r ' NOTES m~ EARLY METHODISM IN THE TERRITORY NOW COVERED OR ONCE COVERED BY THE PITTSBifrtGH CONFERENCE Compiled by Rev. Homer C. Henton, and Blanche Craig, Historian, First Methodist Episcopal Church, Tarentum, Fa. Bibliography "Alleghen~ County - Its History and Subsequent Jevelopment"; Lamb­ ing and White; Allegheny County Centennial Commiss1on. nA Short Histocy of the methodists in the United States of America"; Jesse Lee; 1810. "The Autobiography of Jacob Youngn; 1852. Bishop Francis Asbury's "Journal", Volumes I, II, III. "Centennial Address"i· Rev. W. B. Watkins; Pittsburgh Conference Ses­ sion, September, 883. 11 Churches of Allegheny Countyn - 1varner. 11 Cyclopedia of Methodismn; Bishop 1v1atthew Simpson; 18?8. Excerpts from 1~inutes of the First Annual Conferences Held in America, 1??3-1?94"; :published 1?95, bl Henrv Tuckriss, Phila­ delnhia; also, "Minutes of the Annual Conferences of the Metho­ dist E:p1sco:pal Church, 1?73-1828n, Volume I· :published by T. Mason and G. Lane, 1840. Copied from loaned volumes, October and December, 1934. · ttHistory of Allegheny County" - Emery. nHistory of P~legheny County" - Warner. "History of Butler County", Vol. I. -Hale F. Si:pe. ltflistory of :Elizabeth M.E. Church"; 1910; R. T. Viiley. nHistory of Methodismlf; Dr. James M. Buckley. "History of the Methodist Episcopal Churchtr; N. Bangs; 1839. nHistory of Pittsburgh and Its Environs". "Homestead Methodism"; Rev. W. G. Smeltzer. "Old Pittsburgh Daysn; T. J. Chapman. "Pioneer Life in the West"; Rev. James B. Finley. "Pittsburgh Conference Journaln (later nThe Pittsburgh Christian Advocate); first issue, Novemoer 15, 1833. ttPittsburgh Conference Manual". npittsburgh Today, Its hesources and Peoplen. "The Life of Robert R. Roberts"; Rev. C.E. 'Elliott, D.D.; 1844. Foreword No mention of Pittsourgh Conference Methodism would be com­ ~lete without a brief statement of the movement in the United States. Whether it began with the New York group, comprising Barbara Heck, Philip Embury, and other Irish Palatinates who came in 1765, or with Robert Strawbridge, who arrived in Maryland in 1765 or '66, may al­ ~my be a moot question. The two groups were so closely contempor­ ary that the priority of one or the other is of small moment. In Western Pe~sylvania, Methodism was undoubtedly an outgrowth of Strawbridge s work~ and its earliest organizat1ons were a part of the old Baltimore vonference. The following ~aragraphs, condensed from the ."Cyclopedia of Methodism", published 1n 1878 by Bishop N~tthew Simpson, depict the growth of the movement in Pennsylvania. Methodism in Pennsylvania Methodism was introduced into this State by Captain Thomas Webb, a British soldier who vms one of Wesley's converts; he first visited Philadelphia in 1767 and formed a class of seven persons, which met in a sail-loft on Front Street near the Delaware River. Captain Webb visited the city at intervals and preached until the arrival in October, 1769, of Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor, whom John Wesley had sent as missionaries. Pilmoor preached on the Commons and from the steps of the old State House. Boardman proceeded to New York, but thev interchanged regularly eve~ three months. Shortly before theirvarrival, Philadelphia was visited by Robert Williams, a local preacher. A. few weeks after 1tr. Pil­ moor began his work in Philadelphia, the building now known as St. George's Church was purchased from a bankrupt German Reformed congre­ gation; this was the second house 9f wotship belongi~ to the Metho­ dists 1n America. The next year ll770) Boardman and Pilmoor were joined by John King, an earnest local preacher from Epgland, who ~reached his first sermon in the Potter's Field, now Washington Square. In 1771, Francis Asbury and Richard Wright arrived, Asbury beipg in general charge of the work until the arr1val of Thomas Rank1n in 1773. After Asburv's arrival, the missionaries extended their work more regularly into-the count~ · Pilmoor had previously preached at several points outside Philadelphia, but no societies had been formed . Thomas Rankin convened the first Conference at Philadelphia in 1773, at which 180 members were re~orted; probably more than half of these lived in the city itself. Conferences were also held in Philadelphia in 1774 and 1775, 264 members being reported for Penn­ sYlvania at the latter Conference. Iri 1774, a circuit called Ches­ ter was formed between Philadelphia and Baltimore, which reported 74 members the following year. The Revolutionary War retarded the growth of Methodism, and pastors and people were often subject to · persecution. In 1777, Philadelphia reported 96 members and Chester, 136. In 1781 the name of Chester disappears from the records, but Pe~lvania reports 271 members. Little York also appears with 90 mem ers, and the next year Lancaster is reported with 70 memberso These were the heads of large circuits. In 1783 , at the close of 2. the Revolution, the returns in Pennsylvania were:- Philadelphia, 470 members; Little York, 50 members; Juniata, 40 members. The previous year these had composed one district with Thomas Vas~y as elder. The followt·ng year the work extended westward to Alle- gheny_ and Redstone. Dr. J.M. Buckley's "History: of Methodism" lias Allegheny Circuit. in existence in 1782, with Wilson Lee as­ signed to it for his first pastorate.) It may not be amiss at this point to include two brief notes, one takenfrom "A Short History of the Methodists in the United States of America", written b~ Jesse Lee in 1810, the other from B~s' ffHistory of the Method1st Episcopal Uhurch", written in 1839. Jesse Lee says:- Win 1783 the eleventh conference began at Ellis' Meeting House, Virginia, and the same day 1t adjourned to Baltimore on the 27th day of the same montho At this time we took in eleven circuits which are as follows:- In Mary­ land, Caroline and Annamessex· in Virginia, Allegheny, Cum­ berland and Holstein; in Nortli Carolina, Guilford, Caswall, Salisbury,. Marsh, Bertie, Pasquotank. rr In addition to this, Bangs notes that there were reported 82 preachers and 13,740 members, an increase for the year of 1,955. He also sa¥s that the Conference took a strong stand against the li­ quor traff1c and slaveryo Members who had not then freed their slaves were given just one year's grace. The first Thursdays in July and October were appointed as days of thanksgiving "for our public peace, temporal and spiritual pros~erity, and for the glori­ ous work of God." The first Jfridays in January and April were set apart as days of fasting and pra~er. The next conference was a~­ ~ointed to be held in the city of Baltimore on the 4th Thursday 1n May, 1784. The question of slaverv, so strongly denounced at the Con­ ference of 1783, continued to plague Methodism for another half­ century, and finally split the church. The year 1784 saw the beginning of Pittsburgh Conference in the inauguration-of the histor1c Redstone C1rcuit, whose origi­ nal territory covered several hundred m1les and is now embraced in part in four Conferences. Redstone Circuit The first Methodist organization west of the Alleghanies was the Redstone Circuit, organized at the Conference in Baltimore, the latter part of May, 1784. There had been Methodist preaching, however, within its bounds for several years previous. Francis Poythress, assigged to "Pennsylvania Circuit", had gone as far westward as the Youghiogheny River, preaching in the scattered set­ tlements. Howe anu Roberts, on the Allegheny Circuit, a year or two previous, had followed Po1threes and preached at various ~oints in Redstone territory. The foundation, however, had been la1d be­ fore even these valiant circuit-riders crossed the mountains and, 3. as was ~o frequently the case in early Methodism, laid by a layman. Robert Wooster, a local preacher, who settled at Uniontown in 1777- 78,- exercised a helpful ministry throughout the Redstone country for several years ~rior to the organization of the circuit. In the be­ ginning, the Clrcuit-riders of old Redstone swept far beyond its geographical bounds, preaching to the pioneers as far north as the shores of Lake Erie; far soutli into what was then Virginia, now West Virginia; and westward across Ohio, not then a State. In three years the work grew so rapidl~ that the circuit was divided into three - Redstone, wholly with1n. Western Pennsylvani.a.; Cl&rksburg in the south; Ohio in the west. oeven preachers supplledtne circ~1ts. Regarding this pioneer circuit, Rev. W. G. Smeltzer, author of nHomestead Methodism", says:- "About 1777-?8 Robert Wooster came to Uniontown and began a ministry in that re~ion." He then quotes from Stevens' "History of Methodism regarding Wooster, and continues - "The Methodist Episcopal Church was organized just eighteen years after the first Methodist preach1ng in America. It was the first church west of the Alleghanies to organize here after the Revolution, had sufficient vitality to send its first re~ar preachers beyond the mountains in the first year of 1ts o~ganization, t~eir arrival coming in.eight yyars after the com1n~ of Dr. McM1llan of the Presbyter1ans, wh1ch denomination hau been actively at work in the country since the opening years of the 18th century.n Be also quotes from the writing of Rev. Thornton Fleming, who came to this field in 1791 did heroic service for many years, an~ ~hosy body rests in the old Met~odist.cemetery at Uniontown. Wr1t1ng 1n 1834, Rev. Thornton Flem1ng sald:- "In 1784 the first regular preaching by the Methodists west of the Allegheny Mountains in what was called the Red­ stone Circuit was introduced by John Cooper and Samuel Breeze, who were sent out by the Baltimore Conference. The former has long since finished his labor in the vine~ard of the Lord.