Who was Harry Morse ?

[Scott Pitta]

Measuring the impact of Harry Morse on Western Apostolic Bible College is tricky, but worthy of contemplation.

Clyde Haney, Olive Haney and FP Anderson were students of Morse who taught at WABC. One dorm mother, Eva Inabnit was a Morse student.

Theological literature penned by Harry Morse is scarce. But a few trends are noteworthy.

The Bid Downtown Mission was, in it's day, the largest Oneness church on the West Coast. Harry Morse was on the radio from it's beginning and preached on the radio for 30 years. Women taught in the Bible school and preached in the church. Foreign mission was central to the Big Downtown Mission. The mission had a Bible school.

The church in Stockton has a radio station. It is one of the largest Oneness churches on the West Coast. Women teach at all levels at the church and in the college. Foreign missions is central to the church. The church has a Bible school.

Can I prove these elements are connected ? No. They are observations. The Foreign missions element may be too general to be included on the list. Not sure.

[Scott Pitta]

David Gray was the acting president of WABC in 1970. He was a Morse alumni.

[Steve Epley]

Interesting.

[Scott Pitta]

I have a picture of GT Haywood and MR Tatman from 1920 (?). Not sure who the other guy is.

I have no way of posting it here. But I did manage to post it on my Facebook page.

The Haywood family is quite pleased with the "new" picture. But I need help dating the pic and the persons.

Once again, thanks for all the help with this book project.

[Raven]

Originally Posted by Scott Pitta

Measuring the impact of Harry Morse on Western Apostolic Bible College is tricky, but worthy of contemplation.

Clyde Haney, Olive Haney and FP Anderson were students of Morse who taught at WABC. One dorm mother, Eva Inabnit was a Morse student.

Theological literature penned by Harry Morse is scarce. But a few trends are noteworthy.

The Bid Downtown Mission was, in it's day, the largest Oneness church on the West Coast. Harry Morse was on the radio from it's beginning and preached on the radio for 30 years. Women taught in the Bible school and preached in the church. Foreign mission was central to the Big Downtown Mission. The mission had a Bible school.

The church in Stockton has a radio station. It is one of the largest Oneness churches on the West Coast. Women teach at all levels at the church and in the college. Foreign missions is central to the church. The church has a Bible school.

Can I prove these elements are connected ? No. They are observations. The Foreign missions element may be too general to be included on the list. Not sure.

Scott: From personal experience I can verify your observations concerning the school in Oakland and what later transpired in Stockton. As to the Foreign missions element, there is a long history in Stockton of missions with Olive Gray Haney and David Gray being children of missionary parents to Japan prior to WW II. You are doing an awesome job of research and the finished results will be a work of which anyone could be proud.
Keep up the great work!

[Scott Pitta]

Harry Morse was a Sabbath keeper. I even have an article he penned on the subject. But until today, I could not find other Azusa Street vets who kept the Sabbath.

Bernt Berntsen was a Norwegian who became a missionary to China around 1905. While in China, he read an issue of the Apostolic Faith, the newspaper issued by the Apostolic Faith Mission at Azusa Street.

Bernt Berntsen found his way back to Oakland. He visited the Household of God Church where William Manley was pastor. But it was not until Berntsen visited the Apostolic Faith Mission that he was Spirit filled.

He returned to China as a Pentecostal missionary. In 1916, he announced to his ministry friends and workers that they would now (he was in charge of several churches) keep the Sabbath.

1916 was the same year that Harry Morse wrote and published his article in support of the Sabbath.

Now to find the common element, if there is one, between Harry Morse and Bernt Berntsen. Was it someone at the Apostolic Faith Mission ? Was it a book they both read ?

The twist is that the daughter of Bernt Berntsen, Ruth, was a student of Harry Morse.

I am so excited about the clues to this perplexing part of the biography.

[Scott Pitta]

I suppose it is time for an update.

Deer hunting really eats into my spare time, but some progress has been made on the book project.

I continue to fill in holes in the biographies of William Francis Manley, Lydia Lousie Swinton and Selma Marie Nelson.

Of those I am writing about only one of them was born in California. That would be Selma Nelson. She pastored in Fresno and ran a small Bible school there.

The rest were from England, Australia, Ontario, Wisconsin, Indiana, Washington, West Virginia and Virginia.

Looks like California has been filling up with visitors for a long time. Not sure of this blend of cultures had on early Pentecostalism. Churches were certainly more racially mixed. Morse had black and Japanese students.

No major breakthroughs of late.

[Scott Pitta]

Understanding the broader cultural setting of the biographies I am writing is not easy.

Many Peniel Mission workers became Pentecostals after Azusa Street. Including Harry Morse, Lydia Swinton and Selma Nelson. Swinton was from Ontario, Canada. Today, I found more single women who came from Canada to Los Angeles to be part of the Peniel Mission. Specifically to engage in social work. They did not pastor, they were in charge of "Rescue Homes" for troubled girls. The Los Angeles based Peniel Mission also had strong San Francisco ties, with additional missions in Stockton, Oakland and Sacramento. Missionaries were trained and sent out overseas. Interaction between the missions was common and organized.

When "Pentecost came" to Azusa Street, those empowered continued doing what they had been doing at the Peniel Mission. Camp meetings, missionary training and sending, structured fellowship, etc. Including women in leadership. Did the idea of women in active ministry in early Pentecost grow out of that Peniel Mission tradition ? Not sure.

It may be that these customs were common in christianity and were also reflected in the Peniel Mission movement and consequently in early Pentecost.

More data has come in about Lydia Swinton. She was in Oakland in 1906. She moved to Fresno in 1906. As early as 1906 she listed herself as a missionary. I have yet to make a connection to her with the Peniel Mission at Oakland. The Peniel Mission did not leave much of a paper trail.

So it is no shock to me now, as it did when I began, to find a former Peniel workers in Fresno running a rescue home which became a school for missionary worker training. Morse, a former Peniel worker, also trained missionary workers in Oakland. Swinton did the same in Stockton. All of which became Oneness in 1914. All 3 of which ended as WW2 began.

Looks like Lydia Swinton returned to her parents home in Ontario, Canada in 1916. It was her fist and probably her last visit home since she left in 1902.

It is also likely she and Clara Whited and Mamie Kraybill aided the refugees from the San Francisco earthquake. Whited and Kraybill certainly did. Still looking for the Swinton connection. They were all Peniel Mission workers. Not sure if she left prior to the earthquake or after it.

Many Peniel workers became Pentecostal. Including Levi Haney of Stockton.

While waiting for new data to arrive, I am reviewing earlier research, trying to get it correct and to reflect on the bigger picture.

[Steve Epley]

Originally Posted by Scott Pitta

Understanding the broader cultural setting of the biographies I am writing is not easy.

Many Peniel Mission workers became Pentecostals after Azusa Street. Including Harry Morse, Lydia Swinton and Selma Nelson. Swinton was from Ontario, Canada. Today, I found more single women who came from Canada to Los Angeles to be part of the Peniel Mission. Specifically to engage in social work. They did not pastor, they were in charge of "Rescue Homes" for troubled girls. The Los Angeles based Peniel Mission also had strong San Francisco ties, with additional missions in Stockton, Oakland and Sacramento. Missionaries were trained and sent out overseas. Interaction between the missions was common and organized.

When "Pentecost came" to Azusa Street, those empowered continued doing what they had been doing at the Peniel Mission. Camp meetings, missionary training and sending, structured fellowship, etc. Including women in leadership. Did the idea of women in active ministry in early Pentecost grow out of that Peniel Mission tradition ? Not sure.

It may be that these customs were common in christianity and were also reflected in the Peniel Mission movement and consequently in early Pentecost.

More data has come in about Lydia Swinton. She was in Oakland in 1906. She moved to Fresno in 1906. As early as 1906 she listed herself as a missionary. I have yet to make a connection to her with the Peniel Mission at Oakland. The Peniel Mission did not leave much of a paper trail.

So it is no shock to me now, as it did when I began, to find a former Peniel workers in Fresno running a rescue home which became a school for missionary worker training. Morse, a former Peniel worker, also trained missionary workers in Oakland. Swinton did the same in Stockton. All of which became Oneness in 1914. All 3 of which ended as WW2 began.

Looks like Lydia Swinton returned to her parents home in Ontario, Canada in 1916. It was her fist and probably her last visit home since she left in 1902.

It is also likely she and Clara Whited and Mamie Kraybill aided the refugees from the San Francisco earthquake. Whited and Kraybill certainly did. Still looking for the Swinton connection. They were all Peniel Mission workers. Not sure if she left prior to the earthquake or after it.

Many Peniel workers became Pentecostal. Including Levi Haney of Stockton.

While waiting for new data to arrive, I am reviewing earlier research, trying to get it correct and to reflect on the bigger picture.

Women were also very prominent in the "holiness movement" of the late 1800's.

[Graham]

Here's another "branch" on the tree that your reaearch brings up. You mentioned that Morse was a "sabbath keeper" and also detailed how some of the workers went off to do missionary work in China. Well, the True Jesus Church is one of the larger oneness churches in that country. After hearing your reaearch I would not be surprised if it was one of those missionaries that influenced the True Jesus Church to "keep the sabbath." They also have some other strange observances like mandating baptism in "live" or "running" waters.