Chapter VII

UNDER CONFERENCE SUPERINTENDENCY

The Reverend James Spencer Fulton—A Few Figures—Reverend Warren Shuey Wilson.

BY DR. W. R. FUNK

    The organization and control of ecclesiastical bodies is a very interesting study. Collective thinking is more evident in a body of this kind than in any other group of individuals. In a community, state, and nation, the rule has been that a few individuals do the thinking for the multitude. In an annual conference such as Allegheny the degree of intelligence of the membership, and the universal knowledge of conditions by the members make it more difficult to bring about changes in methods of operation unless the change appeals with such a strong influence that the majority at once visualize the good effect of the change.

    The method of presiding eldership started away back in the history of our denomination, and became a sort of football to be kicked about as a good, bad, or indifferent thing. The theory of this method was that the presiding elder should hold all quarterly conferences, the communion services, and visit every charge on his district four times a year. In those days the quarterly communion service was made a high event in the spiritual and social life of the charge. At that period there were few stations. Nearly all charges were circuits of from two to fourteen appointments. The present-day student can hardly understand the necessity for such an official as the presiding elder. The need for a change of method grew out of several conditions.

    First, the change in the congregations and charges. Many of our city and town appointments became strong enough to support their own pastor. This changed the nature of the entire work of the charge as it formerly existed. Second, the necessity for an outside man, such as the presiding elder, to hold communion services and conduct the business sessions of the one-church charge was no longer evident. The pastor himself, could better prepare the congregation for the Holy Communion than a stranger. Third, educational qualification has brought a better prepared minister, and as a result the official board of the station became more and more the center for the business activities of these churches. The idea of a general superin-

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tendency of the charges of the conference grew very rapidly. Efforts were made at different times previous to 1907 to bring about the election of one presiding elder as a step in the direction of the general superintendency of the conference. The rural districts of the conference were opposed, but finally the laymen of the conference saw the wisdom of the undertaking from two standpoints. First, the saving of expense. Second, the saving of man-power. Allegheny Conference had at one time four presiding elders, and two at the time the change was made.

    Among the great leaders of the Church who stood everywhere for this advanced movement was Bishop J. S. Mills, D.D., whose voice could be heard in every annual conference in favor of this new method of dealing with the organization of the conferences. In 1907, at the annual conference held at Clearfield, Pennsylvania, on the second day of that session, the change was made to one presiding elder. It was an eventful occasion, and the election of the superintendent was the result of three ballots, which showed that there was a marked difference of opinion, yet the majority of all the time during the balloting was in favor of the change which had been brought about by an amendment to the report of the Committee on Boundary and Finance. The discussion was intense at times, and showed that the conference was wide awake on the subject. Dr. J. S. Fulton favored two elders and voted against the amendment for one superintendent. The minutes showed that the Reverend J. S. Fulton was elected presiding elder on the third ballot.

THE REVEREND JAMES SPENCER FULTON

    In presenting the first Conference Superintendent of Allegheny Conference, it is worth while to note that the Reverend James Spencer Fulton was the son of the Reverend A. E. and Mrs. Elizabeth Fulton, and was born October 28, 1865, at Winterstown, York County, Pennsylvania. As the son of an earnest, conscientious, and able pastor, who served the Church through a long period of years, Doctor Fulton came to his responsibility conscious of its importance. His preparation for the work of the ministry, and also his preparation for the increased responsibility that was placed upon him by this election came through the common schools, private instruction, and normal schools. Then followed a period of teaching in the public schools, beginning at the age of sixteen years, and continuing for ten full terms. He also taught country normal school for six terms, thus hav-

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ing a detail in educational experience that is seldom afforded to a young man in his preparation for the ministry. This period of school service manifested itself on every charge that he afterwards served, and especially was he made ready for the detail work of the conference superintendency.

    He was converted and joined the United Brethren Church at Hooversville, Pennsylvania. He received his quarterly conference license in 1891, and his annual conference license in 1892, joining the Allegheny Conference at that time. He was ordained in 1895. Bishop J. S. Mills, assisted by Dr. G. A. Funkhouser, and the Reverend D. Sheerer, ordained Doctor Fulton and his class at the Wilkinsburg conference in 1895.

DR. J. S. FULTON
First Superintendent of Allegheny Conference

    The new conference superintendent had been pastor of our Glasgow Church for two years; Du Bois, two; New Florence, three; Madison, five; and had served Wilkinsburg for four years at the time of his election. His election occurred September, 1907, at Clearfield, Pennsylvania, and he served twenty years, being reelected almost unanimously every year, and declined reelection at the conference of 1927. The Reverend Mr. Fulton received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Otterbein College in 1915, and was made field director of the Ministerial Pension and Annuity Plan of the United Brethren Church in 1927. He attended the following General Conferences as a delegate: Canton, Ohio; Decatur, Illinois; Wichita, Kansas; Indianapolis, Indiana; Buffalo, New York; Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

    He was a member of the Seminary Board for four years, and served as secretary of the Board during that time. He was also a member of the Finance Board of the Church for four years during the period of the Secretaryship of Dr. J. S. Kendall, and was recording secretary of that Board. He has been a member of the Board of Administra-

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tion since its organization at the Wichita Conference, and has served continuously as secretary of the Board up to the present time. He has been vice president of the Quincy Orphanage in the East District for fourteen years.

    It is difficult to place an estimate upon the work done by Doctor Fulton during the period of his superintendency of Allegheny Conference. The service rendered can be appraised best after the years have passed and the personal element has been removed by time, and the true worth, like burnished gold, is reflected in the pages of history and in the lives of those who felt the uplift of the work done.

    No one could have been more faithful than Doctor Fulton to his task. He reconstructed the machinery of the conference to meet what opposition to the new plan there was. To organize the forces of the conference, to bring about the great results, to inspire the ministers who especially needed help in the work that they were undertaking, was a task great enough to command every ounce of energy that this man possessed. He gave it without stint, and to the limit of his strength. As to results, his reports made for twenty years tell the story, and it would require an entire book rather than the part of a chapter to reveal the worth of the service rendered. Doctor Fulton is considered an authority on the interpretation of church law. He has written a very helpful booklet on "Correcting Church Records."

A FEW FIGURES

    In presenting the record of these twenty years we use the method of contrast as the best means of setting forth the advancement that was made between 1907 and 1927. The following statistics are of interest to those who desire historic facts:

Figures at Beginning and Ending of Term of Service

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    These figures tell of the hard labor and faithful service rendered by the people, pastors, and superintendent working together to advance the Kingdom.

THE REVEREND WARREN SHUEY WILSON

    When it was known that Doctor Fulton had removed himself from the possibility of a reelection, the members of the annual conference began thinking about his successor in the superintendency. At the annual session of the conference, held in Park Avenue Church, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, September, 1927, the Reverend Warren Shuey Wilson was elected superintendent on the second ballot. It was a compliment to Doctor Wilson to be exalted to the highest position within the gift of the conference.

DR. W. S. WILSON
Superintendent of Allegheny Conference

    The Reverend Mr. Wilson was born November 22, 1871, in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Isaac Wilson and Rachel Emma Wilson. Born in the country, he grew to a vigorous young manhood, receiving his education in the township school, with courses in different local institutions in the community in which he lived. He entered Union Biblical Seminary, now Bonebrake Seminary, Dayton, Ohio, from which institution he graduated May 5, 1907. He was converted in a revival meeting held under the pastorate of the Reverend Andrew Davidson at Mount Pleasant, an appointment in Clearfield County. This occurred in November, 1891. He was one of the members of the Bradford Church appointment, but this class was afterwards abandoned, and he transferred his membership to the Clearfield Church, being one of eleven members that constituted the first organization of our First Church in the city of Clearfield, Pennsylvania.

    He was granted quarterly conference license to preach by the Clearfield Quarterly Conference, September 9, 1904. His license was

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signed by the Reverend J. I. L. Ressler, D.D., Presiding Elder. Doctor Wilson was granted annual conference license at the session held in First Church, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, September 18, 1905. His annual conference license was signed by Bishop J. S. Mills, D.D. On May 5, 1907, in the old Summit Street Church, Dayton, Ohio, at the commencement exercises of the Union Biblical Seminary, he was ordained to the sacred office of an elder by Bishop J. S. Mills, D.D. Leaving the Seminary he began his work in Allegheny Conference, serving the following charges:

    Punxsutawney, 1907-1910; Altoona Second Church, 1910-1914; Wilkinsburg Church, 1914-1916; Park Avenue Church, Johnstown, 1916-1922; St. Michael Church, 6 months in 1923; Pitcairn Church, 1924-1927.

    A peculiar coincidence is seen in the fact that he began his pastoral work the same year that his predecessor in the superintendency was elected to that office in 1907, and he himself was elected as the successor of Doctor Fulton in 1927, thus the same twenty years was served by both—one as superintendent and the other as pastor.

    Doctor Wilson served the conference as Budget Treasurer from 1921 to 1927.

    At the 67th Annual Commencement of Lebanon Valley College, Annville, Pennsylvania, he was given the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. He joined the Ministerial Mutual Benefit Association of the Allegheny Conference, September, 1907, and is still a member. He also joined the Denominational Ministerial and Annuity Plan in September, 1927, and was elected a member of this Board during the General Conference held in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, May, 1929. He was selected as one of the Board of Directors of the Quincy Orphanage and Home, June 7, 1928, and was reelected at the General Conference of May, 1929. He has been a member of two General Conferences—Indianapolis, May, 1921, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, May, 1929.

    The fruitful life of Doctor Wilson has been manifested on all the charges that he served during the twenty years he was pastor. A review of the charges he served would show a very material increase in membership and in the development of the congregations. A man of very fixed opinions, he made few compromises, but held the respect of those with whom he dealt. He came into his kingdom as conference superintendent at a time when the tide of extension work and growth in the conference was at its height. With modesty and earnestness

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Doctor Wilson undertook his work, and while there are only three years for comparison—1928, 1929, and 1930—he, nevertheless, has made a lasting impression upon the conference.

    In his report to the annual conference in 1928, the directness of his thinking and his firmness in undertaking the task is seen. He says, "The day following the adjournment of the last session of the conference we humbly took up the tasks and the responsibilities of the work." That was according to Doctor Wilson's idea of things—to go right to the thing that needed to be done and stay with it to the end. The industrial conditions were bad throughout the boundaries of the conference, but he speaks of "The courageous spirit and the inspiring effort on the part of pastors and the congregations to maintain former standards." His first report to the annual conference was hopeful and cheerful. Few persons can understand just what it would mean to take hold of a task like that which Doctor Wilson assumed when after the 1928 Annual Conference he undertook to direct a highly organized conference and move forward with the procession to success and victory. Of his faithfulness, much could be said.

The comparisons made below are for the short term of three years, but reveal earnest and high purpose in the work done.

    These figures reveal a service that cannot be estimated by any finite mind. They tell the story of consecration and earnestness on the part of the superintendent and his workers, his pastors, as well as the official members of the local churches, and the congregations. Doctor Wilson has had good cooperation, and has been able to maintain high standards even under financial depressions and general unrest throughout the nation. Doctor Wilson is to be congratulated upon these years of service that he has already given to the annual conference.