Rev. Arthur L. Clanton

Arthur Lee Clanton was born September 29, 1915, in Iredell, Texas, to Pickford and Julia Clanton. His brother, R. C., had been born two years earlier. When Arthur was two, his father died, leaving Julia to tend their farm. A year or so later, Julia married a widower, John Lee, who worked for the Santa Fe Railroad in Ft. Worth, Texas.

While Arthur was still in elementary school, his step-father moved the family to Walnut Springs, Texas, where John found employment with the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. The Clanton family quickly joined the Baptist Church and became active members. In 1931, at age sixteen, Arthur graduated from Walnut Springs High School, one year ahead of his class.

Later in the summer of 1932, Arthur Lee Clanton received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. He immediately became involved in street evangelism - both in Walnut Springs and other nearby towns. He joined other young people to attend revival services almost every night, where they would help with music, singing and altar work. Soon, he was joining "evangelistic parties" for revivals in the hills and prairies of nearby Texas towns. At age seventeen, he preached his first sermon in a small community called County Line.

In 1937, Brother Clanton was called to be the pastor of the church in Rosepine, Louisiana. It was there that he met Grace Lance, whom he would later marry. In 1938, at age twenty-three, Brother Clanton was ordained into the ministry with the Pentecostal Church Incorporated.

In 1940, Brother Clanton left Rosepine, to serve as assistant pastor of the church in Alexandria, with Brother A. T. Morgan. About a year later, he was asked to move to Houston, Texas, to assist Brother W. E. Kidson as editor of the Apostolic Herald at the PCI headquarters. It was during this time that he and Grace Lance were married in February, 1942.

In May, 1942, Brother Howard Goss, Superintendent of the Pentecostal Church Incorporated, asked Brother Clanton to consider the pastorate of a church in Shreveport, Louisiana, a position he held until late 1947, at which time he returned to Alexandria, Louisiana, to assume the pastorate there. It was while in Alexandria, that Brother & Sister Clanton's first son, Charles, was born.

Brother Clanton wrote more than fifty gospel songs. The most well-known of these include “I Know I'm Saved” and of course, “My Thanks To Him”. It was in 1951, while in Shady Grove, that Stephen, the Clanton's second child was born.

At the General Conference in 1955, held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Brother Clanton was appointed Editor-in-Chief of the UPCI, a position he held until his untimely death on February 2, 1976. In addition to his editorial duties, he also single-handedly wrote the Adult Sunday School manual for several years, and was the author of a number of tracts. In 1970, after several years of exhaustive research and writing, the original edition of his book, United We Stand, was published.