Samuel F. Coffman

Born: June 11, 1872, Dale En­ter­prise, Rock­ing­ham Coun­ty, Vir­gin­ia.
Died: June 28, 1954, Vine­land, On­tar­io, Ca­na­da.
Buried: First Men­non­ite Church, Vine­land, On­tar­io, Ca­na­da.

Coffman spent most of his school years in Elk­hart Coun­ty, In­di­a­na, where his fam­i­ly had moved in 1879. He grad­u­at­ed from the Elk­hart High School in 1890, and at­tend­ed the Moo­dy Bi­ble Ins­ti­tute (1894-95 and for six months in 1897-98). From 1890-94, he worked for the Men­non­ite Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny in Elk­hart. He was con­vert­ed at meet­ings held in Elk­hart by his fa­ther, and was bap­tized on May 26, 1888. He was elect­ed su­per­in­tend­ent of the Elk­hart Men­non­ite Sun­day school on De­cem­ber 28, 1893. In 1894-95 he served in the Men­non­ite Home Miss­ion in Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois. There he was or­dained to the min­is­try in 1895; he be­came bi­shop in Vine­land, On­tar­io, in 1903.

Coffman served wide­ly in his de­nom­in­a­tion be­yond the bor­ders of his own con­gre­ga­tion and con­fer­ence. He was mod­er­at­or of the On­tar­io Con­fer­ence in 1931-34, and mod­er­at­or of the Gen­er­al Con­fer­ence in 1911 and 1933. He al­so served as sec­re­ta­ry of the Gen­er­al Con­fer­ence for a time. He was a mem­ber of the fol­low­ing Gen­er­al Con­fer­ence com­mit­tees: Mu­sic Com­mit­tee from its be­gin­ning in 1911 un­til 1947; Peace Prob­lems Com­mit­tee 1925-49; His­tor­ic­al Com­mit­tee from its in­cept­ion in 1911, and its chair­per­son from 1911 un­til 1947; Gen­er­al Sun­day School Com­mit­tee from its be­gin­ning in 1915 un­til it was in­cor­por­at­ed in­to the Com­miss­ion for Christ­ian Ed­u­ca­tion and Young Peo­ple’s Work in 1937. He served for a time on the Miss­ions Com­mitt­ee of the Men­non­ite Board of Miss­ions and Char­i­ties. He served on the Men­non­ite Board of Ed­u­ca­tion from its incep­tion in 1905 un­til about 1944, serv­ing as sec­re­ta­ry for about 20 years. He al­so served on the Pub­li­ca­tion Board and its Pub­lish­ing Com­mit­tee. He was the found­er and served as prin­ci­pal of the On­tar­io Men­non­ite Bi­ble School in Kitch­en­er, 1907-47. He was ed­it­or of the Bi­ble stu­dy de­part­ment of the Christ­ian Mon­i­tor from the be­gin­ning of its pub­li­ca­tion in 1909 un­til 1953.

He served as pas­tor of the Moy­er con­gre­ga­tion in Vine­land from 1902 un­til he died in 1954, and as bi­shop of the Ni­a­ga­ra Dis­trict from 1903. He was a char­ter mem­ber of the Non­re­sist­ant Re­lief Or­gan­i­za­tion in On­tar­io, or­gan­ized in 1918, and its se­cre­ta­ry 1920-54. In 1918 he was ap­point­ed the spe­cial cor­res­pond­ent with the Ca­na­di­an gov­ern­ment re­gard­ing mil­i­tary serv­ice and the im­mi­gra­tion of the Russ­ian Men­non­ites. He was as­so­ci­at­ed with the Ca­na­di­an Men­non­ite Board of Col­o­niz­a­tion (1922-44), and ac­tive­ly aid­ed the im­mi­gra­tion from Russ­ia to On­tar­io (1922-25). In his ear­li­er min­is­try, he was wide­ly used in Bi­ble con­fer­ence and evan­gel­is­tic work. In 1901 on a com­miss­ion from the On­tar­io Con­fer­ence, he or­gan­ized a num­ber of con­gre­ga­tions and or­dained min­is­ters and dea­cons in Al­ber­ta.

During Coff­man’s time as hymn ed­it­or of the Mu­sic Com­mit­tee, the fol­low­ing books ap­peared at Scott­dale, Penn­syl­van­ia:

Church and Sun­day School Hymn­al Sup­ple­ment, 1911
Life Songs, 1916 (co-ed­it­or)
Church Hymn­al, 1927
Songs of Cheer for Child­ren, 1928
Life Songs No. 2, 1938 (ed­it­or)

Photo & bi­o­graphy cour­te­sy of the Men­non­ite His­tor­ic­al So­ci­e­ty of Ca­na­da