Biographical Information on Cumberland Presbyterians  

J.C. Armstrong attempted to serve as a Cumberland Presbyterian missionary to Turkey.  His work never never got off the ground due to a series of problems including lack of support from the church (around 1860).

Vernon Baughn, an elder in the CPCA, served as vice-chairman of the North American Council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. He was also involved in the committee on joint cooperative work (JCU).

Milton Bird was instrumental in keeping the unity of the church during the Civil War.  He was an important theologian in the denomination. 

Summer Bacon was among the first Cumberland Presbyterians in Texas where he spread the gospel with great success as an evangelist.  He was licensed and ordained the same day by Louisiana Presbytery.  He became known as "The Apostle of Texas" (1829).

Alba Bates  was a CP minister who helped foster relations between the two CP churches in the 1940s.  When SA Nelson was given a back seat during the 1943 General Assembly of the CPC, Bates and others came back and joined him..  

Robert Bell was the first missionary to the Chickasaws, founding the Charity Hall school (1820) among them in Mississippi.

Roy Blakeburn chaired the committe to revise the Confession of Faith (1984).  He recommended it to the General Assembly saying that it clearly sings the CP song.  He later served as Stated Clerk of General Assembly from 1985-87 and as a member of the Joint Committee on Unification.  He also served as editor of the Missionary Messenger.  

Verna Briggs served as a teacher in Finis Ewing Mountain Mission school, Barnard, North Carolina.

S.G. Burney was chair of the committee to revise the Confession of Faith (1883) and contributed much to its content.  The new revision replaced federalism with propitiation and it specifically allowed for women deacons.

F.R. Cossit began publishing the weekly Religious and Literary Intelligencer (1830).  This was the earliest weekly publication of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.  He also served as the first Stated Clerk of General Assembly.

Thomas D. Campbell was author of One Family Under God (1982).  He presented a resolution to General Assembly calling for Bethel College and the Seminary to open its doors to students of all races.

Thomas H. Campbell was a long-time professor of the seminary and co-author of A People Called Cumberland Presbyterians along with Ben Barrus and Milton Baughn.

Mrs. Pallie Claggett was the first woman elder delegate seated as a commissioner on the floor of General Assembly (1893).

James Clark was a proponent of union with the Presbyterian Church and an editor who closed columns on the union issue until after the joint report on reunion; he went into the PCUSA and fought to secure liberty of belief for those unable to subscribe to the Westminster Confession.

Johnnie Massey Clay was the only editor of the Jubilee Journal  which was begun in 1930.  She was also the first editor of the Missionary Messenger and an influential president of the Women's Board of Missions from 1916-1936.  Under her leadership the Colegio Americana was begun in Colombia and the building was named in her honor.

N.J. Crawford organized the first Cumberland Presbyterian Church among the Cherokees in 1877.

Ky Curry and Thomas H. Campbell served as editors of the Cumberland Crusader, a youth periodical  published around 1931.

Harold Davis served as one of the first fraternal delegates to the CPCA in 1951 and a has been a leader in building relationships between the two denominations working  especially to improve cooperation and communication.  He is a former Executive Secretary of Board of Christian Education (1961-91).

Mrs. A.M. Drennan served as a missionary to Japan and principle of a girls' school there.  She raised two Japanese children that were given to her to parent.   

Willard D. Eddington was an early  CPCA leader who refused to join the larger Presbyterian Church.  He worked to promote relations between white and black Cumberland Presbyterians. He walked out of a National Board of Missions meeting with Presbyterian leaders when they suggested the purpose of their help was for the denominations to unite.

Finis Ewing was one of the three founders of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and a member of the revival party in the Cumberland Presbytery.  He wrote Lectures on the Most Important Subject of Divinity.  He eventually emancipated his slaves and spoke against slave trafficking and chastized fellow CP's who mistreated slaves.

Jose Fajardo, the brother of Martiniano, was the first convert in the Colombian Mission.   He became a pastor and school director and eventually Moderator of General Assembly (1978).  He is credited with being the primary translator of the Confession of Faith into Spanish..  

Martiniano Fajardo was a devout Catholic who became a worker in the Colombian Mission.  He became a pastor and was later called "Paul of Colombia."

Israel Folsom was the first ordained native Choctaw in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

Thomas Forester was the first CP missionary to Japan (after the 1906 split) in 1953 when a military chaplain who had been stationed in Japan convinced the Women's Board of Foreign Missions of our need to re-enter Japan.

Foster -- Systematic Theology

McAdow Gam -- third director of the mission on the China Coast, Hong Kong and Macau; had a hard time getting back to China from U.S. during war.

Samuel King Gam -- director of mission in South China and minister in San Francisco.

Bernice Barnett Gonzalez was an early missionary to Colombia who followed closely on the heels of the Schwartzes in 1925.  She taught in the Colegio Americana and told her story in In  the Valley of the Cauca.  She became the first CP woman ordained in South America.

M.L. Gordon - First Cumberland Presbyterian missionary to Japan

Davis Gray -- Executive Director chosen in 1993 for the General Assembly program Board, General Assembly Council (GAC)

J.B. Hail was the first missionary to Japan and was later accompanied by his brother A.D. Hail in mission efforts there.  He operated under the principle that the Japanese should be enabled and empowered to take over the work among their people as quickly as possible so they might become an independent body.  His interest help the Women's Board of Foreign Missions get its start (1880).

Samuel King was a licentiate in the revival party of Cumberland Presbytery and one of the founders of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

James W. Knight wrote about Cumberland Presbyterian Women and World Missions in Hearth and Chalice (1980) and later served as Director of Ministry for the Commission on the Ministry.

Julia Leavitt served as a missionary to Japan, commissioned in 1881.

Arleigh Matlock served as missionary to Colombia (1942) and Executive Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions.

Samuel McAdow favored revival and after praying all night became a founder of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church

Julie McCaslin served as a missionary in San Francisco and a teacher in the school there.

Ephraim McClean was the first minister ordained by the newly formed Cumberland Presbytery in 1810.

B.W. McDonnald wrote the major History of the Cumberland Presbyerian Church (1899).

Hubert Morrow, an important Cumberland Presbyterian theologican, lectured on "Covenant Theology and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church" (1988).  Morrow and Wallace drafted in 1964 "A Theological Basis for Re-unification."  Morrow initiated the Christian Rural Fellowship in the 1940's which was designed to affirm and stengthen the rural churchs in the midst of an urbanizing society; started the Lord's Acre program and had Seed, Sower, and Harvest programs as well.  Morrow has served as Dean of Memphis Theological Seminary.

S.A. Nelson was a minister of the CPCA who served on the committee studying union of the two Cumberland Presbyterian Churches.  He attended the CPC GA regularly and worked with Alba Bates to promote cooperative efforts between the two denominations.

Helen Nichols served as editor of the Cumberland Flag (1972-80), worked with Federated Board of Christian Education and served as a member of the revision committee of the Confession of Faith.

Gam Sing Quah was the founder and director of south China Mission and served as the only foreign missionary who remained CP in 1906.  He began work in China in 1908.

E.K. Reagin was a professor at Bethel College and then a pastor in East Tennessee.  He introduced a resolution to General Assembly in 1937 calling for the church to assist the Colored CP Church (CPCA) and which called for the two churches to be more involved with each other.  He suggested a closer connection of Women's Board of Missions with GA in 1947.  He was prolific CP writer with works such as We Believe and So we Speak and What Cumberland Presbyterians Believe.

Joel Rice has served as the first Executive Secretary of the SCPC, General Secretary of the CPCA (1972), CPCA GA Moderator.  Rice was the first African American student to enter Bethel College (1961).

Ethel Brintle Roa -- one of the first missionaries to Colombia in late 1920's

Isaac Shook was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister and editor of the Banner of Peace, the official organ of the church.

Ada Slaton Bonds was the first woman ordained in Louisiana Presbytery and she demonstrated leadership in the 1950's when a movement arose to incorporate Louisiana Presbytery so,as the chief advocate of this movement claimed, they could manage their own affairs without outside interference.

Hinkley Smartt served as director of the first youth camp held in cooperation with the black church.

John Vant Stephens, a CP minister, who compiled a digest of GA by subject (1899)

Beverly St. John was the first female Moderator of General Assembly and an important leader in the Cumberland Presbyterian Women.

Mrs. T.C. Stockton served as President of the Women's Board in 1944 and editor of the Missionary Messenger.

W.L. Swartz -- first missionary in Colombia (1925); founded John A. Desauer Mission.

L.B. Tinsley served as fraternal delegate to 1958 CPC General Assembly.  He was forced to leave by night after his life was threatened by a local group in Birmingham.  He served as first General Secretary of the CPCA (1964).

Eugene Warren served as a member of the Committe on Joint Unification and the Federated Board of Christian Education.  He also served in the Board of Finance, CPCA.

Edmund Weir became the first foreign missionary of the CPC when he was sent to Liberia in 1852.  He was a former slave ordained by Anderson Presbytery.

Clark Williamson was seminary trained in Boston becoming head of the denominational Christian Education program in 1933.  He took important initiative in youth work woth innovative and progressive ideas about camping.  He helped develop the YPGA into a strong training ground for cultivating leadership for the church.

Samuel Wong was ordained in 1978 by Pacific Presbytery marking the first ordination of a Chinese national by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church since McAdow Gam in 1952.

Robert S. Wood -- Stated Clerk of the CPCA having previously served on the Federated Board of Christian Education.   Also a former Chair of the North American Council for the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

Louisa Woosley is the first woman in all of Presbyterianism to be ordained to the gospel ministry.  She was ordained by Nolin Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (1889).

Vianna Woosley served as a commissioner to the 1901 General Assembly.  Her seating was challenged because she was a woman.

Tadao Yoshizaki served as early pastor of the Koza Church in Japan.

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