Twice-A-Week News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
circa 1897

Rev. Dr. W. C. MARTIN, pastor of the church with the largest membership of any in the county, the Methodist church at Mt. Ayr, is serving his 40th year in the ministry of the Methodist church. He was born June 21, 1833, in Putnam county, Indiana. He has traveld extensively in this country and spent the summer of 1882 in Europe. He was licensed to preach November 15, 1856, in Boonesboro, Iowa [present-day Boone], at a time when the lot of a minister was like that of all other inhabitants of this section, full of the privations of pioneer life. He has been a member of the Des Moines conference 28 years, during eight of which he was presiding elder. In the general conferences of 1884 and 1892, he sat as a delegate. He was pastor of the important church at Indianola for two terms of three years each. Simpson college [in Indianola] conferred the degree of D.D. upon him two years ago. He was appointed last fall to the pastorate of the Mt. Ayr church, and has given excellent satisfaction. His sermons are full of deep and partical thought, ripened by years of experience, and his earnest and eloquent words are a source of edification to his hearers.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, May of 2010