page_title: William Howard Hoople
section_title: Spiritual background
hierarchical_section_title: William Howard Hoople / Spiritual background
caption_attribution_description: English: John Wilbur Chapman (1859-1918)
context_page_description: William Howard Hoople was an American businessman and religious figure. He was a prominent leader of the American Holiness movement; the co-founder of the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America, one of the antecedent groups that merged to create the Church of the Nazarene; rescue mission organizer; an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene, and first superintendent of the New York District of the Church of the Nazarene; YMCA worker; baritone gospel singer; successful businessman and investor; and inventor.
context_section_description: As a child Hoople and his family attended the Sunday School of the Central Congregational church located at Hancock Street, near Franklin Avenue in Brooklyn, and later became a member of that church. In December 1885 Hoople attended an evangelistic service for young men in the newly opened building of the Central Branch of the YMCA at 502 Fulton Street, Brooklyn held by Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey, and at the conclusion of the service, while the choir sang Just as I Am, responded to the gospel invitation and "walked into the arms of Jesus". In an interview for the Brooklyn Eagle in February 1895, Hooper indicated: "I was converted nine years ago at the Central branch of the Young Men's Christian association in Brooklyn". Hoople believed he was saved from "a life of frivolity and ambition."
  Hoople was a baritone who "was blessed with a beautiful voice", Hoople was described in 1933 as "a great singer, having a fine, deep, powerful voice. If he couldn't accomplish his purpose in any other way, he sang his way through." Hoople often sang solos and led the singing in churches of various denominations, at the Methodist Home for the Aged in Brooklyn, and at services sponsored by the YMCA and the Christian Endeavor Society.  Additionally, by 1891 Hoople spoke regularly in YMCA meetings, and preached in the Bethesda Congregational Church while the pastor was on vacation. Hoople was a member of the "famous Hadley Male Quartet", which further spread Hoople's fame and influence in the city. One report indicated: "If there were no other way through, the quartet helped Hoople sing his way through. When this quartet sang to an audience of six thousand at a meeting of J. Wilbur Chapman's revival in New York city there were few dry eyes."
  On June 18, 1891 Hoople was elected the first treasurer of the nonsectarian Industrial Christian Alliance, which would give "practical help to the outcast poor", in a similar manner to the methods of the Salvation Army. By July 14, 1891, the ICA was incorporated. On November 30, 1891, the Alliance opened a 39-bed home at 113 MacDougal Street (today the site of the Minetta Tavern), near Hoople's business, where the poor could stay for up to sixty days, "be cleaned, clothed, treated medically and mentally", and given the opportunity to work in one of the sponsoring businesses. Plans were to establish a depot for women, rescue missions, and to establish kindergartens, day nurseries, and industrial schools. One of the activities of the ICA was to establish a broom factory where the residents could work in exchange for their room and board, and the brooms and whisks were sold to generate income for the ICA. As a result of the Panic of 1893, unemployment and poverty increased dramatically in this area, necessitating the relocation of the ICA home to a 100-bed facility at 170 Bleecker Street by May 1, 1893. During the Winter of 1893, the ICA opened the People's Restaurant at its headquarters at 170 Bleecker Street and at six other locations. The ICA provided a million meals to the impoverished unemployed for only 5 cents for a hot meal for a family of four people, but by the end of 1894 the ICA was pleading to the general public for the first time for additional financial resources, and Hoople was no longer treasurer.
  According to Hoople, "For several years after I was a member of a praying band". In the early 1890s Hoople began attending the noonday prayer meeting at the John Street Methodist Church at 44 John Street, Manhattan. There he met Charles H. BeVier (born September 5, 1858; died about 1905), "a zealous witness to holiness and choir leader at the largest Methodist church in Brooklyn." According to Nazarene historian Timothy L. Smith, "Hoople thought BeVier's "fanaticism" a pity, and set out to argue his new friend into rejecting sanctification. Instead, Hoople wound up finding the blessing himself" in his own shop in 1893. Hoople began attending some holiness meetings held in private homes in Brooklyn, "where they could worship God in the freedom of the Spirit." In July 1893 Hoople underwrote the ex
caption: J. Wilbur Chapman
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