TABLE OF ANNUAL CONFERENCES 1796-2019

by Albea Godbold John H. Ness, Jr.

Revised by Edwin Schell and Mark Shenise

Published by The General Commission on Archives and History The United Methodist Church

January 1998 Revised October 2015 INTRODUCTION

TABLE OF UNITED METHODIST CHURCH CONFERENCES OF AMERICA AND CANADA (EUB)

By Albea Godbold and John H. Ness, Jr. Revised by Edwin Schell

This table was originally prepared in 1968 for the Encyclopedia of World by Albea Godbold and John H. Ness, Jr. Subsequent changes of names and bounds to May 1997 have been included herein. Listed by states and by denominations within states are the annual conferences, mission and provisional annual conferences and missions in the U. S. except for certain widely dispersed ethnic conferences, whose names and states are noted later.

The denominations included are Methodist Episcopal Church 1796-1939, Church of the United Brethren in Christ 1800-1946, Evangelical Association 1807-1922, Methodist Protestant Church 1828-1939, Methodist Episcopal Church, South 1845-1939, Methodist Church 1866-1877 and 1939-1968, United Evangelical Church 1894-1922, Evangelical Church 1922-1946, Evangelical United Brethren Church 1946- 1968 and the mergers as United Methodist Conferences after 1968, and the United Methodist Church proper 1968- . Since all conferences save the Red Bird Mission of the former Evangelical United Brethren Church merged since 1968 with contiguous United Methodist Conferences (many under new names), the “Table of E. U. B. Conferences” from the Encyclopedia of World Methodism by John H. Ness, Jr., has been updated to show dates of those mergers and is integrated herein. There is no attempt to differentiate between a mission conference and a regular conference. Descriptions of conference territory and initiation or termination may apply only to that state.

The Methodist Protestant Church and the secessionist Methodist Church (1866-1877) afford incomplete and sometimes conflicting data. However, those MP conferences in the north and west who adhered to the Methodist Church are marked @ and new conferences organized by that church (1866-1877) are marked %. Following the 1877 reunification only one conference (Deep River) seems not to have remerged with geographical units.

The capital letters in Column 1 and elsewhere represent the denominations: EA - Evangelical Association; UE - United Evangelical Church; EC - Evangelical Church; UB - Church of the United Brethren in Christ; EUB - Evangelical United Brethren; ME - Methodist Episcopal; MES - Methodist Episcopal, South; MP - Methodist Protestant; MC - Methodist (1866-1877); M - Methodist (1939-1968) and UM - United Methodist.

i In Column 2 the conferences in each state are listed in alphabetical order where many, and in order of appearance where few. An effort has been made to note the beginning date and founding conference. Quite often beginnings antedate territorial assignments but in other cases assigned territory was never occupied. The list does not include every instance of a conference having one or a few churches in a state outside its primary territory.

In Column 3 is shown the year an annual conference began and ended its work in that particular state which may or may not coincide with its actual beginning or termination. The beginning of an annual conference may or may not follow General Conference authorization. In some instances it seems to have preceded it. Nor do the dates always indicate actual appointments in the state during all the years shown. Reference to the ME or MES General Minutes or to the Annual Conference Minutes may be necessary to clarify certain situations. The dates do not always coincide with founding dates shown in Annual Conference Minutes. Some original conferences properly date their beginnings from 1784, but until 1796 neither names nor territories were assigned. This table gives a new beginning to each denominational change or change of name or status, as from Mission to Conference but many conferences treat their existence as unbroken. Conferences may be terminated by merger, dissolution, division or change of name. However, among EUB and predecessors there is no attempt to differentiate between mission conference and a regular conference. The final outcome is listed in column 6.

Column 4 shows the territorial area in that state, which may change by division or merger. By reference to other conferences in the same state the later territorial assignment may be ascertained. If all states assigned to a conference are not named, an “etc.” appears.

Ethnic conferences whose multi-state territories are not noted in the tables include EAST GERMAN in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania; ITALIAN MISSION in Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, West Virginia; CENTRAL SWEDISH in Illinois, Indiana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania; EASTERN SWEDISH in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island; WESTERN SWEDISH in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming; NORTHWEST SWEDISH in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin; NORWEGIAN-DANISH in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin.

Column 5 shows how each conference entered that state whether by occupancy of new territory, merger, division, secession, change of name, or denominational change.

Column 6 shows termination by reason of merger, absorption, dissolution, abandonment of field, or by denominational division or merger. To conserve space the name Conference is used herein only as necessary to distinguish it from a mission, a mission conference or provisional conference. When two or more conferences are named in columns 5 or 6 they are separated by commas to distinguish them from conferences with double names as Missouri & Arkansas. Asterisks (*) denote African-American annual conferences. Number signs (#) indicate conferences organized by ME and MES within each other’s territory between 1845 and 1939. Some interracial ME conferences begun in the South after 1865, by 1890 had separated into separate white and African-American conferences. Sometimes the original name was retained by the black conference, sometimes by the white as indicated by the table.

ii The phrases Merged 1939 or Merged 1968 refer to the large number of mergers of ME, MES or MP conferences immediately following Methodist Union in 1939 or of Methodist/EUB union 1968. In general the smaller of such conferences involved are not named in Column 6. The EUB entries will show those conferences merged immediately following the 1968 union and dates of those whose merger was delayed. The 1964 vote to phase out the Central (Negro) Jurisdiction led to integration of all those conferences by 1972 by merger with the geographical units. Now the sole units situated within territory allocated to other conferences are Rio Grande (Hispanic), Oklahoma Indian Mission, and Red Bird Mission (Appalachia). Calls for a Korean Conference were not accepted at the 1996 General Conference, but the Asian based Korean Methodist Church has missions functioning in the United States. Some stateside conferences are discussing possible merger as in New Jersey. This means that the 1997 Table will not forever remain current.

Batsel & Batsel, Union List of Methodist Serials, shows locations of Annual Conference Minutes holdings. The Archives and History Center of the General Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist Church at Madison New Jersey is a principal repository. Sherman’s History of the Discipline pp. 273-299 digests boundaries shown in ME D