Church of God in Christ of the Apostolic Faith

Sometimes it is difficult to put together the pieces of information in the historical record. 

Read the November 9, 1913 Article from Pine Bluff Daily Graphic

On December 20, 1913, five early Pentecostal voices—M. M. Pinson of Phoenix, Arizona; A. P. Collins of Ft. Worth, Texas; H. A. Goss of Hot Springs, Arkansas; D. C. O. Opperman of Houston, Texas; and E. N. Bell of Malvern, Arkansas—invited “laymen and preachers” and “all elders, pastors, ministers, evangelists and missionaries” to come to a Convention at Hot Springs in April 1914.[1] They encouraged “all the churches of God in Christ” and “all Pentecostal or Apostolic faith assemblies,” regardless of official name, to come together “in love and peace to push the interests of the Kingdom of God.”[2]
[1] E. N. Bell, “General Convention of Pentecostal Saints and Churches of God in Christ,” Word and Witness, December 20, 1913, 1.
[2] Ibid.

Naming conventions in local, non-religious periodicals favored calling Pentecostal people terms like "Apostolic faith" or "holy rollers." Searching local newspapers in Chronicling America with search terms like this and then looking for associated names will render more successful searches and help piece together the historical record.

W. E. Wilson, for instance, listed in the article above article is very close to A. E. Wilson of Pine Bluff in the December 1913 list of ministers in the Word and Witness. Is this the same person? At first glance, it seems possible, but further investigation reveals that in 1912, A. E. Wilson was out of Little Rock. We get this from looking at the hotel record from June 19, 1912 on page 5 in the Pine Bluff Daily Graphic.

See original pine bluff daily graphic june 19, 1912

Cast a Wider Net

I am indebted to Daniel Isgrigg for pointing out this newspaper article. 
Notice the numerous errors:
- "Apastalic Faith" instead of Apostolic Faith in the title (although it is spelled correctly at the bottom of the page)
- T. N. Bell instead of E. N. Bell
- At no time does it appear that Bell held a doctorate.

Searching Chronicling America and other old newspaper for numerous terms and misspellings like this, may actually help to recover more details in the historical record.