Acknowledgments

ATTENTION is called to the authorities cited in the footnotes and to the bibliography. The whole range of early Methodist literature, including periodicals, has been carefully searched. Contemporary maps have been studied to trace the routes of Asbury’s travels. For local details scores of histories of states, counties, cities, and churches have been ransacked. The archives of most of the states through which Asbury passed have been investigated, and archivists and librarians have been uniformly helpful. County historians and genealogists have been contacted; and these have searched the old public records for deeds, wills, and other documents that might throw light on passages in the Journal. The Editors have traveled widely in all the states to trace the exact movements of the great Circuit Rider. It would be impossible to mention by name the hundreds of persons who provided local data and co-operated with unfailing kindness in the vast volume of research which has gone into the production of the work. Without their help thousands of local facts would not have been secured.

High credit is due to Mrs. Louise Stahl, my own secretary, who was responsible for a considerable part of the research and for drafting the whole Journal in its final form. She read numerous microfilms and photostats, accurately interpreted difficult hand­written documents, transcribed all the annotations, and with her helpers carried on the voluminous correspondence with the many persons who contributed much or little to the project.

Similar credit must be accorded to the Misses Annie and Clarice Winstead, secre­taries to Dr. J. Manning Potts, for indefatigable work on the Letters. They co-operated in deciphering a large number of documents and transcribed all the Letters and the notes thereon.

In Washington the secretary to Dr. Jacob S. Payton, Miss Margery E. Rohman, rendered highly important service on large sections of the Journal. Proximity to the Library of Congress greatly enhanced her usefulness during the whole period of research.

Mr. Thoburn C. Lyon and Mr. Lewis Akin were responsible for making the maps used in this work. Each of Asbury’s trips in each state was traced on an outline map of the state involved, and the hundreds of maps thus resulting were furnished to Mr. Lyon for guidance. Our indebtedness to Mr. Erie Prior of Washington, the illus­trator, is evident throughout the book.

To express suitable gratitude to all the persons who have co-operated in the present work would involve listing the ministers in nearly all the areas through which Asbury moved for nearly half a century. Among the hundreds who deserve the thanks of the Editors the foliowing must be mentioned:

GEORGIA: Mrs. Z. W. Copeland, Professor E. Merton Coulter, Dean S. Walter Martin, The Rev. Dr. A. M. Pearce, North Georgia Conference Historical Society, Professor Robert C. Wilson.

DELAWARE AND MARYLAND: Dr. William H. Best, Miss Annie P. Dalton, Mrs. S. J. L. DuLaney, Carlyle R. Earp, Dr. William M. Hoffman, Dr. Arthur J. Jackson, Ralph F. Martz, Dr. Walter M. Michael, Miss Hannah S. Parker, The Rev. Kenneth Ray Rose, The Rev. Edwin Schell, The Rev. Melvin Lee Steadman, The Rev. R. T. Thawley, Library of Congress, The Library of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Historical Society of the Peninsula Conference, Maryland Historical

viii Acknowledgments

Society, Methodist Historical Society of the Baltimore Conference, The Rev. William O. Hackett.

KENTUCKY: The Rev. O. B. Crockett, Russell Dyche, Sr., C. H. Greer, W. S. Hudson, E. C. Watts.

NEW ENGLAND: Mrs. William Kirk Kaynor, The Rev. Dwight H. McMahon, Mr. E. Farley Sharp, The Librarians of the Kent Memorial Library, The Public Library at Providence, R.I.

NEW JERSEY: Dr. Lynn H. Corson, Dr. B. Harrison Decker, The Rev. Frank D.

Dennis, The Rev. John L. Ewing, Dr. William R. Guffick, The Rev. Albert E. Hartman, The Rev. George T. Hiliman, Walter W. Hoover, Dr. Roland L. Luerich, Loring Mc­Millen, The Rev. Raymond E. Neff, Dr. John B. Oman, The Rev. Frank Ostertag, Dr. Olin Y. Shute, Dr. Harold N. Smith, Dr. Frank B. Stanger, Miss Laura Yetman, William H. Zelley.

NEW YORK: The Rev. C. W. Christman, The Rev. Robert H. Dolliver, Dr. Robert C. Hunsicker, Mrs. Elizabeth D. Meier, The Trustees of John Street Methodist Church, Bishop Frederick B. Newell, Miss Dorothy Woodruff.

NORTH CAROLINA: Miss Alma Browning, Mrs. Mary L. Browning, The Rev. G. W. Bumgarner, W. Frank Burton, D. L. Corbitt, Department of Archives and History, Leon M. McDonald, Society of County Historians, Miss Amy Muse, S. T. Peace, William S. Powell, University of North Carolina Library, J. F. Pugh, Mrs. G. D. B. Reynolds, Stanley County Historical Society, Colonel Jeffrey F. Stanback, William S. Tariton, Mrs. Stanley Whitaker, Mrs. Laura S. Worth, Randolph County Historical Society.

PENNSYLVANIA: Dr. Raymond Martin Bell, Ellsworth H. Bringinger, The Rev. Charles C. Chayer, The Rev. A. L. Cliffe, Mrs. Gladys DuPuis, William H. Irelan, Miss Ernestine M. Kashlin, S. S. Lesh, The Rev. Howard N. Reeves, Jr., Miss Catherine T. Shulenberger, The Rev. Edgar F. Singer, L. E. Wilt, Dr. T. Kenneth Wood, Libraries of the Philadelphia Conference Historical Society, Pennsylvania Historical Society, The Friends’ Historical Society, The Germantown Historical Society, Delaware County Historical Society, The Historical Society of the Presbyterian Church, The Free Library of Philadelphia.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Dr. J. H. Easterby, South Carolina Historical Commission, Miss Cora Page Godfrey, Herbert Hucks, Jr., Wofford College Library, Dr. R. L. Meriwether, Library of the University of South Carolina.

TENNESSEE: The Rev. Dr. E. P. Anderson, Judge W. W. Faw, Dr. Robert L. Kincaid, Judge H. B. McGinis, Mrs. James K. Taylor.

VIRGINIA AND WEST VIRGINIA: Emory P. Barrow, Joseph Minton Batten (Deceased), Mr. and Mrs. H. Carstairs Bracey, Chaplain (Major-General) Charles I. Carpenter, Carroll C. Chowning, S. G. Cowan, Mrs. J. W. Dixon, Wallace R. Evans, R. H. Forrester, Bishop Paul Neff Garber, Miss Mabel F. Gardiner, The Library of Garrett Biblical Institute, Otis L. Gilliam, Garland E. Hopkins, J. Aubrey Hughes, H. H. Hughes, Frank A. Johnson, William A. Mabry, George Carrington Mason (De­ceased), Mariner’s Museum, Fred Newbraugh, Mrs. Theodore G. Owen, Major T. T. Perry, Jr., George S. Reamey, Roland P. Riddick, Henley S. Roane, Ellis W. Shuler, John C. Simpson, C. A. Steiding, Leland B. Tate, C. L. Wilkins, L. H. Youell.