Information Sheet

 

 

R         Wiles, Thomas Houston, 1884-1945.

1234                Record book, 1906-1945.

                                    One volume.

 

 

This is a record book kept by the Rev. Thomas Houston Wiles, a Baptist minister for sev­eral congregations in Missouri, Colorado, and Kentucky, most notably at Grant Avenue Baptist Church in Springfield in Greene County, Missouri.  Included are records of sermons, baptisms, marriages, funerals, and “conversions and additions” to the memberships of his churches.

 

Thomas Houston Wiles was born near Bakersfield in Ozark County, Missouri, on 2 March 1884.  He attended William Jewell College and was graduated from Louisville (Ky.) Baptist Theological Seminary.  His first churches were in Schell City and Vernon County, Missouri, from 1906 to 1909.  From there he moved to Drexel (1909-1910) in Cass County, Greenton (1910-1911), Platte City (1911-1914) in Platte County, Smithfield, Kentucky (1915-16), and Maryville (1916-1918) in Nodaway County, Missouri.  Following military service as a chaplain in World War I, he served briefly in Fruitdale, Colorado (1920-1921), before returning to Missouri at Cainsville in Harrison County (1922-1926).  In 1926 he began a successful eleven-year pastorate at Grant Avenue Baptist Church in Springfield.  In 1937 he retired from full-time work, but con­tinued to serve as needed, particularly at Macedonia Church in Greene County (1939-1942).  He also served as a chaplain for the American Legion and at the Federal Prison Hospital in Spring­field.  He died at his home at 1122 S. Jefferson in Springfield on 16 July 1945, survived by his wife, the former Johnnie Minor, whom he had married in 1911.

 

This record book contains records from Wiles’s earliest service as a pastor almost until his death.  The vital records will be of considerable utility to genealogists and family historians, while the sermon titles and sources will be of interest to theological researchers.

 

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