Bartlett, James E.
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JAMES
ELWOOD
BAR T L E T T
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-oJames Elwood Bartlett was born in Jackson,
Michigan, February 20, 1904, son of James Elwood
Nellie Allen Bartlett, of English descent.
He attended school in Jackson, Michigan,
Rollins Academy and in Winter Park, Florida, and
received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Rollins
College in 1929.
He also spent one year in Taylor
_University, Upland, Indi ana, and some time in the
University of Michigan, and in Asbur y College.
has completed the work in Garrett
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iblical Institute
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leading to the degree of Bachelor of Divinity.
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For five years he was engaged in the real estate .,
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business in Florida during the big boom and its collapse in the firm of James E. Bartlett and Sons and
had the experience of making a lot of money and then
losing it.
He served for a time as financial secre-f
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tary of Taylor University and later as assistant
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business manager for John Fletcher College, Universi :..
ty Park, Iowa.
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At one time he taught accounting in :
Losey Business College in Orlando, Florida.
He
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also~
had experience as a salesman for autos and various
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He also managed a hotel in Florida.
James Elwood Bartlett has travelled quite ex-
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tensi vely.
With other members of his father's
family he has commuted for twenty-five years between
Florida and Michigan and has made trips through the
states east of the Mississippi river.
With his
twin brother, Allen Elwood, he made one trip abroad
visiting Algeria, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Roumania,
Austria, Turkey, Greece, including Athens and the
Acropolis, Portugal, Paris, London, Brussels, Switzerland and other places in Europe.
He was given a local preacher's license in 1929
in the North Indiana Annual Conference.
He did his
first preaching while at John Fletcher College in
Iowa in an abandoned Methodist Episcopal church,
which he revived and secured the att.endance of one
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hundred in a community of two hundred population.
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He renovated the building, wired it for electricity
and served the church for one and one-half years in
While in Florida, he was appointed as
1931-1933.
supply pastor at Melbourne for a part of 1934.
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He
then entered Garrett Biblical Institute at Evanston,
Illinois, and was appointed to supply the churches
at Fox Lake and Ingleside, Illinois, for six months,
while the pastor was making a trip around the world. i
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In March, 1935, Reverend James Elwood Bartlett
was appointed pastor of the Methodist Episcopal
Church in Centerville, Michigan, and in June, 1938,
was appointed pastor of the Methodist Church at
Allegan, Michigan.
He was admitted on trial in
the Michigan Annual Conference in September, 1935,
at Grand Rapids; admitted to full membership in the
conference and ordained Deacon by Bishop Edgar Blake
at Battle Creek, September 13, 1936, and ordained
Elder by Bishop Wallaee Brown at Big Rapids, June
13, 1937.
His father and mother were both very active
members in the First Methodist Episcopal Church in
Jackson, Michigan, and for twenty-five years his
father was a trustee of the Eaton Rapids Camp
Groun~
He united with the church in which his parents were
members during the pastorate of the meverend Ames
Maywood and for some years had !elt that he was
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called to the ministry.
While pastor at Centerville he led his people
to pay off a debt of $4,000 which had stood for
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some years without the interest having been paid.
At Allegan the attendance at services has been
doubled during the time he has served that church
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as its pastor and the income has been increased by
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100~.
Ministerial support has been increased and
all obligations have been met with a balance in the
tre-a sury, due in large part to the budget system
which he introduced and which has made special pleas
from the pulpit unnecessary.
From the beginning
of his pastorate in Allegan in 1938 to 1940 the
membership was increased fifty per cent.
One of the most oustanding events during his
pastorate in Allegan was the celebration of the
one hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the
church, held November 12 - 19, 1939, with such eminent speakers as Bishop Edgar Blake, Governor L. D.
Dickinson, Congressman Clare Hoffman and Jacob
Kindleberger appearing on the program.
In politics Mr. Bartlett is independent, but in
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delegat ~
Florida he was president of the Hoover Club, was a.
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member of the county Republican board, was a
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to the state convention and to the national conven-
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tion of that party.
I n Allegan he helped to organize and is the
president of the Allegan Community Council, one ot
the most active in the state, and is also a member
of the Junior Chamber of Commerce.
January 23, 1926, he was married to Ruth
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Bourquard, dau ghter of a Methodist minister, Alexan- I
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der Bourquard of Ohio.
was Margaret Bergen.
Her mother's maiden name
Ruth Bourquard attended the
public schools in Marietta, Ohio, and was graduated
from the high school in 1924, after which she attended Taylor University for one and one-half years.
Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett are the parents of Bonnavere
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Jean, who was born July 20, 1928, and an adopted
daughter, Gretchen Sue, who was born October 4, 1939 J
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Mr. Bartlett's twin brother, Allen Elwood, is
also a Methodist minister, and at the time of this
writing in 1940 is pastor at Augusta, Michigan.
They are two fine sons of a devout Methodist family •
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