Amy Frank Wilson 

From Adventist Heritage 14, no. 3 (Winter 1992).

Wilson, Lydia Amelia "Amy" (Frank) (1893–1977)

By Douglas Morgan

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Douglas Morgan is a graduate of Union College (B.A., theology, 1978) in Lincoln, Nebraska and the University of Chicago (Ph.D., history of Christianity, 1992). He has served on the faculties of Washington Adventist University in Takoma Park, Maryland and Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tennessee. His publications include Adventism and the American Republic (University of Tennessee Press, 2001) and Lewis C. Sheafe: Apostle to Black America (Review and Herald, 2010). He is the ESDA assistant editor for North America.

First Published: July 25, 2024

Amy Frank Wilson was secretary-treasurer of the Maritime Conference (1917-1924) and of the Eastern Canadian Union Conference (1924-1929), and editor of the Eastern Canadian Messenger (1924-1929). In later years she served in various capacities at Adventist educational institutions.

Early Years

Lydia Amelia (Amy), born January 5, 1893, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and her older sisters Edith Maude (1875-1909) and Florence Alberta (1881-1953) were daughters of George Edward Frank (1850-1927) and Ann Maria Warner Frank (1854-1916).1 George Frank, an Ontario native, earned a living as a woodworker. Ann was born in Ohio but migrated to Canada with her family in 1856 while she was a small child.2

Ann Maria Frank learned about the Seventh-day Adventist message through interaction with colporteurs and in 1898, joined the church over the strong objections of her husband. George Frank remained a staunch member of the Disciples of Christ and refused to allow Amy to go along with her mother to Sabbath services at the Adventist church. However, at age 14, Amy was baptized as a Seventh-day Adventist without telling her father. It was a bitter disappointment to him, but he was able to live with his daughter’s decision.3

Soon after her baptism, Amy went to Lornedale Academy, an Adventist high school located about 20 kilometers west of Toronto (the school later relocated and became Oshawa Missionary College in 1920, then Kingsway College in 1966). Her linguistic and organizational skills quickly became apparent. Before turning 15, Amy published a devotional article, “Noah,” in the Canadian Union Messenger, the periodical published for Seventh-day Adventists throughout Canada.4 By 1909 she had joined the staff of the Messenger, which was published at the Lornedale Academy Press.5

Maritime Conference Years

After continuing her studies at Mount Vernon College in Ohio, Amy Frank returned to the Toronto area. In February 1917 she was called to serve as secretary and treasurer of the Maritime Conference. Accordingly, she moved to Oxford, Nova Scotia, the site of the conference’s headquarters, then to Memramcook, New Brunswick, where the office relocated in 1919. During the years of her service, the conference included around 15 churches with a membership that fluctuated from around 300 to more than 400.6

Frank also directed the conference Sabbath School department and became secretary of the Maritime Tract Society when the conference organized it in June 1917. She thus had the responsibility of coordinating and promoting the dissemination of Adventist publications throughout the Maritime provinces. Members could now order literature from the conference rather than going through the Canadian Publishing Association, a system she believed would be more efficient. In order to succeed, the newly-organized tract society “must not be a storehouse for our truth-filled literature but a circulatory center,” Frank pointed out. In other words, members should be diligent in sending in their orders for books and tracts!7 She also developed the practice of sending letters of encouragement each week to those who sold literature door-to-door as colporteurs.8

In fulfilling her multiple responsibilities, Frank visited the churches in the conference and spoke at their services. She devoted particular concern to the nurture of new members and to helping congregations locate others in their locales who might be interested in the Adventist message.9

Her occasional articles in the Eastern Canadian Messenger convey an impression of Amy Frank as a speaker as well as a writer. In an article urging support for the Sabbath School world mission offering, she used the Bible story of Gideon’s faithful band of 300 (a number close to the conference’s total membership). Gideon’s army routed the Midianite thousands by sounding trumpets, shattering pitchers and brandishing burning torches. “Let us be sure that our pitchers are broken, that we have taken from around our light everything that might prevent its shining forth in clear full rays to souls in darkness,” Amy urged. “Our Commander has provided a way whereby the light which we bear in Maritime may illuminate the enemy’s camp in heathen lands far away.”10

Eastern Canadian Union Years

In February 1924 Amy Frank was elected secretary-treasurer of the Eastern Canadian Union Conference, comprising the Maritime Conference, Newfoundland Mission, Ontario Conference, and the Quebec Conference (renamed St. Lawrence Conference in 1925). She was also appointed editor of the union paper, the Eastern Canadian Messenger. The broadened responsibilities also meant a move back to Ontario as the union office was located at Oshawa, around 60 kilometers east of Toronto.11

At the union’s quadrennial session in February 1928, Frank issued a financial report demonstrating that during the four years since the previous session the union had learned “to cut our garments according to the cloth provided.” In only one of the four years had operating expenses exceeded income, and overall, the union’s indebtedness had been reduced.12

Later Years

Amy Frank left her career in conference administration soon after marrying Joseph T. Wilson on September 3, 1929. Joseph was an Adventist tradesman from British Columbia who came east to study at Oshawa Missionary College, graduating in 1925. The Wilsons had two children—Edward and Carolyn (Janssen). Along with her home life, Amy worked part-time as a bookkeeper and shorthand teacher at Oshawa Missionary College.13

The Wilson family moved to British Columbia in 1935, but in 1937, Joseph died at age 40, leaving Amy a widow after just eight years of marriage. When her children grew older, Amy Wilson moved to the Seattle, Washington, area where the children attended Auburn Academy. She worked at the academy as an accountant from 1949 to 1951. She then served at La Sierra College in Riverside, California, as an office secretary and bookkeeper for seven years until retiring in 1958.14

Amy was living with her daughter, Carolyn, and son-in-law Robert Janssen, in Zanesville, Ohio, when she died on December 19, 1977, at the age of 84. She was buried alongside her husband in Maple Ridge Cemetery, British Columbia, Canada.15

Contribution

A woman of fervent dedication to the mission of the Adventist church, Amy Frank Wilson was an effective leader in multiple roles of conference administration and a skillful writer, editor and speaker. Personal circumstances drove her decision to step away from conference work. At the same time her career reflects an historical trajectory from the 1900s to the 1930s in which women in Adventist conference administrative positions (other than president) gradually diminished from commonplace to rare. By 1945, and for several decades thereafter, these positions were held almost exclusively by men.16

Sources

“Amy Wilson obituary.” Zanesville Times Recorder, December 21, 1977.

Campbell, M. N. “Maria Warner Frank obituary.” ARH, May 25, 1916.

Frank, Amy. “The Balance Sheet and Income and Expense Statements . . . .” Eastern Canadian Messenger, March 6, 1928.

Frank, Amy. “Faithful Service.” Eastern Canadian Messenger, March 27, 1917.

Frank, Amy. “Maritime Tract Society.” Eastern Canadian Messenger, June 12, 1917.

Frank, Amy. “Noah.” Canadian Union Messenger, April 21, 1908.

Hurdon, W. J. “Joseph Theophilus Wilson obituary.” Canadian Union Messenger, December 21, 1937.

“Lydia Amelia Frank.” FamilySearch. Accessed June 21, 2024. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/9W8D-147.

“Lydia ‘Amelia’ (Amy) Frank.” AndersonDennis 2010 Family Tree, Ancestry.com. Accessed June 21, 2024.

Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia. 2nd rev. edition. Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, 1996. S.v. “Wilson, Lydia Amelia (Amy) (1893-1977).”

Watts, Kit. “The Rise and Fall of Adventist Women in Leadership.” Ministry, April 1995.

Notes

  1. “Lydia ‘Amelia’ (Amy) Frank,” AndersonDennis 2010 Family Tree, Ancestry.com, accessed June 21, 2024.

  2. Entry for Geo E Frank and Ann M Frank, “Canada Census, 1901,” FamilySearch, accessed June 21, 2024, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KHP3-671; M.N. Campbell, “Maria Warner Frank obituary,” ARH, May 25, 1916, 41.

  3. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, 2nd rev. edition (1996), s.v. “Wilson, Lydia Amelia (Amy) (1893-1977).”

  4. Amy, 1.

  5. “We are sorry to lose Miss Amy Frank . . . ,” Canadian Union Messenger, November 2, 1909, 4; “Misses Annie Bennett and Amy Frank . . . ,” Canadian Union Messenger, September 11, 1910, 8.

  6. M.N. Campbell, “Recent Travels,” Eastern Canadian Messenger, February 20, 1917, 1; “Maritime Conference (1913-1931),” ASTR, accessed June 23, 2024, https://adventiststatistics.org/view_Summary.asp?FieldInstID=3880.

  7. Amy Frank, “Maritime Tract Society,” Eastern Canadian Messenger, June 12, 1917, 3.

  8. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, 2nd rev. edition (1996), s.v. “Wilson, Lydia Amelia (Amy) (1893-1977).”

  9. Ibid.

  10. Amy Frank, “Faithful Service,” Eastern Canadian Messenger, March 27, 1917, 3.

  11. A[my] F[rank], “Quadrennial Session,” Eastern Canadian Messenger, March 4, 1924, 1.

  12. Amy Frank, “The Balance Sheet and Income and Expense Statements . . . ,” Eastern Canadian Messenger, March 6, 1928, 3-5.

  13. W.C. Moffett, “Wedding Bells, Wilson-Frank” Eastern Canadian Messenger, September 10, 1929, 8; W.J. Hurdon, “Joseph Theophilus Wilson obituary,” Canadian Union Messenger, December 21, 1937, 10; Ontario, Canada Marriages, 1826-1940, accessed June 24, 2024, Ancestry.com; Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, 2nd rev. edition (1996), s.v. “Wilson, Lydia Amelia (Amy) (1893-1977).”

  14. “Lydia Amelia (nee Frank) Wilson obituary,” Canadian Union Messenger, February 2, 1978, 15; Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, 2nd rev. edition (1996), s.v. “Wilson, Lydia Amelia (Amy) (1893-1977).”

  15. “Amy Wilson obituary,” Zanesville Times Recorder, December 21, 1977, 21; “Amy Wilson,” Find A Grave, Memorial ID 107097352, March 22, 2013, accessed June 24, 2024, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/107097352/amy-wilson?_gl=1*k65b7n*_gcl_au*MjExNDUxOTYxNy4xNzE1MTkyNzY1.

  16. Kit Watts, “The Rise and Fall of Adventist Women in Leadership,” Ministry, April 1995, 9-10.

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Morgan, Douglas. "Wilson, Lydia Amelia "Amy" (Frank) (1893–1977)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. July 25, 2024. Accessed February 13, 2025. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=8AEX.

Morgan, Douglas. "Wilson, Lydia Amelia "Amy" (Frank) (1893–1977)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. July 25, 2024. Date of access February 13, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=8AEX.

Morgan, Douglas (2024, July 25). Wilson, Lydia Amelia "Amy" (Frank) (1893–1977). Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved February 13, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=8AEX.