The Rev. John Heyl Vincent, S.T.D., LL. D. (1832-1920), was a noted minister, author, educator, and public speaker. He was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on February 23, 1832, to John Himrod Vincent (1798-1873) and Mary Raser Vincent (1803-1852). In 1838 the Vincent family relocated to Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.
As a young adult, John Heyl Vincent worked as a school teacher and as a circuit riding Methodist preacher. He was licensed to preach and became a local pastor in 1850. He relocated to Newark, New Jersey in 1852 upon the death of his mother. After completing studies at the Newark Wesleyan Institute, Vincent was ordained in the New Jersey Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1857. His first action as elder was to request a transfer to the Rock River Conference. While in Illinois, Rev. Vincent served Methodist churches in Joilet, Mt. Morris, Galena, Rockford, and Chicago.
In 1862 John Heyl Vincent traveled to Europe and Palestine. This was the first of several international voyages he would undertake. Toward the end of the American Civil War, Vincent served in the U. S. Christian Commission.
Rev. John H. Vincent founded two successful religious periodicals:
Believing that a large-scale, interdenominational, religious educators’ training event could strengthen the Sunday School movement, Rev. Vincent and Akron, Ohio, businessman Lewis Miller organized a Sunday School Assembly at Lake Chautauqua, New York, in 1874. 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 1890, charged with overseeing Methodist conferences in Europe. Bishop Vincent retired in 1904 and died in 1920.
John Heyl Vincent married Sarah Elizabeth Dusenbury (1832-1909), daughter of Henry and Caroline Butler Dusenbury, on November 10, 1858. Known as Elizabeth, "Lib," and "Libbie," Mrs. Vincent shared her husband’s Methodist faith, love of books, and passion for the promotion of education.
Their son, George Edgar Vincent (1864-1941), adopted many of his parents’ interests. He became the literary editor of the Chautauqua Press in 1886 when in his early twenties. George E. Vincent later served as Vice-President (1888-1889) and President (1907-1915) of the Chautauqua Institution. Dr. Vincent taught and held administrative positions at the University of Chicago from 1900 to 1911. From 1911 until 1917, he served as President of the University of Minnesota. Dr. George Vincent then became the President of the Rockefeller Foundation in 1917, retiring in 1929.
George Edgar Vincent married Mary Louise Palmer in January of 1890. They raised three children: Isabel, John H., and Elizabeth.
Sources:
Leete, Frederick DeLand.
Price, Carl F.
Vincent, Leon H.
The John Heyl Vincent papers chronicle the family life and career of Methodist Bishop John Heyl Vincent, revealing his broad intellectual and religious interests. The collection also demonstrates that, during his long career as a public figure, Vincent met many of the leaders of his day, including Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Thomas Edison. The Vincent papers feature one linear foot of genealogical research notes, more than 1200 family and business letters, twenty folders of Chautauqua Institution-related materials, Rev. Vincent’s lecture notes and journals, copies of books and booklets written by him, publications owned by Bishop Vincent but not written by him, and photographs.
The collection is organized into nine topical series:
Bridwell Library Digital Collection "Images from the John Heyl Vincent Papers,"
BridArch 301.09A Bishop F. D. Leete Bishops Collection, Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.
BridArch 301.09B Bishop F. D. Leete Methodist Historical Collection, Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.
Bishop John H. Vincent’s 1893-1903 daybooks are owned by The Chautauqua Institution and can be accessed through the New York State Library.
The collection is open for research use. Patrons must sign the Acknowledgement of Legal Responsibility and Privacy Rights form before using this collection.
Permission to publish materials must be obtained from the Director of the Bridwell Library.
It is the responsibility of the user to obtain copyright authorization.
This collection is indexed under the following terms in the Southern Methodist University Libraries' online catalog. Researchers desiring related materials may search the catalog using these terms.
[Identification of item], John Heyl Vincent papers, Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.
Gift of Bishop Frederick DeLand Leete, 1956.
The core of this collection consists of materials that were gathered by John Heyl Vincent and used by him in publishing a serialized autobiography in 1910. The papers later came into the possession of George E. Vincent, who added correspondence and anecdotes collected from Bishop Vincent’s friends and colleagues. The augmented collection was then used by Bishop Vincent’s nephew, Leon H. Vincent, author of
This collection was arranged and described in 2010 by Timothy S. G. Binkley with assistance from Heather M. Oglevie and Elizabeth Perry.
Lara Corazalla, 2010.
The first series, Personal and Family History Files, consists of sixty-six folders of biographical and genealogical documents dating between 1798 and 1924. The series has been divided into nine subseries:
Subseries 1: Personal and Family Life
Subseries 2: School Teacher and Circuit Rider
Subseries 3: Ministry in New Jersey and Illinois
Subseries 4: Travel Abroad
Subseries 5: Civil War
Subseries 6: Sunday School Work
Subseries 7: Episcopate
Subseries 8: Youth and Young Adult Ministries
Subseries 9: Retirement
The subseries follow the order of a previous arrangement scheme that reflects the outline of Leon H. Vincent’s book,
The second series is an extensive collection of family (90%) and business (10%) correspondence. These letters and cards date between 1822 and 1938. Most of the 1200 letters in Bishop John H. Vincent papers reside in the seventy-seven folders of this series, which has been divided into six subseries:
Subseries 1: John Heyl Vincent
Subseries 2: Elizabeth Dusenbury Vincent
Subseries 3: George Edgar Vincent
Subseries 4: Louise Palmer Vincent
Subseries 5: Extended Family
Subseries 6: Correspondence File Remainders
One item that merits special note is John H. Vincent’s letter to Elizabeth dated April 12, 1865, in which he discusses meeting President Abraham Lincoln while visiting General Grant.
The third series is comprised of fifteen folders containing John H. Vincent’s personal journals, notebooks, and pocket calendars. These items give offer insights into Vincent’s thoughts and activities throughout much of his life (1832-1920).
Series 4, Lecture Notes, contains thirty folders of lecture and sermon notes and an oversize folder of newspaper clippings about Bishop Vincent’s public addresses. Most items in this series are undated and may have been produced any time between 1860 and 1920.
The fifth series includes twenty folders of data from and about the Chautauqua Institution. Materials in this series date between 1874 and 1925.
The articles, tracts, booklets, and books in Series 6 represent Bishop Vincent’s many published works. The earliest example dates from 1861; the latest from 1912. Some of these volumes were owned by John H. Vincent. Others were added by Mrs. Paul V. Harper while the collection was under the care of Bishop Frederick DeLand Leete.
Dating as early as 1875 and perhaps as late as 1920, the documents and publications in Series 7 were in the possession on Bishop Vincent but were not produced by him.
The forty-eight images in Series 8 include photographs of Bishop Vincent and Chautauqua dating approximately 1870 to 1910. Of special note, a photograph of a daguerreotype of John H. Vincent at age 16 or 17 (1848-1849) resides in file 1. The images in this series have been digitized and posted on the following website (
The final series includes two folders of collection administration documents dating between 1920 and 1956. The inventory sheets in file 9 are not dated and may have been produced by George or Leon Vincent in the 1920s, by an assistant to Bishop Leete in the 1950s, or by Bridwell Library staff.