1911 Eureka Springs Meeting

​I was able to spend some time today in the Arkansas State Archives in Little Rock, and I found some good evidence for the 1911 Meeting in Eureka Springs.
 
From page 42 of my thesis:
Durham had died on July 7, 1912. Three days later, “The annual interstate convention or encampment of the Churches of God in Christ of the Apostolic Faith people met on schedule time at Eureka Springs, Arkansas, July 10, and closed with joy on July 21.” Over “500 [people] were in attendance” at a meeting that birthed the Churches of God in Christ, and “the attendance far surpassed that of one year ago at the same place.”186 This organization was the forerunner to the Assemblies of God. The movement that Parham started, Durham spurred, and Bell stoked into the flame is now known as the Assemblies of God.
 
“Glory and Unity at the Eureka Springs Camp,” Word and Witness, August 20, 1912, 1-2. In my study, I had said, "Records do not exist for the 1911 Eureka Springs Camp Meeting." Today though, I found the records!
 
See Eureka Springs Times, July 28, 1911, 5. Photos Courtesy of Arkansas State Archives.

Both Kelly Campbell and S. D. Kinnee affiliated with the Churches of God in Christ. Campbell affiliated with the Assemblies in 1915 but did not remain affiliated past that year.
 
 
See page 128 and 29 of my study for more on the significance of Kinne:
This resolution solidified F. F. Bosworth’s resignation from the Assemblies of God. While Bosworth resigned, his close associates Jamieson, Birdsall, and Sisson remained a part of the movement. In October 1918, Brother Seeley D. Kinne wrote an “Open Letter to Elder F. F. Bosworth” in the Pentecostal Herald challenging Bosworth’s rejection of the uniform initial physical evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.[1] Kinne had affiliated with the Churches of God in Christ in 1913 when he was in Bloomington, Illinois. While Kinne did not affiliate with the Assemblies of God, he was a strong part of the Pentecostal Movement.[2] Kinne had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit at Azusa Street in 1907, and he moved to St. Louis, Missouri to share the Pentecostal Message.[3]
So then, this newspaper article places Kinne at the 1911 meeting in Eureka Springs in the latter part of July, and he had just met with Erdman and Yoakum at the beginning of the month.
From Page 163 of my study:
In March 1914, the Word and Witness wrote, “Everybody, all aboard for the Hot Springs convention. This is the final call for objects as previously specified in Word and Witness. Meeting to be in old Grand Opera house, 200 central avenue.”[4] The announcement featured the names of thirty-three early Pentecostal leaders within the Churches of God in Christ as well as the Christian and Missionary Alliance as has been the focus of this study. The first name on the list was “R. E. Edman, Buffalo, N.Y.”[5 KINNE’S NAME WAS SECOND ON THE LIST!] Erdman’s name was misspelled by the Word and Witness and while he did not affiliate with the Assemblies of God, he shared many important connections with other ministers who did. Erdman wrote,
Dear Bro. Bell, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. I am wholly in sympathy with the call for the convention in April at Hot Springs, Ark. And the Lord willing, I shall be with you. I am doing what I can to get the brethren from the North to come. There is great need of such a gathering, and I am truly glad that you are having this one.[6]
 
Clearly, Kinne was a key connection to get the northern ministers connected to the movement that became the Assemblies of God.


[1] Although the Pentecostal Herald’s editor, Geo. C. Brinkman did not affiliate with the Assemblies of God, the publication’s associate editors—T. K. Leonard and James A. Bell—had affiliated. Seven of the nine contributing editors affiliated (Fred Lohmann, C. W. Pelton, Andrew Urshan, John C. Sinclair, Wm. E. Moody, Mrs. Ettie Reckley, and Hardy Mitchell) while two did not (J. H. Wilson and Andrew Jensen). Twelve of the twenty-one listed field representatives had affiliated with the Assemblies of God as well. See “Masthead,” Pentecostal Herald, October 1918, 2. The Pentecostal Herald was also strongly Trinitarian.

[2] Kinne’s letter to Maria Woodworth-Etter was also published in Etter’s Signs and Wonders. See Maria Woodworth-Etter, Signs and Wonders (Indianapolis: M. B. Woodworth-Etter, 1916), 166.

[3] Wayne Warner, “The St. Louis Era,” Assemblies of God Heritage 1, no. 1 (Fall 1981): 1-2. In June 28-July 9, 1911, Kinne was a featured “worker” alongside R. E. Erdman of Buffalo, N.Y. and Dr. F. E. Yoakum of Los Angeles, California at a “Pentecostal Campmeeting” at Jordan, Ontario, Canada. The meeting announced “cheap rates in Canada over July 1st, and in the United States over July 4th. Jordan Station is only seventeen miles from Niagara Falls on the Grand Trunk Railroad. For information regarding accommodations, tents, etc., write Pastor George A. Chambers, Vineland, Ontario.” See “Campmeetings,” Latter Rain Evangel, May 1911, 12. Chambers had affiliated with the Assemblies of God in 1914 but was not listed on the ministerial rolls after 1914. Erdman ministered alongside A. A. Boddy, Bro. R. Greer, and A. L. Fraser at Foxchase in July 1914 as previously discussed. See Confidence, August 1914, 146. On December 7, 1913, R. E. Erdman had ordained Ellsworth S. Thomas of Binghamton, New York, who was the first ordained African American minister in the Assemblies of God. See Minutes, 1915, 16 and “Ministerial File: Ellsworth S. Thomas,” Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center. Robert Brown of Glad Tidings endorsed Ellsworth’s application. Brown, Boddy, Erdman, and Yoakum’s relationship was significant in this important moment in Assemblies of God history.

[4] General Convention of Pentecostal Saints and Churches of God in Christ,” Word and Witness, March 20, 1914. 1.

[5] Ibid. KINNE’S NAME WAS SECOND ON THE LIST!

[6] R. E. Erdman, “Coming from the North,” Word and Witness, March 1914, 1.