Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1888 — NEW METHODIST BISHOPS. [ARTICLE]

NEW METHODIST BISHOPS.

The general Conference last week elected Rev. Dr. J. H. Vincent, of the Rock River Conference, Rev. Dr. J. W. Fitzgerald, of the New Jersey „qonferference and j Revs. l)rs. Newman and Goodsell, as Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The contest was very-spirited. Rev John Hoyle Vincent is widely known throughout the United States in connection the Chautauqua School, which was organized by Dr. Vincent and Lewis Miller in 1874. Dr. Vincent was bofti in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on February 23, 1832. His parent* moved to Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, when he was six years old, and his early education was in the Milton and Lewisburg Academies. Subsequently he studied in the Wesleyan Institute of New Jersey. He was licensed in 1849, and traveled in the Luzerne Circuit of the Baltimore Conference in 1852. In 1857 he was transferred to the Rock River Conference, Illinois, and has since served as a pastor in Joliet, Galena, Rockford, and Chicago. He then became engaged in Sundayschool work and established several periodicals in that interest, jn 1864 he was elected" agent of the Sunday-school Union by the General Conference, and has been re-elected to that position by every conference since. He is the author of several works that have attained a wide circulation. * Dr. James N. Fitzgerald is. better known as the Secretary of the Mission Society than in any other capacity. He is in his fiftieth year, and was born in Newark, N. J., where he has passed the greater part of his life. His father was a well-known merchant of that city and I)r. Fitzgerald studied at Princeton, and afterward read law in the office of Secretary Frelinghuysen. He entered the ministry in his thirtieth year, and his conspicuous talents as a preacher brought him soon into notice. His charges w r ere in New'ark, Elizabeth and Jersey City, and he was presiding elder of the New ark conference seven years ago, when he was elected assistant secretary of the mission board of the Church. In that position his executive ability has madehim many friends throughout the country. Dr. Fitzgerald’s home is Newark. Dr. J. W. Joyce at present is pastor of St. Paul’s Church, Cincinnati. He was formerly a member of the Northwest Indiana Conference, stationed at Greencastle and Lafayette, where he was located ten years as pastor' and presiding elder. He went to Cincinnati from Greencastle. He is a popular preacher, about fifty-two years old, and a native* of Indiana. A .i -