In 1918, B.R. Jones, retired Bishop of the Free Methodist Church, chronicled his daily activities. In addition to the spread of the pandemic in the Pasadena, California area, the retired 73-year-old minister describes World War I news.
Note: Only the last quarter of 1918 is included in this collection as it pertains to the pandemic.
Burton R. Jones was born on December 3, 1845, in New York. About a year after his conversion in 1865, he was given an exhorter’s license by the Free Methodist Church and started preaching in his father’s home. He received his first appointment in the Michigan Conference in 1867 and served as pastor and district elder for 23 years, as well as teaching at Spring Arbor Seminary. He then served as editor of the Free Methodist for four years before being appointed bishop.
“In his domestic life he met much sorrow." In 1869 he married Miss Ella M. Boyd, who died six years later. In 1877 he married Mary E. Sandford who also died after a period of six years. In 1895 he married Miss Helen M. Hart, daughter of E.P. and Martha Hart, until his death. (Master Workmen, 1960, p. 99)
In April, 2020, the FM History Update published by the Marston Historical Society, highlighted the diary here.
For more in-depth information on the life of Burton R. Jones, see below:
Interested in transcribing all or parts of this diary, please email Susan Panak.
