February 7 Today in OPC History

Born in North Dakota on this date in 1913, Eleanor Peterman Kellogg wanted to be a missionary since she was nine. An English major at Wheaton College, she played the organ and piano for worship services even though she had grown up in a Covenanter Church where musical instruments were forbidden during worship. While working at the college library, Eleanor met Edward L. Kellogg, grandson of Jonathan Blanchard, the founder of Wheaton College. Edward felt that he could best serve the church financially as an architect or engineer, but through prayer decided to become a missionary. While Edward studied at Westminster Theological Seminary, they married on September 12, 1936. The Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions, founded by J. Gresham Machen, were sending them to India. Their trip was canceled, however, when the Board, unconcerned about Presbyterianism, ousted Machen. The Kelloggs followed Machen into the newly founded Orthodox Presbyterian Church, where Edward was ordained in 1937.

Instead of missions overseas, the Kelloggs first served on limited funds in a small mission church in Manhattan, New York. A single cot, eggs, and unlabeled food cans supplied their needs. In 1938 they moved to a church in Middletown, Pennsylvania, where Gwendolyn, Susan, and Edward were born. Eleanor encouraged Edward and didn’t complain about his 74-hour workweeks as a pastor. He started pastoring in West Collingswood, New Jersey, in 1946, where Eleanor had two miscarriages before Deborah and Janice were born. Eleanor’s gifts of hospitality and music excelled, beginning as a music teacher and choir director in the Christian school founded by Edward. She eventually directed choirs for more than 60 years, retiring at 90. In 1954 Edward was called to serve a church in National City, California, where Eleanor began working as a public school teacher substitute in 1956 to help fund their children’s college education. She also read the Bible through annually-- more than 60 times by the time she died.

After Edward suffered a stroke while preaching in 1976, they retired to Leesburg, Virginia, to help their daughter Gwendolyn and husband Edwin Urban pastor Bethel OPC. Missions finally came to them through seven of their grandchildren, who were adopted from Thailand, Korea, El Salvador, and Peru. After 65 years of marriage, Edward in 2001 entered Glory. Eleanor followed on February 6, 2009, hours before her 96th birthday.

Deborah Kellogg Kropp wrote more about Eleanor in the published book, Choosing the Good Portion: Women of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, which is available on OPC.ORG here.

Picture: Ed and Eleanor Kellogg with children Gwen, Edward, Susan, Deborah and Janice in 1954.