William Henry McGlauflin (October 2, 1856 – March 8, 1927), better known as H. W. McGlauflin, was an American Universalist minister, missionary, and denominational leader.
McGlauflin served the Universalist cause for 45 years as a parish minister or as an executive in the administration of the Universalist denomination. He served pastorates across New York, Minnesota, Tennessee, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, becoming General Superintendent of the General Convention of Universalists, later known as the Universalist Church of America.
Early and personal life William Henry McGlauflin was born on October 2, 1856, in Charlotte, Maine. He was the sixth of eight children of Thomas McGlauflin (1822–1864) and Alice McCabe (1827–1878). His father, while serving in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865), died in 1864 at age 41 of illness in a Washington, D.C. hospital. His remains were interred in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. At the time of his father's death, McGlauflin was eight years old. There is no indication that his mother remarried, leaving her to raise McGlauflin and his siblings as a single mother on her Maine farm.
Education McGlauflin received his primary education in the public school system in Maine. After his mother's death, McGlauflin was urged by Lewis B. Fisher, a neighbor and Universalist, to study at the Theological School of St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York (1881–1882). During his studies, McGlauflin received "wise counsel and close friendship" from Rev. I.M. Atwood. Years later, McGlauflin would succeed Atwood as the General Superintendent.
McGlauflin graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity (B.D.) degree. He also pursued advanced studies in biblical languages under Prof. William R. Harper from the University of Chicago.
On his official ministerial information card, McGlauflin listed "Chautauqua" in the education section. This reference is assumed to represent the Chautauqua Institution located in Chautauqua, a city in the southwest corner of New York State. McGlauflin's attendance from 1884 to 1885 overlaps with his circuit preaching in this same southwest corner of New York State.
While in Harriman, Tennessee, he attended American Temperance University (1894–1895) and earned an A.M. degree, now known as a Master of Arts. The university, opened in 1890, offered a wide range of courses from law, music, arts, and elocution. McGlauflin's wife, Lucy McGlauflin, a graduate of Cornell University in New York and the Emerson College of Oratory in Boston, MA, taught at the university.
In 1896, McGlauflin received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the American Temperance University. He later received another honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from St. Lawrence Theological School.
Marriage and children On September 26, 1887, McGlauflin, 31, married Lucy Culver Sibley (1857–1897) from Cuba, New York. Sibley died in Atlanta in 1897. Fifteen years later, in 1912, McGlauflin married Alice Gertrude Coe (1876–1964) from Quincy, Massachusetts. No children were born to McGlauflin in either of his marriages.
Northwest New York State
Immediately after completing his studies at the St. Lawrence Theological School in 1882, McGlauflin began preaching in Madrid, just 10 miles from the school. Later, he took on a preaching circuit of small, nearby churches with 20 to 30 families each.
Southwest New York State McGlauflin later moved to the southwest corner of New York State. There, his preaching circuit consisted of the small towns of Friendship, Whitesville (now known as Independence), Cuba, and Greenwood. In many accounts of McGlauflin's life, only Friendship is noted, which ordained him in September 1882.
While on this circuit, McGlauflin met his first wife, Lucy Culver Sibley, from Cuba.
McGlauflin attended the 1883 New York State Convention in Buffalo, where he presented a report entitled "Reform," calling for ministers to have "greater love for the denominational laws." Specifically, McGlauflin called for fidelity to the denomination's temperance position. He decried ministers who used tobacco, claiming that the "confirmed smokers were fit subjects for salvation and capable of higher things." He also argued that ministers should use water rather than wine in their communion service. McGlauflin, then one year into his ministerial career, faced criticism for his outspoken support, which some considered naive.
McGlauflin's time to be a paragon of the temperance movement would need to wait several years until his pastorate in Harriman, Tennessee, a town described by Walter T. Pulliam in his 1978 book, Harriman: The Town Temperance Built.
Rochester, Minnesota McGlauflin's first full-time ministry began in June 1887 at the Grace Universalist Church in Rochester, Minnesota. When McGlauflin assumed the pastorate, the church founded in the 1860s, was already well-established. It had a membership of 80 families, more than twice the size of the churches he had previously ministered.
McGlauflin's ministry at Grace Universalist (now known as the First Unitarian Universalist Church) was unremarkable. That is not to say his ministry was unsuccessful. During his four-year ministry, the church building underwent a renovation, and social and fellowship events were frequently held. Most importantly, membership increased to 100 families.
McGlauflin's pastorate ended in August 1891. In his resignation announcement, the local newspaper reported that McGlauflin "is very popular and efficient in his labors and everyone will regret his departure."
McGlauflin's decision to leave Rochester was proceeded by a two-week visit in December 1890 to Harriman, Tennessee. This visit also marked the beginning of McGlauflin's multi-year relationship with the Young People's Christian Union.
General Missionary of the Y.P.C.U. The Young People's Christian Union (Y.P.C.U.) was formed in 1889 to organize the youth of the Universalist denomination. Wishing to be "useful in the service of God," the organization focused on missionary activities to establish new Universalist societies. At its first convention in Rochester, New York, among other actions, McGlauflin was appointed the youth group's first missionary.
McGlauflin's ministry career remained linked with the Y.P.C.U. for the next 14 years.
Harriman, Tennessee The Y.P.C.U.'s first missionary project was Harriman, Tennessee. At that time, the East Tennessee Land Company was purchasing large tracts of land to exploit the nearby abundant resources of coal, iron, and timber, and planned to develop a town.
The Town Temperance Built Rev. Henry Lowell Canfield (1828–1926), State Superintendent of Churches and Sunday Schools of Ohio, and Rev. Charles Ellwood Nash (1855–1932), then pastor of the Universalist Church in Akron, Ohio, encouraged the Harriman missionary project. They argued that in Harriman, the Universalists would be the religious vanguard in a burgeoning new city, rather than trailing along as latecomers. Two other factors made Harriman a desirable location for a new Universalist church.
First, the town's organization was under the guidance of Frederick Gates, a New York-born Baptist minister and prohibition advocate. Gates, with others, chartered the East Tennessee Land Company with the intention of creating a town that would avoid the vice-driven pitfalls characteristic of many fast-growing company towns. Gates said of Harriman This embrace of temperance perfectly aligned with the Y.P.C.U.'s temperance position.
The second, and more importantly to the Y.P.C.U.'s missionary objective, was financial support extended by several parties. The East Tennessee Land Company donated two choice lots of land, totaling 100 by 380 feet. Ferdinand Schumacher of Akron, Ohio, a Universalist, a wealthy German immigrant known as the "oatmeal king" and a temperance advocate, pledged $1,000 to the church building fund if the Universalists raised $4,000. Additionally, pledges were raised from the citizens of Harriman ($555) and from the directors of the East Tennessee Land Company ($445). Given these factors, Y.P.C.U. moved forward with plans to construct a church in Harriman, at a cost not exceeding $5,000.
Ministry in Harriman
By the next Y.P.C.U.'s convention in 1891, sufficient funds to erect a new church and pay the minister's first year's salary had been secured. The Y.P.C.U. executive board arranged for McGlauflin to resign his pastorate in Rochester and move to Harriman. McGlauflin preached his first sermon in Harriman on August 30, 1891. The newly formed building committee, however, envisioned a better and larger church and raised additional funds.
The cornerstone for the Grace Universalist Church was laid on December 2, 1891. The new church building at 615 Cumberland Street was then erected at an estimated cost between $8,500 and $10,000. The church included a sanctuary, a parish house for the minister, halls, parlors, a library, dining facilities, and reception rooms. The building was formally dedicated on Easter Sunday, April 17, 1892. Rev. Henry L. Canfield, who had initially raised the idea of a church in Harriman, preached the dedication sermon.
McGlauflin was formally welcomed as the new minister nine months later, on January 30, 1892. The church by this time had organized a local chapter of the Young People's Christian Union, a Junior Union for younger children, a Sunday School with 85 students, and a Women's Missionary Alliance. A year and a half later, in July 1893, the number of adult church members had risen to 70. In 1895, the debt-free church had 140 members.
Y.P.C.U. Southern Missionary With the Harriman church firmly established, the Y.P.C.U. expanded McGlauflin's duties and appointed him as its Southern Missionary in the summer of 1894. He also retained his ministry of the Harriman church. His missionary preaching circuit included the Tennessee towns of Knoxville, Crossville, Pomona (a nearby community), Chattanooga, and Shelbyville. The Harriman church was instrumental in raising funds for the Knoxville church.
McGlauflin shared his missionary work with Rev. Quillen H. Shinn. Shinn, a long-time missionary, also had a professional connection with the Y.P.C.U. In 1893, Shinn was appointed as the group's National Organizer and Chairman of its Post Office Mission. Two years later, in January 1895, the Board of Trustees of the General Convention appointed Shinn as the denomination's General Missionary. (Note: the Y.P.C.U., although subordinate to the General Convention, often operated as a separate, independent group regarding missionary endeavors.)
Departure from Harriman In 1895, the Young People's Christian Union declared its missionary work in Harriman completed. McGlauflin would now be deployed to a new Y.P.C.U. project.
McGlauflin recruited Rev. Harry L. Veazey to fill his vacated pulpit. Veazey was something of a "native son" of Harriman. He had come to Harriman with his father, Arthur Veazey, a contractor and builder, to assist in building the city. The younger Veazey joined the Universalist church. McGlauflin then successfully encouraged Veazey to join the Universalist ministry. In September 1896, Veazey was installed as the minister for the Harriman and Knoxville churches.
Atlanta, Georgia The November 8, 1895, issue of Onward, the Y.P.C.U. magazine, ran a front-page article declaring that an irrevocable action had been taken, paraphrasing Julius Caesar in his 49 B.C. Italian campaign saying,
Two years earlier, in 1893, Shinn had begun missionary work in Atlanta. Shinn resumed preaching in Atlanta in February 1895, declaring that he had organized a Universalist church with 26 members.
First Universalist Church of Atlanta