VOLUME 2 — BOOK IV — CHAPTER II
MINISTERIAL TRAVELS AND LABORS FROM THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH TO THE FIRST REGULAR GENERAL CONFERENCE, 1785—1792 

Whatcoat's Labors — Jesse Lee in the South — He forms the Design of Introducing Methodism into New England —Lee, Willis, and Asbury in Charleston, S. C. — Conversion of Edgar Wells — Methodism founded in Charleston — The First North Carolina Conference — Deplorable Fate of Beverly Allen — Lee advances northward and prepares to enter New England — Thomas Ware on Salem Circuit, N.J. — Conversion of Captain Sears — Review of Two Years — Ware in the State of New York — Striking Examples of his Usefulness — His Adventures among the Holston Mountains - A Night Storm — He labors in North Carolina — Destitution and Providential Relief — His Success — His Escape from a "Fortune " — His Return to the North — Review of Seven Years — Benjamin Abbott — Death of his Wife — He joins the Itinerancy — Scenes on Dutchess Circuit — On Long Island — In Philadelphia — Singular Power of his Preaching — Abbott and the Quakers — His Usefulness — Remarkable Scenes of his Ministry — Garrettson — Wesley proposes his Ordination as a Bishop — His Labors in Maryland — He extends Methodism up the Hudson — His Corps of Preachers — Condition of the Country — Great Success — Ashgrove — Ashton — "Black Harry" — An Attempt to Poison Garrettson — Methodism enters the Valley of Wyoming — Anning Owen — Northumberland Valley — Westward Movement of the Church

Whatcoat has left us but brief notes of his travels and labors in the present period. Immediately after the Christmas Conference he took the field in Maryland and Delaware for about half a year, preaching "almost daily, sometimes twice a day," and administering the sacraments almost as frequently. In Kent County he records more than seventy-five baptisms on a single day — such had been the long privation of this ordinance among Methodist families! He wrote to Garrettson (now in Nova Scotia) from Elktown, Md.: "I am in a strange land, and I think my natural disposition is to be little and unknown, content to live and die to God alone; and I find a willing mind to go to the ends of the earth if I can help forward the Redeemer's cause thereby. We have had a quickening among the people in these parts; some great quarter-meetings, happy seasons to my own soul and many others. Glory be to God for all his mercies!" [1] In 1786 he spent seven or eight months in Philadelphia and its neighborhood, and the next year penetrated to the west of Pennsylvania — to Allegheny, Bath, and Berkeley Circuits, where he spent nearly fourteen months supplying the settlements with the sacraments, and proclaiming the word in barns and woods. Again he was sent, in 1788-89, to Maryland and Delaware, the headquarters of his charge, which was a district with no less than sixteen large circuits, extending from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and Redstone, from the Maryland peninsula to Ohio. His manners were devoutly grave, but relieved by affectionate cordiality, and he was both revered and loved by the people. [2] His preaching was often attended with overwhelming unction, and in the administration of the sacraments he was peculiarly impressive, rendering those solemnities, frequently, occasions of great effect. "On the 20th of April, 1789," he says, "at a Quarterly Meeting, held at the old meeting-house, near Cambridge, Dorset County, the Lord came in power at our sacrament; the cries of the mourners, and the ecstasies of believers, were such that the preacher's voice could scarcely be heard for the space of three hours; many were added to the number of true believers. At our Quarterly Meeting, held at St. Michael's, for Talbot Circuit, the power of the. Lord was present to wound and to heal. The Sabbath following, our Quarterly Meeting held at Johnstown, for Caroline Circuit, was yet more glorious; the power of the Lord came down at our Love-feast. The house was filled with the members of our Societies, and great numbers of people were on the outside; the doors and windows were thrown open, and some thronged in at the latter. Such times my eyes never beheld before! The power of the Lord spread from circuit to circuit. O how delightful it is to preach glad tidings, when we see souls 'coming home to God, as doves to their windows!' "

In this year he traveled with Asbury to the North as far as New York, and westward across the Alleghenies to Fort Pitt, (Pittsburgh,) and thence to Uniontown, Pa., where he assisted the bishop at the first ordination beyond the mountains. Returning to Baltimore, they held on their route to Charleston, S. C., where they met the South Carolina Conference, and thence into Georgia, where also they held a session. They then hastened westward to the Alleghenies, and passed into Tennessee and Kentucky. He was present when Asbury laid John Tunnell to rest in the grave among the mountains, on their return. On again reaching Uniontown, Pa., he records that "in the last fifteen months we have traveled six thousand miles." In 1790 he was flying to and fro through the middle states, supplying the sacraments and preaching continually. In 1791 he was stationed in New York city, where he stayed some months, and was then transferred to Baltimore, where he welcomed the first regular General Conference in 1792.

Jesse Lee was not at the Christmas Conference, as has been noticed; he preferred to pursue his circuit labors in the remote west of North Carolina, but before the end of the month in which the Conference was held, he joined Asbury on his first episcopal journey to the far South. Lee was startled to see the bishop enter a church in "full canonicals, gown, cassock, and bands," and hear him read Wesley's Prayer Book. [3] The staunch itinerant would never accept these supposed perversions of Methodist simplicity. Henry Willis also met them, and was sent forward to announce their appointments on the route to Charleston, preaching, himself; as he heralded them. An important event in Lee's life occurred at Cheraw. He met there a mercantile New Englander, who gave him such information of the eastern states as left upon his mind an irreversible conviction that it was his duty to pioneer the denomination into that part of the country. Asbury treated the impression as premature, if not extravagant, but Lee never abandoned the design; he discussed it with his ministerial brethren everywhere, and the prosperous Methodism of New England is today the result of his zealous tenacity.

At Georgetown the bishop preached on the 24th of February. "Just as they were about to start to the place of worship," says the biographer of Lee, "the gentleman at whose house they were staying excused himself from accompanying them, 'as it was his turn to superintend a ball that night.' This occurrence seems greatly to have disconcerted Mr. Lee. Indeed it appears, from the language of his Journal, that he had some misgivings as to the propriety of partaking of the hospitalities of one whose regard for religion must have been very questionable. He 'had been praying earnestly that if the Lord had sent them to that place, he would open the heart and house of some other person to receive them.' His prayer was not in vain; for 'after meeting, Mr. Wayne,' a nephew of the celebrated General Wayne, 'invited them to call upon him, and from that time his house became a home for the ministers.' With this gentleman they took breakfast the following morning, and on resuming their journey he accompanied them to the ferry, and very generously paid for their passage across the river. It was the courtesy of this gentleman, in giving a letter of introduction to Mr. Willis, who had preceded the party to Charleston, that secured for them a cordial reception in that city." We have already seen the result of this letter; it procured the travelers a hospitable reception under the roof of Edgar Wells, a merchant of the city. When they arrived at his door, he was about to go to the theater. His contemplated amusement was abandoned, and the evening was spent in religious conversation and family worship. "From this time he began to seek after God; nor did he seek in vain. In the course of a few days he obtained the witness of his adoption, and was enabled to rejoice in God his Redeemer. He united himself to the Methodist Church, and continued to walk worthy of his high vocation, till a peaceful death finished with him the struggles of mortality." [4]

On the next day Lee delivered the first lesson from Isaiah liii, 5, 6, in an unoccupied Baptist Church. He had but about twenty hearers, but preached with effect, and "the people seemed quite amazed." Willis occupied the pulpit in the afternoon. At night Lee again proclaimed his message; "the people were a little moved," says Asbury. These services were on Sunday, the 27th of February; on the next Wednesday Asbury took the pulpit, and occupied it daily for a week. Methodism was thus founded in Charleston. The Wesleys had preached there in 1736, and Pilmoor in 1773, but no Society had been formed. Willis was now left in charge of the appointment, and the Church, with various fortunes, has never yielded the ground. "A happier selection than Willis," says a good authority, "could scarcely have been made. Deep piety, amiable manners, general intelligence, an entire devotion to the work, and the most inflexible perseverance, rendered this man of God eminently fit for the great work to which he had been designated. He entered upon his duties under many discouragements; but he succeeded in forming a small Society, and the work was so far prosperous that, when Bishop Asbury visited Charleston the next year, he found the congregation large, and the little flock encouraged to undertake the building of a house of worship. This undertaking appears to have been prosecuted with considerable spirit; and when the bishop visited them the following year, he found a commodious house of worship for the Methodist Episcopal Church. This was the house in Cumberland Street, which will long be remembered with affection as the birthplace of many scores of precious souls, who there received awakening and converting grace. The opening of this house was of vast importance to the interests of Methodism; it not only relieved the congregation from great inconvenience, but gave to them an established and permanent character. It was a public declaration that we had driven down our stake, and intended to hold on." [5]

Leaving Asbury, Lee resumed his travels in North Carolina, and continued them with energy and success till he again met the bishop at the first North Carolina Conference, begun on the 20th of April, 1785, and closed in two days. Twenty preachers were present, and the scene was full of cheerfulness and hope; for these pioneers of the wilderness had left their extended fields of labor "white unto the harvest." "The ministers had been successful, and had come up from their different fields of labor with tidings of success, bringing their own cheerful and happy hearts, a contribution to the quiet and harmony of the Conference. In summing up the actual additions to the ranks of Methodism, it was found that nine hundred and ninety-one persons had given in their adhesion to its principles, and their talents and influence to the promotion of its success in saving souls. Of these, according to Dr. Coke, one hundred and ten were in South Carolina, and had been brought into the Church chiefly through the instrumentality of a local preacher, who had recently settled in the state. The labors of the ministry had also extended into Georgia, and the whole state appears, on the plan of appointments, as a circuit, with a solitary minister to superintend its spiritual concerns!" [6]

Lee was already a champion among the itinerants. Another "strong man armed" was also present, whose subsequent history casts a deep shadow over the early annals of the denomination. Beverly Allen had been elected, at the Christmas Conference, for ordination, but, being absent, was now ordained by Asbury, in presence of his southern brethren, first to deacon's and then to elder's orders — supposed to be the first ordinations in the North Carolina Conference. He had been a devout and successful preacher, a man of extraordinary talents and, a correspondent of Wesley, [7] and was now a leader of the southern ranks of the ministry. He was commissioned to introduce Methodism into Georgia, and in the Minutes of this year his name stands as its solitary itinerant for that whole state. The next year he reported seventy-eight members there. For some years his influence rose continually in Georgia and South Carolina. He became the most prominent representative of Methodism in all that part of the country, having "an almost unparalleled popularity as a preacher." [8] He married into a highly respectable family, and became prominent in the community of Charleston. In the last year of our present period (1792) his name stands in the Minutes as expelled." He had fallen in his strength and success, and his fall stunned for years his denomination in Charleston and all the neighboring regions. He sunk from bad to worse, and it was charitably supposed that he was insane. Two years after his expulsion he shot an eminent citizen, the marshal of the Federal Court of Georgia, who attempted to serve a writ upon him. He was imprisoned, and in peril of his life; some of his friends signed a petition in his behalf; alleging that he was a maniac; he escaped from the prison and disappeared in the new settlements of the far West. The early records of Methodism represent his final fate as lost in obscurity; but one of the most notable pioneers of the western itinerancy throws a gleam of lurid light upon his wretched end. "My father," writes this veteran, "sent me to school, boarding me at Dr. Beverly Allen's; but my teacher was not well qualified to teach correctly, and I made but small progress. I, however, learned to read, write, and cipher a little, but very imperfectly. Dr. Allen, with whom I boarded, had, in an early day, been a traveling preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was sent South to Georgia, as a very gentlemanly and popular preacher, and did much good. He married in that country a fine, pious woman, a member of the Church; but he, like David, in an evil hour, fell into sin, violated the laws of the country, and a writ was issued for his apprehension. He warned the sheriff not to enter his room, and assured him if he did he would kill him. The sheriff rushed upon him, and Allen shot him dead. He fled from that country to escape justice, and settled in Logan County, Ky., then called 'Rogues' Harbor.' His family followed him, and here he practiced medicine. To ease a troubled conscience he drank in the doctrine of Universalism; but he lived and died a great friend to the Methodist Church. It fell to my lot, after I had been a preacher several years, to visit the doctor on his dying bed. I talked to and prayed with him. Just before he died I asked him if he was willing to die and meet his final Judge with his Universalist sentiments. He frankly said he was not. He said he could make the mercy of God cover every case in his mind but his own, but he thought there was no mercy for him; and in this state of mind he left the world, bidding his family and friends an eternal farewell, warning them not to come to that place of torment to which he felt himself eternally doomed." [9]

Lee's next appointment was on Caroline Circuit, N. C., and in the year following he traveled Kent Circuit, Md. The latter included four large counties. His labors were Herculean. He observes that in four weeks he had to preach thirty-one sermons, and lead fifty-two classes. Three hundred were added to the Church during his ministry on this circuit, and such scenes as have already been described as attending his preaching were of frequent occurrence. He records seasons "when weeping was heard in every part of the house," when his "own heart seemed ready to break" with sympathy for his hearers, and his tears suppressed, for a time, his utterance.

His appointment in 1787 was to Baltimore City Circuit. His large spirit could not brook the restrictions imposed by the usual plans of even circuit labor. He went forth from the chapels of the city, and took his stand on the Common, and here, as usual, his popular address and fervent eloquence won the interest and touched the sympathies of the multitude. He preached in the market on Howard's Hill, also in that on the Point, and thus brought the sound of the divine word within the hearing of multitudes of sailors and the neglected poor, who otherwise might have never heard it. He had his usual success in Baltimore. "Many souls," he writes, "have been awakened and converted in the Circuit this year. I suppose there has not been so great a work among the people for eight or ten years as there has been this year. And in many places it is still progressing. There have been much pain and sorrow, and many tears shed, at our parting."

We find him next on Flanders Circuit, the first Methodist preacher who visited that part of New Jersey. The spirit and power of his ministry continued. God had evidently raised him up and thrust him forth for great deeds. The time to attempt them was now at hand. On leaving the Flanders Circuit he attended a Conference in New York city, in 1789, and thence set his face toward New England, whither we shall hereafter follow him.

Thomas Ware resumed, after the Christmas Conference, his labors on the Maryland Peninsula — the garden of Methodism. "There were many," he says, a very many, on this favored shore, who had been wakened and converted to God through the instrumentality of the Methodist preachers, and especially that of Joseph Cromwell, who, though he could not write his name, preached in the demonstration of the Spirit and with an authority that few could withstand. By his labors thousands, of all classes and conditions in society, had been brought into the fold, and were walking worthy of their profession." Other laborers besides Cromwell had reaped there the richest harvests — the most historical evangelists of early Methodism. Ware received Coke there, as we have seen, both before and after the General Conference. In 1785 he was prostrated by sickness, but was appointed to Salem Circuit, N. J., with Phoebus and Sparks — a circuit whose territory is now supplied by scores of preachers. Here he had the satisfaction of laboring among his kindred, and among his converts were two of his own sisters. Methodism had found its way into this section before him, chiefly by Abbott's labors. The war which had just terminated had raged in the upper part of New Jersey; but here its effects were less felt. Many parts of Cumberland and Cape May were but thinly inhabited, and the inhabitants were generally favorable to the cause of the Revolution. When the state of things in West Jersey, in consequence of its becoming the seat of war, rendered it next to impossible for the preachers to labor longer there, they turned their attention to the west, and one of them by the name of James visited Cumberland and Cape May. His manner was, to let his horse take its own course, and, on coming to a house, to inform the family that he had come to "warn them and the people of their neighborhood to prepare to meet their God;" and also to direct them to notify their neighbors that on a given day one would, by divine permission, be there to "deliver a message from God" to them, noting his appointment in a book kept for that purpose; and then, if he found they were not offended, to sing and pray with them, and depart. Some families were much affected, and seemed to hold themselves bound to do as he directed. Others told him he need give himself no further trouble, for they would neither invite their neighbors, nor open their doors to receive him if he came. His singular course occasioned excitement and alarm through many parts. Some seemed to think him a messenger from the invisible world. Others said, "He is mad." Many, however, gave out the appointments as directed; and when the time came, he would be sure to be present. By these means the minds of the people were stirred up, and many were awakened. While thus laboring to sow the seed of the Gospel, he came one evening to the house of a Captain Sears, and having a desire to put up for the night, made application to him for entertainment. The captain was then in the yard, surrounded by a number of barking dogs, which kept up such a noise that he could not at first hear what the preacher said. At this he became very angry and stormed boisterously at them, for which the preacher reproved him. When they became silent so that he could be distinctly heard, the preacher renewed his request to stay over night. The captain paused a long time, looking steadily at him, and then said, "I hate to let you stay the worst of any man I ever saw; but as I never refused a stranger a night's lodging in all my life, you may alight." Soon after entering the house he requested a private room where he might retire. The family were curious to know for what purpose he retired, and contrived to ascertain, when it was found that he was on his knees. After continuing a long time in secret devotion, he came into the parlor and found supper prepared. Captain Sears seated himself at table, and invited his guest to come and partake with him. He came to table and said, "With your permission, captain, I will ask the blessing of God upon our food before we partake it;" to which the captain assented. During the evening the preacher had occasion to reprove his host several times. In a few days the captain attended a military parade; and his men, having heard that the man who had made so much noise in the country had spent a night with him, inquired what he thought of this singular person. "Do you ask what I think of the stranger?" said he; "I know he is a man of God." "Pray how do you know that, captain?" inquired some. "How do I know it?" he replied, "I will tell you honestly — the devil trembled in me at his reproofs." "And so it was," says Ware, "the evil spirit found no place to remain in his heart. By such means, the work was commenced in this region, and spread among the people. I have spent many a comfortable night under the hospitable roof of Captain Sears. He lived long an example of piety — the stranger's host and comforter, and especially the preacher's friend." Ware reviewed at the close of his labors here with gratitude the two years which had passed since the organization of the Church. "Our harmony," he says, "continued the same as it was before, while our labor had been crowned with much greater success, in consequence of having the ordinances of God duly administered among us. In these two years we admitted thirty-four preachers, and had an accession of three thousand eight hundred and three members. We also greatly enlarged our borders, extending our labors to Georgia at the south, and the great valley of the Mississippi at the west."

In 1786 he was appointed to Long Island, but supplying his appointments, for a time, by local preachers, he extended his labors to other parts of the state. He went to New Rochelle, where the war had utterly extinguished the Methodist Society formed by Asbury. There was not now a single known Methodist east of the Hudson River above New York city. He reached Bedford, where a Mr. Eames introduced him to his wife as a Methodist preacher, and said, "You know I told you God would send the Methodist preachers among us, when I dreamed that I saw Mr. Wesley riding through the country with his Bible open in his hand." After spending a short time with this family, during which he preached repeatedly and formed a class, he set out on his return to New Rochelle, but was overtaken by one of the most extraordinary snowstorms he ever witnessed. He was driven to the necessity of putting up at an inn, where he was detained for a week. The landlady was deeply impressed the first time he spoke to her on the subject of religion; but the innkeeper himself; though civil, appeared to be out of his reach. Both of them were very fond of singing; and as Ware's voice was good, they seemed much delighted with some spiritual songs which he sung for them. On the third night of this tremendous storm, while sitting around the cheerful fire, listening to the howling of the wind, and the beating of snow and hail against the windows, he perceived that his host and hostess were pensive; so he sung them one of his favorite pieces, with which they were much affected. He then kneeled down to pray; and they, for the first time, fell upon their knees. After prayer he retired, leaving them both in tears. "After thirty years I was again," he says, "appointed to Long Island, where my host visited me. 'Father Ware,' he said, 'I am happy to see you once more. Have you forgotten the snowstorm which brought you and salvation to my house?' The family had been saved." Ware did good service during this year, not only on Long Island, but in much of the neighboring country.

The transitions of the early itinerants, from one part of the continent to the other, astonish us even in this day of ready intercommunication. We find Ware the next year, 1787, sounding the alarm amid the Holston Mountains, and down among the frontier settlements of Tennessee. Many were his adventures, his perils, and victories there, but they will come more appropriately under our attention hereafter when we shall follow the march of Methodism into the valley of the Mississippi. He suffered from want of the common necessaries of life, from the severity of the winter and mountain storms, from savage Indians, and scarcely less savage white settlers. He wandered often, lost in the forests of the mountains, slept in the woods, preached in log-cabins or the open air, for there were as yet no chapels, however humble, in regions which were hundreds of miles in extent; but he and his few fellow-itinerants were there fortifying the frontier camp of Methodism, whence it was to commence its advance, as "an army with banners," over all the immense valley of the Mississippi, and its way to the Rocky Mountains and to the shores of the Pacific. "There were many," he says in this region, "both of those who had taken the Lord for their portion and these who as yet had not, who manifested a desire to have him the God of their children, and therefore presented them to be baptized. Of the latter class the hearts of the parents were usually touched when their children were dedicated to God in accordance with his own institution. Sometimes the scene was truly affecting, when the thought was impressed upon the minds of parents that their children, according to the declaration of the Saviour, belonged to the kingdom of heaven, while they did not. I cannot but regret that I did not keep a record of the number of these lambs of Christ's flock which I have held in my arms and dedicated to him. I doubt if any traveling preacher could produce a more extended list. For a time I attempted this task; but in Holston, Clinch, French Broad, and New River, there were so many children presented for baptism that I found it difficult, and gave it up." Wesley's provision for the sacraments, in the American Church, had been found necessary indeed in the eastern states, but in these western wilds it was a special blessing. Nearly the whole population of the Holston region had been destitute of the ordinances of religion, until the Methodist itinerants began to traverse their rugged and magnificent country. Hundreds of children and youth had not only not been baptized, but had never witnessed the solemnities of public worship.

In 1789 Ware accompanied Asbury back over the Blue Ridge into North Carolina, and attended a Conference, at McKnight's Church, on the 11th of April. It was one of the most interesting sessions he had ever witnessed. Great grace rested on both preacher and people, and much good resulted. Thus we find him in another remote section of the continent. By the Conference he was appointed to Caswell Circuit, N. C. At the close of the session he set out for his field of labor, poorly clad and nearly penniless, "but happy in God." In the Holston country there had been but little money, and clothing was very dear. His coat was worn through at the elbows, and he had not a whole under garment left; and as for boots, he had none. "But," he says, "my health was good, and I was finely mounted. I could have sold my horse for sufficient to purchase another to answer my purpose, and clothe myself decently; but he had borne me safely through so many dangers, and once, at least, by his instinctive sagacity, rescued me from perishing, that I had resolved that nothing but death should separate us. This, however, soon occurred; for in a few days this noble animal, my sole property in the would at that time, sickened and died. So there I was, an entire stranger, several hundred miles from home, without horse, decent clothing, or funds. But I was not without friends. A good brother with whom I stayed gave me a horse for four weeks on trial, and I determined to go to Newberg and try my credit for clothing." The Methodist itinerants were, however, men of absolute faith, and expected God to provide for them. Ware passed on and called at the house of a gentleman by the name of Howe, who, though not a Methodist, was friendly to the denomination. His inquiries about the western country led to the disclosure of the preacher's destitute condition, with which he was touched. He pressed the itinerant to spend a few days with him, but the latter told him time was a talent with which God had intrusted him, and as it was all he could call his own, he must hasten on to his work. "Earthly treasures I had none," writes the suffering evangelist, "and had abandoned all means of acquiring them. But a heavenly inheritance I hoped, with increasing zeal and activity, to seek throughout my life. I then informed him of my business to Newbern, where I knew no person. After I had mounted and left this gentleman he called me back, saying he had a store in Newbern, and wished me to hand a letter which he gave me to his clerk. Little did I think, at the time, that it contained directions to his clerk to let me have what I might want out of the store to the amount of twenty-five dollars, for which he would never afterward allow me to pay him a single cent. Thus did the Lord provide!"

He labored mightily on this circuit, and here again he found the urgent necessity of the sacraments among the people, and administered them to the eager crowds with the deepest emotion. Not a few affecting scenes occurred in these solemnities. In one place he says, "In the time of the Revolutionary War their ministers had left them, and they had long been without the form of religion. At their request I went to preach to them and baptize their children, and I found them ripe for the Gospel. The sight of so many children brought to be dedicated to God in baptism, for there were scores of them, deeply interested me. I addressed the parents, who were much affected, and their cries so increased my sensibility that, for a time, my power of speech was wholly suspended. I could not, by any exertion I could make, articulate the name of the child. This was observed, and occasioned great excitement of feeling among the people. But when I had so recovered as to be able to proceed, many were melted into tears. After the meeting was concluded many followed me to the house where I went to lodge. At night, although no appointment had been given out, the house was filled with people, and I could not decline preaching to them. In the midst of my discourse the mother of the family got down upon her knees, and such was her state of feeling that, in that attitude, she made her way to the table, where I was standing, and begged me to pray for her. In a few moments the whole congregation was in commotion. I continued to pray and exhort till midnight. The work advanced, and in six weeks we had in this place a Society of eighty members, mostly heads of families. This event I have always deemed a divine sanction of infant baptism. If I ever witnessed a work of God among any people I witnessed it here, and it evidently commenced with the baptizing of infant children." His second year in this part of the country was on a district comprising eight circuits, some of which extended into Virginia. His word was in demonstration and power throughout his vast field. "At one of our quarterly meetings on New River," he writes, "a religious concern was waked up in many, which pervaded a large district of country, and suspended for many weeks almost all worldly concerns. In one family, where I passed many happy days, there were thirty who claimed to be born again, twelve of whom were whites, the fruits of that meeting. This was the family of Gen. Bryan, who was a barrister at law, a professed deist. The general was awakened and converted at this meeting. He became a distinguished patron of Methodism, and died happy, lifting his arm in token of victory when his tongue failed to articulate words." This quarterly meeting was indeed a memorable occasion. "On Saturday many people attended, and great power was manifested during the public exercises. On Sunday morning the love-feast was appointed to commence at eight o'clock. By seven the house was nearly full, and many were prostrate on the floor, and the surrounding grove was made vocal by the prayers and hymns of multitudes as they were approaching the place. When the house was filled, those who could not get in were engaged in some religious exercise without, and numbers were slain under the trees. A son of Col. Taylor, of Tar River, went about among the people, praising God, and telling them what the Lord had done for his soul; and wherever he came they were melted into tears. His appearance was sufficient to disarm the most stouthearted of them. As to preaching, it was out of the question; nor did there appear to be any need of it, for all seemed to yield to the gracious influence, and with melting hearts to say, 'This is the work of God.' Something like this had been witnessed under the ministry of Boardman, King, and others; but Rankin, Wesley's general assistant, so violently opposed it that it soon declined. This circumstance was remembered, and all who were the real friends of experimental religion agreed that it behooved us to let the Lord work in his own way."

Ware won the hearts of the people by his natural amiability, as well as by his Christian devotion, and thereby encountered some temptations. He made his escape homeward from North Carolina in haste from one of these perils that might have changed the whole tenor of his remaining life. A little before he was called to bid a final adieu to this state, he was confined, by indisposition, at the house of a very aged couple, who had no children. They had lived in good repute as Christians, and declared themselves such until the baptizing in the woods. On that memorable day they were brought to see themselves sinners, without any well-grounded hope. They were the first who offered themselves for membership in the new Society, and they continued to adorn their profession by well-ordered lives. They had given him many demonstrations of their affectionate regard, but until this visit he had not known the extent of it. Being in possession of a farm and mill, with other property, and advanced in life, they desired him to write their will. He objected as not understanding the form which might be requisite. They said the document would be simple, and might be easily drawn. It was to provide, that, on condition of his remaining with them through their short stay in this world, all they had should be his. "This, he says, "presented a strong inducement to exchange a life of poverty and toil for one of affluence and ease. Had I accepted the offer, my history would doubtless have been very different from what it is. But I could not do it with a good conscience, so I bid them and North Carolina adieu forever, and returned to see my friends in New Jersey."

He had now been absent from the North about six years, amid scenes of severe privation and romantic adventure. Having reached the Philadelphia Conference of 1791, and received an appointment in Delaware, he reviewed with devout gratitude the prosperity of the Church since its Episcopal organization. "Great," he affirms, "had been its harmony and success. It had received in these years an accession of sixty-seven traveling preachers, and sixty-four thousand and thirty-nine members; fifty-one thousand one hundred and fifty-five whites, and twelve thousand eight hundred and eighty-four colored. In almost every part of the United States the enemies of the Lord were overcome by thousands, for the work was of God, and who can contend with the King of kings, while the instruments he has chosen to carry on his work are faithful?" In 1792 he was sent to Staten Island, but was soon transferred to the Susquehanna District, Pa., as presiding elder, an office which he filled, on various districts, for sixteen years, a longer time, in regular succession, than it had fallen to the lot of any other man.

Benjamin Abbott continued his irregular but effective labors in New Jersey down to the early part of the year 1789, when he joined the Conference and gave himself wholly to the work of the ministry. In the preceding summer his excellent wife died in the faith, believing that God called her to heaven in order to release her husband from domestic cares that he might pursue, without embarrassment, his evangelical travels and toils. She died suddenly, but with full preparation for the solemn event. "I asked her," says Abbott, "if she saw heaven sweetly opened before her. She was speechless, but made three nods with her head without either sigh, groan, or throb. Her manner of life from the time she became a Christian was exemplary; she set apart three times a day for private prayer, and I never knew her omit it; and when I was absent she kept up family prayer." She clapped her hands with rapture as she departed. Abbott immediately settled his temporal affairs, and, at the next New Jersey Conference, was received as a "regular traveling preacher," and appointed to Dutchess Circuit, New York. It was a new field, and he encountered not a few difficulties in it. He was some times mobbed, and was often assailed by sectarian zealots, clerical as well as lay, who insisted on the discussion of his theology, especially his Arminianism. His righteous soul was vexed and wearied by such rencounters. The political revolution of the country had left the popular mind in an extraordinary fermentation. The agitations of the war being over, the people sought new excitements and new topics of discussion; wherever Abbott went he found them ready for polemical contests; they thronged his assemblies, some weeping, some falling down as dead men under his word, but many prepared to combat him, not only at the door after his meetings, but while he was in the act of preaching. Scenes were of daily occurrence which our modern sense of the decorum of public worship render almost inconceivable. The good man was sorely perplexed; he was compelled to become a polemic, a character which illy befitted him; but he sturdily fought his way forward, and at the end of the year reported about one hundred new members in his Societies. He penetrated as far north as Albany; "the alarm," he says, "spread far and wide," and in some of his assemblies "a dozen fell to the floor, and there was weeping and praising of God all through the house;" some were justified, some sanctified, and others "seemed lost in the ocean of redeeming love." The next year also he spent in traveling up and down the Hudson, and received into his young Societies about a hundred converts. The ensuing year he was sent to Long Island; he traversed his extensive circuit with the zeal and power of an apostle, triumphing over mobs, preaching the word daily with demonstrations that often overwhelmed his assemblies, prostrating many of his hearers to the floor. He formed numerous Societies, and labored especially to lead their members into the "deep things of God," his favorite theme being entire sanctification. He received between eighty and ninety souls into the communion of the Church during this year.

At the next Conference he requested Asbury to appoint him to the scenes of his early labors in New Jersey, that he might see his "children in the Gospel" on the Salem Circuit. On his way he paused at Philadelphia, and in St. George's Church, where he was to preach, the impression of his introductory prayer was so extraordinary that no preaching was possible after it. "The power of the Lord," he writes, "descended on the people in such a manner that some fell to the floor under the power thereof; the cry of mourners, and the joyful acclamations of Christians, were so great that I could not be heard. Many cried aloud, and among them was Brother Cann, one of our preachers, who was wonderfully overcome by the divine power. When he came to, he stepped into the desk and publicly acknowledged that he had ever been an enemy to people's crying aloud, but that he then could not help it himself; that he could no more refrain from it than he could from dying if God were to send the messenger of death to arrest his body. Brother McClaskey went through the house among the mourners, praying for and admonishing all that came in his way, and requested me to do the same; accordingly I left the pulpit without attempting to preach, and followed his example. Our meeting continued until near eleven o'clock. No doubt that meeting is well remembered by many of our friends in Philadelphia. O may its good effects be seen in eternity! It was a gracious time to many souls; several professed justification, and some sanctification."

Again, among his former neighbors, he went from place to place like "a flame of fire." "There," he says, "I met many of my dear old friends whom I had not seen for about nine years; many of them were as happy as they could live." All felt that his mode of preaching, his peculiar power, was anomalous, mysterious, but also that it was beneficent; if it observed not the dignities of public worship, still it accomplished the ends of the Gospel, it awakened the heedless, reformed the profligate, led believers into a sanctified life — it awoke the dead in trespasses and sins, and not only crowded the chapels, but mightily recruited the Societies. Almost everywhere multitudes still fell, as dead men, under his marvelous power. If sober observers were disposed to revolt at the scene, they were yet afterward constrained to acknowledge that the moral result of his preaching was good, and permanently good. Even some of the quiet Quakers declared that his spirit was right, and his peculiar power an unquestionable inspiration. He preached in their meeting-houses; they attended his congregations in barns and private houses, and sometimes rose, amid the clamors of mobs, and bore their "testimony" that the power of God was with him. The rabble often beset him, sometimes with concerted plans of hostility; but he never feared them, and they always came off defeated. At one of his appointments they determined to frustrate him. The assembly was large; "when," he writes, "we went into the house as many people followed us as could well crowd in and stand on their feet. I took my stand near the door, there being a considerable number outside. Two men followed us into the house, who appeared ill-disposed; one of them took his stand near the middle of the house, where he remained during the meeting, without offering any disturbance; the other stood about three feet from the door with a truncheon in his hand about two feet long; three or four others remained outside the door with like weapons in their hands. I sung and kneeled down to pray before either of them offered any interruption; but when I besought God to visit that part of his vineyard, and to make it as famous for virtue as it had been for vice, one of them replied, 'That it was as good already as any other part he had known,' and made use of several other expressions during the time of prayer. When I had done prayer, I asked him if he knew that he had violated the laws of the land, and, if they were put in force, that he had forfeited twenty pounds, and must either give security for his future good behavior or go to jail. I then charged him at his peril to desist and give no further interruption; he made several replies, and appeared very vicious. An old Quaker woman, who sat just at my elbow, seeing the man's conduct, and hearing what had passed, bade me not be afraid, and put me in mind of the sufferings which their friends had undergone for the cause of God. I was truly glad to find her an advocate for Jesus, though I bless God I did not feel the fear of man. I proceeded and gave out my text, 'I have a message from God unto thee.' Judges iii, 20. I had not spoken long before he began again to interrupt me, raising himself on his toes to see if the others were at hand; but the door being surrounded by a number of the most respectable inhabitants, those club gentry were either ashamed or afraid, so that they kept their distance. I soon found that it would not answer to dispute, and therefore, without any regard to what he was saying, I began to pour out the terrors of the law upon him in the most awful manner I was capable of. I soon saw his countenance change, and he cried out, 'Is it me, sir, you mean?' 'Yes,' said I, 'you are the very man, and I have a message from God unto you;' which I delivered in plain terms, and began to pray for him. He quickly discovered a disposition to get out of the house; but this he could not hastily do, the crowd was so great in the door. His confusion was great, and he cried out, 'Do not judge! do not judge!' At length he got out, and hallooed amen several times, but he soon gave that up. A Quaker gentleman, being at the door, said to him as he went out, 'Thou hast met with thy match.' I have since understood that he had anchored his vessel in the Delaware, two or three miles distant, in order to attend this meeting, and had sworn that he never meant to weigh anchor again until he had driven every Methodist out of the region. While I was praying for him God convinced a woman of sin, who soon after got her soul converted, and with her husband joined Society. Blessed be God, notwithstanding all the malice of men and devils, we had a solemn and profitable time to many souls, who were broken into tenderness. Soon after a Society was formed, and they became a precious people. I left the circuit after six months, having received eighty-five members into Society, and seen about fifty sanctified by the mighty power and grace of God. There was a great revival among the Classes. May the Lord be mindful of them, and preserve them in his holy fear!"

At another meeting he says, "The power of the Lord arrested a young Quaker, and he fell to the floor as if he had been shot. His mother being present, cried out, 'My son is dead! my son is dead!' I replied, 'Your son is not dead; look to yourself; your son is not dead;' and in a few minutes we had a number slain before the Lord. An old Quaker stood with tears in his eyes. I said to him, 'Look to yourself; this was the way with you when you had the life and power of God among you. Read Sewel's history of the People called Quakers, and you will find there that John Audland, a young man, was preaching in a field near Bristol, and the people fell to the ground before him, and cried out under the mighty power of God.' The man of the house brought the book, and read the passage before the congregation, and he then acknowledged it to be the work of the Lord. I attempted to meet the class, but did not speak to above two or three, when the people fell before the Lord as men slain in battle, and we had the shout of a king in the camp of Jesus. The young Quaker and several others professed that God had set their souls at liberty; several joined Society, and we had a precious time. When I went on the circuit there were about six or seven in Society at that place, and when I left it there were about thirty-six, six or seven of whom had been Quakers. At this place our meetings were generally so powerful that I never regularly met the class during the time I was on the circuit, for we always had the shout of a king in the camp of Jesus. Glory to God!"

The extraordinary events of his ministry, while they interest us, inexpressibly, as illustrations of his singular power and of the simple and rude character of the times, perplex us also with many problems, of which it is perhaps vain to attempt any explanation. One thing at least is clear, there could be no moral stagnation in any place which he entered. The whole community for miles around was stirred to its obscurest depths. All talked about him; the friendly defended and prayed with tears for him, the hostile disputed about him, assailed him, were prostrated by him. Few, if any, however indifferent or reckless about matters of religion, could, if within ten miles of his routes, remain undisturbed. They were compelled to share the general sensation of favorable or hostile interest, compelled to think or talk on the questions with which his presence startled the whole population. This, at least, was a blessing. By it hundreds, if not thousands, otherwise inaccessible to the Gospel, were brought to reflect, to pray, and to amend their lives; and it was especially true that the grossest sinners, the ignorant and degraded, who could be aroused to religious inquiry by none of the customary means, were seized, as it were, by this man's strange power and dragged up into the light out of their darkest abysses, and compelled to think, and often to pray and cry out in an agony of earnestness, "What shall we do to be saved?" He crowded the Methodist classes of New Jersey with such souls, reclaimed, purified, and not a few of them, for years after his death, models of the purest Christian life. In the latter years of his career we are, more than ever, startled by the anomalous records of his journals. He had been so accustomed to see his hearers fall insensible under his preaching, that, in his honest simplicity, he now evidently considered such demonstrations the necessary proofs of the usefulness of his ministry; he everywhere expected them, and, in fact, almost everywhere had them. Sometimes they took a character of undeniable extravagance; his own simple but Christian good sense could hardly fail to perceive this fact; but to him it was only proof of the mixture of human infirmity with the work of the divine Spirit; and his generous soul had no difficulty in excusing human weakness when redeemed, as he believed in these cases, by divine power and overshadowed by divine glory. Garrettson and Asbury deemed it proper at times to control, if not restrain him; but they seem at last to have concluded that he had a peculiar work to do, as an altogether peculiar man, and gave him free course.

His next circuit was that of Trenton, still within his old range. He had no sooner entered upon its territory than the usual effects attended his word. "On my way," he writes, "I attended the Quarterly Meeting at Bethel; after preaching and exhortation on Saturday, we adjourned our meeting until Sunday morning. Next morning the love-feast was opened, and the people began to speak their experiences very feelingly. After several had spoken, and a few exhortations had been given, I arose and exhorted them to look for sanctification, for now was the day of God's power; and the power of the Lord fell on them in such a manner that they fell to the floor, all through the house, up stairs and down, so that speaking experiences was now at an end." The "public preaching" had to be dispensed with that morning; the preachers were employed in counseling and praying with the awakened multitude; the "slain and wounded lay all through the house," and the meeting lasted from nine o'clock in the morning till near sunset.

Abbott continued to labor in New Jersey during most of the remainder of our present period with undiminished success. He formed the first Methodist Society of New Brunswick, consisting of nine members. At Princeton, also, he says, the Lord raised up a Society of nine persons before I left the circuit, glory to God!" He subsequently went to Maryland, whither we shall follow him in due time.

Freeborn Garrettson was ordained at the Conference of 1784, and appointed to Nova Scotia. His labors in that province were extraordinary in their extent and success, but they will come under our notice hereafter. In April, 1787, he returned to the United States, by way of Boston, where he preached in private houses, not being admitted to its pulpits. At Providence and Newport he addressed large assemblies. Arriving in New York he hastened to the Conference at Baltimore. Wesley had been so impressed, by his success in Nova Scotia, that he sent a request to the Conference for his ordination as superintendent, or bishop, for the British dominions in America — a vast diocese, comprising not only the northeastern provinces and the Canadas, but also the West India Islands. "Dr. Coke," writes Garrettson, "was Mr. Wesley's delegate and representative, asked me if I would accept of the appointment. I requested the liberty of deferring my answer until the next day. I think on the next day the doctor came to my room and asked me if I had made up my mind to accept of my appointment; I told him I had upon certain conditions. I observed to him that I was willing to go on a tour, and visit those parts to which I was appointed, for one year; and if there was a cordiality in the appointment among those whom I was requested to serve, I would return to the next Conference and receive ordination for the office of superintendent. His reply was, 'I am perfectly satisfied,' and he gave me a recommendatory letter to the brethren in the West Indies, etc. I had intended, as soon as Conference rose, to pursue my voyage to the West India Islands, to visit Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and in the spring to return. What transpired in the Conference during my absence I know not; but I was astonished, when the appointments were read, to hear my name mentioned to preside in the Peninsula." Wesley was deeply grieved by this disappointment. The biographer of Garrettson ascribes it to the unwillingness of the American preachers to have him so entirely separated from them. He was thus detained in the states, and resumed his labors in his old field of the Maryland Peninsula, where he traveled about twelve months, visiting, as elder, every circuit and nearly every congregation. "Multitudes," says his biographer, "flocked to hear the word, some excited from curiosity to see the man of whom so much had been said in former days, some from a desire to 'learn the way of the Lord more perfectly,' and numbers more to hear again from the lips of this flaming messenger of Christ those precious truths which they had found to be 'the power of God to their salvation.' So great, indeed, was the attention given to the 'words of this life,' that Mr. Garrettson observes, 'that it seemed as if they would all become Methodists.' "

In May, 1788, he passed to New York, designing to pioneer Methodism into New England; and he might thus have anticipated the great work and honor of Jesse Lee, had he not found Hickson, the preacher, in New York, dying. He was detained to supply his place. In Nova Scotia and on the Maryland Peninsula he had acted as presiding elder, traveling at large, superintending the circuit preachers, and administering the sacraments. Such were the functions of the elders ordained at the Christmas Conference, though the office, or at least the designation of presiding elders, proper, was not inserted in the Minutes till years later. He was now charged with this authority, to extend the march of the Church up the Hudson. Many young itinerants, stalwart, and flaming with the zeal of the Gospel, had appeared in the field about New York. Asbury requested Garrettson to take charge of a band of them and lead them up the river. Methodism had not extended northward further than Westchester County, if we except the Ashgrove Society, which was still solitary in the wilderness of Washington County, for Abbott's labors in Dutchess county were at a later date. Garrettson was uneasy about his new commission, being an utter stranger to the country, knowing not one of its inhabitants, and unaware probably of the obscure Ashgrove settlement. His anxiety led him to "much prayer" for divine direction, and affected his sleep. He had in his dreams a sublime vision. "It seemed," he says, "as if the whole country up the North River, as far as Lake Champlain, east and west, was open to my view. After the Conference adjourned, I requested the young men to meet me. Light seemed so reflected on my path that I gave them directions where to begin, and which way to form their circuits. I also appointed the time for each quarterly meeting, requested them to take up a collection in every place where they preached, and told them that I should go up the river to the extreme parts of the work, visiting the towns and cities on the way, and, on my return, visit them all, and hold their quarterly meetings. I had no doubt but that the Lord would do wonders, for the young men were pious, zealous, and laborious." These young men were Peter Moriarty, Albert Van Nostrand, Cornelius Cook, Andrew Harpending, Darius Dunham, Samuel J. Talbot, David Kendall, Lemuel Smith, and Samuel Wigton. Some of them became historic characters in the Church. They formed six circuits, from New Rochelle to Lake Champlain, and thus was the denomination founded all along the Hudson, dotting, in our day, its beautiful towns and villages, on both banks, with Methodist edifices — a chapel and a parsonage in almost every hamlet.

The Revolutionary War had raged through this whole region, from the St. Lawrence to New York. Religion had everywhere declined. On the west of the Hudson the settlements were new, the roads bad, the accommodations for the itinerants hardly better than on the western frontier. On the eastern bank all the country north of Lansingburgh was in a similar condition. [10] Drunkenness, profanity, and speculative infidelity were general. Garrettson, having sent his young men up the river, soon after set out himself. He ascended its east bank through New Rochelle, North Castle, Bedford, Peekskill, to Rhinebeck, preaching in all the towns on his route. At Rhinebeck, destined to be the retreat of his last years, he was entertained by Thomas Tillotson, Esq., and preached repeatedly in a barn to constantly increasing congregations. On his return he found that his itinerants were almost everywhere prevailing over opposition, and forming prosperous Societies. "Many houses," he writes, "and hands and hearts were opened, and before the commencement of the winter we had several large circuits formed, and the most of the preachers were comfortably situated; sinners in a variety of places begun to inquire what they should do to be saved. Satan and his children, were much alarmed, and began on every hand to threaten us. Some said, 'They are good men;' others sand, 'Nay, they are deceivers of the people.' A stranger from Vermont, on his way down the country, informed the people that we were spread all over the country through which he came. This sudden spread of our preachers caused some person to say, 'I know not from whence they all come, unless from the clouds.' Others said, 'The king of England hath sent them to disaffect the people, and they did not doubt but they would bring on another war;' while others gave it as their opinion that we were the false prophets spoken of in Scripture, who should come in the last days, and deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. Among others, the ministers of the different denominations were alarmed, fearing lest we should break up their congregations, and, frequently coming to hear, some of them openly opposed, declaring publicly that the doctrine was false. The power of the Lord attended the word, a great reformation was seen among the people, and many were enabled to speak freely and feelingly of what God had done for their souls. My custom was to go around the district every three months, and then return to New York, where I commonly stayed about two weeks. In going once around I usually traveled about a thousand miles, and preached upward of a hundred sermons."

A venerable authority, familiar with all this region, informs us that "Samuel Wigton and Lemuel Smith were sent to the extreme north, one to Cambridge Circuit, and the other to Champlain, or rather they proceeded to form circuits which were to be called by those names. Both came together to Hampton, Washington County, and calling at the house of Samuel Bibbins, opened to him their mission. They were made welcome to his hospitalities, and permitted to preach there. Samuel Bibbins, jr., declared that he had seen these two men in a dream, and knew them as soon as he cast his eyes upon them. At the first meeting the husband, wife, and son, Samuel, with many others, were awakened. A class was immediately formed, and thenceforward Bibbins' house was the home of the Methodist preachers, and, as often as was required, the place of preaching. Samuel Bibbins, jr., was unusually gifted in prayer and exhortation, and soon became a local preacher. The work of revival followed him, and hundreds were converted through his instrumentality. In after years he was admitted into the Genesee Conference, and was a successful laborer to the close of his life. The work spread rapidly in all directions into Vermont, and at the West into the new settlements. In 1791 Philip Wager and Jonathan Newman were sent into the Otsego country to form a circuit, and they reported eighty members. This year Otsego County was formed, being taken from Montgomery. It was a wild country, the settlements few and far between; there were scarcely any roads, and the people were poor, wicked, and reckless. Jonathan Newman was just the man for the work assigned him. He became identified with Otsego Circuit, and his dust sleeps under its green turf. He was a mighty preacher, and was usually in the advance line of attack. He was the first Methodist preacher who visited many interesting points where Methodism now holds and has long held an enviable position. In 1792 two new circuits were formed, still further at the north, on the St. Lawrence, called Cataraque and Oswegatchie. This year Jonathan Newman and James Covel were upon Otsego Circuit, and they extended their labors up the Mohawk Valley, and over the wild ridges and vales where originate the tributaries of the Susquehanna. About the same time Garrettson made a journey to the west as far as Whitestown, and prepared the way for the establishment of regular appointments, and for embracing that region within the bounds of a circuit on the Mohawk River." [11]

In 1789 he enlarged much the district, extending it westward to Schenectady. He continued to travel it till the end of our present period. He penetrated to the little Society which had so long been hidden in Ashgrove, and reanimated it by his powerful preaching. They had recently erected their small chapel. John Baker, an Irish emigrant, had arrived among them about two years before Garrettson's exploration of the upper Hudson, and had endeavored to procure them a preacher from the Conference, but none could be spared till Garrettson sent to them one of his own band, Lemuel Smith, who placed the Society under good regulation, and made it the headquarters of extensive evangelical labors for the surrounding country. "This Society," writes Garrettson's biographer, "may be considered the center of Methodism in this northern part of the country." A preacher who early traveled the circuit writes "that the Ashgrove Society was the hive of Methodism and in common center to all this part of the country for many years. The names of Ashton, Baker, Barber, Empy, Hannah, Nicholson, Fisher, and Armitage, will long be remembered in the history of Methodism in this place. Their hearts and their hands were open to sustain our ministers in the labors and toils of earlier days. Ashton, especially, was a great friend to the preachers. He had one room in his house fitted up with a bed, a table, and chairs, for the special accommodation of the preachers. This room was known far and near by the appellation of the 'Preachers' Room.' Here the preachers were at home as if the dwelling had been their own. In his last will he gave a building lot for a parsonage and a burying-ground. He also gave the furniture of the Preachers' Room and a cow for the benefit of the preachers who should be stationed on the circuit. He also left on his estate a perpetual annuity of ten dollars, to be paid to the oldest single elder of the New York Conference. The lot given by Ashton for a burying-ground, in Ashgrove, contains the remains of several of the early friends of Methodism."

Garrettson found not a few of the houses of the rich open for his entertainment on his long route. Gov. Van Courtlandt; near Croton River, especially became his ardent friend, and was long the hospitable protector of Methodist preachers. [12] Garrettson had now Asbury's famous driver "Black Harry" to accompany him. Harry preached continually with great success among both whites and blacks. At Hudson he says, "I found the people very curious to hear Harry. I therefore declined preaching, that their curiosity might be satisfied. The different denominations heard him with much admiration, and the Quakers thought that as he was unlearned he must preach by immediate inspiration." With Harry, he made a digression into New England as far as Boston, where we shall meet him, with Jesse Lee, hereafter.

In fine, Garrettson, in these three years' labor on the Hudson, opened nearly all its course for Methodism. He gathered into its Societies more than two thousand five hundred members. In 1791 he reported from it to the Conference twelve circuits. His district comprised nearly all the territory now included in the New York and Troy Conferences. "By this estimate," says his biographer, "those who now come among us may see what their fathers in the Gospel had to encounter, the immense labors they performed, and the consequent privations they must have endured, as well as the astonishing success which accompanied their exertions in the cause of their Master." At the Conference of 1791 the great field was divided into two districts, Garrettson taking charge of the northern one, which comprehended Dutchess, Columbia, New Britain, Cambridge, Albany, Saratoga, and Otsego Circuits. He continued to travel his new district till the General Conference of 1792, extending it into New England on the right, and into the new settlements on the left. He began (in 1791) the first Methodist chapel in Albany, and indeed in most of the principal communities of the Upper Hudson. Asbury repeatedly visited him, and rejoiced in the prosperity of his labors. In the latter part of July, 1791, Asbury held in Albany the first Conference [13] of these northern regions.

Garrettson and his fellow-laborers not only traveled and preached indefatigably, but suffered severe privations, and sometimes formidable opposition. In one instance, at least, his life was periled. "On looking back," he writes, "I see the hand of a good God in my preservation last Thursday. I came to Mr. _____ weary and thirsty. I asked for something to drink, and my kind friend's wife went to fetch it. After staying about fifteen minutes, she returned with some small beer. As she advanced toward me I was as sensibly impressed as if some one had told me, That woman is not too good to put poison in the drink. As I was putting it to my lips the same impression was so strong, that immediately I refused, and put it down on the table untouched. Shortly after dinner was brought on the table, but I could eat very little. The next morning she poisoned her husband and two others with the meat which had been set before me. I was informed not long since that she had said she would put an end to the Methodists. A skillful physician was at hand, or in all probability they would have lost their lives. She was immediately sent to the jail in Albany."

Methodism not only reached westward as far as Utica, but southwestward into the Valley of Wyoming, which is recorded in the Minutes, as a circuit, as early as 1791. It entered that beautiful region, however, some three years before a preacher was sent thither. Its real founder there was Anning Owen, a blacksmith, a brave pioneer, who went to the valley, with a company of adventurers, soon after the Revolutionary War broke out. Owen was one of the few courageous men who were overthrown by the superior savage force of Col. John Butler, and barely escaped the bloody slaughter which followed. Returning to the East, his providential escape led him to devout reflection. His conscience was awakened, and he was not content till he found out the Methodists, under whose influence he became a renewed man. He went again to Wyoming, and began to converse with his neighbors on religion. Full of enthusiasm, and as tenderhearted as he was courageous, he hastened from house to house, exhorting with tears, reproving vice, and seeking out all whose consciences were restless in sin. The historian of Methodism in that region, familiar with its earliest events, says, "He appointed prayer-meetings in his own house. The people were melted down under his prayers, his exhortations, and singing. He was invited to appoint meetings at other places in the neighborhood, and he listened to the call. A revival of religion broke out at Ross Hill, about a mile from his residence, and just across the line which separates the townships of Kingston and Plymouth. Great power attended the simple, earnest efforts of the blacksmith, and souls were converted to God. He studied the openings of Providence, and tried in all things to follow the divine light. He was regarded by the young converts as their spiritual father, and to him they looked for advice and comfort." [14] He became, practically, their pastor, and formed among them the first Methodist class of the valley in 1788. Benjamin Carpenter, Esq., was one of its members. With him Owen had frequent and anxious conversations on the necessity of providing preaching for the little flock. "They agreed," says our authority, "to settle the question by opening the Bible and following the lead of the first passage which presented itself. Squire Carpenter handed the Bible to Owen, and, upon opening it, the first sentence his eye fell upon was, 'Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.' Squire Carpenter said, 'I cannot.' Owen said, 'I will.' The thing with him was settled, and he then began to meditate upon the measures necessary to carry into effect his resolution. He visited some point at the East, where Methodism had a local habitation and a name; and on returning, at a meeting of his Society, he said, 'I have received a regular license to preach, and now have full power to proceed in the work.' Upon an examination of the old Minutes it will be seen that Wyoming was not recognized until three years after the organization of the first class. Upon being asked what they did for preaching all this time, one of the first members answered, 'Father Owen hammered away for us, and we did very well. We we all happy in God, and were not so very particular.' "

During these three years the young Society kept its altar fire burning without the aid of any other pastoral ministrations than those of the faithful blacksmith, and an occasional visit of Garrettson's preachers. "They set up," says one of them, "prayer-meetings and class-meetings, and the Lord poured out his Spirit upon us. Saints rejoiced and praised God, and sinners fell on the floor and cried for mercy, and few were able to keep their seats. These meetings were held on Sundays, Sunday evenings, and Thursday nights. This disturbed the enemy's camp and raised persecution against us, and our names were cast out as evil; but the more they persecuted us the more the Lord blessed us. The first minister that was sent among us was Mr. Mills." Nathaniel B. Mills traveled the Newburgh Circuit, on Garrettson's District, in 1789. In that year he reached the Wyoming Valley — the first Methodist preacher who entered it. In 1791 it was reported as a circuit, with James Campbell for its preacher. In the same year the Northumberland Circuit is recorded, but Methodism did not reach the valleys below till two years after its entrance into Wyoming. Richard Barrett had previously explored the Northumberland country, and now traversed it with Lewis Browning, forming classes and establishing "preaching places " in most of its settlements. They extended their labors till the Methodism of Northumberland met and blended with that of Penn's Valley, where we have already witnessed the pioneer labors of Robert Pennington. Soon after the General Conference of 1792, William Colbert, then on the Northumberland Circuit, carried the Methodist standard into the Tioga country. Thus had the denomination commenced its march, from Garrettson's great battleground on the Hudson, toward what was then the northwestern frontier. Stirring events are to attend it there, but they belong to a later part of our record. Anning Owen was the "apostle of Methodism in Wyoming Valley," and of its movements thence to the regions beyond. He joined the itinerant ranks a few years later, and labored successfully from Albany to the Chesapeake, from the Hudson far into the interior settlements of New York and Pennsylvania. He retired at last a worn-out veteran. His motto was, "Work work! work! this world is no place for rest. His face was wrinkled, his head bald, and what of his hair remained was as white as snow. The Minutes say that Anning Owen labored faithfully and endured much hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, and has been rendered a great blessing to many souls. He died in the sixty-third year of his age. He manifested great patience and resignation in the midst of his affliction: his confidence remained firm till his latest struggle. He was entirely willing to leave the world, and, without doubt, died in peace, and is now receiving the reward of his labors. Surely the last end of the good man is peace."

—————————————————————-

ENDNOTES

1 Garrettson Papers at Rhinebeck, New York.

2 "My late lamented friend, Dr. Thomas E. Bond, Sr., who knew him well, said to me: 'He was one of the purest spirits I ever knew. Every body about the home loved him, cats, dogs, and all.' Mary Snethen said to us, that of all the pure and holy men that came to that old parsonage, [John Street,] he seemed to be the most heavenly-minded. He talked of heaven, he sang of heaven, and meditated of heaven." Wakeley, p. 380.

3 Dr. Lee's Life, etc., of Lee, p. 149.

4 Bishop J. O. Andrew, in Methodist Quarterly Review, 1830, p. 17

5 Bishop Andrew.

6 Dr. Lee.

7 See his Letters in the Arminian Magazine, 1792.

8 Bishop Andrew.

9 Autobiography of Rev. Peter Cartwright D. D., p. 28. New York, 1856.

10 Bangs's Life of Garrettson, p. 172.

11 Rev. Dr. G. Peck's Early Methodism, etc. p. 174. New York 1860.

12 His daughter, Mrs. Van Wyck, was one of the most intelligent and zealous Methodists of these times.

13 Bangs' Garrettson, p. 198. Asbury does not allude to the Conference. He was in Albany from the 29th of July to the 1st of August.

14 Dr. Peck.

---

Text scanned and proofread by Rev. & Mrs. Duane V. Maxey
Holiness Data Ministry
P. O. Box 482
Coeur D' Alene, WA 99208

HTML conversion by Paul Leclerc and George Lyons
Copyright 2000 by the Wesley Center for Applied Theology
of Northwest Nazarene University,
Nampa, Idaho 83686.

Text may be freely used for personal or scholarly purposes, provided this notice is left intact.
This text may not be redistributed in any for-profit form or mirrored at any other website without the expressed, written consent of the Wesley Center.

If you have any questions regarding these files, please contact the Wesley Center for Applied Theology.