REV. W. C. MARTIN
Rev. W. C. Martin, the presiding elder of this district, was born in Putnam county, Indiana, on the 2lst day of June, 1833. In his seventeenth year he was converted and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. After having been under the tutelage of the "Hoosier Schoolmaster" for seven consecutive years he was married, and came to Iowa in the spring of 1853. On the 15th day of November, 1856, in Boonsboro, Iowa, he was licensed to preach. During the twelve years following, his ministerial work was mainly gratuitous, he being engaged in secular pursuits by which he was enabled to meet current expenses. He held the various township and county offices, and represented Boone county in the Eleventh General Assembly of the State of Iowa. In the fall of 1868, he joined the Des Moines conference, since which he has been pastor of the following charges: Xenia, Ridgeport, Grand Junction, Boone, Carlisle, Stuart, Glenwood, Shelby and Indianola. He organized the church at Moingona, Ogden, Grand Junction, Rippey and various country places. He spent the summer of 1882 in Europe, visiting the principal cities of England, Scotland, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands. Returning home in the fall he was appointed presiding elder of the Atlantic district, which petition he still holds. He was a member of the general conference that met in Philadelphia in May, 1884, took part in electing to the Episcopacy, Bishops Hinde, Walden, Fowler and Mallolien, also the eccentric William Taylor as missionary Bishop for Africa.
Contributed by Lisa Varnes-Rex from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pg. 420-421.
