 (Kathy Corcoran)

Kathy Corcoran

On June 23, 1957, Kathy Corcoran began the first of three terms as a missionary nurse at Mattru Hospital in Sierra Leone, spanning 1957-1968.

Kathy was from the United Brethren church in Woodland, Calif. As a high schooler, she felt God calling her to the mission field, and she chose nursing as the way she would serve God overseas. After a three-year course in Oakland, Calif., she took specialized courses on mid-wifery at the New York Maternity Center and at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md.

Throughout the 1950s, we intended to open a hospital in Mattru, but couldn’t find a doctor. A team of dedicated nurses were doing a lot of medical work, and a government doctor came from Bo once a month. But we really needed a fulltime, full-fledged physician.

Then we learned about Dr. Alvin French, who worked with another denomination and was being sent home after just one year on the field. They apparently didn’t need him. Field Superintendent M. E. Burkett invited French to complete his term at Mattru Hospital—an idea that was already in the doctor’s head, since he had visited Mattru soon after arriving in Sierra Leone.

In May 1957, Alvin and Barbara French and their two children settled in Mattru. Kathy Corcoran arrived the next month. As a certified midwife, she kept busy delivering babies—one of whom was the third French daughter.

On June 7, 1969, Kathy married Alan Jones, an Englishman who had taught at the UB Centennial Secondary School in Mattru. In the second volume of “Trailblazers in Sierra Leone,” published in 1973, George Fleming reported that Alan and Kathy were living in Quebec and had a daughter, Phillipa.

22 Jun On This Day in UB History: June 22 (One Bishop)

Several times during our history, we’ve had just one bishop. But never by design…until 1993.

Christian Newcomer was elected bishop in 1813 following the death of Martin Boehm. Later that year, William Otterbein passed away, leaving Newcomer as the only bishop. That lasted until 1817, when Andrew Zeller was elected. (Some historical accounts say Zeller was elected in 1815, but 1817 seems more likely.)

Newcomer passed away in 1830 just one year into his latest four-year term. The next General Conference was three years away. The other bishop at the time, Henry Kumler Sr., served by himself until 1833. General Conference then elected a total of three bishops, perhaps wanting to hedge their bets.

In 1953, we went from three bishops to just two bishops. Clyde Meadows was one of those two bishops throughout the 1960s (1961-1969), and served much of the final year by himself after Bishop Robert Rash suffered severe heart problems. In 1969 we elected three bishops, increased to four in 1973, and back down to three in 1989.

However, the idea of having just one bishop came up in 1965, and never went away. A 1981 study committee recommended having just one bishop, and the notion kept percolating throughout the 1980s. Finally, with all three bishops set to retire in 1993–Ray Miller, Jerry Datema, and Clarence Kopp–it seemed like the right time to do it. And one name kept surfacing: Ray Seilhamer (right), who was then president of Evangelical School of Theology in Myerstown, Pa.

Ray Seilhamer was elected on June 22, 1993, as the only United Brethren bishop. He served eight years in that role. Since then, four more persons have served as the only bishop–Paul Hirschy, Ron Ramsey, Phil Whipple, and Todd Fetters.

Although nobody talks about going back to multiple bishops, history might caution, “Just give it some time.”