To Whom it may concern:

The following information will be of interest to those who are not familiar with Gospel Folio Press Trust, its beginning over 88 years ago in 1923 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. Or its present operation at Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada.

The Pell Family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan over 100 years ago. They located at 817 North Avenue which became known to many suppliers, customers and visitors. In 1923 one of the sons started printing Gospel texts by hand on pieces of leftover wallpaper from his father’s interior decorating business. Later he was given a hand press as a gift to help him greatly increase production. Then, a little later he acquired a “real” printing press that would assist in printing Gospel literature and Sunday School material. That was the start of the name Gospel Folio Press which has continued until today.

There have been many changes over the years as the operation expanded to include the publishing of books, a daily devotional calendar known as Choice Gleanings, and Sunday School materials known as Line upon Line Modular Bible Lessons.

In the early years of operation the customer base included individuals and churches. Today Gospel Folio Press Trust sells to bookstores throughout the USA and Canada, and also operates a mail-order and web-site operation to service individual customers in Canada, USA and many other countries of the world.

At present, Gospel Folio Press Trust operates from our location in Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada with offices, warehouse and bookstore consisting of over 4500 square feet carrying approximately 6500 titles of books, Bibles and booklets. This facility helps us run an efficient order processing, warehouse distribution and shipping operation, all orders received before 2:00 p.m. are shipped the same day, with all the administration work handled at this location.

Sincerely in His service

Sam Cairns
General Manager

A History of Gospel Folio Press Trust

When Christians hear “Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA” they often think Zondervan Publishers or Radio Bible Class or Children’s Bible Hour or Kregel Publishing. But where was the first Zondervan book typeset? And where did Dr. M.R. DeHaan bring his manuscripts to be checked before airing them? Who first produced a Bible course for the Wordless Book in Arabic? The Reason Why in Korean? God’s Way of Salvation in Spanish? A bilingual hymnbook in Songo and Portuguese? The answer is Gospel Folio Press.

When visiting Brethren assemblies throughout North America, in fact around the world, it’s almost inevitable to meet those familiar with Gospel Folio Press and the Pell Family of Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. Usually anyone who has spent time there smiles and guips, “Gospel Folio Press is like heaven, there’s no night there!” In a way they are right.

Now in our 88th year of service Gospel Folio Press Trust has a rich heritage of men and women who dedicated their lives to the ministry, not counting “overtime,” which usually stretched into the morning hours, or the sacrifices that were made so naturally that they hardly seemed to notice. It was a lifetime of investing for eternity.

The teenage son of a wallpaper hanger, William J. Pell hand-lettered gospel tracts on the back of scraps of wallpaper, then distributed them in the surrounding communities. By the time he and his brother Peter were in their late teens and early twenties, they were already busy conducting cottage meetings, Bible studies, and preaching on the street corners. The Pell brothers worked together their whole lives. Peter expounded the Word of God to believers and Will followed in the gospel or a word of stirring exhortation. He is remembered by many for his devotional messages. The brothers were especially well-known for their series with a model of the tabernacle.

In 1922, Mr. Bill Vanprooyen, a local businessman, helped Will acquire a $25.00 hand press, and he set it up in the parlor of his mother’s home. Soon after, Mr. Vanprooyen got a distressed phone call from Will, saying, “Where are the letters?” Laughing Mr. Vanprooyen explained that a printing press is much more than a glorified typewriter. He came over to show Will how to use it, arriving with a case of metal type. With these they set John 3:16, printing it on a small card, this was Gospel Folio Press’ first publication.

Shortly after the new press was purchased, Leonard Sheldrake asked Will to print his monthly gospel paper, Words of Peace. Mr. Sheldrake wrote: “If you feel you could handle the printing of Words of Peace and the will of God were so, we could yoke together in this service for His Name. The time is short.Soon our Lord will come. How much I have lost by lack of devotion to Him. Oh, that He might work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” With a regular publication, it was time to name the company. Will knew he would always use his press to print the gospel, and since he figured he would never print more than literature with one fold (a “folio” is a piece of paper folded once), he chose the name “Gospel Folio Press.”

The Pell homestead was situated only a few miles from downtown Grand Rapids, but it was nestled in between two hills, a secluded haven from the bustle of the city. Mr. and Mrs. Pell Sr., bought it from the Postema family on May 1, 1900. It was here that their ten children, four boys and six girls were raised.

A second house had been previously built on the same property, only a few feet away, by one of Mr. Pell’s brothers. After about a year of using his mother’s parlor as a workshop, Will moved the press into the hand-dug basement next door. The house was occupied by relatives or friends of the Pell family until eventually the printing work took over the house. With two additions, it continued to operate there until August 2001.

The ministry soon became a vital part of the whole Pell family’s life, with everyone involved from writing and editing material, to running the machines, to providing delicious meals and an open home to visitors and staff any time of the day or night.

Around 1925, Gospel Folio Press began printing Sunday School papers. Childhood Days was started in 1931, with Mr. Mervyn Paul as editor. At the Sunday School Teacher’s Conference held in May of 1931 at Toronto, Ontario, Canada the Teacher’s Lesson Manuals were born; J.R. Littleproud was editor until his death in 1941.

Besides Will, Grace, Lois and Peter Pell, the list is long of people who contributed to the Sunday School material, some involved were; F.W. Schwartz, Nelson Brooks, James Gunn, John Robertson, Helen Shaw, John Small, Margie Johnson, John Walden, Ruth Mattice, Mabel Carter, Dorothy Hunter and Ruth Sheldrake are some of those who worked for many years writing stories, doing illustrations, and outlining Bible lessons.

In 1972, when Lois Pell took over much of the responsibility for the Sunday School literature, she had a visit from John Boyd of Palos Hills, IL. Who suggested she ask Neil Dougal and J. Boyd Nicholson Sr. to help with the writing of the adult Bible lessons. They shared that ministry for twenty years.

For half a century, teaching material was mailed to Sunday Schools throughout the USA and Canada every two weeks. “Paper Day” seemed to nip at the heels of the one before, no sooner were all the packages dropped off at the post office, than another deadline was looming, demanding that new materials be written, edited, proofread, printed, packaged, labeled and mailed.

In 1991, after more than twenty years of involvement with Gospel Folio Press, J.B. Nicholson, Jr. accepted the responsibility for the operation of Gospel Folio Press and moved from St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada to Grand Rapids, Michigan to donate much of his time there. During the next five years, an updated modular Bible curriculum, Line Upon Line, was prepared and printed. It offers teacher’s manuals, student’s workbooks, and take-home papers for the entire narrative portion of the Bible at four levels of learning; primary, intermediate, junior high, and advanced. The philosophy is that everyone in the Sunday School, from primary to adult, can be studying the same Bible lessons at their individual level.

In 1939, Will became exercised about a daily devotional calendar. In spite of discouraging remarks from some who said it wasn’t feasible in North America, the calendar (initially named The Remembrancer but soon changed to Choice Gleanings) was launched in 1940. It was decided to print 800 the first year. Will figured he had that many friends. “At least I can give that many away,” he said. The only daily devotional calendar on the market for many years, it quickly became the most popular item that Gospel Folio Press produced. Soon they were printing over 44,000 calendars annually.

In later years, Will felt this to be his main ministry. Whenever he was away preaching, he loved to hunt through the library of his hosts, searching for fresh material.

Ann Pell, one of the sisters, ran the presses until the mid 60’s when, battling cancer, she wasn’t able to work any longer. Tim Johnson came on as pressman at that time and worked along with Dave Pell, a nephew of the Pell sisters. Dave and Tim served the Lord in the print shop until 2001.

When the Lord took Ann home, her sister Ruth took responsibility for running the print shop. Then she became the proofreader for almost every piece of literature that went out the doors. Tillie (who handled the accounting end of Gospel Folio Press for many years) and Lois were involved in the day to day operation and would offer sage advice. They were also actively involved in the ministry of Rest Haven Homes.

Since Will Pell was more of a preacher and writer than a businessman, through the years he frequently turned to F.W Schwartz of Detroit for business advise, as well as Mr. Vanprooyen (who was involved from the beginning). Often Will and Mr. Schwartz would sit at the kitchen table with a box of graham crackers and a bottle of milk, talking the night away.

On March 30, 1972, Will was called to be with the Lord and almost exactly nine years later, his brother Peter also passed away. The responsibility of the work at Gospel Folio Press was left in the hands of their four sisters: Grace, Tillie, Ruth, and Lois. They carried on for a decade with the help of many, but in addition to their responsibilities for Rest Haven Homes and Grace’s failing health, it became almost impossible to carry on.

In 1991, a Board of Directors was formed for the continued running of Gospel Folio Press and it was reorganized as a non-profit corporation at that time. Now Gospel Folio Press continues to provide the Lord’s people with gospel tracts, booklets, books, the distribution of dependable Christian literature from other publishers, publishing books from Christian authors, a web site, a recording library, the Modular Bible Lessons, as well as providing book tables for conferences.

While books are flooding the Christian market, there is a real concern by many as to the quality of the teaching found on the shelves of most Christian bookstores. A needed service to the Lord’s people is the distribution of selected books and products that Christians can trust. Along with the twenty or so new books per year published by Gospel Folio Press, a wider line from other trustworthy publishers is available through our mail order division. We are distributors for John Ritchie, Precious Seed, and Gospel Tract Publishers in North America. As well, we carefully choose other books to offer to you. This has been a service much appreciated by readers of quality literature for many years.

In August 2001, Gospel Folio Press Trust opened the doors of its present location in Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada. We are thankful to the Lord for providing us with office and warehouse space that meets our growing needs as well as space for a bookstore. We continue to publish the Choice Gleanings Calendar, between 20 and 30 new books per year, stock approximately 6500 titles of Christian Books including a large assortment of Commentaries and Dictionaries, a large inventory of Sunday School material, Gospel Tracts, and a large assortment of Bibles in different translations, versions and bindings.

Gospel Folio Press Trust also operates the GFP Charitable Donation Fund which is used for the donation of Christian books and literature to missionaries, outreach efforts, prison ministries as the Lord provides. It has been wonderful to be involved with so many different ministries and being able to work with the Lord’s workers in so many countries.

What of the future? Only the Lord really knows what lies ahead, but our desire is to increasingly provide sound biblical and Christ honoring resources to the people of God. We are in the business of communicating the truth, by whatever means it can effectively be communicated. We believe the Lord has raised up this ministry to serve His people for such a time as this.

We praise and thank the Lord for His faithfulness in preserving and providing for the ministry of Gospel Folio Press Trust in the past. We would ask you to pray with us that the Lord will continue to use this ministry for His honor and glory, until the Lord returns for His people.