Rev. William H. Tope

An Exception Was William H. Tope

The Herald-Advertiser, July 31, 1938

Submitted by Brenda McClaskey Cook

By R. C. Hall, Ph. D.

Born the Son of A Minister, He Also Devotes His Life To The Church…And His Son After Him Entered The Ministry

About 50 years ago, a young lady who had shortly before completed he own college course in Illinois became a professor in another school of higher learning in Ohio.

Among her students were several boys of the bright but mischievous type whom, one day, she felt called upon to report to the president for correction for a harmless but rather embarrassing joke they had played in the classroom.

The boys were, however, fair-minded and well-intentioned and promised to curb their effervescent spirits thereafter and give more attention to the serious side of college life. And they certainly made good on that promise. They became citizens of whom their teachers and friends could well be proud.

One of them, in particular, has become a leading minister and has held an important pastorate in one of the highest churches in Chicago. The young lady professor became this writer’s mother, and the young man in question became the Rev. W. H. Tope of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

When we were small boys, Rev. W. H. Tope was assigned to our church, and it was naturally a great thrill to us to learn that our pastor had not so many years before being one of our mother’s pupils. And although from our earliest recollection, we have had high regard for preachers in general, a special bond of friendship has existed between Mr. Tope and our family.

It gives us great pleasure to us at this time to call the attention of his many friends in southern Ohio to his splendid career as an educator, a minister, and a civic leader both in Ohio and in Illinois, where he is now located.

Came To Gallia County

Mr. Tope is descended on both sides of his family from ancestors of fine and pious pioneer stock. His mother’s ancestors were early settlers in southern Ohio. His (illegible) uncle floated down the Ohio River on a raft before the earlier..(illegible) … ment at Gallipolis was (illegible)…fact, he is said to have helped..(illegible)…erected the first fort or block-house as it was called in what is now the state of Ohio. On his father’s side, Mr. Tope is of Scotch descent, his paternal grandmother having been born in Scotland. The Tope family came to Gallia County, Ohio, by way of Carroll County, where they had lived for some time before moving on to southern Ohio.

Perhaps we are familiar with the old saying that preachers’ children are usually reckless and wayward. The idea of such a conclusion is that preachers are so interested in welfare that they neglect to train their children as they should. And it is also frequently pointed out that children of pious and religious parentage develop into irreligious adults.

Of course, people who stress these points seldom consider the other side of the question, so it is encouraging to be able to call attention to families whose members have remained true to the faith of their fathers for generations and to ministers whose sons are following in their parent’s footsteps. Mr. Tope and his family are fine examples of this steadfastness in righteousness.

As far back as the families’ histories extend, the ancestors of Rev. Tope have been religious. On his father’s side of the family, as might be expected, Presbyterianism was the favorite theological doctrine, his people being staunch members and supporters of the Presbyterian church.

On his mother’s side of the family, Methodism flourished with equal strength. His mother was a member of the Huron family pioneers of Gallia and Lawrence counties. His uncle, Mr. W.H. Huron, resides in Chesapeake, Ohio, where for years, he has been a leader in the civic and religious life of the community.

He was one of the founders and, for years, one of the leading supporters of the Defender Methodist Episcopal church at Coryville, opposite Huntington. He has also served as one of the justices of the peace of Union township, Lawrence County, O. Mr. Huron was the first school teacher outside our own family of whom we have a recollection. He taught at Rome, where he made a find record. That was before we were old enough to know much about schools except the name.

Mr. Tope says that his Grandfather Huron lived to be over one hundred years old, that he had the good fortune to hear the celebrated Peter Cartwright preach, and that for over 80 years of his life, he was a member of the Methodist church.

Resided At Patriot

We mention these facts to show the high type of citizenship composing the hereditary background of the principal subject of this sketch.

John H. Tope was a son of George W. and Elizabeth Tope, who resided at Patriot, Gallia county, O. He married Mary Frances Huron, a daughter of William and Emily Huron, of Lincoln, in the same county.

William H. Tope is the son of John H. and Mary Frances (Huron) Tope and was born near the village of Patriot, Gallia County, Ohio, on Feb. 21, 1871. He was reared in the environment of a Christian home and a pioneer country village.

Although Patriot was small and had few of what we are pleased to call modern conveniences, it also had few of the temptations and drawbacks of a larger place that frequently accompanies these modern conveniences. In addition to his home training, young Tope’s early education was obtained at the country school of those days.

Patriot is located in the hills of Gallia county in Perry township, about ten miles west and slightly south of Gallipolis and about eight miles almost directly south of Rio Grande. It can well be imagined that 60 years ago, there was not much offered to the youth of this region in the way of elementary education.

But Rio Grande college stood like a beacon light to those young folks in whom the desire for knowledge had been awakened and many a brilliant and successful man and woman of southern Ohio had their first desire for an education aroused by the ability and enthusiasm of the little group of teachers at this small country college. Among those who took their first steps in higher education here was William H. Tope.

Attended National Normal

But about that time, progressive educators began to urge the importance of professional training for teachers. Normal schools became very popular and attractive to those expecting to become teachers. The National normal school in Lebanon, O., is perhaps entitled to be called the parent of all modern normal schools of this section of the country at least.

Many parents from southern Ohio sent their children to this school. After one term at the Rio Grande, young Mr. Tope went to Lebanon, where he remained a student for two terms. This special training for teaching and his other education gave him sufficient education to obtain his credentials as a teacher, and he returned to Gallia county to enter that profession.

As a teacher, Mr. Tope soon demonstrated his ability, and his rise in that profession was steady and rapid. Beginning in a district country school, he was so successful that he was soon in demand as a teacher to others who expected to become teachers.

We have already spoken of the popularity of the so-called normal schools. The Select school was accompanying them and complementing their work to a large extent. The normal was the outgrowth of the old pioneer subscription school. Even after the establishment of public schools, those interested in more schooling than they provided sometimes secured the services of a teacher by subscribing a certain amount.

Sometimes a teacher offered to teach for so many weeks during the summer at a certain tuition rate for each student. These were known as select schools, and after normal became popular, they frequently became normal select schools. In addition to his public school work, Mr. Tope taught in these normal select schools and was promoted to high school work.

After some experience in Township High school work, he became a professor at historic old Gallia Academy, Gallipolis, O., which is one of the oldest institutions of its kind in the state. It was a high school in about everything but name almost before the present-day high school system was visualized., by the most optimistic modern educators. Yet, it still retains the old academy name.

Enrolled At Delaware

But despite his success as a teacher, Mr. Tope had a far greater future before him in another profession. He was determined to continue his education, and as a son of a Methodist, his mother was naturally attracted to Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. Accordingly, he enrolled there and graduated from that historic university in 1900.

Meanwhile, Mr. Tope had married Miss Hattie Spangler, daughter of John P., and Mary Spangler of Thievener, O., another little Gallia county village much like Patriot. Their marriage took place on Sept. 1, 1897.

Meanwhile, Mr. Tope had also been converted at Asbury church when he was twenty years of age and now felt so strongly the call to preach that he turned from the classroom to the pulpit as a minister in the Methodist Episcopal church. His entrance into the ministry almost exactly coincides with the opening of the twentieth century.

In 1900, the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church met at Gallipolis, the county seat of Mr. Top’s home county. He united with that conference at that time and since then has given himself wholeheartedly to the work of a minister.

From 1900 to 1903, he was pastor of the Jackson circuit with headquarters, so to speak, at Jackson, Jackson county, O. then, from 1903 to 1905, he was located at Gallipolis, O., as pastor of the Gallipolis circuit. In the latter year, he was transferred to Proctorville, where he remained until 1908. It will be noted that even as a young preacher, he had the staying quality which indicates the popularity of a Methodist preacher, for each circuit to which he was assigned received him back for one or more reappointments.

His Sermons Were Lucid

We first became personally acquainted with Mr. Tope when he came to be our pastor at Proctorville. And although we were small at the time, we recall that few persons outside our own family have ever had a greater influence for good upon us than he had. His gentleness and interest in childish activities were well-calculated to appeal to young folks. At the same time, he could explain the Scripture in a way almost anyone could understand.

For instance, as we recall, one Sunday morning at Proctorville, he preached on the text: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Now this command of our Lord has no doubt proved puzzling to many elderly people and young people. The question naturally arises, how can a human being – a finite being – be as perfect as the Infinite?

As we recall, the explanation given by Mr. Tope was that the Lord expected his followers to be as perfect in their sphere or field of action as He is in His sphere or field of action. And we have meditated many times since on this text and this explanation of it, and it certainly appears to us that it is not only the most comforting but the most reasonable interpretation that can be placed upon it.

We recall another sermon – on the closing chapter of Matthew, or a portion of it – an Easter sermon we believe. Never before, we think, had the history of the resurrection been portrayed as vividly before us. We were particularly impressed by the record of the Roman soldiers who accepted money in return for their false statements in an attempt to discredit it.

Enjoyed Popularity

Mr. Tope was one of the most popular ministers that have ever served on the Proctorville circuit. But his popularity was not the kind that is sometimes secured by condoning the habits and catering to the desires of everyone. On the contrary, few ministers have been bolder in attacking sin and its manifestations in what they believed to be wrongs of persons or society.

Small of stature, mild of manner, soft of speech, he showed little sign of the power and energy concealed within him until something appeared to call it forth. Nor did he do all his preaching in the pulpit. He believed that a minister had a duty as a citizen and a preacher, and he did not fail to back up his preaching with his actions.

We recall the powerful help he gave to the community’s people in their fight against the liquor traffic. In those days, Proctorville maintained prohibition by Ohio’s old so-called “local option” law. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it ATTEMPTED to maintain it. It naturally found this very difficult when it was surrounded by territory where liquor could be legally sold. Even after West Virginia went dry, a large part of Ohio remained wet, and it was not far from Kentucky, where liquor could also be legally purchased.

In those days, the chief means of travel between Proctorville and elsewhere was by the river. So it was easy to understand that most of the liquor that was finding its way into Proctorville and Quaker Bottom was being shipped in by steamboat. Just how much was shipped, how much to blame for it the boat owners and operators were, or what they could and could not do about it – these things are not our concern just now.

We mention them here because it was generally understood that Mr. Tope was one of the chief leaders in opposing this traffic and in bringing pressure to bear upon some steamboat operators to stop it. And this was but one of how he supported the cause of good government while to Proctorville. He was active on behalf of all reasonable civic improvements.

His Talents Were Many

He was not afraid to assist officers in enforcing the law or aid firemen fighting a bad fire. He built a two-story barn on the parsonage lot, which would have done credit to a professional carpenter.

He purchased the lot and oversaw the construction of the two-story, concrete block building which stands on Wilgus street, a few houses below the Baptist Church in Proctorville which he later sold. It was owned and occupied long by Mr. and Mrs. James Weekly. This versatility of talents is a great benefit to a Methodist preacher on a circuit such as that at Proctorville in those days.

But of course, Mr. Tope was preeminently a preacher, and even at that early period of his career, he began to exhibit that ability as an evangelist minister, which has since led him to the top, so to speak, of the ministers of his denomination.

While on the Proctorville circuit, he had splendid revival meetings at the various churches. We recall particularly several held at old Rome Chapel so noted for great meetings during its early days before, during, and immediately following the Civil War. We had heard elderly people talk much of those meetings in the so-called “good old days,” but before Mr. Tope left the circuit, we believe most of them admitted secretly, if not openly, that the days of revivals were not passed.

Standing Room Only

Well, we recall tramping through the snow about a mile and a half each evening to the old church. Our folks believed in promptness, so we sometimes arrived before the lights were lit. The great stoves, red with heat, cast a welcome glow about the church.

The janitor, usually called the sexton because he also dug graves in the nearby churchyard, would soon come and light the old coal-oil lamps in the cumbersome holders, the crowd would begin to gather, and by 7:30 or 8 o’clock, the church would be well filled. Frequently before the meeting was over, the standing room was at a premium.

A stranger seeing the preacher enter would not have thought perhaps that he was likely to make any great impression upon the crowd. When standing behind the old-fashioned pulpit, Mr. Tope’s head and shoulders were about all of him that was visible to the audience. But he did not let that bother him in the least, and when he warmed to his subject, he made himself seen and heard.

Old Rome church had the old-fashioned mourners’ benches, two long, narrow, wood-ended benches which stood at the edge of the platform and at which the mourners, the sinners seeking salvation, were accustomed to kneeling. They were about a foot and a half in height, and when Mr. Tope became especially enthusiastic and wished to make himself see and heard better than otherwise, he would mount one of these benches and, from that vantage point, exhort his hearers.  We do not mean to convey the impression that he is an evangelist of the “Billy” Sunday type.

On the contrary, he is modest and dignified and proficient in correctly using the English language. He is a logician as well as an orator. And his unconventionality is mere of that sensible type which disregards only those things which might hinder him in his great work. At least, such is the impression we received of him years ago, and according to reports of him since such is, we believe some of his chief characteristics as a preacher today.

Went to Athens County

After three years at Proctorville, Mr. Tope was transferred to Murray City, on the border of Athens County, O., where he remained for two years. Then, in 1910, he was transferred to the Central Illinois Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and has made his home in Illinois. Many of his relatives still live in Gallia County, Ohio, and he has many friends scattered throughout the state’s southeastern part. They will certainly be interested in learning about his activities in Illinois.

Mr. Tope’s success in his work can be inferred from a bare outline of the charges he has served and the things that have been accomplished under his pastorates. This outline shows almost a steady line of promotions which indicates that his superiors have recognized his growing ability.

Moreover, it reveals that each charge on which he was stationed retained him for several years, showing his popularity with his parishioners. The record also contains accounts of wonderful revivals, large numbers of conversions, an increase in church membership, the erection of new church buildings, etc.

Upon his transfer to the Central Illinois conference, Mr. Tope was assigned to the pastorale of the Methodist church at Neponset, Ill. One of the outstanding visible accomplishments of his pastorate was the building of a new church.

After spending three years at Neponset and leading the campaign for the building of this church with such fine success, he was transferred to the Spencer Memorial Church in Rock Island, Ill. This is the historic old region made so famous by Black Hawk and those who finally subdued him and his rebellious Indians. The city of Rock Island contains a population of approximately 36,000, is but one of the several cities and towns stretching along both sides of the Mississippi river for miles.

Contiguous to Rock Island itself and upstream from it lies the city of Moline, with a population of over 30,000. In contrast, just across the Mississippi river lies the city of Davenport, IA, with a population probably as great as both Illinois cities. We mention these figures as approximate population figures of these cities since, naturally, the latest census shows some differences from those of the period to which we are now referring, some 20 years ago.

Thus, it will be seen that Mr. Tope, when called to Spencer Memorial church at Rock Island, Ill., was called to serve a congregation metropolitan in its composition and to be a pastorate of wide and varied service. Again, his success is indicated by the fact that he remained there for three years.

Sent to Rock River

In 1916 Mr. Tope transferred to the Rock River conference. In this connection, it may be well to mention for the benefit of those unfamiliar with the organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church that, in the large states, more than one conference is required to care for the needs of the church.

Thus, in Ohio, we have had the Ohio conference, the West Ohio conference, the North Ohio conference, etc., although in recent years, since the methods and means of communication have so much improved, there is a tendency to combine some of these conferences, and this has been done in the case of the Ohio and West Ohio conferences.

We mention this because the transfer of Mr. Tope to the Rock River conference did not remove him from work in Illinois. It placed him in one of the most important of the Illinois conferences. Thus, after serving as pastor of the Marengo church for three years, he was transferred to the pastorate of Lamon Avenue church in Chicago, ll. Here Mr. Tope continued to demonstrate his ability to cope with the many problems confronting the pastor of a great church in a great city.

The Lamon Avenue pastorate proved one of the most congenial and successful that Mr. Tope has filled so far. Not only did he remain there for six years, but he again led a building program to a triumphant conclusion. The fine modern, and up-to-date structure of the Lamon avenue Chicago parish, or the Methodist Episcopal church today, is largely the result of the splendid leadership of this one-time country boy from Southern Ohio.

Of course, he could not have secured such fine results without splendid cooperation on the part of his parishioners and friends. Still, it must also be remembered that such cooperation can not be secured except by a person who is capable of securing it and able to lead to victory. In other words, while it must be a self-evident truth that a leader can accomplish little without a loyal following, it is almost as axiomatic that none but a capable and able leader can secure such a following.

In Sycamore Pastorate

After six years as pastor of the Lamon Avenue church in Chicago, Rev. Tope was transferred to Sycamore, Ill., where he remained for four years, after which he was transferred by his conference back to Chicago, this time to serve as pastor of the Berry Memorial church. This second transfer to the second largest city in America certainly shows the value the conference placed upon the work of Mr. Tope as a metropolitan minister.

Nor was the value of his services recognized by the conference and his parishioners alone. His work as a minister and a citizen in the city of Chicago was so outstanding that he was listed in the publication known as “Who Is Who In Chicago,” which lists only the names of those whose work for the betterment of the city has been so valuable as to attract more than ordinary attention.

Mr. Tope is now serving his fifth year as pastor of the Grace Methodist Episcopal church in Elkin, Ill. We have gone into his Illinois work in this much detail because we feel sure it will be particularly interesting to his many friends in the Ohio valley. Even those not acquainted with him personally should feel a certain pride in his accomplishments, as his career offers but another example of what a poor country boy can accomplish when his energy and ability are turned into the right channel.

Old Saying Refuted

Referring again to preachers’ children, it is pleasant to note that, ,the old saying has again been refuted in this case. Mr. Tope is as fortunate in his children as he was in his ancestry.

People of Proctorville and other southern Ohio places who remember Mr. Tope during his pastorate there will recall his small son, Merrill. Well, that son is now himself a successful minister. He is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan Biblical institute and holds a Master’s degree from Northwestern University. He has traveled extensively in Europe, has been around the world twice,, and is in great demand as a lecturer. He is now pastor of the First Methodist Church of Princeton, Ill. Mr.  (illegible…daughter, Miss Mary (illegible), has been equally successful (illegible) teaching profession.  (Illegible) – in the Brook- (illegible)school near Chicago.

With his characteristic modesty, Mr. Tope says: “I have never done anything very striking but have had a very happy ministry, and if I had my life to live over again, I would want to go the same way, meet the same people, serve the same churches that I have served.”

While we can understand and appreciate his viewpoint, we believe others will find many things “sticking” in his career. Think of the many he had influenced for good. The many who have been brought to a knowledge of the saving grace of the Lord through his preaching! The many happy marriages he has performed!

The hope he has brought to the dying and the comfort he has brought to the bereaved! Such a career may not be spectacular, but it must be comforting and satisfying. Mr. Tope’s many friends in the Ohio Valley rejoice in his success and hope for his continued prosperity and happiness in Illinois and wherever his paths may lead.