Heatwole, Lewis James (1852-1932)
Lewis James Heatwole, a Mennonite (Mennonite Church) bishop and writer, the oldest of the eleven children of David A. and Cathrine Driver Heatwole, was born 4 December 1852, at Dale Enterprise, Virginia. On 11 November 1875, he married Mary Alice Coffman, the daughter of Bishop Samuel Coffman and sister of John S. Coffman, the pioneer Mennonite evangelist. To this family were born a son and six daughters. He received his education at the Normal School in Bridgewater, Virginia. He lived all but three years of his life at Dale Enterprise. He was ordained to the ministry at Weaver's Church near Harrisonburg in 1887, and as a bishop in Cass County, Missouri, in 1892, where the family lived in 1890-93. After the death of his father-in-law he became bishop of the congregations of the Middle District in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, which office he held until his death on 26 December 1932.
Besides his ministerial duties L. J. Heatwole was also an astronomer, a calculator of almanacs, a teacher in the public schools, and an official observer for the U.S. Weather Bureau, keeping records of temperature and rainfall for 52 years. His influence was strong in the founding and the establishing of the Eastern Mennonite School. For a number of years he served on the faculty of the Bible team of this school. At conferences and at board meetings his voice was always gladly heard, for he was mild-mannered and conciliatory, and at the same time practical. The titles of his published works indicate the variety of his interests: Baptism Shown to Be a Ceremony of Consecration (Elkhart, 1902); Key to the Almanac and the Sidereal Heavens (Scottdale, 1908); Mennonite Handbook of Information (Scottdale, 1925); Moral Training in the Public Schools: A Treatise Designed for Teachers . . . (Scottdale, 1908); The Perpetual Calendar (Dale Enterprise, 1911).
| Author(s) | Mrs. Earl Grove |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1956 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Grove, Mrs. Earl. "Heatwole, Lewis James (1852-1932)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Web. 21 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Heatwole,_Lewis_James_(1852-1932)&oldid=81818.
APA style
Grove, Mrs. Earl. (1956). Heatwole, Lewis James (1852-1932). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 21 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Heatwole,_Lewis_James_(1852-1932)&oldid=81818.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p. 683. All rights reserved.
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