Introduction
Born: June 19, 1860, Valparaiso, Indiana.
Died: December 1, 1955, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Buried: Bethany Cemetery, Bethany, Oklahoma.
Born: June 19, 1860, Valparaiso, Indiana.
Died: December 1, 1955, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Buried: Bethany Cemetery, Bethany, Oklahoma.
McConnell married three times, to Carrie Gorseline (1884, Houston, Minnesota), Margaret Price, and Leona Bellew (1931).
In his early childhood, during the American civil war, he lived with his grandparents. He was the oldest of several children, and fondly remembered his boyhood days when he fished, farmed, and visited Indians in a nearby camp.
As a young man, McConnell served in the South Dakota state legislature, but later moved to Texas to be near his ill father.
He was an atheist in his early years, but came to Christ around 1897, inspired by family Bible readings begun by his wife Carrie.
In 1899, he founded the Pentecostal Advocate newspaper in Greenville, Texas. He was involved in the formative years of the Holiness Movement in the American southwest, and the organization of the Church of the Nazarene in Pilot Point, Texas, in 1908.
He also founded The Other Sheep (later World Mission) magazine in 1913, and managed the Nazarene Publishing House (1916–18).
He taught for 18 years at Peniel College in Peniel (later annexed by Greenville), Texas, and as Dean of Theology at Oklahoma Holiness College (later Bethany-Peniel), retiring in 1939.