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Friday, July 21, 2006
A history of United Brethren work in Minnesota (New Acquisition)
Forever Beginning by Otto T. Nall, Commission on Archives and History, Minnesota Conference, United Methodist Church, 1973.
Subtitled "A History of the United Methodist Church and Her Antecedents in Minnesota to 1969" this work is strong on Methodist history in the state but weak on United Brethren and Evangelical contributions. Granted the United Brethren were not as active either the Evangelicals or the Methodists. Most information on the German groups is limited to a couple of chapters. Nall is critical of the United Brethren because according to him they "had difficulty following up recruits and assimilating new members". He sites the main failure of the United Brethren in Minnesota as over-expansion "of their resources of men and money".
The first circuit was organized in 1854 by Edmund Clow, a missionary from Rock River Conference. Soon after in 1855 the denomination's Home, Frontier and Foreign Missionary Society appointed J. W. Fulkerson to the state to help expand the work. The Minnesota Conference was organized in 1857 with Bishop Lewis Davis presiding.
Nall mentions an unpublished manuscript by Richard Gist on the history of the Minnesota United Brethren. This is apparently Nall's main source of information for the early work of the United Brethren. If anyone knows of the location of this document please contact me so I can obtain a copy for The Center.