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Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 165

INTRODUCTION OF METHODISM IN OHIO.

BY REV. I. F. KING, D. D.

[Dr. King is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University in the class

of 1858. He received the degree of D. D. from Miami University.

For forty-three years he has served in the ministry of his church and

for fourteen years was a presiding elder in the Ohio Conference.]-

EDITOR.

The recent celebration at Delaware, Ohio, of the one hun-

dredth anniversary of the introduction of Methodism in the State

of Ohio, has caused us all to review with interest the heroic and

self-sacrificing work of the fathers, and to wonder at the results

as they appear before us in diversified forms.

Men of all faiths have pleasure in gathering together facts

connected with religious movements. The present effort is to

preserve, if possible, some important papers read on the above

named occasion and add some further interesting data for the

future historian. No other religious movement has perhaps so

generally and profoundly impressed the State as Methodism.

ORIGIN OF METHODISM IN EUROPE AND AMERICA.

A sketch of the origin of the church, its introduction into

America, together with a careful survey of its local history

may be useful and interesting.

This branch of the Church had its origin in England only

thirty-seven years before the Declaration of Independence was

signed. And ten years before the united colonies dissolved civil

relations with Great Britain Methodism entered the new world.

Indeed the Wesleyan movement was only fifty years old at the

settlement of Ohio at Marietta in 1788.

The history of this Church in the state can be best understood

after a brief review of its origin and early history.

John Wesley, the son of an English clergyman, was born in

1703.

His mother's careful conscientious training, produced in her

son such high ideas as to Christian character, that her son readily

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saw and felt the contrast in coming in contact with nominal

Christians after he left home influences.

The recoil he first realized in his associations in school and

afterward in college life, was marked. Neither his teachers nor

his preachers were as devout or spir-

itual as his standard demanded. He

and his brother, Charles Wesley, while

in Oxford University, united with

other like-minded young men in the

study of the Greek Testament and in

prayer, in such a methodical way as to

produce, as they hoped, the best re-

sults. They sought purity of heart and

life. Their collegemates in derision

called them "The Holy Club" and

nicknamed them "Methodists."

As these young collegians ad-

vanced in knowledge and experience in

the divine life, the more they saw that

the clergymen of their times were in-

different to spiritual realities. Indeed,

history verifies the views of the Wesleys; and shows that these

men were idle and lifeless. In a formal way they served the

Church and looked more to "their livings" than their lives.

At the age of twenty-eight John Wesley had completed his

course of study at Oxford, and was ordained an elder in the

Church of England. In a freak of enthusiasm he came to

America, spending the time in the southern states, but soon found

he was in the wrong place, and returned to England. In the

mean time he learned from the Moravians that they, in the sim-

plicity of their faith, enjoyed a heritage of gracious favor with

God, not known at that time, in the established church. He

determined also to possess like precious faith.

In reading Paul's letter to the Romans as to justification by

faith he "felt his heart strangely warmed." Immediately he

began to preach in this vein to his father's parishioners and the

prisoners at Newgate. The Church objected to the zeal of Mr.

Wesley He was refused the use of the churches. He betook

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himself to field preaching, and vast numbers of people followed

him, who soon enjoyed with him like satisfactory experience.

At Moorefield, as winter approached, his followers got possession

of a foundry, and it was used as the first shelter. It was really

an institutional church, for soon it had a school for the poor, a

library, a loan office, an old ladies' home, and an employment

bureau. As the work went on he introduced lay preaching.

This auxiliary aided in expanding the work materially. These

converts asked for the sacraments, at the hands of the Church of

England, but were denied.

About this time he announced the sentiment that "The

World is my Parish." He never left the Church of England and

never intended to establish a new

Church, yet he was forced to give the

lambs of his flock the sacraments.

Soon all England was filled with

his converts and also Ireland and

Wales. Irish emigrants reached North

America who were of his converts. A

little company of them were in New

York. They began to degenerate and

when they met socially, instead of

prayer and Bible study, they engaged

in card playing.

Mrs. Barbara Heck, a saintly

woman, came into their community

and expostulated with them, persuad-

ing them to burn their cards; and she besought the Rev. Philip

Embury to preach in her private house to the company. This was

in 1766, when Mr. Embury organized the first class in America,

consisting of Paul Heck, Barbara Heck, John Lawrence and his

wife and a colored woman named Betty. The first church in

America was built on John Street, New York, in 1768.

To aid the work in America, the Wesleyans in Leeds, Eng-

land, raised $350.00 missionary money which was applied to the

workers in the cities of New York and Philadelphia. The work

rapidly advanced in this country, and John Wesley gave it all

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the superintendence it was possible for a man in another continent

to do.

The established church declined to recognize the American

converts, as she had done in England and these "sheep in the wil--

derness," (as Mr. Wesley called them,) were without the sacra-

ments.

In 1771 Mr. Wesley sent over to America the Rev. Francis

Asbury, who was an elder. He held a conference in 1773 in

Philadelphia of ten preachers, and sent them out to the various

fields in New York, New Jersey and Maryland. At that time

there were 1160 members of the Church.

After the revolutionary war, Mr. Wesley found the people

could not get along at all in this country without an organization

separate from the Wesleyans of Europe. In 1784 he ordained

the Rev. Thomas Coke a bishop for America and sent with him

a letter to his people in America to ordain

the Rev. Francis Asbury also a bishop, which

was done late in December of that year in the

city of Baltimore. This was the origin of the

Methodist Episcopal Church in America. It

began free from ritualism and the many forms

of service which had accumulated about the

Mother Episcopal Church. It was Armenian,

not Calvinistic in its faith. It had new ma-

chinery suited to new conditions. It would

be difficult to conceive of a Church, in or-

ganization and doctrine, better fitted to the

spirit and life of the American pioneers. It was Wesley's

aim to give the new continent primitive Christianity. It

stands to reason that this kind of a church with the fire

of Pentecost in the heart of its workers, would be well nigh

irresistible. The institutions of the Church itself and the

formation of nearly every society connected with it, is the

result of Providential opening and direction. This will be seen

as we look at the way in which each piece of machinery of the

Church came into use. At Bristol, England, Mr. Wesley found

money was necessary to meet the obligations on him, so he placed

eleven names in a class and appointed a man to see each one,

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once per week, to collect a penny apiece to support the Church.

As these men reported weekly to Mr. Wesley, he learned of some

who were in distress, some were sick, and some were becoming

weary in well doing. So he received the suggestion of turning

the matter around and making the primary object religious in-

struction and spiritual development, with a leader to meet his

class weekly and look after the spiritual welfare of each and

receive from each a little contribution for the Church and poor.

Two or more classes form a society, and in America as many

societies as are needed are clustered together to support a pastor.

This makes a pastoral charge. As these increase an assistant

preacher is added. The preacher in charge has authority to re-

ceive and dismiss members and is responsible for the administra-

tion of discipline.

When a society becomes large enough to support a pastor,

it is formed into a station. Twelve or more circuits and stations

are clustered together and form a district. And from two to ten

districts usually form an annual conference. An official board

governs the local society. A quarterly conference exists in every

pastoral charge. An annual conference with a bishop to preside

admits pastors into it, and receive reports from them, from year

to year. And every four years an equal number of ministers and

lay-delegates are elected to the general conference, which is the

law-making body of the Church. Class leaders are appointed by

the pastors. Exhorters are selected by the official boards, and

are subject to the quarterly conference. They may conduct

prayer meeting in the absence of the pastor and in early years

they went forth wherever needed and pressed the people to for-

sake sin, and turn to God. Local preachers are those ministers

who preach and are not subject to the appointment of the Bishop,

but reside in one place and act as substitutes for regular pastors

in their absence, and they preach usually without compensation

wherever invited or needed. The Bishops found in superintend-

ing the work, that in their absence there was need of supervision

of the work of the Church; to discover new fields not occupied,

to look up supplies for vacant pulpits and to give the sacraments

to the people where the minister was not ordained. So men,

from time to time, were appointed as presiding elders. These

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officers the bishop calls into his councils to aid in distributing the

ministers to the several churches.

By the year 1790, under Bishops Coke and Asbury, the work

had spread from Boston to Rochester, N. Y. From Philadelphia

to Wheeling and south to Charleston, South Carolina, and south-

west to Nashville, Tennessee, and Lexington, Kentucky.

The itinerant Methodist preacher had followed the emigrant

and the pioneer miner was closely pursued by them. In 1791

John Wesley died, having preached 52 years. He had traveled

on horseback 250,000 miles and had preached 42,000 times.

There were in England 52 preachers and 125,000 members and

in the United States there were 200 preachers and 38,000 mem-

bers. It will be seen that Mr. Wesley was not a destructionism

but a constructionist. In all this development of work under

him, which would have prompted any other great leader in the

world, to have withdrawn from the parent organization, and him

self become the head of a new Church, but on the contrary he

continued unto death a member of the established Church of Eng

land.

Of him it has been said, "his frame was of adamant and his

soul a flame of fire." Among the reasons for his great success was

the strong conviction which possessed him in youth and con-

tinued unabated to the end of a long life. Under the impulse of

this mighty power he was ready to spend and be spent.

THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY AS A FIELD FOR CHURCH WORK

Hail to the "Great Northwest," as it stood in the days of our grandsires'

Vast territorial realm, and fresh as at dawn of creation,-

Fair as the Garden of Eden, and fraught with fertility boundless,-

Cradle of five great States, of imperial riches and glory!

Hail to its limitless forests, unscathed by the ax or the firebrand;

Solemn, majestic, the pillared and leafy cathedrals of nature,

Organ'd with anthems Aeolian, choired by invisible spirits,

Mightiest sylva sylvarum that e'er awed the realm of mortals!

Hail to its prairies, rolling in billowy oceans of verdure.

Silt of pre-Adamite seas, and richer than Nile's inundations,

Gemmed with blossoms by millions, as bright as the stars in the heavens

Waiting to teem with culture and bread for a world's population!

Hail to its far-flowing rivers, voluminous, countless, and pouring

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Floods unexhausted, prolific, the highways of travel and traffic:

Vast Mississippi, Ohio, Maumee, Wisconsin and Wabash,

Bright Illinois, Rock River, Muskingum, St. Clair and Scioto-

Streams unnamed and unsung, all yet to be famous and classic!

Hail to the five Great Lakes, the American Mediterranean,

Fresh as the mountain springs, and blue as the azure above them,

Deep as the seas, and as wide, with room for the fleets of the nations,

Bearing to-day on their bosoms a commerce that rivals Atlantic's!

Hail to the air of this realm, its climate, inspiring and tonic!

Hail to its quarries and mines-its iron lead copper, and carbon,

Limestone and freestone and grindstone, to sharpen the sword or the

plowshare;

Oil from the flinty rock, and gas from retorts subteranean-

Factors for industries vaster than ever the Old World astounded!

Such was the "Great Northwest," as it stood unexplored and unpeopled.

Stretching from blue Alleghenies to far-off Father of Waters;-

Such in its virgin perfection, a continent's garden and glory,

Fairest cluster of gems in the New World's diadem destined.

-Geo. L. Taylor's Ohio Centennial Poem in Western Christian Advocate.

In 1800 the Ohio River was regarded as the extreme frontier

of America, constituting the dividing line between the white and

the red man. No line was sufficient to form a barrier against

the invasion of both parties. The white man was as frequently

the aggressor as the Indian, and many were the scenes of suffer-

ing, carnage and massacre witnessed along this border line.

When the Northwestern Territory was ceded to the United States

by Virginia in 1784, it embraced only the territory lying between

the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers and north to the northern

limits of the United States. It coincided with the area now

embraced in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wis-

consin, and that portion of Minnesota lying on the east side of

the Mississippi river.

After New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut had sur-

rendered their rights in this territory, in 1787 Congress passed

a famous ordinance for the protection of this territory, which

is recognized by all to-day as a masterpiece of statesmanship. It

vindicated the principles of the thirteen colonies and provided

that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should exist in the

territory. It contained also the following: "religion, morality,

and knowledge being necessary for good government and the

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happiness of mankind, schools and the means for education shall

forever be encouraged."

From two directions came emigrants to this territory. From

the east, coming from the Red Stone country of Pennsylvania.

Also the settlers had found the Cumberland Gap, and though

it had passed on to Tennessee and Kentucky, and from these

states had turned northward toward the Ohio river. Many of

these last named came north from conscientious motives, so as to

be out of slave territory. When they came to the valley of the

Ohio, they did not find it a place of habitation, but a hunting

ground. The savage seemed not to take in the situation when he

saw the white man or even his cabin, where the wife and children

could be seen.

But the sight of the block house and the stockade was a

challenge for conflict. Most of the preachers who came in the

wake of these pioneers had more or less army experience and

knew well how to use a rifle. Most of the people were the sons

or the grand-sons of the Revolutionary soldiers. Of course,

these were refugees and adventurers.

But the new soil of Ohio received the best seed of the

nation. Of those who came 89 per cent were of American birth,

only 11 per cent foreigners, and of the foreigners two-thirds were

Germans. But it is true that of these men, when they had passed

the bounds of their old home society, and were in these regions

where they felt no restraint, many became rough and some be-

came seriously wicked. Of course, these emigrants brought with

them the views of religion taught them by their parents. Many

were Calvinists, a few were Armenian in faith. Many were Bap-

tists, some Episcopalians, others Universalists. There were some

pronounced Atheists. It was quite difficult for church workers to

keep apace with these travelers. The Methodist preachers often

went in bands of two, mounted, with arms and food for a day or

two, hoping to find shelter at night at some friendly cabin, for

courage and hospitality were prime virtues in these wilds. Gen-

erally the preacher was treated with respect and found a hearty

welcome. Sometimes they camped in the roads and took turns

in keeping watch, while others slept. The doctrine that the

Gospel provides salvation for all men, and that salvation is from

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Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 173

all sin, and that each may know that he is saved and that each

should witness the fact, commended itself to the common sense

of the people. So in the main Methodism found an easy right

of way. It is true that many of the ministers were masters of

the art of controversy, and polemic theology.

ORIGIN OF CAMP MEETINGS.

We quote from the Rev. J. B. Finley's Pioneer Life:

"In the spring of 1800 one of the most astonishing and

powerful revivals that has been known in the western country

occurred. The commencement of this work is traceable to the

joint labors of two brothers named McGee, in Cumberland

County, Kentucky, one of whom was a Presbyterian and the

other a Methodist preacher. They commenced laboring to-

gether every Sabbath, preaching, praying, and exhorting alter-

nately. This union was regarded as quite singular and excited

the curiosity of vast multitudes who came to the place of the

meeting to hear two men preach who held views in theology,

supposed to be entirely antagonistic. Nothing was discovered

in their preaching of a doctrinal character, except the doctrine of

man's total depravity and ruin by sin, and his recovery therefrom

by repentance and faith in Christ. All were exhorted to flee

the wrath to come and be saved from their sins. The word

which they preached was attended with the power of God to the

hearts of listening thousands. The multitude which flocked from

all parts of the country to hear them, became so vast that no

church could hold them, and they were obliged to resort to fields

and woods. Every vehicle was put in requisition, carriages,

wagons, carts, and sleds. Many came on horseback and larger

crowds still came on foot.

As the excitement increased and the work of conviction

and conversion continued, several brought tents and they were

pitched on the ground and remained day and night for many

days. This was the origin of campmeetings.

In 1804 the Cane Ridge Campmeeting took place. In the

interim between the McGee meeting and this there were frequent

successful campmeetings. Mr. Finley gives the results of this

meeting in these terms: "Language is too poor to give anything

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like an adequate idea of the sublimity and grandeur of the scene.

Twenty thousand persons tossed to and fro like the tumultuous

waves of the sea in a storm, or swept like the trees in the forest

under the blast of the wild tornado, was a sight which my eye

witnessed but which neither my pen nor tongue can describe.

Good judges were ready to admit that there were extravagances

to be found in these meetings which should be condemned, but

all was not wild fanaticism. The main trend of the work was

that of God's Spirit on the hearts of the people. Thousands

were genuinely converted to God." The Cumberland Presby-

terian Church had its origin at this time and place. It was at

these altars that young preachers, who in after years came to

Ohio to labor, got their hearts aflame. It took bold, courageous

and untiring Christian zeal to break down the strongholds of sin

in these western wilds. For rivers were to be swum, hunger,

thirst and weariness to be endured and penury to be faced.

From this source came the consuming fire which was in the bones

of the men who first preached in the northwest territory. Here

men had conviction that Christ died for all men; that salvation

was in their reach, and it was their duty to offer mercy to all.

DRESS AND HABITS OF PIONEERS.

Let us now turn our eyes to the homes, habits and costumes

and customs of the people these early Ohio pastors served.

With the better classes the costume was buckskin trowsers,

a hunting shirt, a leathern belt around the waist, a scabbard and

a big knife fastened to their belt. Some of them wore hats and

some wore caps. Their feet were covered with moccasins, made

of dressed deer skins.

They did not think themselves dressed without their powder

horns and shot pouch or the gun and tomahawk. They were

ready then for all alarms, whether it came while at home or on

the way to or at church. The first settlers could not have sus-

tained themselves had it not been for the wild game that was in

the country. This was their principal substance and this they

took at the peril of their lives; and often many of them came

near starving to death. Wild meat, without bread or salt, was

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often their food for weeks together. If they obtained bread, the

meal was pounded in a mortar or ground on a hand mill. Some-

times it was grated on a tin grater.

Rev. James B. Finley writes that when he set up for house-

keeping near Bainbridge, Ohio, "with the aid of brother John

I built a cabin in the forest, my nearest neighbor being three

miles off. Into this we moved without horse or cow, bed or

bedding, bag or baggage. We gathered up the leaves and dried

them in the sun; then picking out all the sticks we put them into

a bedtick. For a bedstead we drove forks into the ground and

laid sticks across, over which we placed elm bark. On this we

placed our bed of leaves and had comfortable lodging. The

nearest mill was thirty miles distant. The Rev. Peter Cart-

wright speaks thus of the meal made in the

mortar. "We stretched deer skin over a hoop;

burned holes in it with the prongs of a fork,

sifted our meal, baked our bread, ate it, and

it was first rate eating, too. We raised or

gathered from the woods our own tea. We

had sage Bohea, cross-vine, spice and sas-

safras teas in abundance. As for coffee, I

am not sure that I smelled it for ten years.

We made our sugar from the water of the

maple tree, and our molasses too. These were

great luxuries in those days." In another

place he records the fact that he traveled for ten years as an

itinerant preacher before he was invited to sleep in a plastered

house. This occurred in the house of Governor Edward Tiffin,

of Chillicothe.

THE TYPICAL CABIN

Was built of round logs, chunked and daubed, enclosing one room

fifteen by eighteen feet. There was but one door and opposite

it a window, which, if it had not glass in it, had a four light sash

covered with oiled paper, or if neither of these, there was a

wooden shutter, which was opened in day time and closed at

night. The door was of split plank or puncheon, hung on

wooden hinges with a wooden latch which was fastened within

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to a string, which in day time protruded without through a

small hole, but at night was drawn within. On the interior the

floor was of puncheons, the hearth was of rock, of nature's own

hewing. The fireplace was wide and deep enough to receive

logs eight and ten feet long. There was an iron crane in the chim-

ney or a wooden pole, to which was attached a chain which below

ended in a hook to which swung an iron pot used for many pur-

poses. The other cooking utensils were a skillet, iron tea kettle,

a wooden tray for kneading bread. Next to the window a plain,

cheap dining table and on it the linen table cloth folded up, and if

there was no stand in the house the Bible and hymn book lay

there too. In the rear of

the room stood a bed with

a valance around its legs

to conceal the trundle-

bed, used by the children.

A few shelves at the left

of the fire-place, resting

on wooden pins, contained

the dishes. And on the

other side of the fire-

place, there too, were

some shelves which con-

tained the clock and a few

books. A chest or box

contained the linen and

clothing of the family, ex-

cept a few larger gar-

ments which hung on pins

in the wall in the rear,

beside the chest or possibly bureau. Over the door rested the

gun on a rustic rack. A rough ladder reached the loft, in the

rear of the room, and up there were the supplies for winter for

man and beast. There too were walnuts and hickory nuts, some

dried fruits and garden seeds, with a few tools, among them a

cross-cut saw. Also in this loft were deposited cast-off garments

and some disabled furniture.

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The roof of the cabin was covered with clap-boards held

to their place by ridge-poles. The chimney was built up ten feet

high with stone and mortar and finished out with sticks cemented

together with dried mud. Beside the chimney next to the door

was the dog kennel. The means of conveying supplies from the

east was at first on pack horses.

HIGH WAYS.

In forming a new road to any point, the hatchet was used

by the pathfinder who cleaved the bark off the trees in pieces as

large as the hand. Thus, as he went, he blazed the way. After

this the logs and smaller trees were removed, so that wheeled

vehicles could pass. After the roads were made passable, then

came the ox-team and following these came the covered wagon

drawn by horses. It was essential to the comfort of emigrants

passing westward to have a road cut out, and at proper places

have wells dug in order that man and beast could be supplied

with water. So in 1796, under the direction of the general gov-

ernment, the Zane trace was made from Zanesville, Ohio, to

Maysville, Kentucky; and the first man to pass over it with a

wagon was Mr. William Craig.

LIVE STOCK.

To keep the cows from wandering off to remote places where

it would be difficult to find them, each pioneer who could afford

it, had a bell fastened to the neck of his cow, so she in moving

her head would make it ring. Another valuable provision for

the advantage of the pioneer was the marking of live stock, such

as cattle, hogs, and sheep by holes or scores in the ears. Each

citizen could select his own mark and register the same with a

county officer, and in this way he was able to identify his prop-

erty. For in those days stock had the freedom of all unfenced

forests.

An Ohio minister, as late as 1852, while attending general

conference in the city of Boston, noted with surprise the cleanli-

ness of the city, and much of this he discovered was due to the

city ordinance which prohibited stock from running at large in

the city.

Vol. X.--12.'

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In our age we are liable to think that the conditions of the

present existed in the past. The contrast between the past and

the present in Ohio is exceedingly great.

J. B. Finley says that the first Presbyterian minister in

Chillicothe was Rev. Robert W. Finley and the first Methodist

preachers were Revs. Harr and Tiffin. The first physician was

Dr. Samuel McAdow, the first legislature met under a sycamore

tree on the banks of the Scioto river near the foot of Mulberry

street. In this connection it may be of interest to state that the

first steamboat made its trip on the Ohio river in 1811, and steam

was not applied to vessels on Lake Erie until 1818. The first

railroad in this state began running trains in 1841.

PLACE OF WORSHIP.

Of necessity the place of worship with the pioneer was his

cabin. Near the little window was set a small stand with a

Bible and hymn book. These books were also always in the

saddle bags of the minister. The preacher's seat was a split-

bottomed or husk-bottomed chair. Next to the wall were ar-

ranged blocks, on which were placed wide, smooth rails or boards

for seats, and in an inner circle near the minister were a few of

the elderly worshipers in chairs. There being few hymn books,

the minister lined the hymns. All kneeled during prayer.

After the sermon was ended, a class meeting, concluded with an

invitation to join the Church; and in most cases the services did

not close without an appeal to men to cease the life of sin

and then and there repent of sin and surrender to God. It was

the exception to hold a service without at least one conversion.

The people came to the services plainly clad and no one stayed

away because his garments were not of a fashionable cut. If the

meeting was at night, the people did not start home without light-

ing their torches at the fire, (for friction matches were not then in

use). A few persons had tin lanterns with a bit of candle. In

many cases the forests were so swampy that ladies especially,

frequently wore the rough heavy shoes to a spot near the church,

then took off the heavy shoes and put on the lighter ones, which

had been carried in hand to that spot. The exchanged shoes

were deposited in a fence corner or under the bark of some log.

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Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 179

And on the return home another exchange was made; in this

way good shoes were kept looking well for many years.

FIRST PREACHING.

The following accurate authentic account of the introduction

of Methodism into the North West Territory is from the pen of

Mr. Samuel W. Williams of Cincinnati, Ohio:

"The first preacher in the great west was Jeremiah Lambert,

who traveled the Holston Circuit in 1783. Four years later the

work was extended, comprehending the Nollichucky Circuit and

the entire state of Kentucky and the Cumberland region.

At the same time two new circuits were formed near the

headwaters of the Ohio: the Clarksburg and the Ohio, the latter

lying in Virginia, between Wheeling and Pittsburg. Of these

the first was manned by Robert Cann and George Parsons, and

the other by Charles Connoway and George Callanhan. A few

families had crossed the Ohio river into what was generally

called the Indian country but was to be known as "the North-

western Territory" and for protection built a block-house on the

river at Carpenter's station.

For some time the frontiers had been without alarm; but in

September, 1787, the Indians made an inroad upon the settlement

and killed part of the family of Mr. - McCoy. Some of

the settlers made their escape and fled to the block-house, where

all the families were soon collected for safety.

In four or five days thereafter one of the preachers on the

Ohio Circuit preached at the cabin of Regin Pumphrey in Peach

Bottoms, Va., about a mile and a half from the station.

Eight or ten persons from that point had crossed over the

river to attend the service, and at its conclusion earnestly be-

sought the young preacher to come to the station and preach for

them in the afternoon at the block-house. A council was im-

mediately held on the subject but the majority of the preacher's

friends deemed it unsafe for him to go. After a few moments

of deliberation however, he determined for himself and turning

to the applicants said: Return and make what arrangements

you can; and if providence permits, I will visit you at four

o'clock.

180 Ohio Arch

180 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

When the preacher (George Callanhan) reached Carpenter's

Station, a place about a mile above the present village of Warren-

ton, Jefferson County, Ohio, he found a congregation already

assembled including some of his hearers in the forenoon. Fif-

teen or twenty hardy backwoodsmen, armed with rifles, toma-

hawks and scalping knives, stood on the outside of the assembly

as protectors against an alarm. After the service was ended a

pressing invitation was given the preacher to visit Carpenter's

Fort again, and he cheerfully acceded to the request.

During his stay on the Ohio Circuit, which was about four

months longer, a number of persons from the opposite side of the

river applied for admission into the society, and they were regu-

larly enrolled in a class.

This was perhaps the first Methodist preaching within the

boundaries of Ohio-certainly the first of which we have any

definite knowledge-though it is claimed that Joseph Hill had

preached in Ohio a year or two previous.

In the southwestern part of the state the earliest Methodist

sermon was preached by Francis Clark, a local preacher from

Danville, Ky., and the pioneer of Methodism in that state. He

visited Fort Washington in 1793 and like St. Paul at Athens "his

spirit was stirred within him" when he beheld the godless-

ness of the troops and the wickedness of the citizens. Through

the intervention of a friend, he obtained the privilege of preach-

ing in the fort, where he delivered his message from God faith-

fully and fearlessly. Two years later James Smith, likewise a

local preacher from Richmond,Va., crossed the Ohio river at Cin-

cinnati (November 15, 1795) and the next day preached at the

cabin of Mr. - Talbert, about seven miles from the city on the

road to Hamilton. Mr. Smith was a kinsman of the venerable

Philip Gatch and came to Ohio on a prospecting tour. Mr. Tal-

bert met him and with genuine hospitality insisted on his staying

over night at his home where Mrs. Talbert baked him provisions

for his journey. In the evening his host gathered a few of his

neighbors and Mr. Smith spoke to them from Luke 2, 10, the

angelic announcement to the shepherds of Bethlehem. To these

hearers his words were indeed "good tidings of great joy."

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 181

So far these Methodist movements in Ohio were sporadic

and no efforts seem to have been made by the traveling minis-

ters to establish societies or stated preaching in that territory

until 1798, when John Kobler, who had been appointed presiding

elder on the Kentucky district, was directed by Bishop Asbury

to go over the river and form a regular circuit.

Valentine Cook was at the same time sent from Baltimore to

take Mr. Kobler's place on the district. The two men met on the

Holston Circuit, July 28th, and Mr. Kobler having given his

successor all the information needed to prosecute the work, set

out for his new field of labor. On August 1st he crossed the

Ohio at Columbia, a small village near the mouth of the Little

Miami (now included within the corporate limits of Cincinnati),

and the same evening he reached the cabin of Francis McCormick

a local preacher from Virginia, near Milford. Here he received

a hearty welcome, and the next day, to as large a congregation

as could be collected, he preached and read the general rules of

the society. He also met the class of members which had been

gathered by Mr. McCormick and appointed Philip Hill the

leader.. As this was the first regularly organized class in Ohio

it may be well to record the names of those composing it. They

are: Philip Hill, Ambrose Ransom, Francis McCormick, Joseph

Gest, John Hill, Philip Gatch, Ezekiel Dimmitt, William Salter,

Philip Smyzer, and their wives with Jeremiah Hall, Mrs. Temper-

ance Raper and Tom, a colored man whose last name history

does not give-in all twenty-one.

Most of the members belonging to the first class in Ohio

went from three to eight miles every week to attend class meeting

regardless of the weather and their number speedily increased.

Philip Hill, who had been appointed to take charge of this class,

was a model leader. It was his custom to visit the members

three or four times a year at their own homes, and he always in-

troduced his visits with singing and prayer, after which he closely

questioned all the household present on the subject of practical

and experimental religion. With such watch-care there was no

room for backsliding; and the influence of that society extended

far and wide. Clermont county became the hive of Methodism

in southern Ohio.

182 Ohio Arch

182 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

After spending five days in this place Mr. Kobler took Fran-

cis McCormick for a guide and the two proceeded up the Little

Miami to its sources, visiting the newly formed settlements in

the valleys of Mad River and the Great Miami, touching at Day-

ton, Hamilton and Franklin and returning to the place of begin-

ning by way of Fort Washington. There was then in Cincinnati

only a few log cabins clustered under the hill, one store and a

printing office outside the fort; but Mr. Kobler could find no

open door to deliver his message of salvation in what is now the

center of a vast population. The territory which he passed over

he formed into a two-weeks circuit, with eight or ten appoint-

ments.

Mr. Kobler remained here less than a year, when, at the con-

ference which met May 17, 1799, Lewis Hunt was appointed his

successor. In the same year and month that Mr. Kobler left,

Robert Manley crossed the Ohio River opposite Marietta, and

stopped at the home of William McCabe on the stockade. On

the following day (April 7th), he preached in McCabe's cabin

and closed with a social prayer meeting. He then organized a

class of six persons, to wit: William McCabe, John and Samuel

Protsman, and their wives. On the 10th of the month he visited

Wolf Creek and Waterford and there also formed classes. Thus

we have two or three beginnings of Methodism in Ohio and at

points widely separated.

Mr. Hunt's health soon broke down and Henry Smith was

sent by the presiding elder, Francis Poythress, to take his place or

at least relieve him in his work. Mr. Smith reached Milford

on September 14th and the next day set out to seek Mr. Hunt.

He found him on Mad River near Dayton, at the house of Wil-

liam Hamer, who had been appointed leader of the first class

formed in that section. Mr. Hunt had so far recovered his

health as to be able to prosecute his work, and accordingly they

arranged with each other for Mr. Smith to proceed to the Scioto

country while Mr. Hunt remained in the Miami region. The

former then proceeded on his travels through southern Ohio,

in various places preaching and forming classes, and on October

1st he came to the house of Colonel Joseph Moore, a local preacher

from Kentucky, who had settled on Scioto Brush Creek. Here he

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 183

found a society of Methodists already organized by that intrepid

and zealous pioneer who made the first clearing in that part of

the territory. Soon after he began his improvements. Neigh-

bors flocked in and when Mr. Smith visited him the society had

become so numerous that no private house was large enough to

hold the congregation that came together for worship. In this

emergency Colonel Moore gave a piece of bench-land, not far

from the creek, for a meeting house and burying ground, and in

August, 1800, before Mr. Smith left the new circuit, the neigh-

bors assembled, cut and hewed the timber and erected the first

Methodist church in the Northwest territory. A son of Colonel

Moore who died so lately as November, 1884, at the advanced age

of ninety-four years, helped to haul the logs with which it was

constructed. He was then ten years old. In process of time the

log church fell into decay and was abandoned. The members

scattered and went to other places for worship; but in the burying

ground surrounding it, still sleep the remains of many of the

old pioneers. Recently the old place has been reoccupied and a

neat frame church has been erected in its stead--a memorial of the

faith and work of the fathers.

From this point Mr. Smith proceeded up the Scioto Valley

preaching as he went, and on the 14th of October he rode into

Chillicothe. Mr. Smith preached in Chillicothe the next day

after his arrival; but it was not until the following July that he

organized the first society of Methodists in that town. This be-

came an important center in the early history of our church in

Ohio, and it gave to the state at least two Methodist governors.

The introduction of Methodism into Cincinnati was on this

wise: In 1803 John Collins, at that date a local preacher residing

on his farm in Clermont county, came to Cincinnati to purchase

salt and happened to enter the store of Thomas Carter. After

making his purchase he inquired whether there were any Meth-

odists in the town. Mr. Carter replied that there were, and he

himself was one. So overjoyed was Mr. Collins at this unex-

pected information that he threw his arms around Mr. Carter's

neck and wept, thanking God for the good news. He then pro-

posed to preach, and inquired whether there was any place where

he could do so. Mr. Carter offered him a room in his own

184 Ohio Arch

184 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

house and at night he preached to a company of about twelve

persons with manifest power and to the great delight of his

hearers. Mr. Carter's residence was on Main street, near the

river, and in one of its upper rooms were gathered all the Meth-

dists that Cincinnati then had.

Upon Mr. Collins' departure next morning, he promised to

use his influence with the preachers traveling the Miami Circuit,

adjoining Cincinnati, to take that place as one of the points

on their work.

At the western conference of 1803, held at Mount Gerizim,

Ky., William Burke was made presiding elder of the Ohio Dis-

trict extending from the Muskingum and Little Kanawha Rivers

to the Great Miami and John Sale and Joseph Oglesby were ap-

pointed preachers on the circuit named. When Mr. Sale, at the

solicitation of Mr. Collins, visited Cincinnati in 1804, he found a

small class already formed, consisting of eight persons but not

regularly enrolled.

He preached in a public house kept by George Gordon, on

Main street, between Front and Second, and after preaching,

formed the members into the first properly constituted class, ap-

pointing James Gibson leader.

Eight persons composed it, to wit: Mr. and Mrs. St. Clair,

Thomas Carter and wife, with their son and daughter (after-

wards the mother of Governor Dennison of Ohio) and Mr. and

Mrs. Gibson. The town was thenceforward made a preaching

place and was visited regularly every two weeks by one of the

circuit preachers. The society in Cincinnati prospered and im-

creased; and in 1806 or 1807 they built their first church, a stone

edifice on the site of the present Wesley Chapel the north side of

Fifth street, between Broadway and Sycamore."

Confirmatory of the statement of Mr. Williams, as to the

planting of Methodism in Marietta is the following from the pen

of the Rev. Samuel Hamilton of the Ohio conference found in

the Methodist Magazine of 1830. He says:

"In 1799 Reese Wolfe, a circuit preacher in Virginia, looked

across the Ohio river and contemplated with regret a vast terri-

tory with flourishing settlements on which a Methodist preacher

had never set foot. The Rev. Robert Manly of the Baltimore

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 185

conference, who was his assistant, was sent as a missionary and

on the 20th of June, 1799, preached the first Methodist sermon

in Marietta."

The following letter is also confirmatory, but gives a little

different date:

CHILLICOTHE, 0., March 20, 1880.

Rev. Robert W. Manly:

DEAR SIR:--I here send you an important document of

your father's family. In looking over my ancient manuscripts

by Colonel Flint, which agrees with my early father's of 1788-99.

I turned up the following which I engraft in my Muskingum

Pioneer, which will go to press this year:

Hopewell, Muskingum County, Ohio.--The Rev. Robert

Manly, the first ordained Methodist minister of the Northwest,

crossed the Ohio river from Williams' Station, opposite Marietta,

on the 6th of April 1799; stopping with William McCabe on the

stockade. The next day being Wednesday the ₇th of April, he

preached in McCabe's cabin and closed with a social prayer

meeting. He then organized a class of six persons viz.: William

McCabe and wife, John and Samuel Protsman and their wives.

On the 10th of April he visited Wolf Creek and Waterford and

organized two classes. This is a true copy from the original

manuscript.

RUFUS PUTNAM."

Some further facts concerning the Rev. Robert Manly may

be read with interest:

His remains now lie in the Asbury cemetery, Hopewell

Township, Muskingum County, Ohio; though they were de-

posited first in the Hamilton cemetery, which is located about a

half mile east of Asbury church. His son, Jesse L. Manly,

had his remains removed and a tombstone erected and he dictated

the following words which are inscribed on the marble shaft:

"Rev. Robert Manly the first itinerant Methodist minister who

preached west of the Ohio River. He died December 20, 1810,

in the forty-fourth year of his age."

The Rev. James Quinn preached his funeral sermon, a copy

of which may be found in the Christian Monitor of 1816.

186 Ohio Arch

186 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

Summing up the whole matter we find that the first Metho-

dist preaching in Ohio was in Warrenton, Jefferson County, in

1787, by the Rev. George Callanhan. The first preaching in Cin-

cinnati was by the Rev. Francis Clark in 1793. The first preach-

ing at Marietta was by the Rev. Robert Manly in 1799, when a

class was formed. In 1798 the first society was formed at Cincin-

nati and in 1800 the first Methodist Church was built in the North

West Territory on Ohio Brush Creek.

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 187

The following table gives the date, I think, accurately of the

laying off of the principal older towns of the state and it gives

the date of the introduction of Methodism in those towns. To

some minds there may be seeming inaccuracies in the last named

dates for it often occurred, that preaching began in a place, and

even a class formed, before the society was incorporated into a

circuit.

Methodism

Names of Cities. When laid Methodism

out introduced.

Marietta .................................... 1788 1799

Gallipolis... ... ............ ...... ............ 1791 1817

Chillicothe ........... . . .. ................. 1796 1800

Cleveland..... ............... .......... ... 1796 1827

West Union ......................... ........ 1797 1800

Steubenville. ........ ..... .............. .. 1798 1799

Franklinton ........... ................ .... 1798 1804

Dayton ...... ........... ...... ........... .. 1799 1808

Ravenna ..... ..... ........ .............. .... 1799 1814

Zanesville .......... ...... ..................... 1799 1800

Athens ............................. 1800 1800

Lancaster........................ ......... ... 1800 1808

Painsville......... .............................. 1800 1820

Warren .......... ............. ............... 1801 1814

Newark ... ..... ......................... .. 1801 1810

Cincinnati ...... ............. ....... 1788 1793

Middletown. ................... ....... ........ 1802 1818

Youngstown . ........... ..... ......... .... 1802 1803

Lebanon........ .................. ... ....... 1802 1805

New Lisbon. ......... .... .......... ........ 1802 1803

St. Clairsville ..... ............................ 1802 1803

Xenia ...... ............. .. ............. ..... 1803 1811

Cadiz .. . ............. .... ..................... 1803 1810

Portsmouth. .. .............. ........... 1803 1813

Springfield .. ..... .. ......... ..... . .... 1803 1805

Hamilton.. .... ................ .......... ... 1804 1809

New Philadelphia.. ........ ............... ... 1804 1810

Jefferson ................. ..... .... ........ .. 1805 1819

Mt. Vernon ........... .... .................... 1805 1812

Bainbridge ............... ...... ....... ...... 1805 1806

Urbana ....... . . ................... ......... 1805 1807

Eaton . . .......... ..... .................... 1806 1810

Salem ..................... .. ............. 1806 1814

Barnsville... ............. ..... ......... .. 1806 1807

Canton . .......... ........... ..... ... 1806 1817

Cambridge ... ........ .. ..... ................ 1806 1817

Hillsboro ........................................ 1806 1806

Chardon ...... ..... ................... . ...... 1808 1818

Wooster ......... .... ........ ............. 1808 1814

Troy ...................... .................. 1808 1809

Greenville .............. ..................... 1808 1812

188 Ohio Arch

188 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

INTRODUCTION OF METHODISM -Concluded.

When laid Methodism

Names of Cities. when

out. introduced.

Delaware ....... ........... ........... 1808 1812

Mansfield . .............. ....... ......... 1808 1814

Circleville .................. ......... 1810 1809

London ..... ............................. 1810 1811

Wilmington ......... ..... ......... ... 1810 1810

Washington C. H. ...................... .... . 1810 1817

Burlington. .................. ... ........ 1810 1817

Columbus . ....... . .. .. ...... ...... 1812 1813

Marysville ............ ...... ..... ...... 1813 1812

Piketon .. ......... ................. ....... 1814 1812

Somerset .... . . ....................... 1814 1807

Woodsfield .......... .. ... .......... 1815 1815

Norwalk .......... ..... ...................... 1816 1818

Pomeroy. ........ .............. ......... 1816 1820

Ashland .. ................ ................. 1816 1819

Jackson... ... . ................. ....... 1817 1818

Sandusky . ....... ........ ................. 1817 1811

Elyria ......... ........ ....1..... 1817 1840

New Lexington .................. ....... 1818 1818

Sidney ............ .. ..... ........... ..1819 1824

Georgetown ............... ............ 1819 1819

Batavia ........... .... .............. ...... 1820 1820

Finley ............. ............ .. ..... 1821 1829

Tiffin ... ....... ........ .... .......... .. ... 1821 1822

Bucyrus ............. .. ..... ............ 1821 1822

Marion ... ......................... .......... . 1821 1825

East Liverpool ............. ..... ..... 1823 1824

Toledo ... ............. ........... ........... 1825 1825

Lima. ... ................................ 1825 1824

The expression, the introduction of Methodism, usually

means that some pioneer offered to a minister the use of his cabin

for services. When the services were held, opportunity to unite

with the Church was given; a class was formed of the members

and probationers; such classes were never smaller than six persons

and if their were much more than twenty the organization was

called a society. Often such societies had preaching, at first not

oftener than once in two months; then advanced to a sermon each

month, then a sermon every two weeks, then once a Sabbath, and

finally grew to sustain preaching twice each Sabbath.

This explanation, well understood by old Methodists, will

help to solve the apparent discrepancies, as to the date of organ-

izing Methodist Churches.

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 189

When the pastor went to the annual conference, he, by the

law of the Church, was required to bring a plan of his circuit to

be handed to his successor. The following schedule is a sample;

PLAN OF MUSKINGUM CIRCUIT, MADE AUGUST 29, 1823.

The Baptist Church was the first to organize in the State

which occurred in 1790. The Presbyterian followed in 1791 and

the Congregationalist in 1796.

As emigrants followed the rivers and the streams, so we

find the itinerant minister pursuing the same track. So we see

John Kobler in the Miami valley, Henry Smith in the Scioto,

James Quinn in the Hocking and Robert Manly in the Muskin-

gum. It was not until 1808 that a town is mentioned, and that is

Marietta.

190 Ohio Arch

190 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

SALARY OF PREACHERS.

By a law of the Church through all these years a single ma

salary was $100.00 per year, and a married man's was $200.00

If in the interim between sessions of the annual conference a

married man should lose his wife by death, immediately he was

placed at the salary of a single man. But in many cases, I fear

in most cases, the full amount was not paid. Peter Cartwright

reports that in 1806 he received but $40.00. The Rev. T. A.

Morris, (afterward Bishop Morris) for twelve of his first years,

received an average salary of only $60.00. The Rev. Henry

B. Bascom (another who became bishop) in preaching during

his first year traveled on horseback five thousand miles, preached

four hundred times and received only $12.10. By some means,

Adelphi Circuit in 1823 paid its pastor the meager sum of $7.00.

In those days Bishop Asbury's salary was only $64.00 per year.

Father Smith who died in Indiana a few years ago, relates

that his first twelve years preaching was in Ohio and in Indiana

and that the average salary for that term was $27.50, and says

there were plenty of people in those days who claimed, that all

who preached did it for the money that was in it.

In 1814 the Rev. Jacob Young records that the people of the

state got a mania for banking. In that year there were in Jef-

ferson county alone seven banks. This he also says was followed

by a fad, to project and lay off towns and cities. In some cases

they were located on hill tops, others in valleys, or on plains,

and in many cases so near together, that it was only one mile

from one paper town to another. Each town had its public

square for public buildings. While all the people made sacri-

fices for the church, yet we must record that the pastors had

this virtue in an eminent degree. They have always been as

President William H. Harrison characterized them-"A body of

men who for zeal and fidelity in the discharge of the duties they

undertook are not exceeded by any other in the whole world. I

have been a witness of their conduct in the western country for

nearly forty years. They are men whom no labor tires, no scenes

disgust, no danger frightens in the discharge of their duty. To

gain recruits for the Master's service they sedulously seek out the

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 191

victims of vice in the abodes of misery and wretchedness. Their

stipulated pay is barely sufficient to sustain them while they per-

form the service assigned them. If in the period I have named

a traveler on the western frontiers, had met a stranger, in some

obscure way, assidulously urging his course through the intricacies

of the tangled forest, his appearance staid and sober; and his

countenance indicating that he was in search of some object in

which his feelings were deeply interested; his apparel plain but

entirely neat, and his little baggage adjusted with peculiar com-

pactness, he might be certain that stranger was a Methodist

preacher, hurrying on to perform his daily task of preaching to

separate and distinct congregations; and should the same traveler,

upon approaching some solitary unfurnished and scarcely habit-

able cabin, hear the praises of God chanted, with peculiar melody,

or the doctrines of the Savior urged upon the attention of some

six or eight individuals with the same energy and zeal that he

had seen displayed in addresses to a crowded church of a popu-

lous city, he might be certain, without inquiry, that it was the voice

of a Methodist preacher."

In admitting men into the ministry, the standing inquiry has

been, is he called of God; has he gifts, graces and usefulness.

And the effort of this branch of the Church has ever been to

spread scriptural holiness over the land. The objective point

was not to get the people to adopt a creed, so much as to persuade

men to cease to do evil, and learn to do well. The leading object

was to save men. For this the preachers were ready to spend

and be spent. Their purpose was to go not only to those who

wanted them, but to those who needed them most.

MANIFESTATION OF ZEAL.

While the lives of these pastors were full of examples of

snatching men "as brands from the burning," we here briefly out-

line one or two as specimens.

One pastor in the midst of a revival season was called out

before breakfast to visit those who sought his counsels and pray-

ers, and he made eight pastoral calls to penitents seeking sal-

vation, before eating his breakfast.

192 Ohio Arch

192 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

Near Ripley, 0., the Rev. Granville Moody in company with

a class leader by the name of Howard, was out making pastoral

visits; while on their way afoot to the home of an aged brother

of the Church, they were passing a little grove of trees, through

which passed a stream of pure water. There they met the mar-

ried son of the man whom they were about to visit. He was car-

rying a sack of potatoes and was in company with his wife and

three small children. These young parents e not Christians.

Mr. Moody asked the parents if they were in possession of the

comforts of religion. The wife answered, they were not, but

wished they were. In a little while both parents kneeled by the

brook, were baptized and the children were also baptized, a few

minutes afterward, and the whole family, in company with the

pastor and class-leader, reached the paternal home rejoicing in a

new found peace and joy.

Simon Kenton was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, April

3rd, 1755. At the early age of 16 he had an affray with a rival

lover, whom he supposed he had killed; and then he made

his escape across the Alleghenies and became a companion of

Daniel Boone and other early pioneers of Kentucky. He took

part in the war against the Indians and the British, and here ad-

vanced to the rank of Colonel. Having learned that his rival was

not dead, he returned to his Virginia home in 1782, and afterward

returned to Kentucky with his father's family. In about 1788, Mr.

Kenton became acquainted with Rev. Mr. Finley, and thirty years

after that, they met at a camp-meeting on Mad River, Ohio. Mr.

B. Finley says -"On Monday morning he asked my father to

retire with him to the woods, having gone beyond the sound of

the voice of the worshipers, he said, 'Mr. Finley, I am going to

communicate to you some things which I want you to promise me

you will never divulge.' The reply was, 'If it will affect none

but ourselves then I promise to keep it forever.' Sitting down

on a log the General commenced to tell the story of his heart, and

to disclose its wretchedness, what a great sinner he had been,

and how merciful God had been in preserving him amid all the

conflicts and dangers of the wilderness. While he thus un-

burdened his heart and told of the anguish of his sin stricken

spirit, his lips quivered and tears of penitence fell from his eyes.

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 193

They both fell on the earth and cried aloud to God for mercy and

salvation. The penitent was pointed to Jesus as the Almighty

Savior, and after a long and agonizing struggle the gate of

eternal life was entered. The old veteran sprang to his feet and

made the forest ring with shouts of praises to God in the glad-

ness of his soul. He outran Mr. Finley to the encampment. His

appearance startled the whole company of people, and by the time

Mr. Finley reached the encampment, an immense company had

gathered around him, to whom he was declaring the goodness of

God, and his power to save. Approaching him Mr. Finley said,

'General, I thought we were to keep this matter a secret.' He

instantly replied, 'O it is too glorious for that. If I had all the

people of the world here, I would tell of the goodness and mercy

of God.' He died in Logan County, April 29th, 1836."

Bancroft the historian well says, "These ministers stood in

mountain forests of the Alleghenies and in the plain beyond them,

ready to kindle in the emigrants' heart who might come that way,

without hymn book or Bible, their own vivid sense of religion."

They had no study, with library gown and slippers. They

seized a book wherever it might be found, and read as best they

could. Much of the reading was on horseback, and at night,

they sat with their backs to the fire on the hearth, and happy were

they, if they had a quiet home and plenty of pine knots to replenish

the fire with. A stand with a lard lamp or candle was an unusal

luxury.

In their work, they knew no rich, nor poor. They sought

the people, the souls of the people. This was, and is, and always

will be, the work of the true pastor.

This seed sowing yielded an abundant harvest, for the poor

of our generation are the fathers of the rich in the next..

Also these men did not seek for people in the towns and cities

only where churches may more easily be established, but they

carefully and conscientiously cared for the people of the rural

regions as well. The circuit system was well adapted to supply

the wants of the farming districts. This department has also

proved remunerative, for now when the people flow from the

country into the towns and cities, the Methodistically trained

Vol. X.- 13.

194 Ohio Arch

194 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

people reinforce the city churches, by the addition of many of the

most valuable members.

Some have asked why did not the early Methodist Bishops send

highly educated men into the field? And why did the Church

get along without academies and colleges in the West, until 1825,

when Augusta College in Kentucky was established?

The Rev. Dr. R. S. Stevenson answers, "Let us ask another

question of another arm of service in the world's civilization.

Why did not Paul Jones use a modern iron-clad and rapid firing

cannon when he compelled the British frigates to haul down their

flag? Why, to come closer home, did Oliver H. Perry, the

twenty-seven year old commander of the little fleet on Lake Erie,

not wait till he could get a couple of ships, fresh from the eastern

docks, rather than hasten to the woods near the shore, cut trees

and finish out his complement of vessels from the green timber

of the woods? He managed somehow to get the word to his

superior "We have met the enemy and they are ours." In some

such way our resourceful fathers enlisted and drilled a great host

that in these later days has had the proud distinction of leading

all other denominations of America, in academic and collegiate

educational privileges. It is the providential plan of this branch of

the Church to train men in the ministry, not for the ministry.

From these causes has come the saying that "Methodism is

the most successful movement to save men known in the history

of the Christian Church."

From the beginning of this work, the members of the Church

were arranged into classes of about twelve persons. Where there

was more than one class it was called a society. When a suffici-

ent number of classes and societies were clustered together to

support a pastor, it was formed into a circuit. Often there was

one assistant pastor, and sometimes there were two. At first

the Circuit systems were almost universal, and even when cities

grew the Circuit system still obtained for rural societies were at-

tached. As population increased and single congregations were

strengthened Circuits were divided and subdivided until the num-

ber of appointments now seldom exceed eight. This Circuit

system also served as a means of theological training for the

young ministers, who were under the watchful eye and counsel

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 195

of the older and were thus directed in their studies and all their

plans. The exercises of the class meeting, developed and exhib-

ited the talents of the members. The men who seemed to have

gifts, grace and usefulness were licensed to exhort, and those in

this office who showed proficiency were given license to preach,

and served first as local preachers; and from this last named class

the conference selected the men for the pastorate. Those who

were admitted into the Conference were for two years on trial,

so that at the end of this term the members of the Conference

might know that they were worthy and adapted to the work.

Also the young preacher had this time to consider the doctrine and

economy of the Church, and thus know whether he believed the

one and was in hearty accord with the other.

THE WYANDOT MISSION.

On this subject we publish here for the first time the very

admirable address by Rev. E. D. Whitlock, delivered at Delaware,

June 23, 1898:

There is something spontaneous, if not sporadic, in much of Chris-

tian work and Missionary enterprise.

There appears to be a holy lawlessness with men, who, animated

by a strong and ardent love for the welfare of their fellow-beings, found

growing missions and generate new and better civilizations.

And this phase of events possesses a luring power for the man whose

imagination is quick and in whose nature there may be a tendency toward

adventure and speculation.

History is replete with inspiring surprises and enchanting romances

of the beginning and development of schemes for the improvement of

peoples; all history is, unless it be those records which concern them-

selves chiefly with bare dates and with the boundary lines enclosing

nations and countries.

And not until one studies history as he would follow the noble stream

from its modest source to its great outlet, will the sudden and the unex-

pected put on the form and face of the prophetic and the providential.

This spontaneity and suddenness in the transpiring of things char-

acterize the appearance and achievements of individual men as well as the

occurrence of events epochal and era-making in the world's great annals.

For men, many of them, who have wrought nobly and with glori-

fying successes in the world, have seemed to come upon us unawares,

unannounced and unprophesied.

The skies seem to open and let them down, and lo! before we have

time to breathe full and deep, they stride forth and astonish us with

196 Ohio Arch

196 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

their abilities and deeds; or the ground of circumstance and opportunity

and providence breaks open and up they spring, new geniuses to fight

battles which shall immortalize their swords, to found new republics

which shall emblazon on the granite of events their names, or to inaugu-

rate and establish moral and Christian enterprises which shall embody

their splendid personalities.

Prophets and apostles, statesmen and warriors, poets and singers,

legislators and orators, benefactors and reformers, teachers and preachers

- servants all of the Most High and builders for all centuries - consti-

tute these inspiring surprises of history, appear in the role of persons

who have leaped forth from unseen, and unknown places to push the

world up higher and to lead the race on farther.

From the skies or ground of providence! ah! that explains their

presence, accounts for their services to men, solves the mystery of his-

tory, and holds the key to that innermost chamber in the palace of

events, wherein the spontaneous is seen to give way to an ordained order,

the sporadic to a regularity as fixed as central suns, and the sudden to

a germinal force in things as certain of existence and animation as that

the earth revolves on its axis.

My subject is in part, at least, an illustration of these observations.

Who that reads the history or accounts of the Wyandot Mission has

not been impressed with the sudden and the unexpected in the occur-

rence of marked events and in the development of world wide plans for

the race's weal?

With what small things Providence is able to accomplish a great

deal! With what feeble forces can he reverse the seeming order and

logic of affairs! With what meager and inconsiderable resources can he

supply the world with the living bread and the water that satisfieth!

A Christian mission among a few Indians! A man, the mission-

ary, whom none of us would have chosen and commissioned to plant in

such apparently uncongenial soil so goodly a tree as now flourishes in all

belts of the globe!

It will be impossible within the limits of this brief paper to do

more than advert by reference and mention to that tribe of Indians, who,

in the providence of God, furnished the opportunity for the founding of

a Christian mission, which under the fostering care of the Methodist

Episcopal Church, has been elaborated into a scheme of world-wide

missionary operations.

Just yonder along the banks of the Sandusky River, in what is

now Wyandot County, Ohio, and at Upper Sandusky, the county seat

of Wyandot County, in the early years of the present century were gath-

ered and settled a few hundred Indians, called the Wyandots.

For centuries these Indians had made Canada and Michigan and

Ohio their hunting and camping grounds; over their hills they had chased

the wild game, along their great lakes and water-courses they had kin-

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 197

died their camp-fires, through all their forests they had made the war-

whoop reverberate.

We see them around Quebec and Montreal; at Mackinaw and

Detroit; along the Ohio and the great Miami; and now at Upper San-

dusky.

Originally they were of the family of the Iroquois and the Hurons

of the French writers.

When the French settled in Canada this nation or tribe of Indians

was in possession of this whole country.

They were a numerous, bold and warlike people, and were con-

sidered the strongest and oldest tribe of all the Northern Indians, and

consequently were called the "Great Fathers."

In alliance with other tribes they engaged in fierce and deadly war-

fare with the Iroquois, and were by them finally reduced to a remnant

of their original numbers and to a mite of their former strength.

Just at what date or time this tribe established for themselves a

camping place and a center of operations at Upper Sandusky, is not

known.

But it is definitely stated that by a treaty, concluded at the foot of

the Maumee Rapids, September 29, 1817, Hon. Lewis Cass and Hon.

Duncan McArthur, Commissioners on the part of the United States,

there was granted to the Wyandot tribe a reservation of twelve square

miles in Wyandot County, the center of which was Fort Ferree, at Upper

Sandusky, and also a tract of one mile square on the Cranberry Swamp,

on Broken Sword Creek.

Here for a period of twenty-six years, or until they were trans-

ferred in 1843 to a reservation in Kansas, the Wyandots lived, leading

for the most part a peaceable life and cultivating the ruder arts of

industry.

Their principal chief was Captain Pipe, son of the chief who was

so officious in the burning of Colonel Crawford.

At the time of their departure for the far West, some time in July,

1843, the Wyandot tribe numbered between six hundred and seven hun-

dred souls.

Though a bold and warlike nation, the Wyandots were, neverthe-

lesss, a humane and hospitable people.

A proof of their humanity is found in their treatment of their pris-

oners, the most of whom they adopted into their families, and some in

the place of their own chiefs; and as a result, the greater part of the

tribe was at the time of their settlement at Upper Sandusky very greatly

intermixed by marriage with our own people, as the families of Brown,

Zane, Walker, Armstrong and others would indicate.

Two or three facts in the history of this tribe furnished a basis for

Christian work among them.

198 Ohio Arch

198 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

In the first place, they had intermarried with the whites, and while

this fact furnished the opportunity and the temptation to them for

indulgence in many of the gross vices to which their superiors had long

been addicted, it, nevertheless, had a tendency to soften in the Indian

that wild and savage disposition so universally his trait, and thus render

him more readily susceptible to the gracious influences of the Gospel.

In the second place, the religious belief of these Indians constituted

a vantage ground in the efforts of the missionary to reach them.

They believed in a Supreme Being. Indeed, some of the accounts

concerning them tell us that they believed in two gods, one for them-

selves and one for the whites.

And, judging from the success the Almighty has had in managing

the two races for a long period now, it does not seem at all strange

that such a belief of the necessity of ample omnipotence for the Red

Man and his supplanter should have been one of the religious tenets of

the Wyandots.

They also asserted their belief in a system of future rewards and

punishments, in the divine inspiration of men, and that God had revealed

himself and great truths also to their own prophets with the command to

believe and to do them.

As in thinnest soil there may be adequate vitality to insure some

beautiful growth, so in the instincts, intuitions, convictions, associa-

tions and deeper yearnings of these Indians, there was a basis for Gospel

impression and truth; soil to receive the Word of Life and a possibility

and promise, though dim, of the Christian life among the Wyandots.

It was to this tribe on their reservation at Upper Sandusky, in the

year 1816, that John Stewart found his way.

Stewart was a mulatto, born free, in Powhatan County, Virginia,

of parents whose claim was that Indian blood coursed their veins, but

of what tribe Stewart was unable to say.

The parents of Stewart moved to Tennessee, leaving their son in

Virginia. Some time afterwards he followed them, and later while on

his way to Marietta, Ohio, was robbed of all his property.

Stewart had become addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors,

and the habit and effects of his intemperance were so marked and uncon-

trolable that upon one occasion he resolved to commit suicide. But

from some cause, he retracted his destructive purpose and was pre-

served, as if by miracle, to begin a noble and far-reaching work for God

and humanity.

Through his early religious surroundings and influences he imbibed

a deep prejudice to the Methodists. But one evening as he chanced to

pass along the street in the town of Marietta he heard the voice of prayer

and song, issuing from a house or building nearby. It proved to be a

Methodist prayer-meeting. He drew nearer and listened, and after a

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 199

severe struggle with his deep rooted prejudice and his evil conscience, he

ventured to go in.

It was not long until, under the melting power of Christian song

and the awakening energy of the Holy Spirit, that he was induced to

disclose his real state of mind and heart. Upon hearing his recital of

feeling and experience these new-found friends persuaded him to attend

a camp-meeting, held by the Rev. Marcus Lindsay, near Marietta. Upon

that camp-ground and at its rude but consecrated altars the Holy Spirit

kindled a divine fire that soon warmed and blessed the troubled soul of

Stewart with new and celestial life.

Suddenly he felt himself under an unspeakable sense of heavenly

joy and rapture of being. Thrills of peace and rest, as when rich melo-

dies of song pour themselves into the soul of the lover of music, pervaded

the whole being of Stewart, producing indescribable experience of pardon

and renewal; and John Stewart, an unlearned man, with no antecedent

education or training, was born into son-ship with God and thrust into

the service of the King of Kings.

Suddenly, then, as if from some one near him, a voice clear and

strong began its wooings and behests in the soul of Stewart to an active

service in the spiritual interests of his fellow-beings.

He first united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, then he pon-

dered deeply the new and sudden impulse, springing up in his heart to

preach.

He then heard a voice as of a woman, praising God, and then

another as of a man, saying, "You must declare my counsel faithfully."

Christ and His bride were calling him into the kingdom of service.

Then again the voices seemed to call to him from the uorthwest and,

without debate or hesitation, he started, led by an unseen hand and

commanded by the voice of Him who never errs, to Goshen, a town on

the Tuscarawas River. Here he found a Moravian establishment among

the Delawares, and from them he learned something of the Indians farther

to the north, and in this direction he set out finally reaching the reser-.

vation of the Wyandots at Upper Sandusky.

What a task confronted him and what obstacles rose up before him!

Himself a fresh convert, possessing no education, save that he could

read and write and sing, uninured to such scenes and surroundings as

met his eye, ignorant of Christian methods and processes, knowing

nothing of the language spoken by those whom he had gone to instruct

and benefit - - a Saul without armor!

And yet not so; for he had been genuinely and gloriously converted,

the Holy Ghost was shed abroad in his heart, he was full of holy zeal

and enthusiasm, he had with him the sword of the Spirit which is the

Word of God, and he felt that he was divinely moved and called to preach.

When Stewart arrived at the Wyandot reservation, he went at

once to the house of the United States Indian Sub-agent, Mr. William

200 Ohio Arch

200 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

Walker, Sr., who at first suspected him of being a run-away slave, but

upon hearing from Stewart the simple and honest recital of his conver-

sion and religious experience, both Mr. Walker and his estimable wife,

a woman of considerable education and of interesting character, became

the firm and lasting friends of both Stewart and his work.

Mrs. Walker, from the fact that she was half Wyandot and because

of her strong influence among the nation, was able to render Stewart

very timely and valuable assistance, especially in the commencement of

his labors.

Stewart, at the suggestion of Mr. and Mrs. Walker, found an

interpreter in the person of a colored man, by the name of Jonathan

Pointer. Pointer was taken prisoner when a small boy, and through long

and intimate association with the Indians had so thoroughly mastered

their language as to render him an adept in interpretation.

At first when asked by Stewart to act as his interpreter, Pointer

declined, emphasizing his refusal, not only by declaring his religious

unbelief, but by ridiculing Stewart's attempts to turn the Indians from

their old to a new religion. Afterwards, however, he yielded his objec-

tions and consented to interpret for the missionary while he would preach;

and thus a skeptic became the unwitting instrument of heralding the

blessed tidings of salvation.

Stewart's first congregation consisted of only two old Indians,

Big Tree and Mary, and though disheartened at first he continued to

preach to increasing numbers, and was soon joyously rewarded for his

efforts and faith by witnessing the conversion and reformation of

many persons who, because of their position and influence, gave a hope-

ful impetus to the beneficent work already begun.

Among the first converts under his preaching were Jonathan Pointer,

the interpreter, Mrs. Walker and her sons, and the chiefs John Hicks,

Between-the-Logs, Mononcue, Scuteash and others whose names are not

given.

Stewart continued his efforts among the Wyandots, with occasional

intervals of brief absence for a number of years his more active labors,

probably, terminating with the year 1821, when through the personal

endeavor and generous aid of Bishop McKendree, in giving and col-

lecting funds, a tract of sixty acres of land, adjacent to the Indian reser-

vation was purchased for one hundred dollars and given to Stewart, a

patent having been obtained for the land in his own name. Here John

Stewart, the founder of the first mission of the Methodist Episcopal

Chuch in Ohio, resided until his death, in 1823.

He was buried in the graveyard of the Mission Church at Upper

Sandusky amid the dust of many of the red men, whom his voice melo-

dious in song and earnest in appeal had won to a better path and to a

holy life.

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 201

Many were the difficulties and discouraging circumstances that this

heroic and tireless missionary of the cross was compelled to encounter

while in the prosecution of his heavenly mission.

One of them was the previous pernicious instruction of the Indians

by the Roman Catholics. He found it no easy task to overcome the

decided influence which prejudice and bigotry, prevalent through Cath-

olic teaching, had exerted among them.

Another embarrassment was the deprecation, in the esimation of

the Indians, of his work and ministerial office, which had been brought

about by the presence and persistent efforts of certain missionaries, during

a temporary absence of Stewart.

These missionaries, finding that Stewart had won considerable suc

cess and favor among the Wyandots, made overtures to him to join

their Church, accompanying their proposition with the promise of a

good salary.

But he declined their offer on the ground of his objections to the

doctrines they held.

They then demanded of him to know his authority as a Metho-

dist Missionary, and as he held no other credentials than an exhorter's

license he told them he had none; and thus it became known that he was

without authority from the Church to exercise the ministerial office, al-

though he had solemnized matrimony and baptized both adults and chil-

dren, believing the necessities of the case fully justified his action.

He was partly discouraged by this circumstance and placed at no

small disadvantage before the people on account of it.

The traders and missionaries asserted that he was an impostor.

Stewart at once determined to remove every cause for such lack of ample

authority to carry forward the work in all particulars.

It was now the winter of 1818, and while on a visit to some Indians

at Solomonstown, on the Great Miami, he formed an acquaintance with

a Robert Armstrong and with some Methodist families that lived near

Bellefontaine, Ohio. From them he learned that the quarterly meeting

of the Bellefontaine Circuit was to be held near Urbana.

He went at once to the place of quarterly conference, accompanied

by some Indians, with a recommendation from the converted chief and

others as a suitable person to be licensed as a local preacher in the Metho-

dist Episcopal Church, the Rev. Moses Crume being presiding Elder.

A letter published in the accounts of the Wyandot mission, by James

B. Finley, and signed by the Rev. Moses Crume, states that the venerable

Bishop George was present at the quarterly conference, and approved its

action in granting license to John Stewart.

Thus by a church polity sufficiently flexible to be adapted to all

emergencies the cavils of would-be missionaries, who sought to under-

mine the work of this man of God, were forever put to silence.

202 Ohio Arch

202 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

This mission was made a part of the regular work of the Church

at the Ohio Annual Conference, held in Cincinnati, Ohio, August 7, 1819.

The Rev. James B. Finley was appointed presiding Elder this year of

the Lebanon District, which extended from the Ohio River to the Canada

line, and comprised as a part of it the Wyandot mission.

John Stewart was appointed missionary to the Wyandots, with the

Rev. James Montgomery as assistant.

A collection of seventy dollars was raised by the preachers of the

conference for the support of the mission, and James B. Finley, Rus-

sell Bigelow and Robert W. Finley were appointed a committee to aid

the mission.

Shortly after his appointment as assistant to Stewart, Mr. Mont-

gomery was made subagent to the Senecas, and the presiding elder em-

ployed Moses Henkle, Sr., to fill the vavancy.

Mr. Finley states in his notes that the first quarterly meeting for the

mission was held in the house of Ebenezer Zane, a half white, near Zanes-

field, Logan County, O.

Some sixty Indians were present, among whom were Between-the-

logs, Mononcue, Hicks, and Scuteash, while Armstrong and Pointer

were present to act as interpreters.

Among those who served the mission either as missionaries of teach-

ers, or as both, besides the names already given, were the Revs. Chas.

Elliott, William Walker, Lydia Barstow, Jane Trimble, Harriett Stubbs,

the Rev. Jacob Hooper and his wife, the Rev. J. C. Brooke, the Rev.

James Gilruth and among the last to be appointed was the Rev. James

Wheeler from the North Ohio Conference, in 1839.

Soon after the Rev. James B. Finley come to the mission he built a

log mission and school house.

In this mission house the Indian maidens were taught to cook, bake

and sew, while outside, in the field, at anvil and bench the young men

were taught the trades of civilization. This was the first industrial school

founded on the continent and it, of course, in Ohio and under the auspices

of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

A few years later, in 1824, a better and more substantial structure

was erected of blue limestone from government funds, the Rev. Mr.

Finley having permission from the Hon. John C. Calhoun, then Secre-

tary of War, to apply $1,333.00 to this object.

And here within the hallowed precincts of this modest meeting

house for nearly twenty years the Indians met to worship God and within

the shades of its sacred walls they buried their dead.

For a while after the removal of the Wyandots to their reservation

in the West the building and the grounds were sacredly guarded and

kept up, but they were soon forgotten, for none seemed to be charged

with the responsibility of protecting this shrine of worship and this sepul-

ture of the dead; and the roof fell in, the walls crumbled, and the tomb

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 203

stones, white sentinels by the departed, were allowed to fall down and

become the prey of curious relic seekers.

In 1888 the General Conference, at its session in New York, re-

solved to restore so far as possible the buildings and grounds to their

original appearance, and to further and consummate this worthy object

the sum of $2,000 was appropriated from the Missionary treasury.

The rehabilitation of this memorable building and these hallowed

grounds was begun and completed in 1889, and in September of the same

year, during the session of the Central Ohio Conference at Upper San-

dusky, appropriate and interesting ceremonies and exercises were ob-

served in commemoration of the Mission and its remarkable history, the

Rev. Adam C. Barnes, D.. D., presiding and addresses by the Hon. C. C.

Hare, Bishop John F. Hursh, D. D., General Wm. H. Gibson, the Rev.

L. A. Beet, D. D., and the Rev. E. C. Gavitt, D. D., the Rev. R. B. Pope,

D. D., offering prayer, and the Rev. N. B. C. Love, D. D., reading a his-

torical sketch, and Mother Solomon singing a Christian song in the

Wyandot language.

There was present on this occasion an aged and venerable woman

who lived in an humble home north of the town. She was a full-blooded

Indian, the daughter of John Gray Eyes, a noted chief of the tribe. She

was born in 1816, and when in 1821 the Rev. J. B. Finley opened the

Mission school, Margaret Gray Eyes was the first little girl to receive

its instructions.

When the Wyandots went west in 1843, she went with them, but on

the death of her husband, John Solomon, some years afterward, she re-

turned to Upper Sandusky, and here amid the scenes and associations

that had most largely interested and influenced her life she lived quietly

and alone.

Of all the Indians that bade farewell to the dear church, in 1843

she was the only one present at its restoration, and the only one living in

Ohio and the last of the Wyandots. Mother Solomon died in 1890 and

was buried in the wooded cemetery that surrounds the Church.

Much credit should be given the Rev. N. B. C. Love, D. D., of the

Central Ohio Conference for the active and assiduous part he took in

preparing the way for this notable occasion, and to secure the property

to the Methodist Episcopal Church.

The Wyandots on leaving for the West conveyed, by deed, the prop-

erty to the church, but the deed was not recorded.

Dr. Love in the year 1886 while pastor of our Church in Upper San-

dusky, found this deed among some worthless papers in an obscure place

in the Church basement, and had it placed on record. The deed was

signed in behalf of the Wyandots by Andrew W. Anderson, Joseph

Cover, Alexander Miller, Alexander Armstrong, Luther Mackrel and

Henry Jackquis, principal chief, as trustees, and witnessed by Joel Walker,

Secretary of the council, and the Rev. James Wheeler, Missionary.

204 Ohio Arch

204 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

The discovery of this instrument removed all doubt and dispute

as to the title of the Church to the property, and provided an unob-

structed path for the action of the General Conference of 1888, whereby

funds were secured to renew and renovate the building and grounds and

make them monumental of the great work there accomplished in the name

of the Master.

The history of the Wyandot Mission and its founder is the history,

in epitome, of the visible Church of God. This mission stands for all

the great spiritual forces of the Kingdom of Christ, is representative of

that burning zeal and restless evangelism which are to overrun the world

with the gospel of light and purity, is an embodiment of that spirit ot

personal consecration and sacrifice, which make martyrs, inspire evan-

gelists, and spread world-wide the civilization of the cross, is a miniature

picture of that mighty host and that marching Church that are to make

the kingdoms of this world the Kingdom of our Lord and His Christ.

Just think of it! John Stewart an uneducated Negro the spiritual

father of some two hundred aborigines within six years from the time

he preached his first sermon to two old Indians, the instrumental cause

of the moral reformation of more than half of the chiefs in the tribe he

was trying to evangelize, the intrepid John Baptist of that great army

of missionaries that lead forward the militant hosts of Zion, the inspira-

tion of that tremendous movement which has already awakened the dead

senses of the Pagan nations to higher ideals and nobler aspirations.

Hail thou saint crowned! Thou art dead but thou speakest!

Our two and a half million of members are on the tramp, our

hundreds of mission stations are keeping guard at the front, the Mission-

ary life of the Church is more than ever divinely animated, and soon

the continents of the old world and isles of the sea will clap their hands

for joy, praising Him who was dead but is alive forever more!

GERMAN METHODISM.

The Rev. William Nast, who was born in Stuttgart, Ger-

many,in 1807, emigrated to the United States in 1828, and in

1835 was a professor of Greek in Kenyon Col-

lege, Ohio. In 1835 he became a Christian,

and after a severe struggle of mind, attempted

to preach to the Germans at Newark and then

at Cincinnati.

Soon the work spread. In 1837 he organ-

ized the first German society. This work has

now extended throughout the United States

and has gone back into Germany, Switzerland

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 205

Scandinavia, and the results are most marvelous. In less than

65 years we find in America more than 580 Methodist pastors

preaching in the German language. And there are in this land

more than sixty thousand members and more than forty-five

thousand Sabbath school scholars. And in foreign lands there

are 197 pastors who have under their watch care 38,000 members

and 51,000 Sabbath school scholars. What man in any age can

show a greater following wrought out before death than Dr.

Wm. Nast? There are not less than 777 preachers and more

than 100,000 Church members from this one man's planting.

About the year 1805, one Mr. White Brown, a devout and

substantial Methodist, built a commodious barn on his farm, 16

miles north of Chillicothe. It was a part of the purpose of Mr.

Brown in putting up this structure, to afford to the people a

place for worship in the warmer weather. For many years this

building was used for preaching and other services. In the

early part of the last century Bishops Asbury, McKendree,

George, and Whatcoat, preached in it from time to time as they

made pilgrimages through the forests of Ohio. Also Lotspeich,

Cartwright, J. B. Finley and Lorenzo Dow preached there.

Many of the fathers of the Church in Ross and Pickaway coun-

ties were converted there, and very many precious seasons of

grace were enjoyed there. After the barn had been used for

some twenty years in this way, on a chilly autumnal day, some of

the younger people suggested that the community should build

a church. Some of the fathers responded: "What! leave the old

barn? Never." But in due time a church was built, known as

Brown's Chapel.

206 Ohio Arch

206 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

NEWARK

While the Rev. J. B. Finley was serving the Knox circuit

in 1810, he reached Newark. As no home was open to him

for preaching, he used the bar-room of a tavern. He says:

"When I stepped into the door I found the room full, and many

were crowded around the bar drinking. It looked more like the

celebration of a baccachalian orgie than a place for the worship

of God. But I had made an appointment and I must fill it at all

hazards; and as the Gospel was to be preached to every creature

my mission extended to every place this side of hell. I procured

a stool and placed it beside the door and cried at the top of my

voice, 'Awake, thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and

Christ shall give thee life.' For thirty minutes I labored to show

my audience that they were on their way to hell and as insensible

of their danger as if locked fast in the embrace of sleep. When

I was done warning them of their danger and inviting them to

come to Christ, I took my horse and rode to brother Channels.

The bar-room folks sent me word if I came again they would

roast me, but notwithstanding I made another appointment to

preach in the court house. When the time came I preached in

the court house to an orderly congregation and at that time

formed a class." This was the beginning of Methodism in the

metropolis of Licking County.

GRANVILLE.

In the summer of 1811 a great camp meeting was held on

the Thrap farm about a mile east of Irville in Muskingum County.

At that meeting both Bishops Asbury and McKendree were

present and preached. One Wm. Gavit, of Granville, was pres-

ent with a ward he had charge of who was an habitual drunkard.

Indeed the inebriate was in such a condition that all means failed

to cure him. Mr. Gavit was not a believer in Christ himself

but he had heard much of the results of conversion to tranform

men. So he went to the Thrap camp meeting taking with him

this desperate character, who was under his guardianship. The

result was before they reached Granville again, or soon after,

both Mr. Gavit and his ward were converted. Mr. Wm. Gavit

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 207

invited the Rev. Jas. B. Finley to preach in his house in 1811,

when a class was formed, the beginning of Methodism in Gran-

ville. Mr. Gavit's sons Elnathan and Ezekiel, became noted

ministers in the M. E. Church.

FAYETTE COUNTY.

The first quarterly conference ever held in Fayette County was

held at the residence of Joel Wood, twelve miles north of Wash-

ington, Solomon Langdon was presiding elder. Ralph Lot-

speich was pastor and Joseph Hains was assistant. This

was in 1811. Two years after this Jesse Rowe, a local preacher,

held services in a house near the place, where Sugar Grove

Church now stands. The result of his labor was the formation

of a class of which he was the leader; the remaining names are

as follows: Jane Rowe, Patsy Rowe, Lucinda Priddy, and John

King.

About this time the first class was formed in Washington.

Daniel Hollis was the first class leader and the Rev. John King

his assistant. The names of this primitive class are as follows:

Phebe Johnson, Mother Hankins, Tamar Scott, Mary Hopkins,

Mary Popejoy, Mary McDonald, Susan Flesher, Samuel Loof-

borro, Ruda Neely, and Barbara Hubbard, a colored woman.

After using private houses as a place of worship for a number of

years the court house was used. Then a building on Market

street, just west of the former residence of Richard Millikan was

used. Afterward a brick church was built near the building last

named, but it was poorly constructed and was soon condemned

and in 1843 the frame church now owned by Judge H. B. May-

nard was built, costing $1,400. Then followed in 1867 the brick

on the corner of London and Market street, and finally in 1895

the present structure.

MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

The Rev. Robert Manly was a member of the Baltimore

conference. He preached in Marietta, in 1799, the first Metho-

dist sermon in the Muskingum Valley. He was the spiritual

father of the Rev. John Collins. In about 1805 he married Eliza-

beth Hamilton, who was the eldest daughter of William Hamil-

208 Ohio Arch

208 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

ton, who emigrated from the east to Muskingum County, Ohio,

in ¹⁸⁰⁶, and when he reached the farm he had entered, he and

his family left the wagon and built a fire and prepared in the

unbroken forest their evening meal. After it was served he had

family worship in which he consecrated himself and family to

God and he dedicated his farm to God. After he built a cabin

he invited Methodist ministers to hold services in it. Here the

Rev. Ralph Lotspeich preached in 1807 and formed a class which

was the origin of Asbury society. This farm is located on the

Cooper Mill road, named for Joseph Cooper, who after this event

built a mill west of this farm on Jonathan's Creek. In this com-

munity the Rev. Robert Manly died in 1810.

Just north of this, and about a mile east of Irville on the

Thrap farm, in the year 1811 a camp meeting was held and there

were present at it both Bishops Asbury and McKendree. Dur-

ing the meeting Rev. Samuel Hamilton was converted, who after-

wards was one of the leading ministers of Ohio. About that

time Rev. James B. Finley was the pastor of that circuit and he

fomed a class at Dillon's Falls. When he went to that com-

munity he found the people given to gross drunkenness. After

the pastor had preached and held a few services he formed a

class composed of John Hooper, Jacob Hooper, J. Dittenhiffer,

and Samuel Gassaway, a colored man. Finally a church was

built and Bishop McKendree dedicated it. This was the origin

of what is known as Finley society in White Cottage Circuit.

In 1840 the Methodist society at Brownsville was worshiping

in Mr. J. Fluke's wagon shop. That year a church was built and

the Rev. Samuel Hamilton dedicated it.

COLUMBUS.

In 1814 the proprietors of the city of Columbus, John Kerr

and Lyne Starling, Alexander McLaughlin and James Johnson,

donated a lot to each of the three denominations in the field at

that time, viz.: the Presbyterian, the Protestant Episcopal and

the Methodist Episcopal. For the Methodists was selected the

lot on which the Public School Library now stands on Town

street. The first church building on this site was an unpreten-

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 209

tious structure built of hewed logs. The records of the Trustees

indicate that the building cost $157.53�.

This structure was occupied as a place of worship in 1815,

but evidently was not finished, as the records show that on Sep-

tember 29th, 1817, the Trustees appointed

a committee "to have the meeting-house

chinked and daubed and under-pinned

and to appoint a suitable person to keep it

in order."

As this was before the days of pub-

lic school houses, this church was used

for school purposes also for some years,

and the little society received annually a

small sum for rental from the school au-

thorities of the city. This building was

only 20x25 feet. In 1818 an addition

was put to it of 20 feet. All of this was

superceded in 1825 by a brick structure costing $1,300. In 1853 the

building now used for a library building was built and when it

was enclosed, some seats were improvised and the first State Re-

publican Convention of Ohio was held in it. This building was

used until 1891, when the present structure on the corner of

Bryden Road and Eighteenth street was built.

In 1829 the first Methodist Sabbath School was organized in

this church with fifty-eight scholars.

CHANGES IN CONFERENCE BOUNDARIES.

The Western conference was one of the six conferences of

the United States. It was organized in 1796. It embraced all

of the North West Territory, Kentucky, Tennessee, and included

all our districts in the Mississippi Valley.

In 1812 the Ohio conference was organized and also the

Tennessee, from the vast territory once called the Western con-

ference and from this date the last mentioned name disappears

from church chronicles.

The Ohio conference then included all the North West Ter-

ritory and the part of Virginia that is now included in the West-

ern part of what is now known as West Virginia. It also in-

Vol. X.-14.

210 Ohio Arch

210 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

eluded a district in the northern part of Kentucky. In 1816 the

Kentucky part was given to Tennessee. In 1820 a few districts

from Western Pennsylvania were added. But in 1824 the Pitts-

burg conference was formed and that embraced not only the dis-

tricts in Pennsylvania, but several districts in the eastern part of

what is now known as the State of West Virginia and one or two

in Ohio. By the year 1840 the Michigan conference was con-

stituted.

That same year the North Ohio conference was also formed.

It embraced that part of the state north of Sidney and Mt. Ver-

non. It was not until 1850 that the West Virginia conference

was formed which embraces the territory now in that state. In

1856 the Central Ohio (at first called Delaware) conference was

formed by dividing the North Ohio conference, leaving to the

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 211

last named conference the territory east of the Sandusky river

and the new conference has the territory in the northwest part

of the state, west of said river.

In 1852 the Cincinnati conference was formed by dividing

the Ohio conference, giving the new conference the territory west

of the cities of West Union and Washington Court House.

Finally in 1876 the East Ohio conference was formed sub-

stantially of the Ohio territory once in the Pittsburg conference.

A large part of the Central German conference is in this

state and one or two districts of the Washington (colored) con-

ference is in this state.

The outline map on the preceding page gives the boundaries

of the five English speaking white conferences.

EARLY REVIVALS AND CAMP MEETINGS.

An address delivered at the Centennial Celebration of Ohio

Methodism at Delaware, Ohio, June 23d, 1898, by Charles H.

Payne, D.D., LL. D.

The genius of Methodism determined its methods and secured its

results. Revivals were and are an inseparable feature of Methodist econ-

omy and Methodist life. Indeed, Methodism itself, historically, is a

revival. As such it began, grew, flourished, conquered, and as such it

will continue to win its extending victories. It was, and is, a quickening

of spiritual life, a revivification of dead souls; an application of vitalizing

truths to human character and human needs, making the dead to live,

and the living to triumph. Broadly viewed, one might say that every

church in Methodism was the product of revival efforts, and every success

a triumph of the revival spirit.

In all the world Methodism has had no nobler field, and won no

greater triumphs than in the royal State of Ohio. In the number of

church organizations and church edifices it to-day leads every State in

the Union, and in the number of its communicants it is almost abreast of

New York, which has a population nearly twice as large. In its majestic

march of a hundred years, every step has been taken to the music of

genuine evangelism.

All the phenomena of Methodism are accounted for by its essential

character, by its Doctrines, its polity and its Spirit.

I. The doctrines of Methodism are a revival of the primitive teach-

ings of the early church. Those doctrines brought to eager hearers de-

liverance from bondage, they sounded the bugle-call to freedom, to manly

independence. Small marvel is it that they met with so cordial a reception

and general response. With the glorious truth of freedom the early

212 Ohio Arch

212 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

Methodist preachers mingled the solemn fact of personal responsibility.

The substance of their oft-repeated appeals was: "You are guilty sinners,

and need to be saved; you are redeemed sinners, and may be saved to-

day; you are free and voluntary sinners, and must alone accept the re-

sponsibility of a refusal to be saved."

These lightning flashes of truth into the minds and souls of men

carried conviction deep and pungent, and revivals were a logical result.

So long as these fundamental truths are iterated in the ears of men, so

long will the same logical results follow. An evangelical church will

never cease to bear evangelical fruits.

II. The polity of Methodism also helped to make revivals, with all

their increments of numbers and strength, an inevitable result of the

proclamation of truth. That polity was always marked by two character-

istic features: Aggressiveness and adaptability. Its aggressiveness pushed

it to the fartherest cabin on the frontier; it introduced a system of evan-

gelical propagandism of a higher order and a holier character than the

world has even seen since the time of the apostles. It put the emphasis on

the word "go,' and woe betide the church when the emphasis shall be

shifted from "go" to "come."

Methodism went everywhere, following the trail of the adventurer

into the deep forest, and reaching the settlement of the hardy pioneer,

on the outposts of civilization. It never waited for royal reception to

be given to it; it never lingered for communities to be formed or churches

to be built and a formal call to be extended. No adventuresome pioneer

could get beyond hearing of its solemn call to repentance and a new

life.

The historian of Methodism tells of an itinerant in one of the

Southern States wending his way through the deep forest and reaching

a little opening where he found a woodman felling trees, having but just

reached the spot with time to put up a hastily improvished cabin for his

family. The woodman was hailed by the itinerant, who asked if he could

preach in his cabin. "What," said the astonished pioneer, "are you here?

I lived in Virginia and a Methodist preacher came along and my wife

got converted. I fled into North Carolina where I hardly got settled,

another Methodist preacher came along and some of my children were

converted. Then I went to Kentucky; but there they followed me and I

thought this time I would get beyond their reach, and now I have hardly

got to this settlement till, here is another Methodist minister wanting to

preach in my cabin!" "My friend," said the itinerant, "I advise you to

make terms of peace with the Methodist preachers, for you will find

them everywhere you go in this world, and when you die, if you go to

heaven, as I hope you will, you will find plenty of them there; and if you

go to hell, as you will if you don't repent, I fear you will find a few of

them there!" The man thought it better to surrender. This incident

reveals the aggressive character of early Methodism. May it never lose

its aggressiveness.

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 213

But its flexibility and adaptability to circumstances were an equally

marked feature of early Methodism. It knew nothing of a settled order

that could never unbend, even to save a human soul. Its aim was to pull

man out of the fires of the hell of sin in this life, and it went where

the fires were burning most fiercely, and used such methods as the exi-

gencies of the case seemed to call for. It was seeking results and methods

were always a secondary consideration. Hence the introduction of camp-

meeting. As revivals had been a logical necessity of Methodism, so camp-

meetings were a physical necessity. They were first introduced in Ken-

tucky, in 1798, by two brothers named Magee, one of whom was a Metho-

dist preacher, and the other a Presbyterian preacher. They were not

introduced by previous purpose or plan. People flocked to hear the word

in such numbers that there was no house large enough to hold them,

so they went into the woods, and thus gradually these gatherings took on

a more permanent form. Methodism with its ready adaptation to cir-

cumstances, grasped the situation, seized the opportunity and utilized

this new form of reaching the masses.

With the crude condition of society, unaccompanied by the refining

influences of advanced civilization, these meetings were attended by some

marked physical phenomena. Men were struck down and fell to the

ground in a helpless condition remaining sometimes for hours. This

was but an incident of the time, belonging to the period, and passing

away with the period. These phenomena were not peculiar to Meth-

odist meetings; they had been observed in England and Scotland, and,

to some extent, in the great revival under Edwards in New England.

The informalities and seeming irregularities of the camp-meeting brought

them into disfavor with our Presbyterian brethren, as they did with the

English Wesleyans. But American Methodism, with what we believe

to have been a clearer insight and broader wisdom, saw the ephemeral

character of the accompanying evils, and the permanent character of the

good resulting from camp-meetings, and continued to use most success-

fully this popular and providential agency for carrying forward its great

work in the wilds of the West. The wisdom of this course has been

abundantly justified by results. These results are seen in the multi-

tudinous successes, builded into the entire structure of Methodism through-

out the whole country. What a splendid pulpit did the camp-meeting

afford for the fervid oratory of the legio tonans, the thundering legion

of that day. Vast masses of people, sometimes estimated at from fifteen

to twenty thousand, were swayed by the eloquence of those mighty men of

God. Jacob Young, J. B. Finley, Peter Cartwright, and many an other of

like character, were at their best in these gatherings in the woods. There,

too, was Russell Bigelow, seraphic preacher, who charmed and captured

his wondering audiences; the classic Thomson with his polished period

and energetic influence; the soaring Bascom, who put his audiences into

utter amazement that a mortal man could send forth such a torrent of

eloquence; John P. Durbin, the weird magician, who held his hearers as

214 Ohio Arch

214 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

if under the spell of a necromancer; Randolph S. Foster, a very Samp-

son among pulpit giants bringing down hundreds under a single sermon;

and Simpson, matchless orator, under whose burning words the mul-

titudes sprang to their feet and listened awe-struck and spell-bound. But

time fails me to name even the leaders of this royal host of preachers.

What a battery did the camp-meeting afford for bombarding the forces

of Satan, and how the enemy fell under the fire! Fortunate was it for

Methodism that she did not discard this mighty enginery of spiritual

warfare.

III. But the spirit of Methodism, quite as much as its doctrines

and its polity has been a potent cause of its marvelous success. Metho-

dism through all its early years was strongly marked by a passion for

saving men. It possessed what has been aptly termed the "enthusiasm

of humanity." The weapons by which it has won its mighty victories are

prayer and appeal. It besieged heaven and laid siege to the souls of

men. Its greatest victories have been won in the closet and at the altar

of devotion. That was a significant act when Kobler, the first regular

itinerant minister of Ohio, landing on the banks of the noble river, dropped

upon his knees and offered a fervent prayer to heaven. That act con-

secrated to Methodism Ohio's soil, and presaged the glorious victories

that have followed.

The great revivals that have marked the history of Ohio Methodism,

-and indeed, the Methodism of the whole country, have been inspired,

directed and consummated by this dynamic force. That marvelous man of

God and pre-eminent revivalist James Caughey, who led many thousands

to Christ, traced the secret of his wonderful success to the work done

upon his knees in his closet. When but a lad just beginning to preach

the gospel, the speaker walked ten miles for the purpose of having an

interview with Mr. Caughey. He was chary of his time, and it was not

easy to obtain an interview; but once in his presence the lad timidly said:

Mr. Caughey, I have walked ten miles that I might learn of you the

secret of success in winning men to Christ." He turned his beneficent

face toward me, and with intense seriousness replied, "My young brother,

it is knee work, knee work, knee work!" That lesson has never been

forgotten. It would have been worth infinitely more than the price it

had cost a walk of many thousand miles. The fathers of Methodism

learned that lesson well, and by its application won victories, and chal-

lenged the admiration of the unbelieving world.

There still lingers with us that remarkable soul winner, William

I. Fee, who probably enjoys the high distinction of bringing more per-

sons to a personal acceptance of Christ than any other living man.

Has the time come for a change of doctrines, or policy, or spirit?

Not in essentials. The doctrines of Methodism are essentially true, and

need only restatement in the language of to-day. The fathers preached

in the language of their day, and as demanded by their times. So must

we. The policy of adaptation we do well to remember and to apply

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 215

agencies and methods suited to the demands of our times, as did the

heroic fathers in their day.

The spirit of early Methodism that led to its revivals, inspired its

entire work, and pervaded all its adherents, is the one pre-eminent

essential of present and future success. Has this spirit departed from

Methodism? Were the former times really better than these? The re-

vivals of to-day may not be exactly the same type as the revivals of those

more primitive times, nor is this essential. Are these revivals in our times

as effective, as productive of genuine and abiding results? We believe

there are; not only in the churches throughout our whole domain, but

in the colleges, the schools, where the flower of the young people of the

church are gathered, are these revivals still prevalent. The place in

which we are now assembled has witnessed such revivals again and again.

We have had the high honor of participating in revivals on this spot, as

deep, as genuine, as all persuasive in their spirit, as any in which the

fathers have participated, or any that have existed from the days of Saint

Paul until the present hour-revivals in which literally hundreds of

young people within the course of a few weeks were brought into a living

fellowship with a living Christ; and hundreds of others were lifted up

into higher planes of consecration and service. Let us not close our

eyes to the glories of to-day while we recognize the glorious history of

the past.

What of the future? Methodism has but just fairly begun her con-

quering mission. We hear much about "old fashioned" Methodism, and

we honor it; but unless our church has been recreant to her trust, unless

she has fallen out of God's plan and order, new-fashioned Methodism

ought to be,-and is, of a better type than the world has ever before seen.

The old fashion was good, all honor to it. The new fashion must be

better, if true to God's call. If there are not always the same manifesta-

tions, there may always be equally glorious results. Following the wisdom

of the fathers, we must not hold too tenaciously to fixed methods. Methodism

adopted the camp meeting thrust upon it providentially and by its adop-

tion won victories. Presbyterians discarded it, and suffered loss. Now

in many localities another change has come, and to the camp meeting for

purely religious purposes other objects, intellectual, social, sanitary, and

even recreative, are added. In this new movement it is significant, also

that Methodism led. Martha's Vineyard was the first to change the form

to the newer type, and Martha's Vineyard has always been Methodistic.

Chatauqua led the way in the new order of summer gatherings. That,

too, has its origin in Methodism. Ocean Grove maintains in a permanent

way both the new and the old form, being a resort throughout the summer

for multiplied thousands seeking its retreat for intellectual, social, or

health purposes, while it retains the old fashioned ten days camp meeting

with blessed spiritual results,-substantially the same is true of some Ohio

camp meetings. The evolution of the camp meeting has caused its adop-

tion in a modified form by our brethren of other denominations. Metho-

216 Ohio Arch

216 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

dism will do well to hold fast all that is good in this institution, with

whatever wise modifications the times may demand.

Never was there such an opportunity as now confronts the Metho-

dist Church; never was there such an imperative call upon her to go for-

ward to her solemn mission in the twentieth century. It would be a

great mistake for Methodism to admit the sentiment, sometimes advocated,

that a revival church cannot be a complete church, cannot do the full,

comprehensive work of a church. That idea is unscriptural, unphilo-

sophical, unhistoric. Methodism from the beginning has united revivals

and education. May these holy allies in the work of redeeming men

never be separated. Her educational work must be pushed forward in the

coming century as never before, but never to the neglect or her revival

work, and her revival work must be pushed forward, but never to the neg-

lect of here educational work.

Methodism must also meet the new demands of giving to the world

the gospel of personal and of social salvation, and of demonstrating to

men that these are not antagonistic, but harmonious and inseparable. The

salvation of the individual Methodism must always seek in the future, as she

has sought in the past; but she must never forget that the salvation of

society, and the bringing in of the kingdom of God, in all that pertains

to social order and well-being, is the ultimate end, and that these ends

by no means conflict with each other, but are mutually helpful and sup-

plemental.

The Methodist Church above all other churches, ought not to be

afraid of uniting spiritual work and social reform work under the same

inspiration and direction. No church in the world has more strikingly

illustrated the proper blending of all these forms of Christian endeavor

than has Methodism. The famous "Holy Club" at Oxford, in which were

all the first Methodists, were all cultivated students, tutors and pupils in

the greatest of the world's universities, and they were also pietists and

philanthropists. They met together to study the Greek Testament, to

promote personal piety, and at the same time united in feeding the poor,

visiting the sick, and caring for the prisoners. John Wesley began his

work in the old "Foundry" in London with almost every feature of a

modern institutional church. While revival flames were kindled in every

heart, and revival work was in full progress, these early Methodists also

maintained a day school for poor scholars, a dispensary, where thousands

of poor people received medicine; they furnished skilled surgeons to treat

the unfortunate; a reading room; an employment bureau; and a loan

fund, not much unlike that which Dr. Greer to-day maintains in New

York City. For us in these days, facing the great social problems brought

to light in the evolution of society, to turn our backs upon work of this

kind for fear that it will militate against the spirituality of the church.

is to discount early Methodism, and to set at naught the example of our

illustrious Founder. Ohio Methodism enters upon the new century with

a heritage of unsurpassed value and with a corresponding resonsibility to

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 217

cultivate the goodly heritage and transmit it with large increments to

future generations. Never was the call of God more clearly heard than

that which now sounds in the ears of Ohio Methodists to go forward.

The church so highly honored in the century now completed should

imitate the devout Kobler and falling on her knees reconsecrate the soil

of Ohio to prominent Christian purposes, and rededicate herself to bring

an answer to her own prayers. That reconsecration must surely include

the fullness of her powers, and the abundance of her possessions.

There is, indeed, an imperative call upon Methodism, not only in this

distinguished state, but throughout the entire connection, to enter upon

the new century with a free will offering to God of a generous portion of

what God has given to this favored people. Such an offering of fully

a million dollars for Ohio, and not less than ten million dollars for the

whole connection, would be a worthy commemoration of a distinguished

event, and a hopeful prophecy of a century of greater victories yet to come.

Let our motto be all for Christ and Christ for all.

In 1798 the Rev. John Kobler was the only Methodist min-

ister in the North West Territory and the total membership

numbered ninety-nine. Now there are in

Those who know most of the character and work of the

early Methodist ministers of the state will say of the following

eulogy, by Rev. Dr. Fletcher Wharton, that it is not overdrawn:

"He helped to make the sour mud-swamps and the bristling

brier patch of the early days into the fruitful meadow of to-day.

His message and spirit have contributed to the best life of the

Republic and have transformed many a wild western settlement

into a garden of the Lord. The historian of the future will have

more to say of the Christian evangelist of the early times than

those of the past have said. These early Methodist preachers,

218 Ohio Arch

218 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

these circuit riders, who are just now finally disappearing, were

providential men. They mysteriously answered to times big

with opportunity. They strangely, almost unaccountably, ap-

peared at a critical hour in the life of this young nation. When

we have found out all the causes that lie in the springs of human

action, we have not then entirely accounted for these men. Think

of it. They were in the fields plowing, in the shops manufactur-

ing, behind the counters trading, in the courts pleading, in the

sick chamber prescribing, in the woods clearing. They were for

the most part men of no special educa-

tion, men who had grown up in ob-

scurity, without anticipation of great

responsibilities and with little thought

of anything outside of daily toil.

"Under the sway of an impulse, fitly

named divine, they abandoned the

plow in the furrow, and the iron in the

forge, the goods on the counter, and

the ax and the saw, and began to

preach. Literally without purse or

scrip they go at God's command

to the wilderness. They boldly push on from settlement to

settlement with fervid trembling lips shouting the message of

Christian righteousness and redeeming love to every outpost and

human habitation on this continent.

"Future generations will have been made nobler by their

message of God's truth, will see as we do not the colossal char-

acters they were. These men who have been, are already com-

ing to be pictured in the imagination of men. In that picture

is the noble horse, with proudly lifted head, tossing his mane to

the wind with intelligent eyes and wide forehead and broad

chest netted with silken veins, sleek limbs and shining flanks,

with dainty feet, lightly picking his way over tangled paths. His

easy rider is clothed with the old time great coat and leggins and

Buffalo shoes and heavy gloves. The bronze of the wind is on

his face, his keen eyes flash, his lips set firm and a mild resur-

rection light in his countenance. Under him are his saddle-bags

bulging with clothing and some books for the people-while the

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio

Introduction of Methodism in Ohio. 219

great trees of the forest bow to him as he rides swiftly on to his

appointment through the woods.

"The old time Methodist preacher was a providential char-

acter. It will take at least another hundred years for the world

to find him out. To the world at large these itinerants will stand

as civilization builders. These preachers never for a moment

let the Nation forget God. Tireless as the feet of love and faith

they hurried from community to community, on street corners,

and in grove and school house and humble church, preaching

Christ, lifting up the standard of the righteous of eternal love.

At the impulse of the message they bore to the listening multi-

tudes, wave on wave of revival of Christian feeling and faith

steadily swept over the country. With a wild rugged eloquence,

almost unmatched in the history of public speech, they pleaded

with men against their sins, turning the hearts of thousands to-

ward God. Under the power of their appeals wild, lawless com-

munities, whose pastimes were drunken bouts, whose humor was

the brutal infliction of pain, where God and human goodness

were almost totally discredited, under the force of the appeals

of the itinerant these communities were transformed into so-

cieties of beautiful domestic life. And out of them have come

much of the strength and the character of the Nation to-day."

Ohio History Journal