A CALENDAR OF HISTORIC EVENTS by William Cardwell Prout (Note to Readers: Documentation is here included for most of these events, especially little known and hard to find material. -We C. Prout.) 1747 Birth of Thomas Morrell, an eminent Methodist soldier-preacher in New Jersey. (Stanger, Method­ ist Trail in New Jersey, 51.) 1772 William Watters was "called out" by Robert Wil­ liams to join him on the Norfolk Circuit to learn , to preach by preaching, the beginning of his itiner­ ant ministry. (Stevens, one vol. ed., 80; Lee & Sweet, 34.) February 1 John Wesley wrote in a letter to Walter Sellon that if he ever came to America, he would become, a "bishop". (Bucke, ed., I, 458.) April 3 Birth of Hugh Bourne at Stoke-on-Trent, Stafford­ shire, England, a carpenter and Wesleyan Methodist preacher. Following a Conference censure of his methods in 1808, he left the Wesleyan Conference in England and founded the Primitive Methodist Church in 1810. (New Cen. Cy. of Names, I, 603; Web. Bio. Dic., 179.-) 1797 Thomas Coke was elected the seventh president of the British Wesleyan Conference meeting at Leeds. He was elected again to the office in 1805. March 29 Bishop Francis Asbury, Methodism's great pioneer bishop, wrote in his Journal, "Live or die, I must ride!" 1822 Melville Beveridge Cox joined the New England Conference. He 'became the first M. E. missionary to Africa, and the first overseas missionary of the M. E. Church. (Sweet, Methodism in American His­ tory, 202.) 52 A CALENDAR OF HISTORIC EVENTS 53 The Rev. Charles Elliott of the Ohio Conference, M. E. Church, was appointed missionary to the Wyandot Indians. (Simpson, 337.) February 12 Birth of Judson Dwight Collins in Wayne County, N. Y. In 1845 he was a member of the first graduat­ ing class at the University of Michigan. Following his admission on trial in the Michigan Conference and after a few months of pastoral duties, he left on March 3, 1847, as missionary to China. He was accompanied by Dr. and Mrs. Moses C. White, the first three Methodist missionaries in China and in Asia. April 27 Birth -'of Ulysses S. Grant in Point Pleasant, Ohio, general, author, 18th President of the United States, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 1847 January 6 The Louisiana Annual Conference of the M. E. Church was organized in the Opelousas M. E. ., Church. In 1955 the name of this church was changed to Louisiana Memorial Methodist Church, the first Methodist Society in Louisiana, organized in 1806. (Methodist History, July 1966, 58.) February 14 Birth of Anna Howard Shaw at Newcastle-upon­ Tyne, England, American suffragist leader. S.he was brought to Michigan as a c~ild, studied at .Albion College 1872-75, and Boston' University School of Theology, 1875-78. When the M. E. Church refused to ordain her because of her sex, she withdrew her membership, entered the Methodist Protestant Church, and received ordination. In 1885 she re­ ceived her M.D. degree from Boston University. Her work hastened the adoption in 1919 of the Woman Suffrage Amendment. She published her biography, The Story of a Pioneer, in 1915. (Burke and Howe: American Authors and Books, 1640­ 1940,681. February 21 Death of Ezekiel Cooper in Philadelphia, eminent M. E. preacher and administrator. (Simpson, 256.) 1872 Miss Isabella Thoburn decided to open a school for girls in Lucknow, India, the beginning of Isa- .. :METHODIST HISTORY bella Thoburn College. (Daily Christian .Adt'occre. 1\1ay 2, 1956, 264.) Rust University at Holly Springs. T\liss., \va~ founded for Negroes under the auspices of the 1\1. E. Church. (National Ellcyclopcdia~\TIll, 596.) Cookman Institute \\'as founded as a boys' ~chool in Jacksonville, Fla., by the 1\1. E. FreC'dn1cn's .Ajd Society. l\larch John B. Good, an attorney from Lancastcr, Pa., a class leader and exhorter, \vas elected presidcnt of the first 1\'1. E. Lay Conference in Philadelphia. (Simpson, 414.) April 15 Founded this year by 11. E. mIssIonaries, the Bareilly Theological Seminary in Bareilly, India, was opened, the first modern theological school in India. Later other religious groups becamc affiliated. (Le\vis: Methodist Overseas !rlissions, 1960.) April 24 The corner-stone of Vanderbilt University \vas laid. (Buckley, History of A1ethodism, II, 374.).