Tomlinson family collection

Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson was born September 22, 1865 in Westfield, Indiana. His parents, Milton and Delilah Hiatt Tomlinson, though not particularly religious, raised their children in the Society of Friends (Quaker faith). At age twenty-four, he married Mary Jane Taylor in Bentonville, Indiana. In 1899 A.J. Tomlinson relocated to Culbertson, North Carolina, to assist those isolated in the mountains. During his work in the Appalachians, he encountered W.F. Bryant and the Holiness Church at Camp Creek.

Tomlinson officially joined the Holiness Church at Camp Creek on June 13, 1903. He was ordained as a minister and soon became pastor of the congregation at Camp Creek. In December 1904, Tomlinson moved westward, across the mountains to Cleveland, Tennessee. Though separated by a distance of fifty miles, he remained pastor of the Camp Creek church. After settling in Bradley County, Tomlinson became a frequent speaker at the Union Grove church, which soon united with the Holiness Church. Two other churches began, one in Tennessee and one in Georgia. The four congregations convened in North Carolina in January of 1906 for their first annual Assembly.

Tomlinson established the Holiness Church at Cleveland, Tennessee, in October 1906. Tomlinson then became the circuit-rider pastor of four congregations: Cleveland, Union Grove, Drygo, and Camp Creek. In January of 1907, the second annual Assembly convened at the Union Grove church, where the name Church of God was adopted.

The city of Cleveland became central to Tomlinson’s ministry in the denomination. By 1908, the Cleveland Church of God was the largest local congregation, with a total of sixty members. At the Assembly of 1909, Tomlinson was chosen as the first General Overseer of the Church of God. His duties included issuing credentials to ministers, filling vacancies, acting as moderator of the General Assembly, and looking after the general interests of the churches. He served as general overseer until 1923.

Tomlinson’s responsibilities became increasingly difficult to bear by the 1920s. At the Assembly of 1922, changes were proposed to delegate authority and responsibility among an executive committee composed of three officials. Tomlinson did not welcome these changes, and he submitted his resignation to the Assembly. After the church’s refusal of his resignation, Tomlinson agreed to serve as overseer for the following year. In June 1923, a council of bishops concluded that Tomlinson should resign. After his refusal, he was dismissed as general overseer on July 16, 1923.

On August 8, 1923, Tomlinson and those who supported him met at a Call Council in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Tomlinson selected a group of ten elders and instituted a new church paper to share information regarding the Church of God over which A.J. Tomlinson was General Overseer. The White Wing Messenger was first issued September 15, 1923, with A.J. Tomlinson as editor and publisher. The church held an Assembly in November of the same year.

Following the dismissal of Tomlinson and the division of the church, dispute arose between the two factions over several issues. The Tennessee State Supreme Court granted the Church of God, with new General Overseer F.J. Lee, all rights to property. Tomlinson attempted to petition this ruling, but was denied any appeal. Whereas both groups felt entitled to the name, further disagreement occurred concerning the title “Church of God.”

Tomlinson’s church grew nominally under his leadership until October 2, 1943, when he died from illness. The state overseers of the Church of God Over Which A.J. Tomlinson is General Overseer held an emergency meeting to elect an interim overseer until the General Assembly in 1944. After approximately four hours, the younger son of A.J. Tomlinson, Milton Ambrose Tomlinson, was selected as general overseer, and confirmed by the Assembly in September of the following year.

Milton Ambrose Tomlinson was born October 19, 1906 in Cleveland, Tennessee. He married Ina Mae Turner on September 18, 1928, during the General Assembly. Originally, M.A. Tomlinson had hopes of becoming a newspaper reporter. He was first employed as a paper boy and became a journeyman printer at a local newspaper in Cleveland as a young adult.

At age 21, M.A. Tomlinson became more involved in church ministry. He was ordained as a deacon in the church in 1932. In the fall of 1941, he became the pastor of a local congregation in Henderson, Kentucky. Two years later, he was selected to succeed his father as overseer and was subsequently ordained a bishop.

The early years of M.A. Tomlinson’s tenure were marked by further litigation with the church which had dismissed his father twenty years earlier. Confusion in secular affairs resulted from both churches using the name, “Church of God.” In 1952, the Tomlinson organization was ordered to use a name that gave distinction between the two. At first, a mere suffix was added making the official name the “Church of God, M.A. Tomlinson, General Overseer.” On May 2, 1952, Chancellor Glenn W. Woodlee determined that this name did not give obvious distinction, and ordered that the church use the name “Church of God of Prophecy” in all its secular affairs.

Under the leadership of M.A. Tomlinson, the Church of God of Prophecy grew to a membership of 260,000 in ninety countries. He commissioned the construction of a new three-story international office facility on Keith Street in Cleveland. He served as general overseer for forty-six years before retiring in 1990. He died April 26, 1995 at eighty-eight years of age.

The elder son of A.J. Tomlinson, Homer Aubrey Tomlinson, was also a significant figure in the Pentecostal movement in the United States. He was born October 25, 1892 in Westfield, Indiana. On November 22, 1919 he married Marie Wunch. He served in World War I and later became a bishop in the Church of God. He served as state overseer of New York, and was a member of the council that elected his brother, M.A. Tomlinson, as general overseer. Although he spoke favorably of the decision at the council in 1943, shortly thereafter Homer Tomlinson took opposition against his brother and refused to accept his appointment. Citing an earlier statement made by A.J. Tomlinson in the White Wing Messenger, Homer claimed he was the rightful successor. Believing he was the legitimate leader of the church, he declared that headquarters had been relocated from Cleveland, Tennessee, to Queens, New York. General Overseer M.A. Tomlinson then relieved his brother of his offices as pastor and state overseer in the church. Homer Tomlinson then held a convention in Jamaica, New York, and established the Churches of God of Greater New York, an organization comprised of the amalgamation of a number of groups. Homer Tomlinson died December 4, 1968 at the Manhattan Veterans Hospital in New York.

Halcy, A.J. and Mary Jane Tomlinson’s eldest child, was born March 28, 1891 in Westfield, Indiana. She married Horace D. Hughes on November 30, 1911, but died due to childbirth complications on January 15, 1920 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She, along with her parents and siblings (Iris and Milton), is buried in Fort Hill Cemetery in Cleveland, Tennessee. The younger daughter of A.J. Tomlinson, Iris Marea Tomlinson, was born January 8, 1895 in Westfield, Indiana. On June 16, 1920, she married Avery Denver Evans, who graduated at the head of the first graduating class of Bible Training School in January 1919. She served as personnel manager and cashier at the White Wing Publishing House. A.D. Evans was a prominent minister and evangelist within the Church of God of Prophecy and published a number of pamphlets and books relating to church teachings and sermon outlines. Both A.D. and Iris worked at the Publishing House, and remained loyal to A.J. Tomlinson until his death in 1943. A.D. was a keen businessman and became a right-hand-man to Tomlinson during and after the events of 1923. Iris Tomlinson Evans died April 20, 1953 in Cleveland, Tennessee.



References and Suggestions for Further Reading

Roebuck, David. “Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson,” in Stewart, Adam, ed. A Handbook of Pentecostal Christianity. DeKalb, Ill.: Northern Illinois University Press, 2011.

Phillips, Wade H. Quest to Restore God’s House: A Theological History of the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee). Cleveland, Tenn.: CPT Press, 2014.

Church of God Publications, 1901-1923. Cleveland, Tenn.: Dixon Pentecostal Research Center, 2008. This DVD Rom includes many out-of-print primary sources written or edited by A.J. Tomlinson including his The Last Great Conflict and extant issues of periodicals he edited including Church of God Evangel, The Faithful Standard, Samson’s Foxes and The Way.

Conn, Charles W. Like A Mighty Army. Tribute Edition. Cleveland, Tenn.: Pathway Press, 2008.

Davidson, C.T. Upon This Rock, vols. 1-3. Cleveland, Tenn.: White Wing Publishing House, 1976. [includes A.J. Tomlinson family biographies, vol. 1 pp. 648-650]

Robins, R.G. A.J. Tomlinson: Plainfolk Modernist. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Tomlinson, A.J. The Last Great Conflict. Cleveland, Tenn.: Press of Walter E. Rodgers, 1913.

Tomlinson, Halcy. Our Sister Halcy. Cleveland, Tenn.: White Wing Press, 1974.