Wesleyan Bible Class (Chicago, Ill.)

The Wesleyan Bible Class was founded in 1880 by Calla Scott Willard, with twelve boys as members. Over the next sixteen years, the class was taught by six different teachers and then disbanded. In September, 1896, the class was reorganized under Frank L. Wood (1864-1945) with twenty-seven members. Wood continued to lead and teach the class until his death forty-eight years later. At its height, the class numbered some 900, although membership included persons in forty states and twelve foreign countries. Nevertheless, attendance was large, being on the average 626 per meeting in 1940. The motto of the class was "Search the Scriptures" and throughout its history the emphasis remained that of Bible study. Rather than being linked to one congregation, it was designed to serve all churches on the west side of Chicago. While Weslayen/Methodist in doctrine, the class stressed an interdenominational character. The class met on Sunday afternoons so as not to conflict with the Sunday School and Church programs of any o the congregations to which its members belonged. From its founding until 1929, the class met at the Western Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church on the Near West Side at the corner of Western Avenue and Monroe Street. When that Church building was closed, the class moved to the Olivet Methodist Episcopal Church at the corner of Adams and Keeler in the West Garfield Park neighborhood. Following the death of Frank L. Wood in 1945, the class officially disbanded and a "Wesleyan Association" was founded to keep the members together via occasional social fellowship. But not many months had gone past before the class members had reorganized and prevailed upon the current pastor of Olivet Methodist Church to teach it. The Wesleyan Bible Class was instrumental in starting other Wesleyan classes, and in its annual "Other Class Sunday" program invited all these other classes to join it for a day, and attendance at these events often numbered 800.