Isaac Wilson Joyce was an American clergyman in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He also presided over the Epworth League.
Background
Isaac was born on October 11, 1836 in Colerain Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, the son of James Wilson and Mary Ann Joyce. His father's ancestors were Irish, and his mother's, German. Until 1863 he spelled the family name "Joice. " When he was thirteen years old his parents migrated to Tippecanoe County, Indiana, and settled north of Lafayette. They were poor, struggling people, with only a two-room log house for a home, and Isaac worked on the farm summers.
The determining event of his youth occurred while he was on a coon hunt. Separated from his companions in the woods, he was drawn by the sound of singing to a schoolhouse on the road. Entering, he found a revival conducted by a United Brethren preacher in progress, and was converted. Later he was baptized through a hole cut in the ice on the Wabash River.
Education
Joyce attended the district school of Lafayette winters.
Career
Joyce worked two years in Hartsville College, a United Brethren school in Bartholomew County, where he supported himself by the humblest forms of labor, and then his licensure as a local preacher. In 1858, while he was teaching in Rensselaer, Indiana, Rev. Granville Moody persuaded him that the Methodist Church offered him greater opportunity for usefulness, and he joined that denomination. This same year the Northwest Indiana Conference gave him work as a "supply, " on the Rolling Prairie Circuit. Equipped with a horse and two dollars and twenty-five cents, the gift of his father, and with a few clothes, Bible, Discipline, and hymnal in his saddlebags, he set out for his field of labor one hundred and fifty miles away, beginning a ministry destined to be world-wide in extent.
His rise to influence and prominence was rapid. By assiduous study he added much to his education. In 1859 he was admitted to the Conference on trial, ordained deacon in 1861, and elder in 1863. After strenuous circuit work, in 1866 when he was but thirty, he was appointed to the Ninth Street Church, Lafayette. In this city he remained ten years, serving also as presiding elder of the district, and as pastor of Trinity Church.
Poor health caused him to take a supernumerary relation in 1876-77, during which time, however, he supplied Bethany Church, Baltimore. From 1877 to 1880 he was pastor of Roberts Chapel, Greencastle, the seat of Indiana Asbury University (De Pauw). In the latter year he was a delegate to the General Conference. Transferred to the Cincinnati Conference in 1880, he was stationed eight years in that city as pastor of St. Paul's and Trinity. In 1886 he was fraternal delegate to the Methodist Church of Canada, and two years later was elected bishop.
His first episcopal residence was at Chattanooga (1888 - 96). From 1896 until his death his residence was at Minneapolis.
In 1892 he presided over the conferences in Europe. While preaching at a camp meeting at Red Rock, in July 1905, his activity was brought to a close by a cerebral hemorrhage, and he died a few weeks later.
Achievements
Personality
Isaac Wilson Joyce's influence and renown came primarily from his abilities as a preacher and pastor. The Irish in him displayed itself in his fervor, sense of humor, quick sympathies, and generous impulses. Using the language of the common people and speaking with abandon and evangelistic zeal, he sometimes held great audiences for the space of two hours. Religious awakenings invariably attended his ministry. To the board of bishops he brought capacity for hard work, sound judgment, and well-balanced character and powers; and his associates delegated to him some of their most important duties.
Connections
On March 20, 1861, he married Caroline Walker Bosserman of La Porte, Indiana.