Ethel Francis Hilda Russell (1893-1971) was the eldest daughter of Martin Reinhold Wallenstein Russell (1868-1962) and Hilda Caroline Oberg (1864-1938), and sister of Agnes Martha Russell Bonner. Ethel was an accomplished oil painter. She attended Denison College for three years, where she met her future husband, Arthur C. Wickenden.
Arthur graduated from Denison College in 1915 and began his religious studies at the University of Chicago the following year—in spite of his parents’ objections that the institution was too liberal. Ethel transferred to the University of Chicago for her final year of college to be with Arthur and graduated with her bachelor’s in 1916.
Ethel was a homemaker, faculty wife, and serious artist, as we see in her oil paintings
The Great War interrupted Arthur’s studies—he enlisted in November 1917 as a Sergeant in a machine gun battalion. He fought at Aisne-Marne in France and was severely wounded by a sniper in October 1918—just 2 months before the Armistice took effect. He recuperated fully in Cape May, New Jersey, resumed his studies at the University of Chicago, and earned his D.B. in 1920.
Arthur and Ethel were married the following year.
Arthur served his first pastorate at the Baptist Church of Owatonna, Minnesota. For a while afterward, he had his own church, but spent most of his career as a professor and eventually Chairman of the Religion Department at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Arthur was an eloquent speaker and was in much demand at university functions to give the opening prayer.
© 2013 W. Mullins
