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REV. JOHN REAGAN ABERNATHY
Vol. 5, p. 1817

There are two fields in which Rev. Mr. Abernathy, who is a young man
of about thirty-six, has attained more than ordinary distinction. He
is one of the hard-working, earnest and effective leaders in the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and in that capacity has traveled
over nearly all parts of Oklahoma and has a wide acquaintance. He has
turned his ability and talent to great usefulness in the cause of his
Master. He is now pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at
Okmulgee. Rev. Mr. Abernathy is also one of the best known figures in
Oklahoma Masonry, and was recently honored with the thirty-third
degree of the Scottish Rite, that honor having been conferred upon
him at the minimum age of thirty-five.

A native Texan, he was born at Hamilton in that state October 29,
1879, a son of J. E. and Cassandra (MCCLEARY) Abernathy. His parents
were born in Giles County, Tennessee, and were partly reared there,
but both were educated in Ebenezer College at Springfield, Missouri,
where they graduated with the class of 1858. In the following year
they were married in Giles County, Tennessee, and they afterwards
moved to Texas, where J. E. Abernathy was a farmer and mechanic. His
death occurred in 1885 at the age of sixty, and the mother passed
away in 1912 at seventy-two. During the war J. E. Abernathy became a
Confederate soldier under General PRICE and was a commissioned
officer. For many years in Texas he was a power in church work. He
possessed a fine tenor voice, was song leader in many of the meetings
which he attended, and his presence was always felt as a stimulating
course whether in the small meetings held within doors or the larger
assemblages at comp grounds. His wife was also a devout Christian. In
their family were five daughters and two sons, and the two sons and
two of the daughter are still living.

As a boy Rev. Mr. Abernathy grew up largely at the home of his uncle
M. T. Abernathy. He attended public schools both in Texas and In
Missouri and graduated at Scarrett College in Neosho, Missouri, in
1900 with the degree Ph. B. In the same year he joined the Southwest
Missouri Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and has
now been active in church work for fifteen years. For the first year
he was at Lamar Station and then for two years was pastor of the
Washington Street Church in Kansas City. The next two years, 1903-04,
he spent as a student in Vanderbilt University at Nashville, after
which he returned Missouri and was active in pastoral work until 1908.

On coming to Oklahoma Rev. Mr. Abernathy became pastor of the large
church at Guthrie, and remained there until 1914, when he accepted
the call to the church at Okmulgee. During the last four years at
Guthrie he was also a Masonic lecturer under the auspices of the
Scottish Rite bodies, spending about five months of the year at that
work in addition to his church duties. It was in October, 1915, at
Washington, D. C., that Mr. Abernathy received the thirty-third and
highest degree in Scottish Rite Masonry. He has also done some
lecture work in the State Chautauquas.

He is a man of many interests and possesses many splendid talents
which have made him valued and esteemed in whatever community he has
lived. He is now an active member of the chamber of commerce at
Okmulgee. In 1907 he married Miss Helen HINMAN of Centralia,
Missouri. Mrs. Abernathy takes a prominent part in church and club
work, especially in the musical side, possessing a well-trained voice
for singing.

Transcribed for OKGenWeb by: Geraldine Olson KING, July 19, 1999.

SOURCE: Thoburn, Joseph B., A Standard History of Oklahoma, An
Authentic Narrative of its Development, 5 v. (Chicago, New York: The
American Historical Society, 1916).