E. B. Ringland
E. B. Ringland
“His was a life of action, of achievement, and of inspiration to all who came within the sphere of its influence. It was not a life of ostentation, ever, or in any respect, and a tribute of sincerity and simplicity…”
Biography
Evan Bernard Ringland was born in Pennsylvania and moved with his family to Iowa around 1851. At the age of 17, he enlisted in the Union Army of the Civil War and was assigned to a medical staff. He became a physician and began his practice in Texas and in Illinois, where he established and managed a sanitorium in Hamilton for the next 23 years. He moved to Oklahoma City around 1910 and, inspired by close friend Dr. Phil Baird, a local Presbyterian minister, established a mission church in the southern part of the city and was ordained in the ministry in 1912. In 1926, he was appointed by Oklahoma Governor Martin Trapp as curator of the Union Soldier Memorial Hall at the Oklahoma Historical Society in the state capitol building. Rev. Ringland also served as chaplain of the Oklahoma Memorial Association (now the Oklahoma Hall of Fame).
Fun fact
Rev. E.B. Ringland claimed to have telepathic powers and, in 1928, announced that since 1897 he had several visions of Mars and its inhabitants. Some of the visions were long, others short, and, after each, he carefully wrote down what he and seen.
Oklahoma connections
Ringland came to Oklahoma in 1910.