Ketring, Herman Feaster (1873-1958)

Herman F. Ketring was distinguished as a pioneering missionary to Chile. Prior to and after his overseas service he ministered in Kansas and subsequently as president of the Central New England Conference.

Heritage and Education

Herman, son of coach-builder Jacob and Juliet Feaster Ketring, was born at New Enterprise in the Allegheny Mountains, southern Pennsylvania, on September 3, 1873. Herman’s siblings were Estella Jane (b. 1868), Florence Susan (b. 1870), William Nevin (b. 1874) and Norman Conrad (b. 1876).¹ His parents were members of the German Reformed Church.

After attending tent meetings in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Herman was baptized in June 1888 at age 14 by Elder J. W. Raymond. His elementary education was gained in public schools. The academic years 1892 through 1894 were spent at Union College, Nebraska.²

Early Denominational Service

As a young man of 21, Ketring began ministerial work in the Kansas Conference in September 1894. He spent a portion of his first year in ministry studying at the General Conference Bible School that opened on October 31 on the Union College campus and continued into the early months of 1895.³ Earliest reports of Ketring’s evangelistic work place him in Udall, a small town in rural southern Kansas, conducting tent meetings with Isaac Crane, another young man in his twenties. They organized a small church of 14 members, purchased a former trade store and remodeled it into a place of worship.⁴

In late 1895, Ketring was sent to northern Wyoming where he and O. S. Ferren began six weeks of meetings at Sheridan on October 8. They organized 17 believers into a church there on November 20 and later established another church at Big Horn.⁵

On April 18, 1896, in Bayard, Kansas, Herman married Elva Pearl Riggs (1873-1964), an experienced colporteur and Bible worker. The couple returned to Wyoming for another year of evangelism, during which Elva engaged in “tract work.” Then, after another four years of evangelistic ministry in Kansas (1897-1901), Ketring volunteered to be a missionary in South America while attending the 1901 General Conference in Battle Creek, Michigan. He had been ordained at Wichita, Kansas, in September 1899 by George A. Irwin, president of the General Conference.⁶

Pioneering in Chile

Herman and Elva Ketring, along with four-year-old daughter Glenna Florence (1897-1990), accompanied Albert B. Ogden and Joseph W. Westphal and families aboard the “Teutonic,” leaving New York City on August 28, 1901, and arriving at Buenos Aires, Argentina, on October 1.⁷ The Ketrings witnessed a historic gathering that marked the beginnings of Seventh-day Adventist organization in South America. The Adventist message had taken root during the previous decade as several members from Kansas settled in Argentina and missionaries followed. At meetings beginning October 10 in Palma, Entre Rios, the Rio De La Plata (River Plate) Conference was organized, its territory comprising Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. The conference was one of three organizational units formed to make up the new South American Union Mission, created at the 1901 General Conference. The second entity was the Brazilian Conference and the third, to which Ketring was assigned was the West Coast Mission Field. It embraced the nations of Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador.⁸

Ketring and Ogden, the latter serving as mission director, were assigned to build on work initiated by three colporteurs and the evangelistic efforts of Granville Baber.⁹ Ketring located in Santiago and worked as far south as Perquenco along the extended farmlands in the valley between the Andes and the coastal Cordilleras.¹⁰ In June 1902, he began to work further north in the region of Caldera and Copiapó.¹¹

When Albert Ogden’s wife, Mae, became seriously ill, the Ogdens returned to the United States in 1903. Ketring became director of the West Coast Mission, with only two other ministers and one colporteur at work in the vast territory. The Ketrings based their work in Iquique in northern Chile. Elder Ketring reported baptism of 23 new church members in 1903, bringing the mission’s total membership to 184 in four churches.¹²

A nearby colony of Scotch settlers was one locale of the Ketrings’ evangelistic activities. In addition to Herman’s preaching, Elva’s activities included conducting a Sabbath School for children, followed by a Bible study for the adults. When her husband was traveling, she took little Glenna with her on horseback for the four to five mile ride to the colony.¹³

Later in 1904, Frank H. Westphal became director of the West Coast Mission, and the Ketrings relocated to Púa in southern Chile. Ketring revisited towns along the Imperial River such as Nueva Imperial, Carahue and Bajo Imperial, building up work he had initiated two years before. The most southerly locale of Ketring’s Chilean ministry was the inland village of Pitrufquién during the closing days of 1904.¹⁴

Ketring mastered Spanish sufficiently to make writing and editorial work in that language a prominent feature of his mission service. He published some evangelistic tracts in Spanish, wrote articles for Revista Adventista and the monthly Senales de los Tiempos, and served as editor of those periodicals.¹⁵

Final Years in America

The Ketring family returned to America in time to attend the May 1905 General Conference session in Takoma Park, Maryland. Following the meeting, Ketring returned to evangelistic ministry in the Kansas Conference and served as the conference vice-president. In October 1905 a son, Vernon Vivian (1905-1984) was added to the Ketring household. Another son, and the last of three children, Herman Forrest (1908-1926), would be born in the family’s next locale.¹⁶

In 1906, Elder Ketring was elected president of the Central New England Conference with headquarters at South Lancaster, Massachusetts. His responsibilities included serving as president of the board of the New England Sanitarium at Melrose, Massachusetts. The institution, originated in 1899, was experiencing a crisis and Ketring felt the heavy weight of responsibility. With legal help he secured conference ownership and governance of the entity, thus preventing it from coming under the controlling influence of Battle Creek Sanitarium.¹⁷ In this context he assisted in the publication of a pamphlet containing advice from Ellen White about the operation of denominational sanitariums.¹⁸

Ketring also worked to strengthen the South Lancaster Printing Company that operated on the campus of South Lancaster Academy. Begun as an independent enterprise by Stephen N. Haskell, it had come under the management of the Central New England Conference. Ketring believed this and other small print shops on Adventist campuses should be encouraged. They provided students an opportunity to earn their school fees and learn something of the trade at the same time. He also saw value in them as alternatives that prevented the two major companies (Review & Herald and Pacific Press) from entirely monopolizing the church’s publishing business.¹⁹

Early in 1909 Ketring was diagnosed with the dreaded tuberculosis disease.²⁰ He was admitted to the Massachusetts State Sanitarium for treatment. He responded well and friends recommended he locate to the cooler climate of Colorado. He accepted assignment from the Colorado Conference to pastor the Capitol Hill Church in Denver.²¹

During the last three years of his life, Ketring struggled to regain his strength. It was said he overrated his endurance, working on building a home for his family during the severe winter months and engaging in a protracted debate with a minister of another denomination. He contracted pneumonia and suffered nervous exhaustion. He sought respite in Cuba and then California with relatives but his condition weakened.

Herman F. Ketring passed away peacefully at age 40 in the home of his mother in Escondido on November 5, 1913.²² He was laid to rest in Oak Hill Memorial Park, Escondido, California.²³ Elva Ketring lived another half-century. She passed away at the age of 90 in Denver, Colorado, on August 4, 1964.²⁴

Sources

“Crown Hill Burial Park.” History Colorado. Accessed September 7, 2022. https://www.historycolorado.org/location/crown-hill-burial-park-crown-hill-cemetery.

“Elder H.F. Ketring, of the Kansas . . . .” ARH, May 17, 1906.

Ellen G. White Estate (EGWE). White Estate Correspondence, ellenwhite.org.

“Elva Pearl Ketring obituary.” ARH, October 8, 1964.

Ferren, O.S. “Northern Wyoming.” ARH, February 25, 1896.

Ferren, O.S. “Wyoming.” ARH, June 30, 1896.

Herman Feaster Ketring Biographical Information Blank. Secretariat Missionary Files, RG21, Record 114926. General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Silver Spring, MD (GCA).

“Herman Feaster Ketring.” FamilySearch. Accessed September 6, 2022, https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/KCNP-D3V.

“Herman Feaster Ketring.” Find A Grave. Memorial ID 8949947, June 18, 2004. Accessed September 6, 2022, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8949947/herman-feaster-ketring.

Ketring, Elva. “Chile.” ARH, October 21, 1902.

Ketring, Herman F. “Chile.” ARH, April 7, 1904.

Ketring, Herman F. “Visiting the Frontier.” ARH, August 31, 1905.

McReynolds, Chester C. “Kansas.” ARH, November 12, 1895.

Ogden, Alfred R. “West Coast Mission Field, South America.” Missionary Magazine, March 1902.

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

Snyder, E.W. “Herman Feaster Ketring.” ARH, December 18, 1913.

“The following brethren sail . . . .” ARH, August 27, 1901.

Westphal, Joseph W. “Our Recent Trip Through Chile.” ARH, September 16, 1902.

Westphal, Joseph W. “Our Work in the South American West Coast Mission Field.” ARH, November 11, 1902.

Westphal, Joseph W. “Rio De La Plata Conference.” Missionary Magazine, February 1902.

Westphal, Joseph W. “South America.” ARH, December 31, 1901.

“Writing of the work in Chile . . . .” ARH, March 24, 1904.

Notes

1. “Herman Feaster Ketring,” FamilySearch, accessed September 6, 2022, https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/KCNP-D3V.↩

2. Herman Feaster Ketring Biographical Information Blank, September 7, 1905, Secretariat Missionary Files, RG 21, Record 114926, GCA.↩

3. Ketring Biographical Information Blank, September 7, 1905, GCA; O.A.O[lsen], “General Conference Bible School,” ARH, November 6, 1894, 794.↩

4. Chester C. McReynolds, “Kansas,” ARH, November 12, 1895, 733.↩

5. O.S. Ferren, “Northern Wyoming,” ARH, February 25, 1896, 123-124.↩

6. E.W. Snyder, “Herman Feaster Ketring,” ARH, December 18, 1913, 22; “Elva Pearl Ketring obituary,” ARH, October 8, 1964, 24; O.S. Ferren, “Wyoming,” ARH, June 30, 1896, 411; Ketring Biographical Information Blank, September 7, 1905, GCA.↩

7. “The following brethren sail . . . ,” ARH, August 27, 1901, 16.↩

8. Joseph W. Westphal, “Rio De La Plata Conference,” Missionary Magazine, February 1902, 57-59; Ruben Dargã Holdorf, “South American Division,” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, November 23, 2021, accessed November 3, 2022, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=1IFC; Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, 2^nd rev. edition (1996), s.v. “South American Division.”↩

9. Joseph W. Westphal, “Our Work in the South American West Coast Mission Field,” ARH, November 11, 1902, 13; Alfred R. Ogden, “West Coast Mission Field, South America,” Missionary Magazine, March 1902, 122-124.↩

10. Joseph W. Westphal, “Our Recent Trip Through Chile,” ARH, September 16, 1902, 13.↩

11. Elva Ketring, “Chile,” ARH, October 21, 1902, 16.↩

12. Herman F. Ketring, “Chile” ARH, April 7, 1904, 17; Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1904, 73.↩

13. “Writing of the work in Chile . . . ,” ARH, March 24, 1904, 20.↩

14. Herman F. Ketring, “Visiting the Frontier,” ARH, August 31, 1905, 11.↩

15. Herman Feaster Ketring Biographical Information Blank.↩

16. The U.S. Social Security Death Index gives Vernon’s date of birth as October 9, 1904, when the family would still have been in South America. The 1910 U.S. Census, however, lists Vernon as four years old, born in Kansas; thus, must have been born on October 9, 1905. See sources linked at the family tree for “Herman Feaster Ketring,” FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/KCNP-D3V.↩

17. W.C. White to S.N. Haskell, February 8, 1907, Ellen G. White Estate, ellenwhite.org (EGWE); Herman F. Ketring to W.C. White, December 20, 1908 (EGWE).↩

18. Ellen G. White, “The New England Sanitarium” (1908), Ellen G. White Writings, https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/373/info; H.F. Ketring to C. C. Crisler, October 23, 1907 (EGWE); H.F. Ketring to W.C. White, December 20, 1908 (EGWE).↩

19. H.F. Ketring to W.C. White, March 22, 1907 (EGWE); W.C. White to H. F. Ketring, September 8, 1907 (EGWE).↩

20. A.G. Daniells to W.C. White, February 26, 1909 (EGWE).↩

21. E.W. Snyder, “Herman Feaster Ketring, ARH, December 18, 1913, 22.↩

22. Snyder, “Herman Feaster Ketring,” obituary.↩

23. “Herman Feaster Ketring,” Find A Grave, Memorial ID 8949947, June 18, 2004, accessed September 6, 2022, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8949947/herman-feaster-ketring.↩

24. “Elva Pearl Ketring,” ARH, October 8, 1964, 24.↩