About the Collection
The Rev. John Heyl Vincent, S.T.D., LL.D., was Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church and co-founder of the Chautauqua Institution. He was a noted minister, author, educator, and public speaker.
John Heyl Vincent (1832-1920) was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to John Himrod Vincent and Mary Raser Vincent. As a young adult, he worked as a schoolteacher and a circuit-riding Methodist preacher. He became a local pastor in 1850. After studying at the Newark Wesleyan Institute, Vincent was ordained in the New Jersey Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1857.
Rev. John H. Vincent founded two successful religious periodicals: Northwestern Sunday School Quarterly (1865) and Sunday School Teacher (1866). The Methodist Episcopal Church General Conference of 1868 affirmed his work in religious education by naming him editor of the Sunday-School Journal, Corresponding Secretary of the Sunday-School Union, and Superintendent of the Department of Sunday-School Instruction.
Rev. Vincent and Ohio businessman Lewis Miller organized a Sunday School Assembly at Lake Chautauqua, New York, in 1874, believing that a large-scale, interdenominational, religious educators’ training event could strengthen the Sunday School movement. The Chautauqua Assembly became the Chautauqua Institution under the long-term guidance of President Miller and Chancellor Vincent.
Rev. Vincent was elected Bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1888. He was named Resident Bishop Abroad in 1900, charged with overseeing Methodist conferences in Europe. Bishop Vincent retired in 1904.