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History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America

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History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America m £°g * "brAHBitdu-e (BDSK]®[p WCaAVSOATTc HIST ORT METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. By ABEL STEVENS, LL.D., AUTHOR OF " THE HISTORY OF THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, CALLED METHODISM," ETC. VOLUME IV. NEW YOBK: NELSON & PHILLIPS. CINCINNATI: HITCHCOCK & WALDEN. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by CARLTON & PORTER, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the TTnlted States for the Southern District of New York. — PREFACE. George I. Seney, Esq. My Dear Sir : In committing to the press this concluding volume of the " History of the Methodist Episcopal Church," I would grate- fully acknowledge my obligations to you. If I have succeeded, to any satisfactory degree, in my task, it has been largely owing to the reliefs which your kind attentions have afforded me from cares and anxieties, that would have seriously interfered with it. Your honored father appears briefly in my narrative ; the first collegiately-educated native preacher of his Church, except Fisk, and a man of most sterling talents and character, the friend and colaborer of Bangs, Emory, Soule, Ostran- der, Rice, and the other strong men of the second generation of American Methodist preachers, he will be one of the most interesting subjects of the later history of his denomination. The Church is happy to recognize in you the worthy son of so worthy a father. It finds, in this its third generation, the descendants of its early and heroic itinerants not only thronging its ministry, but founding, on enduring financial bases, its educational and other great institutions. In my former work (the " History of the Religious Movement of the Eighteenth Century, called Methodism," etc.) I brought the narrative down to 1839, the Centenary of British Methodism, and designed to conclude the present work at the same period. There was no import- ant reason, however, for the latter purpose, as American Methodism has its own distinct centenary. But it would be as inexpedient to ex- tend the record to the latter date as to limit it to the former; our recent controversies cannot yet be satisfactorily narrated ; the chief actors in some of them are still living, the families of many of the actors in the earlier ones still survive. There is also a hopeful tendency of reunion among our denominational parties which should not be dis- turbed by a return, however guarded, to their old disputes. Not till years hence can the historian safely review these unfortunate events. I have had a twofold design in this narrative : first, to show the real development of Metnodism on this continent, its interior life, and its genetic conditions ; for in these we must find the best lessons of its his- tory for all time. Secondly, to keep within such chronological limits as should not require an inconvenient number of volumes, and yet should allow of a substantially complete history of the Church, of its inception, its organization, its chief personal agents, its theological and disciplinary systems, and finally those adjuncts of its practical system- Publishing, Educational, Sunday-School, and Missionary institutions which have, for the present at least, rounded, if not perfected its scheme. These, brought out in a closely consecutive record of events and charac- ters, have seemed to me the genuine constituents of such a history as d 4 PREFACE. the denomination now needs. I do not presume to think that I havo I could adequately prepared for it such a history ; but I have done what toward it. The period at which I close admits, with peculiar conven- ience, of this comprehensive plan. All these adjuncts of our practical violence to the system had appeared before that date ; and without canons of historical writing, I have been able to trace these institutions down to our own time, estimating their original significance by their prospective results. The period also fittingly closes with the disap- pearance of Coke, Asbury, Whatcoat, Lee, and most of the great orig- inal leaders of the denomination from the scene. A historian, or even an epic poet, could hardly demand a more befitting denouement to his story, or more interesting and romantic materials for it. What, therefore, remains unrecorded in my volumes is but the chron- ological continuation of the system here described, its continuous working, without much, if anything, essentially different, except a new generation of preachers, and the occasional controversies and schisms which have disturbed, but hardly impaired it, and which I trust my readers will be as happy as myself to escape. In following my main design, of exhibiting the vital principles and workings of Methodism, I have necessarily been most minute in the earliest data, condensing as I advance toward our own times. Prom the peculiar organization of the Church, Methodist history is pecul- iarly biographic, a fact which enhances much its popular interest, but also the difficulties of its writers. Scores, if not hundreds, of personal characters are more orv less sketched in these' volumes ; and, in order to relieve the biographical tone of the story, many are portrayed at their introduction to the ministry, others at some important event in which they took a prominent part, and still others not till their obituary in the Conference Minutes. Not a few important characters are hardly more than mentioned ; they were necessarily referred to the times oi their obituary record, which come after my final date ; they will afford precious material for another volume, for one volume more will be necessary to bring the history down to its centenary year. I have no design of writing that volume, at least not within the next ten or fifteen years. I have gathered ample materials for it, but they will be left in the library of the Drew Theological School for the use of some abler hand. After many years of hardest toil, and the postponement of other literary plans, my design has been accomplished as well as I feel myself able to do it ; that design has been, not to exhibit the Church merely in what is sometimes called its "heroic period," but in its full maturity, its complete structure, as it stands before us to-day, except- ing only the extension of some of its outer works. Its " heroic period " I trust, still continues, and will, while it has indefinite frontier fields to invade. Its history will be equally indefinite, in continuance, at least. I gladly give way to my successors in the grateful task of recording ita later triumphs. Abel Stevens. Omenta, Mamaroneok, N. Y., July, 1867. d .. CONTENTS. BOOK V. FROM THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1792 TO THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1804: CONTINUED. CHAPTER XVIII. Page Valentine Cook 75 methodism in the eastern" states, His great Public Debate 75 continued : 1796-1804. Daniel Hitt 79 Page James Quinn 79 Asbury in the East 11 His long Services and Character Success 12 80 Matthews and Chienvrant Wilbraham Conference 12 81 Thornton Fleming Lorenzo Dow 14 82 Asa Shinn Continued Success 15 82 Methodism in the Erie Country Evangelical Adventures of Hib- 84 The Roberts Family bard and Vannest 16 84 Local Preachers 84 First Conference in Maine 23 Robert R. Roberts Scenes there 23 84 His Early Life and Character. 85 Conference at Granville 27 He becomes a Bishop 86 State of the Church 27 His thoroughly Western Char- "William Beauchamp 29 acter Daniel Webb 33 87 His Episcopal Residence a Log- Epaphras Kibby 38 cabin 87 Hardships in Maine 40 Illustrations of his Character. Conversion of General M'Clel- 88 Curious Rencounter with a lan's Family 41 Young Preacher : Note Joshua Soule 44 90 Methodism in the Erie Confer- Results ' 49 ence 91 Lorenzo Dow 50 Reaches Ohio 92 Elijah Hedding's Services and Progress in Western Virginia. 93 Character , 52 Quinn's Labors there 93 Methodism in New England in Ministerial Recruits 94 1800 61 General Morgan 95 The Bishops in the East 64 The Holston Country 90 Lee's Farewell Tour 64 M'Kendree and Bruce 96 Itinerant Recruits 65 The "Western Conference "... 96 Thomas Branch's Death in the Benjamin Lakin's Labors and Wilderness 66 Character 97 Martin Ruter and Laban Clark 68 Valentine Cook in the Holston Persecutions 70 Country 99 Great Success 73 His subsequent Life 100 CHAPTER XIX. His Death and Character 104 Henry Smith 105 METHODISM IN" WEST, THE 1796-1804. James M'Cull 105 Western Methodism 74 John Sale 107 The Redstone Country 75 Judge M'Lean's estimate of him 108 d CONTENTS. CHAPTER XX. CHAPTER XXI. OONTEEENCES OF 1800 METHODISM IN THE "WEST, CONTINUED : THE OENEKAL 1796-1804. AND 1804. Page Piifre M'Kendree takes Charge of the Coke returns to America 167 Western Field 109 Session of 1800 168 Poythress's Decline and In- Ordination of Wbatcoat 169 sanity 109 Accounts of the Conference . 170 Introduction of Camp-meetings 114 Lee 170 . 171 Remarkable Scenes at them . 115 Coke Grenade 116 Asbury I'l David Young 116 " Allowance " to Preachers 172 Making a Circuit 120 Other Provisions 172 The Southwest opens 181 Anticipatory Measures 173 Tobias Gibson at Natchez 132 Richard Allen, the first African He falls a Martyr to his Work. 133 Ordained in the Church. .. 173 Recruits for the Field 133 Antislavery Enactments 173 Learner Blackman 134 William Ormond against Sla- in 136 .' Methodism Ohio very . 173 M'Cormick 136 Leading Members follow his Dimmick 136 Example 174 Kobler sent to Ohio 137 Additions to the Law of the Hunt and Smith there 142 Church on the Subject 175 The Miami and Sciota Circuits 143 Religious Excitement 177 Advance of the Church 143 Catherine Bruff (Catherine En- Philip in the 145 Gatch West j nalls) 177 Kobler at the Grave of Gatch.
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