Frontier Bishop: The Life and Times of Robert Richford Roberts

by Dr. Worth Marion Tippy, Karl Schuon (Editor)

Overview

This book, written by Dr. Worth Marion Tippy in 1958, is a biography of Robert Richford Roberts (1778-1843), an American Methodist Circuit Rider, Pastor, Presiding Elder, and the first married man in America to serve as Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1816.
Born in Frederick County, Maryland, his family were communicants of The Church of England. In 1785, they moved to the Ligonier Valley in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, where Roberts united with the M.E. Church when he was fourteen years old. Until he was twenty-one, his was a thoroughly frontier existence, with few books and quite simple habits. Despite becoming one of the "foremost religious leaders of his time," he remained a frontiersman to the day of his death in 1843.
"Long after he became a bishop he liked to follow deer in the forest. When he was free, being now a bishop, to live where he chose, he established his episcopal residence in what was then wilderness of the hill country of southern Indiana. Here, in utmost seclusion, he lived for the next quarter century, at first under most primitive conditions. From this isolated place he left on horseback on his amazing episcopal journeys to all parts of the nation, returning after long absences to work on his lands."
Dr. Tippy tells of Bishop Roberts' move from his native Maryland to the then-frontier of western Pennsylvania, where his father had secured four hundred acres of land in the Ligonier Valley fifty miles east of Pittsburgh, and where the young Roberts would go on to experience the hardships and adventures of migrants before and after him—experiences which "better prepared for the leadership which came to him so early in life."
An invaluable read.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781789124286
Publisher:	Papamoa Press
Publication date:	12/01/2018
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	181
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Worth Marion Tippy (1866-1961) was a social worker, lecturer, and clergyman who spent almost seventy years in devoted Christian service throughout the United States. A friend and colleague of the late Walter Rauschenbusch, Dr. Tippy was instrumental in organizing the former Federal Council of Churches' program for Protestant social action, and served as executive secretary of the Council's Commission on the Church and Social Service. Along with Bishop Herbert Welch, Dr. Tippy was one of Methodism's early organizers of social action.
Born in Larwill, Indiana, on November 8, 1866, Dr. Tippy was educated at DePauw and Cornell universities, both of which he was later to serve as campus minister. Besides Cornell and DePauw, he also became university preacher at Mt. Holyoke, Indiana University, and Lake Erie College. In 1915, as pastor of the former Madison Avenue Methodist Church—now Christ Church—in New York, Dr. Tippy chose young Ralph W. Sockman as his student assistant. He was succeeded by Dr. Sockman in 1917.
Dr. Tippy returned to DePauw in 1951 to organize and develop the archives both of the university and of Indiana Methodism, and served as director of both. He was the author of many books and articles on Methodism, a biography of a founder of DePauw University, and two volumes of poetry.
He died in Laurel, Missouri on October 2, 1961 and is buried in Vevay, Indiana.

Born in Larwill, Indiana, on November 8, 1866, Dr. Tippy was educated at DePauw and Cornell universities, both of which he was later to serve as campus minister. Besides Cornell and DePauw, he also became university preacher at Mt. Holyoke, Indiana University, and Lake Erie College. In 1915, as pastor of the former Madison Avenue Methodist Church—now Christ Church—in New York, Dr. Tippy chose young Ralph W. Sockman as his student assistant. He was succeeded by Dr. Sockman in 1917.
Dr. Tippy returned to DePauw in 1951 to organize and develop the archives both of the university and of Indiana Methodism, and served as director of both. He was the author of many books and articles on Methodism, a biography of a founder of DePauw University, and two volumes of poetry.
He died in Laurel, Missouri on October 2, 1961 and is buried in Vevay, Indiana.