|
Overview
Biographical Note
Scope and Content
Arrangement
Preferred Citation
Restrictions on Access
Restrictions on Use
Related Material
Subject Terms
You can print a clean version of this finding aid by selecting FIle -> Print from the menu above or you can download a nicely formatted pdf version from here
| Record Creator: | Higley, Elmer Ellsworth |
| Title: | Elmer Ellsworth Higley Papers |
| Date Span: | 1899-1956 |
| Abstract: | The Reverend Elmer Ellsworth Higley was a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church and a director of the Board of Home Missions. This collection contains: programs, publications, sermons and images saved by his wife. |
| Extent: | 0.45 cubic feet |
| Identification: | gcah.ms.gcah5895 |
Elmer Ellsworth Higley (1867-1931), American Methodist minister, was born on July 6, 1867 in William County Ohio. His family moved to Crawford Country, Pennsylvania where he attended Conneautville High School, the Edinboro Normal School, and Allegheny College. Higley was later called to ministry and served his first appointment in Centerville, Pennsylvania. There, he met his wife Alice C. Dowler and they were married on August 16, 1892. Together they had five children, two of which were twin boys who died during infancy.
Higley attended Drew Theological Seminary and completed his degree at New York University. Later he completed pastorates in Sherman, New York; Kane and Newcastle, Pennsylvania; Grace Church, Denver, Colorado; and Grace Church, Des Moines, Iowa.
He then gained charge of the Department of Indian Work under the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension, and the Woman’s Home Missionary Society. Higley was part of a committee that was called to confer with President Coolidge on Native American matters. Through his work, he was recognized as an authority on Indian Life and customs, and was adopted into the Mohawk and Cherokee tribes.
Higley accepted a call at the College Church in Ames, Iowa, and from Iowa he transferred to Park Ridge, Illinois where he gave services and planned Passion Week and Easter. Besides the many poems, songs, cantatas that he wrote, he was also the author of “Homespun Religion” and “The Sterile Soul”. On March 22, he was giving a service when he fell unconscious and was taken to Evanston Hospital. On Tuesday, March 24, 1931 he died without regaining consciousness.
This collection contains church publications, correspondence, images, newspaper clippings, publications, and sermons from Elmer Elmsworth Higley’s ministry work.
Most of the information within the documents are from the early 1900s-1951 and are related to his work as a Methodist Episcopal preacher. A majority of the images within this collection are of the churches Higley served.
This collection also contains two of his authored publications, and several newspaper clippings acknowledging Higley’s death.
Materials have been arranged in the following manner.
The records are arranged by genre and topic.
When citing material from this collection please use the following format: Direct reference to the item or its file folder, Elmer Ellsworth Higley Papers, United Methodist Church Archives - GCAH, Madison, New Jersey. Do not make use of the item's call number as that is not a stable descriptor.
There are no restrictions regarding this collection.
Detailed use restrictions relating to our collections can be requested from the office of the archivist at the General Commission on Archives and History. Photocopying is handled by the staff and may be limited in certain instances. Before using any material for publication from this collection a formal request for permission to publish is expected and required.
None
| Call Number | Folder Title | Date(s) |
| 1602-3-8: 01 | Church Publications | 1899-1931 |
| 1602-3-8: 02 | Church Publications | 1930-1932 |
| 1602-3-8: 03 | Correspondence | 1923 |
| 1602-3-8: 04 | Higher Education: Iowa and Illinois | 1913-1956 |
| 1602-3-8: 05 | Images - Collodian and Slide | 1907-1927 |
| 1602-3-8: 06 | Maveety | Undated |
| 1602-3-8: 07 | Miscellaneous | 1906 |
| 1602-3-8: 08 | Newspaper Clippings | 1923-1951 |
| 1602-3-8: 09 | Publications - Authored Texts | 1909-1930 |
| 1602-3-8: 10 | Sermons | Undated |
