View source for Seth Ward (Methodist bishop)

{{other people|Seth Ward}}

'''Seth Ward''' (15 November 1858 &ndash; 20 September 1909) was an American [[bishop]] of the [[Methodist Episcopal Church, South]], elected in 1906.

==Birth and family==
He was born  in a [[log cabin]] near [[Bryan, Texas]], a son of Samuel Goode and Sara Ann Ward.  His parents educated him at home.  Seth married Margaret E. South of Bryan 5 January 1886.  They had three children.

==Ordained ministry==
Seth was [[ordained]] to the [[Methodist]] ministry in 1881.  After serving as a junior preacher on the [[Corsicana]] Circuit, he was appointed successively to [[Centerville, Texas|Centerville]], [[Kosse, Texas|Kosse]], [[Calvert, Texas|Calvert]],  the [[James, son of Zebedee|St. James]] Church of [[Galveston]], [[Huntsville, Texas|Huntsville]], the [[Houston]] Circuit, and the Shearn Church of Houston.  He was Secretary of the Texas [[Annual conferences within Methodism|Annual Conference]] of the [[M.E. Church, South]] (1898–1900).  He was appointed Conference Secretary of Education in 1900.   As head of field work for the Twentieth Century Commission on Education, Rev. Ward succeeded in securing an average of a dollar per member for Methodist educational work.  After the [[Galveston Hurricane]] of 1900, he united [[John the Apostle|St. John]] and St. James churches into the First Methodist Church of Galveston.  For four years he was also Assistant Missionary Secretary of his denomination.

==Episcopal ministry==
The Rev. Seth Ward was elected to the [[episcopacy]] by the General Conference which met in [[Birmingham, Alabama]].  He was the first native [[Texas|Texan]] to become a bishop in the [[Methodist Church]].  As bishop he was twice elected to preside at [[missionary]] conferences in [[Japan]], [[China]], and [[Korea]].  On his second visit to the [[Orient]], Bishop Ward died 20 September 1909 at [[Kobe, Japan]].  He was buried in Houston.

[[Seth Ward College]] in [[Seth Ward, Texas]] a suburb of [[Plainview, Texas]], and Ward Memorial Church at [[Austin, Texas]] were named for him.

==Biographies==
*''Frontier Times,'' March 1942.
*Hotchkiss, O.T., ''Memoir of Bishop Seth Ward,'' Journal of the Seventieth Annual Session, Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1909.
*Houston ''Post,'' 21 September 1909.
*''History of Texas Methodism, 1900-1960,'' Austin, 1961.
*''Who Was Who in America,'' Vol. 1.

==See also==
* [[List of bishops of the United Methodist Church]]

==References==
*''Handbook of Texas Online,'' s.v. "WARD, SETH," (accessed April 13, 2006).[http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fwa51]

==External links==
* {{Handbook of Texas|id=fwa51|name=Seth Ward}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Seth}}
[[Category:American Methodist bishops]]
[[Category:Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South]]
[[Category:1858 births]]
[[Category:1909 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Brazos County, Texas]]
[[Category:19th-century American clergy]]


{{US-bishop-stub}}
{{Methodism-bishop-stub}}