Leroy Monroe Vernon

(1838–1896)

Methodist Episcopal Minister, churchplanter, evangelist, editor and teacher; founding director of the MEC mission to Italy, and the Chiesa Metodista Episcopale in Italia.

Leroy Monroe Vernon was born on 23 April 23, 1838, in Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, Indiana, the second oldest child (of 7 children) of Joseph Bowers Vernon (b. 1 Jan 1812, Muskingum, Ohio - 16 June 1882, Mount Pleasant, Iowa) and his wife Mariah Maria nee Monroe (30 March 1815, Muskingum, Ohio - 10 March 1897, Mount Pleasant, Iowa). According to a family story, Leroy's father Joseph decided to migrate to the West when Leroy was 12 years old. Joseph and the boys traveled on horseback. His wife Mariah and young children were on the covered wagon. After over 800 kilometers on the road, in Iowa they built a house on 60 hectares of semi-deserted federal land. Joseph was severe and farming life hard, a background not uncommon among Methodist preachers, and indeed some of those who he worked with in the emerging Italian elites later in life. "At 16, after a beating from his father, Leroy rebelled. He said to his father, “I don't want to work like a man and be beaten like a dog. I want to go to college. " (Vacca 2018)

Vernon and his brother, Samuel Milton Vernon, were educated at Iowa Wesleyan University, in Mount Pleasant, with Leroy graduating in the Class of 1860, only four years after the first graduate had been admitted. Leroy was 'a good latinist', and at the age of twenty-two, was ordained to pastoral ministry. In November 1860, Vernon married Fannie Blaine Elliott (1836, Pittsburg - 1869, Sedalia, MO; bur. Mt Pleasant, Iowa), the daughter of the Irish born Rev. Charles Elliott and his wife, Phebe. Elliott was a leading figure in the Ohio Methodist Episcopal Conference and the Pittsburgh Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was editor of the Western Christian Advocate 1852-1856 and twice president (Rector) of Iowa Wesleyan University, from which Vernon graduated. Working in Missouri brought him, and his father in law, into conflict with both sides of the Civil War - the South, because the Methodist Episcopal Church was seen to be a northern entity (which was true enough at least in the Unionist sympathies of many MEC ministers), and the North, because leaders of the Church were disillusioned with the seeming inaction of Abraham Lincoln when MEC Ministers were gaoled or abused. (Elliott & Vernon, pp. 441-42) Elliott was a former missionary among the Wyandot first nations people, an enthusiastic anti-slavery campaigner, a position which is readily visible in his opinion of Unionists such as Odon Guitar, who fought for the Union but remained slave owners. He was also an enthusiastic anti-Romanist. When pastor of Xenia, OH, he had kept the missionary cause before his congregation, and was known for his "most ardent... prayers that the gospel might be preached in the city of Rome." (Robinson, p. 168) When Vernon joined the Elliott family, it is not surprising that he should have caught some of the old missionary's vision and passion. Transferring to St Louis, Vernon oversaw growing MEC congregations, and was in August, 1866 made rector of the Academy of St. Charles (St Charles College). Under Vernon's ministry in St Louis, 'Almost daily additions were made to our membership, and there was a constant growth in moral power and social influence.' (Elliott & Vernon)

In 1864, Vernon was sent by the Missouri-Arkansas Conference as 'Presiding Elder' to reorganize a Methodist-Episcopal Church in Springfield , which had by then been vacated by Confederate troops. On May 15, 1864, the church was reorganized with fifty-four members, meeting in the small wood frame meeting house belonging to Calvary Presbyterian Church. The U.S. Government then granted the newly reorganized congregation the use of the big brick church house on South and Walnut and the title was purchased from the remnant of the disorganized Methodist-Episcopal Church, South. "The house had been used for military purposes. Those were days of peril and toil. The Pastor worked on the fortifications with all other citizens, till relieved therefrom by sickness lasting a month." (Escott) By 1865, the membership of the church doubled, and plans were made to finish the second story sanctuary. When, in March 1870, the annual conference of the MEC met in Springfield, Bishop D. W. Clark presided, and Rev. L. M. Vernon was secretary. He was by this time also very active in the educational activities of the MEC in general, particularly the Book Committee, where he was involved in straightening out accusations of fraud.

It was Elliott who, in 1870, amidst the international enthusiasm inspired by the Italian capture of Rome that year, brought the appeal launched by the MEC Missionary Committee to the Missouri-Arkansas Conference meeting in St. Louis in March 1871. Methodist missionaries had first come to Italy in 1859, with the well-publicized mission of the noted William Arthur from the British Connexion. By 1871, they had (now under Henry James Piggott) established 'The Wesleyan Methodist Mission' in a number of schools and about 30 small congregations around the country. In 1871, the Missouri-Arkansas Conference having accepted Charles Elliott's proposal, extended the invitation to Elliott's son-in-law, Leroy Vernon, who at the time (from 1869) was pastoring the Ohio Street congregation in Sedalia, MO. L. M. Vernon arrived in Genoa on 16 August 1871 with his second wife Emilia, Fannie having died in 1869.

Vernon first succeeded, and then failed (due, Chiarini suggests, to pressures within the MEC in the USA) to achieve a united working agreement with Piggott and the British Methodists. The Vernons turned to Bologna, where James Roland had already laid the foundations through a series of successful lectures and public debates. Roland gathered a small but energetic group of converts, in 1871 renting a large room in via S. Vitale where they hosted services and meetings open to the local population. Roland also extended his action to neighboring cities and towns such as Casalecchio di Reno, Cento, Imola and Castelfranco Emilia. The Vernons arrived in Bologna in 1873, commencing a second congregation (which the following year they handed over to Enrico Borrelli). The next year (1874), under the aegis of Bishop W. L. Harris, the Vernons formalized Roland's work by incorporating the Chiesa Metodista Episcopale d'Italia. Its first conference, as Chiarini notes, included Teofilo Gay and Alceste Lanna from Rome; Luigi Cappellini_ and Orosmande Ottonelli, in charge of the military church; Julius Cesar Mill from Milan; Antonio Arrighi, Florence; Enrico Borelli from Bologna; Amedeo Guigou from Forli; Davide Lautaret from Ravenna; Bartolomeo Godino from Faenza; Bartolomeo Malan from Brescello, and Cesare Agostini from Prato. Some were by background revivalist Waldensians, others were Free Church evangelists (one of whom, Borelli, was a former Passionist brother, and Lanna an ex-priest), others 'americani' (Italians who had followed the diaspora or fled the Inquisition to the USA, been converted and then returned). It was a not very Methodist Methodist church, and driven rather by liberal nationalist aspirations for moral reform of the new nation rather than by religious revivalism per se.

As the Ravi and Hargis cases were to demonstrate, Vernon worked had to keep this disparate network together, and to try to inculcate Methodist disciplines. He focused early on translating and publishing works of doctrine and ecclesiology which would provide a common ground for the network. These included the 'Twenty-five Articles of Religion, a catechism and a compendium of theology. Actually, it is not clear what had already been published in 1873, since Vernon stated that “part” of them was, and since we have evidence for these publications only in the years which followed. The Articles, for example, appeared in the 1879 Costituzioni (the Italian version of the Book of Discipline)'. (Annese 2018)

From Bologna, they began establishing preaching centres along the Adriatic coast: Forlì, Ravenna, Rimini, Pescara and Chieti. In 1873 Vernon also opened a room in Rome, near the Roman Forum. The Bologna communities collected money for a building on via del Carbone (now known as via G. Venezia), formally opened in 1881. (This would later decline after Roland departed).

Vernon meanwhile built relationships with the liberal Catholic clergy and the Waldensian Church, extending work to Florence, Milan, Naples, Arezzo, Modena, Faenza, Brescello, Pisa, Terni, Perugia, Venosa, Asti, San Marzano, Turin, Genoa, Venice and Palermo. Between 1878-1880 and 1886-1888 Vernon was also editor of the new periodical of the Italian Episcopal Methodist Church, La Fiaccola, published in Rome. This was the organ for what was possibly the most important intellectual efforts of the early MEC church in Italy - as Annese notes, the 1885 commentary by former Dominican monk, Domenico Polsinelli, of Sulzberger's work, may well have represented 'the first, true systematic discussion, within Italian Methodism, of the Methodist theological doctrines'. (Annese 2018)

The family also had its woes during their time in Italy. While his daughter Lilian would marry the Anconan poet Adolfo de Bosis (1863 – 1924), and leave a strong legacy in Italy, at least three children died during their stay. As one US journal recorded: "Rev. Dr. L. M. Vernon writes to the mission rooms of the death, on Sept. 13 [1883], of his little daughter, Margherita, but eighteen months old. She is laid beside her little brother at the Oetian Gate, by the walls of the Eternal City, among the stranger dust from every nation and tongue. On one side sleeps Dr. Maclay’s grandchild, from Japan; on the other, the little son of a Russian lady." (Indianapolis Journal 13 October 1883, p. 12) Lilian, however, connected with the rising Italian reformist intellectual class, introduced by her husband to circles which included the poets and playwrights Gabriele d’Annunzio and Giovanni Pascoli, and Eleonora Duse (the actress, and the first Italian woman to be featured on the cover of Time magazine). Their home regularly welcomed leading Italian literary and arts figures of the new nation.

Their sacrifice and achievements, were well-acknowledged. When in 1884 the General MEC Conference met in Philadelphia and (among other decisions) moved to appoint a Bishop for Africa, Vernon's name was one of those put forward. (The New York Times 22 May 1884, p. 2) Dissatisfaction among American sponsoring circles, however, was rising. It eventually led to a reorganization of the work, Italy being divided into two districts: Vernon would take the south, and a new colleague, the British-born William Burt, the north. The intention was, the Board of Bishops concluded, 'a closer supervision, some variety of American Methodistic thought, and a larger penetration of the mission by the evangelistic spirit of our Church.' (quoted in Chiarini, p. 186) When Everett S. Stackpole from the Maine Conference arrived to establish a training school for Methodist ministers in Florence, he and Burt (the north) combined to force Vernon (the south) out. "[D]uring the General Conference in June [1888], at which Foss, Burt, and Reid were present, Vernon was forced to resign." (Chiarini, p. 186)

By 1888, when he returned to the USA to take up the role of Dean at Syracuse University, the MEC could count about twenty-five churches or stations, with nine hundred members. He was succeeded by Burt who sought to tighten the relationship of the CMEI with its American 'parent' Church in the USA, and connected Italian Methodism with Freemasonry. The result was the collapse of the delicate network which Vernon had formed out of pre-existing independent, Waldensian, Brethren and other evangelical preachers.

At Syracuse, Vernon lived a respectable life, chairing boards, as did Emily, who served on the board of the local orphanage, and the district Sunday School oversight.

Vernon died 12 August 1896, in Syracuse, New York, by one account of typhus, contracted from drinking polluted water during a flood on the Mississippi.

His youngest son, Victor, went to Toronto, Canada in 1915 with the Curtiss School to teach Canadian pilots. During World War I, he served with the U. S. Navy as an aviator and test pilot for the Naval Aircraft Factory. From 1919-1920, Vernon was instrumental in forming the Oregon-Washington-Idaho Airplane Company. In 1930 Vernon joined Colonial Airlines, a division of American Airways, of which he had been an early and important leader. He remained with American Airlines as Personnel Director and Assistant to the President until his retirement in 1948.

His grandson (by Lilian and Adolfo) the writer and poet, Lauro de Bosis, moved between Italy and the United States, where he taught Italian literature at Harvard. Lilian encouraged his anti-fascist activities, and at one time was arrested for distributing anti-Fascist leaflets. Lauro died in 1931, crashing into the sea with his plane after throwing thousands of flyers urging rebellion against the fascist regime on Rome. There remains a De Bosis Lectureship which funds literary activities at Harvard. Lauro's sister, Virginia, became a noted Arabist, and Valente fell as Commander of a squadron of anti-submarine seaplanes based in Palermo during World War I. Giovanni Pascoli's poem The Hammerless Gun, contained in the Canti di Castelvecchio is dedicated to little Valente and Percy (as well as Adolfo himself).

He m1. Fannie Blaine Elliott (1836 - 1869, bur. Mt Pleasant, Iowa), daughter of Rev Charles and Phebe Elliott. and m2. Emily Frances nee Barker (9 November 1841, White Plains, New York - 10 August 1913 Syracuse, New York)

With Frances 'Fannie' (1836–1869) he had Stella (1865–); Lilian (1865–1952), Elliot Ernest (1867–1899), and Charles

with Emily Frances (1841–1913) Vernon had Florence (1872–1872); Viola Monroe (1873–1963); Evalina L (1875–1970); Leroy Romans (1878–1878); Paul Monroe (1879–1946); Stephen Baker (1880–1945); Victor V (1883–1968); and Margherita (1882-1883).

Sources:

Annese, Andrea, 'From Risorgimento and Reform to Wesley and Revival: Methodist Strategies in Post-Unitary Italy (1861-1890)', Fourteenth Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies Pembroke College, University of Oxford, August 12-19, 2018 Working Group: “Methodist History (post-18th century)”.

Chiarini, Franco, 'The Methodist Episcopal Church in Italy, 1871-1915', Methodist History, 39:3 (April 2001), pp. 181-200.

Elliott, Charles, and L. M. Vernon, A History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the South-West from 1844-1864. Cincinnati: Poe and Hitchcock, 1868.

Escott, George S., 'History and Directory of Springfield and North Springfield', https://thelibrary.org/lochist/history/directory/ch6.html

Grace Church, 'The History of Grace Church', http://www.yourgraceplace.org/our-history/

Lanahan, John, The Era of Fraud in the Methodist Book concern at New York, Baltimore: Methodist Book Depository, 1896.

Robinson, George F., The History of Greene County, Ohio. Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1902.

Vacca, Roberto, 'Miei antenati, pionieri missionari', Associazione Culturale Matera Energheia, http://www.energheia.org/miei-antenati-pionieri-missionari.html, accessed 9 July 2020.

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