John Morgan Walden (February 11, 1831 – January 21, 1914) was an American
bishop of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. He also gained notability as a
newspaper editor and
journalist, as a
State Superintendent of Education in Kansas, as an officer in the
Union Army, and as an Official in his
Christian denomination
A Christian denomination is a distinct religious body within Christianity that comprises all church congregations of the same kind, identifiable by traits such as a name, particular history, organization, leadership, theological doctrine, worsh ...
.
Birth and family
John Morgan Walden was born in
Lebanon, Ohio, the son of Jesse and Matilda (
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Morgan) Walden. The family moved to
Hamilton County, Ohio
Hamilton County is located in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 830,639, making it the third-most populous county in Ohio. The county seat and largest city is Cincinnati. The county i ...
in 1832. John was of
Virginian ancestry, his great-grandfather Walden having moved from
Culpeper County, Virginia to
Kentucky in 1770, and his grandfather Benjamin to Ohio in 1802. After the death of his mother in 1833. John went to live with relatives near Cincinnati.
John married Martha Young of
Cheviot, Ohio July 3, 1859. They had five children.
Education and early life
Walden attended a local school in Cincinnati until 1844, when he went to work. Becoming a wandering laborer, he found employment as a
carpenter
Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. ...
. He became interested in the writings of
Thomas Paine, whereby Walden became a skeptic. He read
Sir Walter Scott and
Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith (10 November 1728 – 4 April 1774) was an Anglo-Irish novelist, playwright, dramatist and poet, who is best known for his novel ''The Vicar of Wakefield'' (1766), his pastoral poem ''The Deserted Village'' (1770), and his pl ...
. His own early romantic stories were published under the pen name "Ned Law" in the ''Hamilton, Ohio Telegraph'' from 1849 until 1853.
After attending
Farmers' College
The Ohio Military Institute was a higher education institution located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1890, it closed in 1958.
History
The Ohio Military Institute was established in 1890, on the foundation then known as Belmont College, and in ...
in
College Hill, Ohio
College Hill is a residential neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Originally a wealthy suburb called Pleasant Hill due to its prime location, it was renamed College Hill because of the two colleges that were established there in the mid-nineteenth c ...
in 1849, Walden taught school for a year in
Miami County, Ohio. It was there that he was converted by a Methodist
Circuit Rider. Returning to Farmers' College, Walden graduated in 1852. He then continued to teach there for two years.
Journalism career and Kansas
In 1854 John went to
Fairfield, Illinois, where he published the ''Independent Press.'' In his editorials he opposed the liquor traffic and so-called "squatter sovereignty." Illinoisans starved him out by refusing to support his paper, and in 1855 he returned to Ohio, where he became a
reporter
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
with the ''Cincinnati Commercial''.
John became deeply interested in the
Kansas troubles
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
while reporting from the
Democratic National Convention
The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 ...
of 1856. Indeed, he went to Kansas, where he established the ''Quindaro Chindowan,'' a Free-Soil paper in the
Free State port-of-entry town of
Quindaro
Quindaro Townsite is a former settlement, then ghost town, and now an archaeological district. It is around North 27th Street and the Missouri Pacific Railroad tracks in Kansas City, Kansas. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Pla ...
. He was a delegate to five Free-State conventions, including the
Leavenworth Constitutional Convention of 1858. That same year he campaigned over half the Territory, opposing the
Lecompton Constitution.
John Morgan Walden served in the Kansas Territorial Legislature in 1857. He also was the State Superintendent of Education for a time.
Ordained ministry
John returned again to Ohio, where on September 8, 1858, he was admitted on trial to the Cincinnati Annual Conference of the
M.E. Church. His first two years of ministry were spent on various circuits. In 1860 he was admitted to the Conference in full connection and sent to the York Street Church in Cincinnati.
While he was there the
American Civil War began. Rev. Walden became very active in the war effort, raising two
regiments to defend the city against threatening attacks. He joined the Union Army, where he achieved the rank of
lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...
.
Rev. Walden served with the Ladies' Home Mission in Cincinnati (1862–64). In the post-war years, he helped many African Americans through his work as corresponding secretary of the Western Freedman's Aid Commission and also with the Methodist Freedman's Aid Society.
In 1867 Walden was appointed Presiding Elder of the East Cincinnati District. In 1868 he was elected Publishing Agent of the Western Methodist Book Concern, also in Cincinnati. His penchant for statistics and organization, his business ability, and his sympathetic cooperation with the preachers made the Concern a financial success under his stewardship.
Episcopal ministry
John Morgan Walden was elected a Bishop by the 1884 General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. During his service he presided at some time or other over every Conference in the U.S.A. He also inspected missions in Mexico, South America, Europe, China and Japan. He did much to shape the missionary policy of his Church.
Walden was a delegate to the Ecumenical Conferences in London in 1881, in Washington in 1891 and in Toronto in 1911. With respect to church organization, he insisted on strict adherence to the written law of the church. Otherwise, he was more liberal in his views.
Legacy and honors
*In recognition of his work for
African Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, in 1900
Central Tennessee College in
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
was renamed in his honor as
Walden University (Tennessee)
Walden University was a historically black college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1865 by missionaries from the Northern United States on behalf of the Methodist Church to serve freedmen. Known as Central Tennessee College from 1865 t ...
.
Death and burial
Walden died on January 21, 1914, at
Daytona Beach
Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal resort-city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County near the Atlantic coastline, its population was 72,647 at the 2020 census. Daytona Beach is approximately nort ...
,
Florida, and is buried in
Spring Grove Cemetery in
Cincinnati, Ohio. He was survived by his wife and three of their five children.
See also
*
List of bishops of the United Methodist Church
Notes
References
*Methodism: Ohio Area (1812–1962), edited by John M. Versteeg, Litt.D., D.D. (Ohio Area Sesquicentennial Committee, 1962).
*
External links
*
Guide to the John Morgan Walden Papers 1820-1914at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walden, John Morgan
1831 births
1914 deaths
Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church
Union Army officers
United States Army officers
People from Lebanon, Ohio
American Methodist bishops
American publishers (people)
Burials at Spring Grove Cemetery