W. E. Kidson
W. E. Kidson was a major Oneness Pentecostal organizer, General Secretary of the Pentecostal Church Incorporated, editor of The Herald of Truth, and William Branham's early campaign manager, helping launch Branham's healing-revival career through UPC-connected publishing, citywide revival promotion, and miracle-service advertising; his work with Branham and other healing evangelists, including figures who also claimed angelic visitation, shows how Pentecostal media networks, campaign management, divine-healing publicity, and the emerging Voice of Healing style shaped Branham's public persona, while Branham's associate editorship under Kidson complicates later claims that he was uneducated, illiterate, and disconnected from organized Pentecostal structures.
W. E. Kidson was the General Secretary of the Pentecostal Church, Incorporated, which merged with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ to form the United Pentecostal Church. He was also William Branham's campaign manager, and William Branham was his associate editor for the Herald of Faith publication,[1] the official newsletter for the PCI, and the unofficial newsletter for the UPC.
As early as 1929, W. E. Kidson was a recognized name among the Pentecostal faith. Before taking his position in Dallas, TX, he pastored a church in Louisiana, MO. By 1930, he was named General Secretary of the Pentecostal Ministerial Alliance. Kidson toured Pentecostal churches in West Texas, and likely would have been familiar with Roy E. Davis of West Texas during the early years of Pentecostalism when Pentecostal evangelists worked closely with one another. Kidson was deeply involved in Pentecostal operations, not only in Texas but also in other states.
Kidson was very mobile, with offices in multiple states. By 1940, he had moved his office to Dallas, Texas He also had a home in Shreveport, LA, which would become a stronghold for both Roy Davis' sect of the Ku Klux Klan and William Branham's “Message". Though he sold it in 1942, Kidson would frequently return to Shreveport. By the time he managed William Branham’s campaign organization, Kidson was very familiar with "divine healing" and “healers". In his role as General Secretary, he was involved in the ordination of many pastors evangelists and healers. Some of the evangelists were women, which would have been forbidden in later versions of the “Message”.
In 1941, Kidson had moved his base from Dallas to Houston. He was the pastor of the Houston Gospel Tabernacle when he launched the "prophet" into overnight fame. But William Branham was not the only "healer" whose career W. E. Kidson would help create. And Branham was not the only "healer" whose "commission story" would be changed to include an “angel". Kidson managed other “healing” evangelists such as A. D. Van Hoose of Evansville, IN, who claimed to have had an angelic visitation. Kidson advertised “City-Wide Revival(s) of Power” with phrases such as “Don’t Miss His Experience, ‘I Met An Angel!’”, and called the services of other evangelists, “Miracle Services”.
Kidson's official newsletter, The Herald of Truth was the official publication of the Pentecostal Church, Incorporated, which merged with the Pentecostals of Jesus Christ to form the United Pentecostal Church. The magazine was first released in 1945,[2] the year Kidson claimed that Branham received his "angelic" commission.[3] As early as 1947, William Branham was the associate editor for the publication.[4] It should be noted that later versions of Branham's stage persona would claim to have only a seventh-grade education[5] and to be illiterate,[6] and that the Herald of Truth was not the only magazine that Branham published or edited.