Harry Van Loon: William Durham's "Right Hand Man"

In July 1912, the untimely death of William Durham at age thirty-nine sent shock waves through the close-knit Pentecostal community. On August 20, 1912, Harry Van Loon reported, “Dear Bro. Bell, Greetings in Jesus Name: Our beloved Bro. Durham fell asleep in Jesus at 8:10 Sunday morning, down July 7th. The funeral service was very impressive, and was attended by fully a thousand people. The body was interred at the Inglewood Cemetery, Los Angeles.”[1] In 1913, Van Loon affiliated with the Churches of God in Christ, and he spoke at the 1916 General Council in opposition to the adoption of a statement of fundamental truths.[2] Bell said of Durham:
The writer has known Bro. Durham personally for about five years, and while in his zeal for the truth he may have made some mistakes, as we all do, yet I never met a more loyal soul to God and to the truth as he saw it than William H. Durham. He was untiring in his efforts to plant and establish this truth about the Pentecostal Baptism with the Spirit in all the earth. He literally worked himself to death.[3]

[1] Harry Van Loon, “Bro. Durham Fallen Asleep,” Word and Witness, August 20, 1912, 3.

[2] Brumback, Suddenly from Heaven, 208.

[3] E. N. Bell, “Bro. Durham Fallen Asleep,” Word and Witness, August 20, 1912, 3. 

Harry Van Loon (Left) and William Durham (Right). Photo courtesy of Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center. Click here for original.

​In the Missionary World article from 1906, Wacker observed the “dense networks of personal friendships” and the “multiple personal connections revealed in William H. Durham’s account of his transcontinental evangelistic travels.”[1] On that journey, Durham had visited Geo. F. Fink, Brother Carl, Brother Ostenberg of Benton Harbor, Michigan, Brother Seymour of Chicago, Harry Van Loon of Chicago, Miss Malcolm, and Dr. Yoakum on his travels. While only Van Loon affiliated with just the 1913 Churches of God in Christ, Durham’s connections would have an enormous impact on the Assemblies of God. [2]
In Pentecostal Testimony, a posthumously published report from William Durham was included on the “Great Chicago Revival”:
The Chicago meeting was announced as a convention to last two weeks. Brother Van Loon and the writer arrived from the Pacific Coast on the twenty fourth of February, and the meetings commenced the twenty-fifth. Brethren Argue, McAlister and Bell, who were expected were detained at home, but we expected them a few days later.[3]
 
            Argue was based in Canada, but he and his wife, Eva, and daughter, Zelma Argue, ministered throughout the United States and were instrumental in the formation of the Assemblies of God in Canada.[4] McAlister’s sermon sparked the Oneness debate at the Arroyo Seco Camp Meeting in 1913, although he held to Trinitarian thought throughout the debacle. This is the same Bell who has been a primary subject of this study.
            “In accordance with Brother Durham’s request before he passed away,” F. J. Ewart and Harry Van Loon had “assumed all responsibility in connection with the work here in Los Angeles.”[5] Ewart and Van Loon were the “pastors in charge” at 209 East 7th street, which was less than a mile away from 312 Azusa Street Revival, where Durham had first experienced Pentecostalism.[6] By 1913, Ewart was one of the most prominent voices of the Pentecostal Movement in the West.


[1] Wacker, Heaven Below, 274 notes 11 and 12.

[2] In fact, Bell gave Van Loon’s case as a rationale for why the Assemblies of God should charter, writing, “Over five years ago Bro. Harry van Loon, who was then working in Canada, reported to Bro. W. H. Durham in Chicago that the law in Canada did not allow ministers even to baptize in water, unless they held papers from an incorporated or chartered church or assembly….Bro. Durham at once CHARTERED the Full Gospel Assembly on North Ave., and gave credentials to Bro. Van Loon. Has this charter caused Bro. Van Loon to backslide and lose the Holy Ghost? I was present when this chartering was done, and when Bro. Durham was about to charter as the Full Gospel MISSION, I suggested ASSEMBLY as the better term, and Bro. Durham adopted the term Assembly wholly at my suggestion. I speak of this only to let the brethren know that I, E. N. Bell, am not opposed to the word ASSEMBLY, since I am the very one who got Brother Durham to adopt it over five years ago in Chicago. Not only so, but Bro. Durham gave me credentials with the corporate seal of the CHARTERED Assembly upon them and I have them today, March 25, 1914.” Bell also cited other benefits to chartering on the “BUSINESS side of things, such as holding property, accepting rates on the railroads for preachers, holding property in foreign lands for missionary work, etc. etc., etc., it is necessary to obey the laws of the country.” See E. N. Bell, “Why Charter?” Word and Witness, March 1914, 3.

[3] “The Great Chicago Revival,” Pentecostal Testimony, August or July 1912, 14. The “Personal Testimony of Durham” and “In Memoriam” of William Durham are on pages 1-5 of this edition and many of Durham’s sermons are also included.

[4] See “Great Blessings in Western Canada,” Christian Evangel, August 1, 1914, 4. “Eureka Springs, Ark.,” Pentecostal Evangel, September 13, 1924, 12. After a 3-week meeting with Zelma Argue, 1,500 people witnessed a baptismal service of twenty people “about seven miles from town at the river.” A.H. Argue’s “grandson, Don Argue, served as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was president of North Central University and Northwest University.” See Ruthie Edgerly Oberg, “This Week in AG History – May 24, 1941,” Assemblies of God Website, https://news.ag.org/en/Features/This-Week-in-AG-History-May-24-1941.

[5] “Special Notice,” Pentecostal Testimony, August 1912, 16.

[6] Ibid.

William Durham (Left), unidentified, and Harry Van Loon (Right). Photo courtesy of Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center. Click here for original.

Frodsham also had experience in the publishing industry since he published an occasional Pentecostal paper called Victory.[1] Frodsham had received his “baptism in the Holy Ghost” at Boddy’s Church. Boddy had forged a close relationship with A. G. Garr and his wife, Lilian Garr, having met them on a train going from Toronto to the Stouville Camp Meeting in 1909.[2] Garr had strong connections to both Stone Church and the Assemblies of God. Garr served as an Executive Presbyter in 1915. Frodsham met with them in Los Angeles as well as Chicago. Garr, despite his wife dying on April 12, 1916, remained committed to the Assemblies of God.[3] Frodsham reported on the 1,200 people who attended her funeral:
Brother Collins conducted the service and was helped by Brother Argue, Brother Montgomery and Brother Scott. The bearers were Brother George B. Studd and Brother Elmer Fisher (of the old Upper Room Mission), Brother F. J. Ewart (of Seventh Street Mission), Brother Harry Van Loon (who was right hand man to Pastor Durham), Brother Tingle (the Pastor of Pasadena Assembly), and Brother Perrou (an Italian brother).[4]
 
The Garr connection put Frodsham firmly into the conservative and orthodoxy defending camp of the Assemblies of God. As mentioned before, Garr ministered with sixteen other ministers at Stone Church in Chicago in May 1914. Of those sixteen ministers, only three were disfellowshipped after the 1916 meeting and more had strong links to both the Assemblies of God as well as Boddy.[5] The relationships between A. A. Boddy, Stanley Frodsham, A. G. Garr, D. W. Kerr, J. R. Flower, and the many others that Boddy had visited during his missionary journeys were possibly the most important single human factor in the survival of the Assemblies of God through the New Issue.


[1] “Other Pentecostal Newspapers in Great Britain,” Confidence, March 1910, 61.

[2] Frodsham, “A Wonderful Life Ended,” Confidence, May 1916, 79. For date of this meeting see Confidence, November 1912, 247. “While I (Boddy) was at Los Angeles I met Brother and Sister Garr, whom I met last at the Stouville Convention in Canada, three years ago.” For dates of the Stouville Camp Meeting in 1909, see “Brief Notes,” Confidence, May 1910, 111. Brother A. G. Ward requested: “We shall be delighted if some of our friends from England are able to attend” from June 10-20, 1910. This announcement was prompted from Boddy having been able to attend the previous year. Ward’s son would go on to the lead the famed radio broadcast called “Revivaltime” from 1953-1978.

[3] Interestingly, after Lillian’s death, Garr married Hannah Erickson, daughter of R. L. Erickson, formerly pastor of the Stone Church in Chicago on July 26, 1918. See Thompson, 124. After their honeymoon, Hannah and Alfred returned to Dallas to co-pastor a church with William Black, whom he had ministered with at Stone Church in May 1914.

[4] Frodsham, “A Wonderful Life Ended,” Confidence, May 1916, 80.

[5] For instance, Daniel Awrey, “who is well known in the Pentecostal work on four continents,” had attended the 1909, 1910, and 1911 Sunderland Conventions. Boddy announced Awrey’s death and in the obituary said: “Our brother, Roswell Flower, of Plainfield, near Indianapolis, ‘The Christian Evangel,’ an ‘appreciation’ which we thoroughly endorse, and so we will quote it in full…” See Boddy, “Daniel Awrey: His Home Call in West Africa,” Confidence, February 1914, 35. Later, missionary giving records in the Weekly Evangel show that Mrs. Daniel Awrey received financial support from the Assemblies of God. See “August 1917,” Weekly Evangel, September 15, 1917, 13. See also, B. F. Lawrence, “Apostolic Faith Restored: Article V—Incidents of the Spirit from 1890 to 1900,” The Weekly Evangel, January 29 and February 5, 1916, 4. Awrey experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit with speaking in other tongues on January 1, 1890. “Ten years later, Mrs. Awrey received the Holy Spirit and spake in another tongue. Awrey’s experience was among the earliest tongues manifestation recorded.”

Van Loon had also been present with Sister Etter in Dallas in December 1912. See "The God of All the Earth Working at Dallas," Word and Witness, December 1912, 1.

Harry Van Loon on Find-A-Grave