Haughey, Stephen Gerard (1869–1958)

Stephen G. Haughey was an evangelist and church administrator in the United States and in the British Isles, where he devoted two decades to fostering early development of the Adventist work.

Early Life and Ministry

Stephen Haughey was born near Sabina, Ohio, on March 17, 1869. It was a rural environment, and his father was a farmer named John Andrew Haughey. John had been widowed with two sons, Edmund (b. 1854) and Joseph (b. 1856). He then married Ann Bentley, a devout woman of Quaker heritage, who had converted to the Christian Church.¹ John and Ann had seven children: Arthur Criffield (b. 1860), Luthern Bentley (b. 1862), Allen Gilbert (b. 1865), Sarah Margaret (b. 1867), Stephen Gerard (b. 1869), Thomas Elwood (b. 1873) and Almeda Jane (b. 1875).²

John and Ann became Seventh-day Adventists in 1867, two years before Stephen’s birth. Their family were charter members of the New Antioch church in Ohio, regularly driving from their farm with a wagon team for 15 miles (24 km) in all kinds of weather in order to attend Sabbath services.³

Stephen Haughey’s ministry began in his home state of Ohio in August 1891. He toiled as a colporteur for 15 months and then began preaching as a licensed minister in November 1892. He worked in Ohio for the next three years as evangelist, field secretary, and pastor. From November 1895 through June 1897 he served as an evangelist in the Florida Conference and was ordained in Tampa on July 11, 1896, by Ole A. Olsen and George A. Irwin. Returning to Ohio, he became director of the Cincinnati City Mission.⁴

In the British Isles

In 1899 the Young People’s Societies of Ohio sponsored Haughey as a missionary to Ireland.⁵ After a year working among the Irish he went to Birmingham, England, where he assisted Elmer E. Andross with tent meetings that led to organization of a church of approximately 40 members.⁶

While in Birmingham, Stephen met and married Florence Willmore (1875-1938) on September 24, 1902. The ceremony was held in her family home in Aston, suburban Birmingham. She proved to be a tireless worker alongside her husband, as a musician, public speaker and canvasser of denominational books.⁷ Stephen and Florence would have two children, both born in England: Paul Stephen (1911-2000) and Ruth Florence Haller (1915-2003).⁸

The Haugheys continued evangelizing in the north of England, raising churches in centers such as Manchester and Birkenhead. In 1904 Stephen pastored the Birkenhead and Liverpool churches in addition to the smaller companies to the northeast at Wigan and Bolton.⁹

In mid-1906 Haughey was appointed director of the fledgling Scotland Mission with headquarters at Kirkcaldy.¹⁰ The territory held only three churches with a total membership of 126.¹¹ From Scotland he was called, in September 1908, to serve as president of the North England Conference, headquartered in Nottingham. He gave leadership there for three years, simultaneously serving as vice president of the British Union Conference for the first two.¹² In October 1911 he was elected president of the South England Conference with an office at Wandsworth Common, London. The Haughey family were located near the south bank of the Thames River, a geographical feature followed by the German Zeppelins and giant bombers during raids in World War I. Despite the dangers Haughey remained in his role throughout the war years and did not return to his homeland until mid-1921.¹³

Later Ministry in America

In September 1921, Haughey accepted the role of president of the Alabama Conference.¹⁴ A year later he was elected president of the Nebraska Conference. At the time the constituency in Nebraska numbered 2,235 members in 48 churches. His responsibilities included chairing the Shelton Academy (later Platte Valley Academy) Board of Managers, membership on the executive committee of Union College’s Board of Managers, and the presidency of the Board of Directors of the Nebraska Sanitarium in Hastings until it closed in 1927.¹⁵ He continued in these roles until February 1932. By that time the constituency had increased to 2,591 in 51 churches.¹⁶

Haughey’s transition from the conference presidency was precipitated by his wife's health. According to Stephen, Florence had never recovered from living through the air raids over London during World War I and the accumulated strain of the war’s four long years. In 1930 her fragile emotional health broke down completely. In order to care for her he ministered on a reduced salary in Nebraska for a short time and later in the Minnesota and Kentucky-Tennessee conferences.¹⁷

In 1938, the Southern Publishing Association in Nashville, Tennessee, provided Haughey a full-time position in its Editorial Department. Florence’s health had improved the previous year in Lexington where she engaged in small-scale canvassing for a time. But in 1938 she suffered another severe breakdown and passed away on November 26.¹⁸ She was laid to rest in Bordeaux Adventist Memorial Gardens, Nashville.¹⁹

Stephen Haughey continued with his editorial work in Nashville, retiring in 1944 after 54 years in the Adventist work. He passed away on May 12, 1958, and was interred in Mound View Cemetery, Mount Vernon, Ohio, where his parents and some of his siblings rest.²⁰

Sources

Andross, Elmer E. “General Meeting in Scotland.” ARH, July 19, 1906.

Andross, Elmer E. “Handsworth, Birmingham, England.” Missionary Magazine, December 1900.

Andross, Elmer E. “North England Conference at Leicester.” ARH, September 15, 1904.

Haughey, Stephen Gerard. Sustentation Files, RG 33. General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Archives, Silver Spring, MD (GCA).

Lawrence, N. W. “Ann Haughey obituary.” ARH, April 14, 1904.

Lawrence, N. W. “John Andrew Haughey obituary.” ARH, March 23, 1905

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbooks. General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Online Archives. https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/Forms/Allitems.aspx.

Shultz, James E. “Florence Willmore Haughey obituary.” Northern Union Outlook, January 31, 1939.

“Stephen Gerard Haughey.” FamilySearch. Accessed September 6, 2022. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/LWYJ-B19.

“Stephen Gerard Haughey obituary.” Southern Tidings, July 9, 1958.

Notes

1. N. W. Lawrence, “Ann Haughey obituary,” ARH, April 14, 1904, 23.↩

2. “Stephen Gerard Haughey,” FamilySearch, accessed September 6, 2022, https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/LWYJ-B19.↩

3. “Stephen Gerard Haughey obituary,” Southern Tidings, July 9, 1958, 6; N. W. Lawrence, “John Andrew Haughey obituary,” ARH, March 23, 1905, 23.↩

4. Ibid.; Stephen Gerard Haughey Sustentation Fund Application, November 21, 1933, Sustentation Files, RG 33, Box 9707, GCA.↩

5. “Stephen Gerard Haughey obituary.”↩

6. Elmer E. Andross, “Handsworth, Birmingham, England,” Missionary Magazine, December 1900, 558-559.↩

7. James E. Shultz, “Florence Willmore Haughey obituary,” Northern Union Outlook, January 31, 1939, 8.↩

8. “Stephen Gerard Haughey,” Patricia Grace Willmore Family Tree, accessed November 4, 2022, Ancestry.com↩

9. Elmer E. Andross, “North England Conference at Leicester,” ARH, September 15, 1904, 18-19.↩

10. Elmer E. Andross, “General Meeting in Scotland,” ARH, July 19, 1906, 17-18.↩

11. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1906, 77-78.↩

12. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1909, 101; and for 1910, 89-90.↩

13. Stephen Gerard Haughey Correspondence.↩

14. Ibid.↩

15. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1923, 28-29, 201, 205, 235; and for 1932, 32, 310, 315, 352; Edward Allen and Yvionne Joseph, “Nebraska Sanitarium,” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, September 28, 2020, accessed November 03, 2022, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=79UT.↩

16. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1932, 32.↩

17. “Stephen Gerard Haughey obituary.”↩

18. S. G. Haughey to H.H. Cobban, December 16, 1938, and H.H. Cobban to W.E. White, December 29, 1938, Stephen Gerard Haughey Sustentation File, RG 33, Box 9707, GCA; “Stephen Gerard Haughey obituary.”↩

19. Shultz, “Florence Willmore Haughey obituary.”↩

20. “Stephen Gerard Haughey obituary.”↩