Joseph Crane Hartzell (June 1, 1842 – September 6, 1928) was an American Missionary Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church[1] who served in the United States and in Africa.

In 1863 he rescued four men from drowning in Lake Michigan and was honored by the City of Evanston, Illinois, for his heroism.

Hartzell entered the Central Illinois Annual Conference in the fall of 1866, being appointed pastor of Pekin and Bloomington.

Hartzell began publication of The Southwestern Christian Advocate,[1] which he carried as a private enterprise until its adoption as an official paper of the M.E.

[citation needed] He was editor of this paper until February 1881, when he resigned to become the Assistant Secretary of the Freedmen's Aid Society.

In 1874, Hartzell formally supported the ordination of a woman, Maggie Newton Van Cott, to preach in the Methodist Church.

[4] At the same time, Jennie Hartzell was working with the Freedwomen’s Aid Society and was an advocate for the education and training of African-American girls,[5] publishing a book on the subject.

He received, as donations from the British South Africa Company, valuable lots in New Umtali.

These came with appropriations of funds for the maintenance of a school among Europeans, and a tract of several thousand acres with twelve buildings (worth over $100,000 at that time)[8] at Old Umtali, for the establishment of an industrial Mission.

[8] Bishop Hartzell died September 6, 1928, as a result of injuries sustained during a robbery at his home in Blue Ash, Ohio.