n April 1908, Bresee accepted Edgar P. Ellyson, president of the Holiness University of Texas of Peniel, Texas; his wife, Mary Emily Ellyson; and its members of the Holiness Association of Texas into the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene.[11] In September 1908, the Pennsylvania Conference of the Holiness Christian Church under the leadership of Horace G. Trumbauer merged with the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene.[12] The newly merged east and west coast branches now focused on merging with the Holiness Church of Christ in the southern United States. The Holiness Church of Christ itself was the merger of the New Testament Church of Christ (founded in July 1894 in Milan, Tennessee by R.L. Harris, but soon led by his widow Mary Lee Cagle),[13] and a group (also called the Holiness Church of Christ), that formed in November 1904 at Rising Star, Texas from the prior merger of The Holiness Church (founded in 1888 in Texas) and the Independent Holiness Church formed at Van Alstyne, Texas, in 1901, and led by Charles B. Jernigan and J.B. Chapman.[14] The merger of the Holiness Church of Christ in the south and the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene took place on Tuesday, October 13, 1908, at 10:40 am, "amid great shouts of joy and holy enthusiasm."[15] This is considered to be the Second General Assembly of the Church of the Nazarene. The latter date marks the "official" founding date. Bresee, Reynolds and Ellyson were elected general superintendents. The newly merged Church of the Nazarene began with 10,034 members, 228 congregations, 11 districts, and 19 missionaries.[16] Other independent bodies joined at later dates, including the Pentecostal Church of Scotland (founded in 1909 by Rev. George Sharpe) and the Pentecostal Mission (founded in 1898 by J.O. McClurkan), both in 1915. In 1922, more than one thousand members and most of the workers led by Joseph G. Morrison, from the Laymen's Holiness Association (founded in 1917) located in the Dakotas, joined the Church of the Nazarene. Additional smaller churches would be merged into the Nazarene Church during the 1940-60s.[17]