FOOTNOTES OF PENTECOSTAL HISTORY: SOUTHWESTERN CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
“REPORT ACCEPTED AND CHARACTER PASSED”:
Some Ordained and Licensed Women from the years 1929 - 1939 in the Kansas and Oklahoma Conferences of the Pentecostal Holiness Church
Compiled By Marilyn A. Hudson, with Alicia Hutson
Southwestern Christian University,
The year was 1965 in Wellington , Kansas , in the home of the pastor of the local Pentecostal Holiness Church
Sitting at the parsonage piano, a sturdy black upright, she is surrounded by the daughters of the pastor and a friend of theirs who often came to visit. The visitor entertains them playing snappy standards from the forties and crooning tunes from the fifties. She responded to the news that the oldest girl was taking business courses by encouraging her to keep her chin up and not let the men bully her. She recounted with great hilarity a time when an employer had tried to bull her and all laughed at the impossibility the image presented.
To all of those gathered around the piano that afternoon she shared her love of God, her courage, her experience, and her sense of fun. To each and every one there she encouraged them to “press on” in their faith and to get a good education[1].
“Report Accepted....Character Passed....”
The Holiness and Pentecostal movements were unique episodes of American religious history but shared a common thread in a willingness to accept women as instruments of ministry[2]. From the earliest days in both movements women responded to God with a desire to preach the gospel with as much enthusiasm as their male counterparts. As some elements of both merged to form the Pentecostal movement, the invigorating dynamic of a life that sought to live in the fullest relationship with God was not one that would accept limitations easily.[3]
An examination of the official registers of membership for the Oklahoma and Kansas Conferences of the Pentecostal Holiness Church
The title stems from a reoccurring statement recorded in the 1929 year book. As the conference business would progress the ministers present would offer their reports (how many sermons preached, miles traveled, etc.) and at the conclusion there would be a motion of “report accepted and character passed.” It is a fitting testimony to the role of these women and their unique place in the history of the American church and the Pentecostal tradition that without question each one was accepted.
Description of the Project
A brief survey of records contained in the “Year Book of the Pentecostal Holiness Church
History
The Pentecostal movement of the 20th century is generally considered to have begun in1901. Agnes Ozman is believed to be the first person to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. She was a student in Charles Parham’s school in Topeka , Kansas Los Angeles Azusa Street
From its inception the movement seemed to epitomize an equality of persons that was unique for the time period. Service to God and blessings of the Holy Spirit (“the anointing”) became the litmus test of value over issues of gender or even race.[4]
Pauline writings that for the Christian community existing as one in Christ there was to be no longer “male or female” or “slave and free” (Galatians 3: 28-29), now took on liberating meanings as leadership in the new Pentecostal movement featured both women and persons of color.[5] The dynamic nature of the experience, and the resulting sense of urgency in proclaiming the gospel, convinced many that indeed the time of the Biblical “latter rains” had come. Citing the prophet Joel in the Old Testament , “Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, your sons and daughters will prophesy...” (Joel 2:29-32), few in the movement felt they could place limitations on who ministered.[6]
The following women were identified from the rolls of those who served as formally recognized ministers. With some exceptions, most had been admitted to the conference within the same decade. Most were assigned a local church; some assisted their husbands in the work, while some served as evangelists. On a administrative level, although they were frequently serving on conference committees of the more traditional women’s areas such as “Memoirs” ( a record of those who had died the preceding year) and “Public Morals”, they were also in leadership roles dealing with issues of publication, missions, and resolutions (i.e., 1939 in Kansas Mary E. Ford served on the Committee on Resolutions and later would be conference secretary-treasurer[8]). Some would in coming years be in key leadership roles on state levels and at least one went on to be published in the national publication, The Pentecostal Holiness Advocate.[9]
Attempts to identify the earliest women licensed or ordained in these regions is challenging due to the fact that the records from that time period are incomplete or are not clear as to gender. From information located, however, there are several women who were ordained within a few years of Oklahoma Oklahoma
Barnes, Emma
Beal, Estella
Brownback, Nellie
Carmack, Annie E.
Downing, Annie M.
Filbert, Estella
Eslin, Lavonia
Ford, Mary E.
Hall, Alline
Hoel, Olive
Kaminska, Lucinda
Orr, Lizzie
Pinkston, Mrs. J.P.
Roth, Berthe
Shannon, Mary Katherine Butterfield Davis (1916)[11]
Spotts, Ruby
Sprogue, Mrs. E.H.
Thiele, Hellen
Taylor, Beulah
Trader, Marietta
Ward, Linna (later Rogers)
Wassom, Della
Wedeking, Nettie
Adair, Gertrude
Allen, Reba
Anderson, Mrs Lillian
Atchley, Mrs. Sarah
Barger, Rosa (1927)
Beall, Estella
Bell, Eva
Bennett, Maggie
Bland or Blond, Vella Cleta
Booking, Viola
Brandstandt, Mrs. N.C
Brooks, Mrs. Eva.
Brown, Irene
Buchanan, Stella
Bullard, Beulah
Byus, Hazel
Campbell, Mrs. J.A. (1913)
Caldwell, Juanita
Carmack, Annie
Carter, Carrie
Chilcoat,Fae or Eula
Clarke, Neva (1925)
Classen, Clara
Coley, Beatrice
Cooper, Nora
Cothran, Mrs. L.V.
Darrow, Mrs. C.L. (Smith)
Dooley, Mrs. Ed
Fowler, Mrs. S.S.
Frantz, Edna
Gaither, Mrs. S.E.
Glenn, Evelyn
Haley, Inez
Hallam, Mrs. Urchie
Hamilton, Naomi
Hampton, Mrs. H.W.
Hatfield, Mittie
Hargis, Lucile
Hill, Mrs. O.M.
Hope, Grace
Housdon, Minnie
Hurt, Mrs. Margarett
Hutto, Amana
Iley, Mrs. J.H.
Isbell, Mrs. Ruth
Jones, Margaret (1925)
Keener, Mrs. Lillie
King, Sadie
Landers, Essie D. (1926)
Laymon, Elsie
Lily, Mrs. L.V.
Little, Mrs. N.W.
Kern, Anna
Manning, Opal V.
Martin, Mrs. L.B. (1929)
McCully, Gladys
McGraw, Mrs. D.
Meeks, Mrytle
Mitchusson, Minnie
Moore, Ruth
Muse, Mrs. Dan T.
Nance, Bertha
Pierce, Mrs. Idell
Peters, Mrs. L.A. (1919)
Pinkston, Mrs. Anna
Pool, Mrs. T.W.
Poteet, Vera
Price, Miss Chessie
Revell, Mrs. Emma
Roberson or Robertson, Mrs. J.W.
Roberts, Pearl Mrs.
Rooms, Mrs. Myrtle
Rose, Martha
Ross, Mrs. Melvin
Scaggs, Chessie
Schockly, Mrs. Tinnie
Short, Willa
Smith, Mrs. C.L.(Maggie?) (1913)
Sparks, Mrs. E. W.
Spence, Mrs. H.N.
Stamphill, Myrtle
Stone, Myrtle
Steele, Edith
Stephens, Viola
Stratton, Laura
Sutton, Anna
Taylor, Emma
Taylor, Ellen
Thornton, Margaret
Townsend, Elsie
VanBrunt, Mrs. Dorothy
Varec, Iva
Wassom, Mrs. Della
Watt, Linnie
Weaver, Mrs. C.M (1929)
Wedel, Ello Lous
Wicks, Mildred
Wilbourn, Leeta
Williams, Mrs. W.A. (1913)
Wilkerson, Lucy.
Wilson, Clara (1929)
Wilson, Alice
Wright, Mrs. L.E.
York, Mrs. W.C.
A survey of the conference rolls for the regions of
The survey also raises many questions worthy of additional consideration and research. For example, how does the central region compare to the more populated areas of the south, home base of the Pentecostal Holiness Church
The Authors[1] The first pastor of the author was the Rev. Sallie Mae Flippin, Wellington Pentecostal Holiness Church , Kansas Wellington
[2]Lee, Joyce and Glenn Gohr. “Women in the Pentecostal Movement” Women in Ministry, Assembly of God U.S.A.
[3]Benvenuti, Sheri R. “Pentecostal Women in Ministry: Where Do We Go From Here?” Cyberjournal for Pentecostal Charsimatic Research. Accessed at http:www.pctii.org/cyberj/cyberj1/ben.html on 4/18/2006.
[4]Blumhofer, Edith, The Assemblies of God: A Popular History (Springfield: Gospel Publishing House, 1985) 137.
[5] Hudson, Marilyn A., “In Christ: An Exploration of the Egalitarianism of Galations”, unpublished paper, Southwestern College of Christian Ministries, 1989.
[6]Charles H. Barfoot and Gerald T. Sheppard, “Prophetic vs. Priestly Religion: The Changing Role of Women Clergy in Classical Pentecostal Churches, “ Review of Religious Research, 22:1 (September)4.
[7] Year Book of the Annual Conferences of the Pentecostal Holiness Church Franklin Springs , Georgia : Publishing House of the P.H.C.; Year Book of the Pentecostal Holiness Church Franklin Springs , Georgia : Publishing House of the Pentecostal Holiness Church
[8] Pentecostal Holiness Advocate, Sept, 12, 1946, cover photo shows her with a group of Kansas Conference leaders hading a check to Oral Roberts for new Southwestern School in Oklahoma
[9] Wilson, Alice
[10] Year Book of the Annual Conference..., the 1930 issue reads for O.C. Wilkins “1909", but the next and all subsequent years read “1910".
[11] “Sister A.I. Shannon, Pioneer Holiness Preacher Passes ”, East Oklahoma Conference News, ( March 1944) 8 and the Kansas
[12] Some clues emerge early, G.H. Montgomery writing in the Advocate artle “Do We Need A Seminary?”said “Who is going to be in charge of this seminary? ...These men (and they will have to be men, or I am through with the whole idea right now;” (Feb.15, 1945)2. [emphasis in the original].
