My Genealogy Hound

REV. HIRAM S. SHANGLE, pastor M. E. Church South, was born in Prince George county, Virginia, March 19, 1856. The grandparents of our subject were John and Eleanor (Ingle) Shangle of New Jersey, and Mark and Martha A. (Wrenn) Clanton of Southampton county, Va. His father, Rev. J. S. Shangle, was born in New Jersey, Sept. 16, 1824, and educated at Chapel Hill College, N. C. Mother, Martha S. (Clanton) Shangle, born in Virginia, Aug. 12, 1831. They are now living at Ozark, Ark.; father being a member of the Arkansas Conference. Their family consisted of six children: Florella S., born Nov. 4, 1851, now wife of J. H. Obannon, of Richmond, Va.; Eugene H., born Nov. 25, 1853; Hiram Sidney (our subject); Ella Virginia, born March 18, 1858, now wife of William Coats of Johnson county, Ark.; Joseph Wharton, born Nov. 8, 1863; and Mary Adaline, born Sept. 11, 1871. Subject spent his early life in southwest Virginia and east Tennessee, and acquired a liberal common school education. When about twenty years of age he entered a private high school at Richmond, Va., Prof. L. S. Squire, principal, and attended about one year. He then returned to east Tennessee, and in the fall following was licensed to preach and given an appointment at Cedarville, Va. In April, 1879, he came west to Arkansas, for the purpose of entering the traveling connections of the Arkansas Conference, a recommendation having been given him by the conference from which his license was obtained. But desiring to complete a course in college, he engaged in teaching and at the same time did ministerial work. During the year 1880 he attended the high school at Altus, Ark., and in Sept., 1881, he entered the theological department of the Vanderbilt University, at Nashville Tenn.; took a two years course, but his eyes failing him he was obliged to discontinue his studies. He was sent by the Bishop to Rich Hill, Missouri, as a supply, and remained there until the meeting of the Southwest Missouri Conference in September, 1882, when he was admitted and given the charges at Lamar and Sheldon. Subsequently the work was divided, and the Joplin charge was substituted for that at Lamar. Rev. Shangle, although a young man, has had considerable experience in the battle of life. Those who have been surrounded with circumstances more favorable can hardly appreciate the cost of education self-acquired, or estimate its true value. It is characteristic of individuals, however, that those who thus strive are more practical, and therefore become more able exponents of the cause they espouse.