William Howard Hoople

[6]"Willie" Gordon Hoople was born after the death of his grandfather, however the farm was supervised by his grandmother, Henry's widow, Mary Whitmore "Granny" Hoople (born in New Jersey in 1767; died 1858), who, after the massacre of her parents and two siblings on Easter Day, March 26, 1780, had been abducted from the family farm at Mud Creek (now Jerseytown, Pennsylvania) by the Delaware Indians and lived among them for seven years.

Hoople acquired US citizenship on July 27, 1869, at which time the family resided at 117 2nd Avenue (at the corner with Seventh Street) in what was then in the Little Germany section of the Lower East Side of New York City.

[75] According to Basil Miller, "Hoople was a mighty man in frame as well as spirit, for he stood six feet and six inches (when he took off his leather shoes) and pushed the scale beam up at 250 pounds".

"[93] Hoople often sang solos and led the singing in churches of various denominations, at the Methodist Home for the Aged in Brooklyn,[94] and at services sponsored by the YMCA and the Christian Endeavor Society.

"[98][99] On June 18, 1891, Hoople was elected the first treasurer of the nonsectarian Industrial Christian Alliance, which would give "practical help to the outcast poor", in a similar manner to the methods of the Salvation Army.

[103] As a result of the Panic of 1893, unemployment and poverty increased dramatically in this area, necessitating the relocation of the ICA home to a 100-bed facility at 170 Bleecker Street by May 1, 1893.

There he met Charles H. BeVier (born September 5, 1858; died about 1905),[108] "a zealous witness to holiness and choir leader at the largest Methodist church in Brooklyn.

[115] Soon after his entire sanctification, Hoople continued to operate as a leather merchant in business hours, but each evening he began preaching on the streets,[116] in rented halls, and "wherever a tiny crack in some mission door appeared".

Hoople; John Norberry (born July 29, 1867, in Paterson, New Jersey; died September 26, 1937, at Ocean Grove, New Jersey),[120] a Methodist local preacher;[121] and Richard T. Ryons (born 1834; died January 17, 1915, in Brooklyn), a Methodist who had been an actor in the troupe managed by Laura Keene,[122] found a vacant lot on nearby Utica Avenue, between Dean and Bergen Streets, which, after the three knelt down and prayed, believed was the right location.

[123] In April 1894 Hoople's father funded the estimated $2,000 cost to erect a simple one-story frame tabernacle-style church building that measured 49.5 feet in length and the same in width on the site.

Edgar M. Levy (born November 23, 1822, in St. Marys, Georgia; died October 30, 1906, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania),[130] who co-founded the Douglas, Massachusetts Holiness Camp Meeting in 1875,[131] preaching the ordination sermon.

"[84] At that time a church representative (possibly Hoople himself) explained: We are an Independent, dependent body, and are not come-outers but as none of the evangelical bodies seemed to desire to push holiness as a second work of grace, and where they had tried this it took a good deal of coaxing and teaching and then after it was about accomplished some one came along and upset the whole thing, because they had control of the temporal power and were opposed to holiness; and as our time here is short and we didn't amount to much, we thought the most sensible thing for us to do was to walk alone with the Triune God.

... We were once having such a meeting in Brooklyn, N. Y. when at the close of the forenoon service, before the speaker could call for seekers, the power and glory of God were poured out upon the entire place, Rev.

In 1900 the Pentecostal Collegiate Institute (now Eastern Nazarene College) was founded at Saratoga Springs, New York, and relocated to North Scituate, Rhode Island, in the fall of 1903.

[164] However, by the end of 1904 Hoople resigned his full-time salaried position in the APCA partly because the committee would not act on his recommendations regarding the debt-ridden Pentecostal Collegiate Institute.

"Harry" Hosley (born November 1861 in New York; died 1925), then pastor of the Wesleyan Pentecostal APCA Church in Washington, D.C.,[166] with the Pentecostal League, a "transdenominational Wesleyan holiness movement"[167] that had been founded in 1891 in Britain by Anglican barrister Richard Reader Harris (born July 5, 1847, in Worcester, England; died March 30, 1909, in London, England)[165] to "spread Scriptural Holiness by unsectarian methods.

[171] At a meeting held at the Utica Avenue church between the leaders of the APCA (including Hoople and John Norberry) and Phineas F. Bresee, C. W. Ruth (born September 1, 1865, in Hilltown, Pennsylvania; died May 27, 1941, in Wilmore, Kentucky) and other representatives of the California-based Church of the Nazarene, on Thursday, April 11, 1907, "amidst tears, and laughter, and shouts, and every possible manifestation of holy joy",[172] a plan of union between the two denominations was agreed unanimously, with consummation to be at Chicago in October.

"[178] After the plan of union was agreed upon, Hoople indicated that he had submerged secondary matters in order to facilitate "a combined attack on the powers of hell and darkness".

[180] At the General Assembly in Chicago in October 1907, Hoople started to re-consider his support of the union, and had thought of keeping the churches he had pioneered in Brooklyn out of the merger, but he finally acquiesced.

[181] After giving an account of the origin and development of the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America, Hoople informed the assembled delegates: We thank God for the prosperity we have had; that repeatedly in one section and another we found openings.

Jernigan, "Brother W. H. Hoople addressed the Assembly on the prospective joy of the union of the two churches, and expressed satisfaction in seeing nothing but the spirit of Jesus in all the deliberations.

At once Brooklyn's William Howard Hoople, his 275 pounds adorned with a glorious handlebar mustache, leaped up from the other end of the platform and met the Texan near the pulpit.

His enthusiasm never failed to rally the people, and he lifted his melodious voice in song whenever the worship service lagged, raising the spirits of his congregation.

"[194] In May 1913 Hoople was subpoenaed to appear in court after Rebecca Yankolowitz (born in Russia in 1897), who had converted to Christianity and joined the John Wesley Church, ran away from her home and could not be located by her parents, Morris, a kosher butcher, and Bertha.

[209] While in France, Hoople worked incessantly at the front lines as an entertainer, where he not only raised the spirits of the troops with "his melodious singing", but also led many soldiers to Christ.

Force (born March 1847 in Canada) assigned to Hoople one-fourth of the patent for his invention of "new and useful Improvements in Curtain or Portière Pole Rings and Fastenings".

[227] By 1909 he was also the president (having replaced his father who had been vice-president when he died in 1908),[228] a New York-based company that manufactured druggist's supplies, such as "soft gelatine capsules, potassium ioxide, and galenicals".

[235] By 1911 Hoople was listed as a director of the Spider Manufacturing Company, which made components for bicycles and automobiles, and was headquartered in his property at 50 Ferry Street, New York City.

[238] On January 25, 1917, the Hoople Corporation, which sold "metal polish, drugs, medicines, chemicals, baking powder, soaps, [and] groceries" was incorporated in New York state with $30,000 capital.

[240] On May 2, 1917, just prior to his embarkation for France, Hoople transferred his property at 250 Front Street in Manhattan, that had previously belonged to his father, to his two surviving sisters, Bessie M. H. Nichols and Mary E. H.