Family Card - Person Sheet
Family Card - Person Sheet
NameJoseph Edmond LOWRY 
Birth Date11 May 1868
Birth PlaceMadisonville, Monroe County, Tennessee
Death Date27 Jan 1937 Age: 68
Burial PlaceKnoxville, Knox County, Tennessee, Lynnhurst Cemetery
OccupationReverend
FatherHugh Kelso LOWRY (1828-1898)
MotherMary Isabell COOK (1832-1903)
Notes for Joseph Edmond LOWRY
Joseph E. Lowry was the son of Hugh Kelso Lowry and Isabella Cook Lowry. He was born May 11, 1868, at Madisonville, Tennessee, and spent the years of his childhood and youth in Monroe County, where were spent twenty-two of his active itinerant years.
The home of his youth was guided by high Christian ideals, to which he responded from his earliest days. As a child in the home, as a lad in public school and as a college student, he grew in moral strength and in spiritual culture, as he grew toward physical and mental manhood.
Uniting with the Methodist Church in early life he was licensed to preach, while still a boy, at Keys' Chapel, Hiwassee College, where he secured his education. His devotion to Hiwassee, which began in his youth, never faltered through the reach of his years.
With a recommendation from Madisonville Circuit, he went up to the Annual Conference for admission on trial, in 1888, when he was just past twenty years old. Conference met that year at Asheville, North Carolina, on October 3, and he was admitted on trial on October 5, 1888. He had missed his train and was delayed so as to be forced to make the trip to Asheville at night He often referred to that night and the uneasiness which he felt lest the Conference might decline to admit him. His traveling companion on that night of adventure and uncertainty was Rev. John B. Carnes, who although much his senior, was also going up for admission on trial. There were seventeen in the class, and all were received. Of these, Rev. W. I. Fogleman. died last year, and Rev. I. N. Munsey has died this year, thus leaving no other member of the class in Holston Conference. Rev. J. W. Moore of the Virginia Conference and Rev. Frank Siler of the Western North Carolina Conference were of this class.
Exactly two years after being received on trial, he was received into full connection and was ordained deacon by Bishop John C. Keener at Bristol, Virginia, on October 5, 1890. Three years later, he was ordained elder by Bishop W. W. Duncan, at Knoxville, on October 15, 1893.
His first appointment was Maynardville Circuit, where he remained two years; and there he began making friends whose friendship has lasted through the years. From Maynardville he went to Knoxville Circuit, there to begin more friendships and to win a wife whose fidelity was to bless him to the last day of his life. Then followed Louisville, Madisonville and Philadelphia. In 1899 he was called to the presidency of Hiwassee College. After eight years he returned to the pastorate, and served with great acceptability LaFollette, Princeton and Coeburn. Called again to the presidency of Hiwassee College in 1914, he served in that office until 1927. In the pastorate again he gave four years each to Epworth and LaFollette. On account of declining health, he asked for superannuation in 1935. The short period of superannuation was far from one of idleness. He preached on many occasions. At the very end, he was preaching regularly, each Sunday at Lincoln Memorial University.
Joe Lowry was greatly beloved by those who knew him. He was a faithful, sympathetic pastor as well as a thoughtful, earnest preacher. People recognized the genuineness of his faith and his devotion to his work, and they gave glad heed to his messages.
He will probably be remembered longest as the President of Hiwassee College to which he gave thirty years of his life. He was elected to that office while serving as pastor at Madisonville in 1899 and served as active President while pastor at Philadelphia, until 1904. For the next three years he devoted his entire time to the college. Returning to the pastorate in 1907, he was again elected President of Hiwassee in 1914, and served in that capacity until 1927, after which he was made president emeritus and held this relation at the time of his death. Hiwassee had held a large place in his life from his own college boyhood until the end of his life.
He loved Hiwassee with passionate devotion; not as a mere sentiment; much less as an abstraction. He loved Hiwassee for the great service which she has rendered in giving training to young men (and in these later years) to young women. No labor was too arduous for him to perform if he could find a youth hungering for an education. No youth too indigent for him to find a way for expenses to be met. His ardor in reaching ambitious boys and girls and in arranging for them to go to college amounted to something near akin to genius. For an entire generation there shall be scores whose hearts will glow at the memory of their beloved president.
On July 19, 1892, Rev. Joseph E. Lowry and Miss Cordelia Ault were united in marriage; they lived together in happy home life for forty-five years. The radiance of the lovely home which they maintained was felt in every community in which they lived; this was especially felt on the campus of Hiwassee College.
To them were born five children, Lillian (Mrs. R. L. Gallaher), Ella Grace, (Mrs. J. E. Williams), Dr. S. G. Lowry, Miss Elizabeth and Ruth, who died in lovely childhood.
He was esteemed and loved by ministers and laymen, by teachers and students. Again, it may be said: "There was a man sent from God." This man lived among us. The strength of his life has strengthened our lives; the love in his heart has moved our hearts to love; his comforting voice has comforted us.
We shall miss him in the Conference and in the College, in the church and in the home. But we are comforted by the thought that he had walked with God in this world and is now at home with God in that world.
Submitted By: I. P. Martin – Holston Conference Journal – 1937 – PP: 133 - 135
On Find A Grave.
——————
The home of his youth was guided by high Christian ideals, to which he responded from his earliest days. As a child in the home, as a lad in public school and as a college student, he grew in moral strength and in spiritual culture, as he grew toward physical and mental manhood.
Uniting with the Methodist Church in early life he was licensed to preach, while still a boy, at Keys' Chapel, Hiwassee College, where he secured his education. His devotion to Hiwassee, which began in his youth, never faltered through the reach of his years.
With a recommendation from Madisonville Circuit, he went up to the Annual Conference for admission on trial, in 1888, when he was just past twenty years old. Conference met that year at Asheville, North Carolina, on October 3, and he was admitted on trial on October 5, 1888. He had missed his train and was delayed so as to be forced to make the trip to Asheville at night He often referred to that night and the uneasiness which he felt lest the Conference might decline to admit him. His traveling companion on that night of adventure and uncertainty was Rev. John B. Carnes, who although much his senior, was also going up for admission on trial. There were seventeen in the class, and all were received. Of these, Rev. W. I. Fogleman. died last year, and Rev. I. N. Munsey has died this year, thus leaving no other member of the class in Holston Conference. Rev. J. W. Moore of the Virginia Conference and Rev. Frank Siler of the Western North Carolina Conference were of this class.
Exactly two years after being received on trial, he was received into full connection and was ordained deacon by Bishop John C. Keener at Bristol, Virginia, on October 5, 1890. Three years later, he was ordained elder by Bishop W. W. Duncan, at Knoxville, on October 15, 1893.
His first appointment was Maynardville Circuit, where he remained two years; and there he began making friends whose friendship has lasted through the years. From Maynardville he went to Knoxville Circuit, there to begin more friendships and to win a wife whose fidelity was to bless him to the last day of his life. Then followed Louisville, Madisonville and Philadelphia. In 1899 he was called to the presidency of Hiwassee College. After eight years he returned to the pastorate, and served with great acceptability LaFollette, Princeton and Coeburn. Called again to the presidency of Hiwassee College in 1914, he served in that office until 1927. In the pastorate again he gave four years each to Epworth and LaFollette. On account of declining health, he asked for superannuation in 1935. The short period of superannuation was far from one of idleness. He preached on many occasions. At the very end, he was preaching regularly, each Sunday at Lincoln Memorial University.
Joe Lowry was greatly beloved by those who knew him. He was a faithful, sympathetic pastor as well as a thoughtful, earnest preacher. People recognized the genuineness of his faith and his devotion to his work, and they gave glad heed to his messages.
He will probably be remembered longest as the President of Hiwassee College to which he gave thirty years of his life. He was elected to that office while serving as pastor at Madisonville in 1899 and served as active President while pastor at Philadelphia, until 1904. For the next three years he devoted his entire time to the college. Returning to the pastorate in 1907, he was again elected President of Hiwassee in 1914, and served in that capacity until 1927, after which he was made president emeritus and held this relation at the time of his death. Hiwassee had held a large place in his life from his own college boyhood until the end of his life.
He loved Hiwassee with passionate devotion; not as a mere sentiment; much less as an abstraction. He loved Hiwassee for the great service which she has rendered in giving training to young men (and in these later years) to young women. No labor was too arduous for him to perform if he could find a youth hungering for an education. No youth too indigent for him to find a way for expenses to be met. His ardor in reaching ambitious boys and girls and in arranging for them to go to college amounted to something near akin to genius. For an entire generation there shall be scores whose hearts will glow at the memory of their beloved president.
On July 19, 1892, Rev. Joseph E. Lowry and Miss Cordelia Ault were united in marriage; they lived together in happy home life for forty-five years. The radiance of the lovely home which they maintained was felt in every community in which they lived; this was especially felt on the campus of Hiwassee College.
To them were born five children, Lillian (Mrs. R. L. Gallaher), Ella Grace, (Mrs. J. E. Williams), Dr. S. G. Lowry, Miss Elizabeth and Ruth, who died in lovely childhood.
He was esteemed and loved by ministers and laymen, by teachers and students. Again, it may be said: "There was a man sent from God." This man lived among us. The strength of his life has strengthened our lives; the love in his heart has moved our hearts to love; his comforting voice has comforted us.
We shall miss him in the Conference and in the College, in the church and in the home. But we are comforted by the thought that he had walked with God in this world and is now at home with God in that world.
Submitted By: I. P. Martin – Holston Conference Journal – 1937 – PP: 133 - 135
On Find A Grave.
——————