Ira Haynes LaFetra (1877)

Ira LaFetraLAFETRA, IRA HAYNES (1851-1917), missionary to South America, was known as “builder of the Chile Mission.” On completion of studies at Boston University School of Theology he was invited to go to Chile by William Taylor (later bishop), arriving at Valparaiso in 1878 and ministering first to seamen in that port city. The next year LaFetra moved to Santiago, where he reorganized the English-language Union Church and founded a school. There he met and married Adelaide Whitefield (La Fetra), and their labors, with those of others, resulted in Santiago College, one of the leading educational institutions of Chile. In 1880 he was elected as the first president of the conference of missionaries set up to administer the self-supporting missions that had been established by Taylor on the West Coast of South America. Ill health forced his retirement in 1906.

G. F. Arms. Missions in South America. 1921.

W. C. Barclay, History of Methodist Missions. 1957.

[This biography reprinted from Maynard, Edwin H., “LaFetra, Ira Haynes.” In Encyclopedia of World Methodism, edited by Nolan B. Harmon, 1368. Nashville: United Methodist Publishing House, 1974.]

Link:

  • Santiago College, Santiago, Chile.