Rev. Benjamin Harrison Hite

United Pentecostal Church International

1888 ~ 1948

 Reverend B.H. Hite was born September 2, 1888 in Franklin, Kentucky. One of seven children born to John and Emily Hite, he was destined to have a great part in the work of God. His mother was laid to rest when he was only ten years of age. At her passing she made a profound impression upon her young son by saying that she would not mind dying if she knew that he and his younger sister would grow up to serve the Lord. 

B.H. Hite was united in marriage to Mary Vanover on December 26, 1911 at Nashville, Tennessee. To this union were born ten children. In 1912, when he was still a young man, God began to deal with Bro. Hite. He was converted in a cottage prayer meeting. At this time he wholly accepted God as his leader, and threw away all his medicine. 

A few days later, Bro. H.W. Coulon came to Nashville, preaching the message of the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Bro. Hite had never heard this message but when he did he said that he wanted all that God had for him. In October, 1912, he received the Holy Ghost at a ladies prayer meeting, and spoke with tongues for about five hours. Shortly thereafter he acknowledged his call to preach the gospel.

At the beginning of his ministry he preached on street corners, in jails, in cottage prayer meetings...in fact, anywhere there was an open door. In his first cottage prayer meeting a blind woman was divinely healed. He opened his first mission in 1913. But he soon felt the call to enter evangelistic work, and this led him into the mountain areas as well as many places in Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Illinois, and Missouri. He funded missions which have grown into fine churches. In In 1919 he founded a mission church in Joplin, MO., located at the corner of 22nd and Main Street where he labored for one year. In 1920, he moved to Granite City, Illinois where he opened a small mission. In 1923 he conducted services in Belleville, Illinois, and many received the Holy Ghost.

Brother Hite's first ministerial affiliation was with the Assemblies of God. Then, in 1916, he received light on baptism in Jesus' name, and affiliated with the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. Later he became a member of the Pentecostal Church, Incorporated. From the time of the merger in 1945, until his death, he was a faithful member of the United Pentecostal Church. He served also in various official positions. He was the first General Chairman of the (PCI) Pentecostal Church Incorporated, being elected in 1934 and serving until 1939. In this same organization he later held the position of District Superintendent of the Central District, made up at that time of Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky. When  Missouri separated from the Central District to form a district of its own, he became the District Superintendent. He continued to hold this position in the United Pentecostal Church until the time of his death.

Brother Hite played a prominent part in helping to bring about the merger, in 1945, of the Pentecostal Church Incorporated and the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ. In 1921 he came to St. Louis, Missouri to start a church. At the time he had two children. He came into the city with only three dollars. And on that same day he gave half of this to a needy fellow-minister. In St. Louis he established the First Pentecostal Church, and pastored it until his death, twenty-seven years later. God mightly blessed his labors, and gave him many souls. From his church, approximately forty ministers went out into the work of God. B.H. Hite was called home on May 23, 1948. He is gone, but the work he did lives on.