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Francis Asbury's Journal

1811

54 entries · 1811-01-01 to 1811-12-31

Tuesday, January 1, 1811.

TuesdaySouth Carolina

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 588

Notes on this page (6)
  1. The Widow Davis lived in upper Dorchester County.
  2. While Asbury was preaching in Charleston, Henry Boehm “attended to some important business for the Book Room, procuring drafts, etc.” (Boehm, op. cit., 334.)
  3. Hale lived on the main road between Clement’s Ferry, five miles above Charleston, and Lenud’s Ferry on the Santee. William Capers established a preaching place there on the invitation of Hale in 1811. (Capers: Autobiography, 141.)
  4. Dunwody had been stationed in Georgetown, and Mason had been in Charleston. Their appointments were reversed at the conference just held.
  5. Samuel and Francis Green lived near the present Hemingway or Johnsonville, south of Lynch’s River.
  6. John Newsom lived near Mullins.

Monday, 21.

MondayNorth Carolina

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 589

Notes on this page (1)
  1. James Purdy lived in Bladen County, North Carolina.

Friday, February 1.

FridayNorth Carolina

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 589

Notes on this page (22)
  1. Asbury, Thomas L. Douglas, and Henry Boehm stayed with William Glendenning in Raleigh during the sessions of this conference. Glendenning had gone off with O’Kelly and later became a Unitarian. Asbury and McKendree presided over this conference, which had fifty members present. Philip Bruce, Thomas L. Douglass, and John Buxton were appointed a committee to prepare rules to regulate the conference. They again took a collection for the brethren in New England. There were forty-six circuits, and eighty-two preachers received appointments. (Bennett, op. cit., 563-64.)
  2. Samuel Alston lived in Warren County.
  3. See Asbury’s letter to Thomas L. Douglas, February 24, 1811, which sets forth his plan for history “focus.”
  4. This first Methodist house of worship erected in Washington stood on Fourth Street between South Carolina Avenue and G Street, S.E. The date of conveyance of the lot was October 5, 1810. The building was of brick with galleries on three sides. The fact that it remained so long unfurnished indicates the heavy financial burden assumed in its erection. Among its nine trustees was Henry Foxhall of Georgetown, in whose home Bishops Asbury and McKendree were guests. The pastor was Beverly Waugh (1789-1858), later a bishop. In 1819 the name Ebenezer was given to the original church. (Ferguson: Methodism in Washington, D.C., 45-66; Boehm, op. cit., 340.)
  5. Federal Chapel, built at the close of the Revolutionary War, stood one- half mile south of Colesville, Montgomery County, Maryland. With the erection of Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in 1868 and 1869, services were transferred to Colesville. (Schaff: History of Western Maryland, I, 758, 759.)
  6. In 1726 a grant of three hundred acres, called Hopewell, near the mouth of the Little Monocacy River, Montgomery County, was made. (Scharf, op. cit., I, 652.) As early as 1792 George Wells preached at Hopewell which he located near the residence of Captain Beall, for whose family Beallsville is named. (Manuscript Diary of George Wells, entry for October, 1792, Lovely Lane Museum, Baltimore.)
  7. Goshen Chapel stood three miles south of Woodfield and six miles southeast of Clarksburg, Montgomery County. An abandoned church building occupies the site of the old Goshen meetinghouse. (See note under May 3, 1789.)
  8. This may have been the widow of Cyrus Harris, in whose home William Colbert preached when on the Montgomery Circuit. (Colbert’s Journal, January 7, 1794.)
  9. In 1804 the congregation of eighteen members at Hyattstown, Montgomery County, erected a log church on land acquired from Mr. and Mrs. Eli Hyatt. Its trustees were Samuel Hobbs, Basil Soper, Charles McElfresh, John Smith, and Joseph Benton. It was in this church that Asbury preached. (Scharf: History of Western Maryland, I, 722, 723.)
  10. William Willson married a daughter of John Clark, the founder of Clarksburg in Montgomery County. (See note under June 15, 1783.) He was long a steward of the Montgomery Quarterly Conference. (Armstrong, op. cit., 509.) The father, John Willson, had been a trustee of the Sugar Loaf Chapel in 1788, earliest Methodist house of worship in that region. (Scharf: History of Western Maryland, I, 720; Martz: The Clarksburg Methodist Church, 7; Boyd: History of Montgomery County, 100.)
  11. Henry McElfresh in 1808 lived two and one-half miles southeast of New Market. (See note under August 20, 1804.)
  12. According to Scharf the Methodists erected a log chapel in New Market, Frederick County, before 1800, which served them until it was replaced by a more commodious structure in 1821. However, the Frederick Circuit Manuscript Stewards’ Book in Lovely Lane Museum, Baltimore, does not list a class earlier than 1804. (Scharf: History of Western Maryland, I, 608.)
  13. Ephraim Howard and Upton Sheradine married sisters, who were daughters of Basil Dorsey. (See note under August 20, 1804; Warfield, op. cit., 342, 343.)
  14. This was Annie Jones, wife of Joshua Jones. Mrs. Jones died March 12, 1811, aged thirty-three years. Her grave beside that of her husband, who was a traveling preacher (1791-97) and who died September 19, 1836, is in the churchyard of Bethel Church. (Scharf, op. cit., II, 895; see notes under April 9, 1805, and June 10, 1808.)
  15. Ann Willis, widow of Henry Willis, and her brother, Francis Hollingsworth, continued to reside in their old homes for several years. The Engine of Liberty and Uniontown Advertizer, a Carroll County paper, in the issue of February 3, 1814, carried this notice: “Ann Willis offers her farm of two hundred and eighty-two and a half acres on Sam’s Creek, on the road leading from Liberty Town to Baltimore, for sale.” The issue of November 25, 1813, advertised the “sale of farming utensils and household goods by Francis Hollingsworth, Little Pipe Creek.” (See note under April 30, 1801.)
  16. Aquila Garrettson (1762-1837) was a younger brother of Freeborn Garrettson. From 1791 to 1797 Aquila was an itinerant preacher. (Brumbaugh, op. cit., II, 152.)
  17. The Providence Chapel apparently was near West Friendship in the present Howard County. In 1809 a committee of the quarterly meeting of the Baltimore Circuit was appointed “to inquire into the right of the Methodist Church to a house called ‘Providence’ and claims upon that house of other people.” Evidently the Methodists gained control, for in 1813 it became a preaching place. (Stewards’ Book, Baltimore Circuit, 1794-1816, Lovely Lane Museum.)
  18. In 1797 Ellis Jones was named a trustee of Reisterstown Church, Baltimore County.
  19. Apparently “Polly” was the pet name for Mary Hollingsworth Yellott (b. 1760), the eldest daughter of Jesse Hollingsworth. Her husband was Jeremiah Yellott, a sea captain of 1776. Polly died at Woodville, Baltimore County, where her father also died in 1810. (Hollingsworth: The Hollingsworth Family, 16; note under August 19, 1801.)
  20. The conference, under the presidency of Bishops Asbury and McKendree, convened in Light Street Church with sixty preachers present. Georgetown District was formed. Washington, D.C., became a station. The conference approved a plan for collecting material for a history of Methodism in the United States. The committee of five, selected to devise a plan, submitted one almost identical with that already written by Bishop Asbury. Despite Asbury’s incessant urging, the plan failed for want of church-wide co-operation. (Armstrong, op. cit., 161-65; Boehm, op. cit., 340, 341; Minutes of the Baltimore Conference, 1800-1816, 191 ff. (See letter to Thomas A. Douglass, February 24, 1811.)
  21. David Gorsuch (1763-1841) was a member of the church at West Liberty near the Mason-Dixon Line, Baltimore County. Earlier meetings of the society were in the Meredith home and later in the Meredith log meetinghouse.
  22. Josias William Dallam (1747-1820) was twice married. His second wife was Henrietta, a daughter of Judge Thomas Jones of Baltimore County, whom he married in 1800. Henrietta Rogers, whom Asbury baptized, was one of five children born to them. “Dr. William,” whom Asbury visited, was Dr. William Middlemore Dallam (1777-1859), one of nine children of Josias Dallam and his first wife, Sarah Smith, whom he married in 1770. (See Manuscript Genealogy of the Dallams, by Mrs. Dallam Block, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore.)

Monday, April 1.

MondayMaryland

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 592

Notes on this page (13)
  1. Apparently this is that same B. Bennett at whose home Asbury frequently stopped before going to the lower ferry of the Susquehanna River in Harford County. (See note under March 20, 1809.)
  2. In his diary for July 15, 1809, Freeborn Garrettson uses the spelling “Canaan” in describing a visit to his old friend near Elkton, Maryland. (Bangs, op. cit., 246; note under March 20, 1809.)
  3. Bethel Chapel, which was erected in 1780 by the society organized in Thompson’s schoolhouse by Richard Wright in 1773. The present Bethel Church is located on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, one and one-half miles from Chesapeake City, Cecil County. (Johnston: History of Cecil County, Maryland, 440; see note under April 13, 1772.)
  4. Asbury was at the present Cayots or St. Augustine, Cecil County, Maryland. Previously, perhaps from Perry Hall, Bishop McKendree had left for a preaching mission in Pennsylvania and Henry Boehm to visit his father. Bishop Asbury, therefore, was without their company through the Peninsula and until he reached the Philadelphia Conference. (Boehm, op. cit., 341.)
  5. This is probably Dr. Edward Scott, who in 1808 married Anne Comegys. He lived near Galena, Kent County, Maryland.
  6. This was Dudley’s Meeting House or Queen Anne’s Chapel, and sometimes referred to merely as “The Chapel.” It was near Sudlersville, Queen Annes County. (Emory, op. cit., 568-71; note under October 2, 1783, and May 16, 1801.)
  7. William Burneston lived near Chestertown, Kent County. (Bangs, op. cit., 252; Hallman, op. cit., 107.)
  8. John Brown was a member of the board of trustees to whom the land was deeded by Elizabeth Nicholson on which the first Methodist Church in Centreville, Queen Annes County was erected. The deed bears the date June 21, 1794. (Emory, op. cit., 232, 233.)
  9. About this time James Massey was prominent in the news of Queen Annes County as an office seeker and party stalwart of the Federalists. (Ibid., 344, 441, 442.)
  10. This is Asbury’s second reference to preaching in Wye Chapel, Wye Mills, Queen Annes County. (For the first visit see Journal entry for November 23, 1789.)
  11. John W. Boardley was active in church and civic affairs in Queen Annes County. He became a local preacher and supplied nearby appointments. (See note under November 26, 1787.)
  12. For Brigadier General Perry Benson see note under September 11, 1783.
  13. Christopher Spry, a Virginian, was admitted on trial in 1787 and was appointed to the Somerset Circuit, Maryland. After serving appointments on the Peninsula, he labored in New England (1794-96). He returned to Maryland, and following extensive and efficient service as circuit preacher and presiding elder, he located and lived in or near Millington, Maryland. (Stevens: Memorials of Methodism, 298, 299.)

Monday, 29.

MondayPennsylvania

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 594

Notes on this page (2)
  1. David Landreth was born in England in 1758, where he came under the influence of John Wesley in London when he was a young man. He emigrated to Canada in 1781 and settled in Philadelphia in 1783, where he united with St. Paul’s Anglican Church. He associated with St. George’s Methodists and later united with Ebenezer Methodist Church in Southwark. He entertained Asbury at his home in the country (near 22nd and Federal streets, Philadelphia). This country home was the original nursery of the Landreth Seed Company. (Centennial History of Ebenezer Church, Southwark, Philadelphia, 51-53.)
  2. George Logan (1753-1821), physician and United States Senator, was the son of William and Hannah Emlen Logan. His grandfather, James Logan, a wealthy merchant in Philadelphia, established in 1728 the family home near Germantown. (Dictionary of American Biography, 359.)

Wednesday, May 1.

WednesdayPennsylvania

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 594

Notes on this page (8)
  1. Benjamin Rush (1745-1813) was born near Philadelphia and was graduated from Princeton College in 1761. He studied medicine in Philadelphia, London, Edinburgh, and Paris, and became professor of chemistry in 1769. In 1776 he was elected to Congress, and he signed the Declaration of Independence. He married Julie Stockton of Princeton, New Jersey. In 1777 he became physician general of the military hospitals for the Middle Department. Dickinson College is said to have been founded mainly through his influence. He organized the Philadelphia Dispensary in 1785, and in 1787 he was the leading spirit in the founding of the College of Physicians. In 1789 he became the professor of the theory and practice of medicine in the Medical College which was united with the University of Pennsylvania; in 1790 he took the chair in Institutes of Medicine and Clinical Practice, and in 1796 added the chair of the Practice of Physics. He was physician to the Pennsylvania Hospital, the treasurer of the Mint, president of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery, and vice-president of the Bible Society of Philadelphia. (Morris: Makers of Philadelphia, 13.)
  2. Holmesburg is in the northeastern part of Philadelphia County on the Bristol Pike. It was built on a portion of the estate of Thomas Holme, surveyor to William Penn; yet the town was named not for Penn’s helper but for the descendants of John Holmes, another worthy of the late seventeenth century. (Faris: Old Trails and Roads in Penn’s Land.) Property was secured for a Methodist church in Holmesburg in 1812. The town is now incorporated in the City of Philadelphia.
  3. This was probably J. Tomlinson, who lived below Bensalem in the upper portion of Philadelphia County.
  4. Joseph Rodman of Bensalem gave a lot on which the church was built in 1810. The Rodman family came from Burlington, New Jersey, and an important member of the family was Dr. John Rodman.
  5. Bucks County was one of the three provincial counties established by William Penn. It extended indefinitely northward of Philadelphia along the Delaware River. It was reduced to its present size by the formation of Northampton County in 1752.
  6. This reference is probably to the northeastern part of Nockamixon township, the greater part of Bridgeton township, and the northwestern part of Tinicum township, which comprise a large territory colloquially called “The Swamp.” (MacReynolds: Place Names in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 369-71.)
  7. At the time of Asbury’s visit Newtown was the county seat of Bucks County.
  8. Hugh Ross, son of Thomas and Jane Chapman Ross of Solebury, Pennsylvania, moved to Newtown in 1796. He studied law with his brother John in Easton and on being admitted to the bar returned to Newtown, later going to Trenton, New Jersey, and finally settling in Milford, Pike County, Pennsylvania. He was admitted on trial in the Philadelphia Conference and made junior preacher on the Lancaster Circuit in 1811, but he stopped traveling at the end of the year. (Davis: History of Bucks County, III, 81, 82.)

Monday, 6.

MondayNew Jersey

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 595

Notes on this page (1)
  1. William Wetherill lived in Wrightstown, Bucks County. The preaching in his home was the beginning of the present Penn’s Park Church.

Tuesday, 7.

TuesdayNew Jersey

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 595

Notes on this page (2)
  1. Hinkle’s Tavern was located in central Northern Plumstead Township. It was operated by Philip Hinkle, formerly of Germantown. (MacReynolds, op. cit., 193, 194.)
  2. John Purcell lived in Lehnenburg, a village in Durham township, Bucks County. The village was founded about 1793 by Thomas Purcell, purchaser of a part of the Durham tract known as Plot No. 12. He built a grist mill and a saw mill. John Purcell was the son of John and Ann Coomb Purcell, and married Mercy Iliff. He died in 1816, leaving eleven children. (MacReynolds, op. cit., 224, 225.)

Wednesday, 8.

WednesdayNew Jersey

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 595

Notes on this page (2)
  1. Asbury evidently crossed the Delaware River at Hunt’s Ferry, which is located at the present Riegelsville, Pennsylvania, and the town of the same name in New Jersey.
  2. This was William Godley (1755-1836) who had a school at Hunt’s Ferry. He is listed as a teacher at Pittstown, Hunterdon County, about 1832. (Christian Advocate and Journal, XI, No. 19, December 30, 1836.)

Thursday, 9.

ThursdayNew Jersey

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 595

Notes on this page (1)
  1. James Egbert lived at Mount Bethel in Mansfield Township, Warren County. Dr. Robert Cummins, a surgeon for the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, had settled at Mount Bethel, and he induced Egbert to come there in 1790 from Staten Island. Egbert was a tanner by trade and built a tannery at Mount Bethel, from which its owner grew quite wealthy. The first Methodist meetings were held in James Egberts’ home as early as 1800. Asbury preached there in 1809 when there was a log meetinghouse used by the Baptists. Egbert bought the church from the Baptists, and the Methodist people worshiped in it for a number of years, and it was called Bethel Chapel. In 1845 Egbert built a stone church and gave it to the congregation. The name “Mount Bethel” has remained. (Snell, op. cit., 725, 729; Honeyman, op. cit., II, 726-27.)

Saturday, 11.

SaturdayNew Jersey

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 595

Notes on this page (2)
  1. Cornelius Albertson lived near the village of Delaware, which is situated along the Delaware River in Warren County. Albertson was prominent in the community, being at various times town clerk, assessor, collector, and a member of the Town Committee. The Presbyterian manse in Delaware is the farmhouse built by Cornelius Albertson. (Snell, op. cit., 626-27; Shampanore: History and Directory of Warren County, New Jersey, 24-G.)
  2. Union Chapel was located two miles northeast of Hope in Warren County. Methodism was organized there about 1785, and the log chapel building was erected on the present site in 1810; the present structure was completed in 1856 and dedicated by Bishop Edmund S. Janes. (Honeyman, op. cit., II, 706.)

Monday, 13.

MondayNew York

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 596

Notes on this page (1)
  1. This was the church at Johnsonburg.

Tuesday, 14.

TuesdayNew York

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 596

Wednesday, 15.

WednesdayNew York

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 596

Notes on this page (3)
  1. This was Newton, county seat of Sussex County.
  2. Lockwood was a “forge and post office” on Lubber Run, Byram Township, in Sussex County, nine miles south of Newton. (Gordon, op. cit., 169; Snell, op. cit., 461-62; Phoebus, op. cit., 47.)
  3. Jonathan Hunt, of Lockwood, was elected in 1798 one of three judges of appeals at the first town election. A meetinghouse belonging to Hunt is unknown to historians, who omit all reference to such a church. Undoubtedly it was an established preaching place, since Ezekiel Cooper records preaching at Mr. Hunt’s in June, 1786. (Snell, op. cit., 464; Phoebus, op. cit., 47.)

Thursday, 16.

ThursdayNew York

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 596

Notes on this page (2)
  1. This was probably either Sylvanus or David Lawrence, who lived in the Millbrook area of Dover in Morris County. Sylvanus Lawrence’s home was established as a preaching place as early as 1799, and later Methodist services were held in a stone barn on the property of David Lawrence. (Vansant, op. cit., 108-10; Platt: Dover Dates, a Bicentennial History of Dover, New Jersey, 54-58; see note under August 10, 1796.)
  2. Morristown is the county seat of Morris County, situated along both banks of the narrow Whippany River, and has been for many years a cultural and social center. Asbury on this visit preached in the Presbyterian Church. The Methodist society in Morristown was organized during the first quarter of the nineteenth century, after Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Bonsall moved from New York to Spring Valley, a section between Madison and Morristown, and opened their home for preaching and class meetings. (Eckman: History of Morristown Methodist Church, 1952; New Jersey Guide, 283 ff.; Gordon, op. cit., 186.)

Sunday, 19.

SundayNew York

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 596

Notes on this page (1)
  1. On this occasion Asbury was entertained by the elderly widow Mrs. Grice, who with her widowed daughter, Mrs. Ann Tucker, kept a millinery shop on William Street in New York City. (Boehm, op. cit., 344.)

Thursday, 23.

ThursdayNew York

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 596

Notes on this page (1)
  1. After prolonged debate William Blagbume was received into the New York Conference and ordained deacon at this 1811 session. He served inconspicuously in New York and vicinity until 1815, when his name disappears from the Minutes without comment. He returned then to England, where he preached for some years. (Warriner, op. cit., 413- 14; Seaman, op. cit., 186; note under May 12, 1810.)

Tuesday, 28.

TuesdayNew York

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 596

Notes on this page (3)
  1. See note under May 11, 1810.
  2. Mileage was measured from the Federal Building at the corner of Wall and Nassau Streets, where Washington was inaugurated and where Asbury had formally presented American Methodism’s Address of Congratulaton to Washington. As the Post Road moved northward, the two-mile stone was fixed at the “Forks of the Bowery,” almost at the site of the present Cooper Union Institute near the Bible House and John Wanamaker’s old store. A small rural community had developed at Two Mile Stone, with a Methodist class formed in 1789 by William Valleau, a local preacher, at the home of John Coutant. In 1795 a small house had been occupied on a nearby street, and when the original Wesley Chapel was demolished in 1817, some of the beams were used to enlarge the Two Mile Stone structure. One of these beams, properly identified, rests directly under the pulpit of the present Park Avenue Methodist Church on 86th Street. (Seaman, op. cit., 155, 291.)
  3. On this occasion Asbury preached in an academy located on what is now St. Mark’s Place. (Boehm, op. cit., 345.)

Saturday, June 1.

SaturdayNew York

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 596

Notes on this page (4)
  1. In 1808 the name Somers had officially replaced the earlier designation of Stephentown. The change was to create a perpetual memorial to Captain Richard Somers, brilliant and daring young naval officer, who had died in action at the harbor of Tripoli, North Africa. (See Journal entry for May 27, 1805, for Asbury’s first visit.)
  2. Lemuel Clift was a prominent and wealthy citizen, and one of the founding directors of the early Farmers’ and Drovers’ Bank of Somers. (Scharf, op. cit., II, 489.)
  3. This Methodist leader was probably the same person mentioned May 16, 1810.
  4. Lansford Whiting (1786?-1811) was received on trial in 1808 and appointed to pioneer work at Plattsburg on Lake Champlain, near the Canadian line. He was ordained deacon at the 1811 conference, at which time he volunteered and was accepted to go to the Western Conference with Bishop McKendree. Going up Hudson River by sloop to pick up his gear at Plattsburg and join McKendree at the Genesee Conference later, he was stricken and removed at Poughkeepsie. The ailment was there diagnosed as smallpox, and he died in great pain on June 5.

Monday, 10,

MondayMassachusetts

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 597

Notes on this page (1)
  1. The loop back from Massachusetts and Bennington, Vermont, into New York was for the purpose of meeting Bishop McKendree at Ashgrove. The entire party then went north to Brandon, Vermont, for the New England Conference.

Tuesday, 18,

TuesdayVermont

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 598

Notes on this page (4)
  1. This village of Pittsfield in Vermont is not to be confused with the city of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, mentioned in the preceding paragraph.
  2. Barnard, Windsor County, Vermont, is located ten miles east of Pittsfield. The 1811 session of the New England Conference held here was presided over by Asbury and McKendree. Asbury was entertained by Andrew Stevens. (Boehm, op. cit., 346-47.)
  3. Vergennes is twelve miles north of Otter River on Route 162. The Vergennes Circuit first appears in the Minutes in 1798, with Joseph Mitchell and Abner Wood as the preachers. (Troy Conference Miscellany.)
  4. The Plattsburg Circuit was organized in 1799 by Alexander McLane, although regular preaching had occurred for some years before that time. Elijah Hedding was there in 1801. The first church building was not erected until 1831.

Monday, July 1.

MondayCanada

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 599

Notes on this page (9)
  1. Asbury’s guide over this route was Bela Smith, a member of the Genesee Conference and in charge of the Cornwall Circuit in Canada. Except for his skill and knowledge of the terrain, the journey could not have been made. (Boehm, op. cit., 349.)
  2. This village was called St. Regis for the tribe of Indians located in this general area. They were even then upon a type of reservation, partly in the United States and partly in Canada. At present this reservation, along the St. Regis River, marks the extreme northwest comer of Franklin County, New York.
  3. Boehm says the people were chiefly Roman Catholic and had a large church with a steeple and bell. The parsonage in which the priest lived was built near the bank of the St. Lawrence River. The church was built about the beginning of 1700. (Ibid., 350.)
  4. Cornwall was a growing community on the Canadian bank of the St. Lawrence River, opposite the St. Regis Indian Reservation. For several years Asbury had cherished the hope that he might see Canada and visit the circuits there. Yet it was only by the skill of Bela Smith’s guidance and Asbury’s own determination and intense effort that this first and only brief journey into Canada was completed.
  5. This community was located near the present Prescott, Ontario, opposite Ogdensburg, New York. Leaders in the group had been colonists in New York, and their young people, including Embury, Heck, Dulmadge, and Detler, had been the core of Methodist beginnings there. In the early 1770’s they had moved into either Ashgrove, New York, with Embury, or into this area of Canada with Heck. Asbury preached in their “Matilda Chapel,” and Boehm followed him with a sermon in German. (Ibid., 352-53.)
  6. Dulmadge was the only survivor of the original group who had moved from New York City to Canada. He had been active in Wesley Chapel from its inception in 1766 but had probably left New York before Asbury arrived in 1771.
  7. The noted Paul and Barbara Heck, founders with Embury of the New York Society in 1766, had moved to Prescott, Ontario, early in 1770’s. The man now visited by Asbury was probably either their son or nephew, as both the elder Hecks had died years previously.
  8. David Brackenridge was a local deacon at the German Settlement. He had preached the funeral sermon for Barbara Heck upon her death in 1804. Her husband, Paul, had died a number of years previously. The Heck family plot and the original headstones are still to be seen in the “Blue Chapel Cemetery” at Prescott. (Ibid., 353.)
  9. Asbury and his companions breakfasted at the home of a Mr. Boyce, a leader of the church at Elizabethtown. (Ibid.)

Sunday, 7.

SundayCanada

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 600

Notes on this page (1)
  1. Elias Dulmadge was a son of Father Dulmadge and lived at Kingston, Ontario. He had attended Wesley Chapel in New York when a lad. Asbury remained in his home for almost a week receiving treatment for his badly swollen feet. Boehm kept the bishop’s appointments for these days, traveling with Henry Ryan to quarterly meetings at Bay of Quinte and Hay Bay. At the latter place he met John Embury, nephew of Philip Embury of New York. (Ibid., 355.)

Sunday, 14.

SundayCanada

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 600

Notes on this page (4)
  1. Catherine Detler was the daughter of the Detlers who came to America in the early 1760’s and who were active in Wesley Chapel, New York, from 1766 to 1770, when they migrated to Canada.
  2. Philip Embury, founder of the New York Society in 1766, had died in August, 1773, thirty-eight years prior to this entry. Asbury had been near Prescott and the “Stone House,” home of Barbara Heck which is still extant. She died August 17, 1804. One of her relatives, John Lawrence, married Embury’s widow, Margaret; and they are buried in the lot with Barbara Heck at the Blue Church near Prescott. The three names are on the tombstone. Probably Asbury talked with Catherine Detler about Embury’s widow, now Mrs. Lawrence, who was living in the community. Philip Embury, Jr., was one of the founders of the church in that community. Philip Embury was buried at Ashgrove, New York.
  3. Short ferries plied from island to island at the head of the St. Lawrence River.
  4. This town in New York State is east of Grenadier Island at the mouth of Black River, which flows into Lake Ontario.

Sunday, 21.

SundayNew York

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 601

Notes on this page (1)
  1. Daniel Ostrander was presiding elder of the Hudson River District. Henry Ryan, who had been with Asbury throughout the Canadian journey, was elder of the Upper Canada District. James Kelsey, elder, was appointed at this conference to Pompey, New York. Benjamin G. Paddock continued on trial at this conference, was appointed to Northumberland, Pennsylvania, on the Susquehanna District.

Friday, 26.

FridayPennsylvania

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 602

Notes on this page (3)
  1. Bridgewater, on the Unadilla River, was the next township south of Paris, in Oneida County. The party was composed now of Bishop Asbury, Bishop McKendree, accompanied by young Gideon Draper, and Henry Boehm. (Ibid., 360.)
  2. After leaving the Genesee Conference at Paris, New York, Asbury, McKendree, and Henry Boehm went southward along the Unadilla River and then the North Branch of the Susquehanna to Great Bend, Pennsylvania.
  3. Putnam Catlin was born in Connecticut in 1764 and went to Wilkes- Barre, Pennsylvania, after the Revolution, in which he served as a fifer. He practiced law, later becoming a land agent, and at various times lived in Brooklyn, Montrose, and Great Bend. He lived in the last- named place on the occasion of Asbury’s visit. Originally the whole area was known as “the big bend” before the present place came into existence. He married Polly Sutton, daughter of James Sutton and a sister of Deborah Sutton Bedford. At eight years of age Polly Sutton and her mother, who were Quakers, were captured by the Indians at the surrender of Forty Fort. The Catlins, who were noted for their hospitality to Methodist preachers, had ten children, the fifth of whom was George Catlin (1796-1872) and who became noted as an artist and author. (Peck: Early Methodism, 65, 113; Palmer, op. cit., 91, 142, 178; Dictionary of American Biography, III, 574, 575. See note under July 11, 1807.)

Thursday, August 1.

ThursdayPennsylvania

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Notes on this page (12)
  1. Edward Paine (1778-1819) lived at Hopbottom, the present Brooklyn, in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, not to be confused with the present Hopbottom four miles away. He was born in Connecticut and went to Pennsylvania in 1809. Originally a Baptist, he became a Methodist class leader and local preacher, and in 1818 he joined the Genesee Conference. He served the nearby Bridgewater Circuit and was drowned in the Susquehanna River while on his way to the conference at Niagara in Upper Canada. Asbury preached and administered the communion in Paine’s barn, which still stands in another location. (Peck, op. cit., 152, 306, 322-25; Life and Times, 105 ff.; Palmer, op. cit., chs. vi-viii; Minutes.)
  2. This stream rose near Great Bend and flows into the Susquehanna at Tunkhannock in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania.
  3. Dickson lived just below the junction of the north and south branches of the Tunkhannock. The community there still bears his name.
  4. The ferry operated by Keeler was a few miles down the Susquehanna from Tunkhannock. “Father Holmes” lived between Dixon and the ferry, probably at or near Tunkhannock.
  5. James Sutton, who moved frequently, doubtless lived on Sutton’s Creek opposite Ransom in Exeter Township. (See note under July 11, 1807.)
  6. By Wyoming Asbury probably meant Wilkes-Barre, which was known as Wyoming in the early years. The present borough of Wyoming was not incorporated until 1885; it is north of Kingston and would have been passed before reaching the latter place.
  7. Colonel Elijah Shoemaker was a prominent man in the Wyoming Valley and forebear of a line of distinguished citizens of the area. His wife was the daughter of Colonel Nathan Dennison, a prominent Methodist. (Peck, op. cit., 122 n.; see the account in Boehm, op. cit., 360-62.)
  8. The church was not actually in Kingston but at Forty Fort two miles away. Though other church buildings had been projected, this one, erected in 1807, was the first permanent edifice. It was a joint enterprise of the Methodists and Presbyterians and jointly used by them and some other groups. (Peck, op. cit., 156; Palmer, op. cit., 156, 160. See note under July 19, 1807.)
  9. Judge Jesse Fell of Wilkes-Barre was noted as being the first to use “stone-coal” or anthracite for the heating of buildings, though others had used it in forges. He kept a tavern at the corner of present Washington and Northampton streets, and was at least friendly to the Methodists. (Peck, op. cit., 110-14; Palmer, op. cit., 27, 84, 85; Pearce: Annals Luzerne County, Pa., 368.)
  10. The estate of Thomas Ritter lay on the north bank of the Lehigh River, two miles east of Allentown, Pennsylvania. This is the site of the Rittersville State Hospital.
  11. This was the present St. Thomas.
  12. Jacob Bonnett was sheriff of Bedford County.

Monday, September 2.

MondayOhio

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 604

Notes on this page (2)
  1. This shows that the first Methodist church building in Steubenville was erected in 1811.
  2. As they came to Cadiz, Ohio, Asbury and Boehm stopped at the home of James Simpson, and the bishop baptized the new son of the household, born June 21, 1811. The son was Matthew Simpson, bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church from 1852 to 1884. (Crooks: Life of Bishop Simpson, 10.)

Sunday, 15.

SundayOhio

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Saturday, 21.

SaturdayOhio

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Sunday, 22.

SundayOhio

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Notes on this page (2)
  1. Edward Death and his family were members of the society on the original Redstone Circuit that built Robert’s Chapel in 1784 or 1785. John Death, son of Edward, had emigrated to the Miami Valley in Ohio.
  2. Frederick Stier was elder of the Holston District in the Western Conference.

Sunday, 29.

SundayKentucky

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 606

Sunday, October 6.

SundayKentucky

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Notes on this page (1)
  1. This was the final session of the original Western Conference. The General Conference the next spring divided the Western Conference into Tennessee and Ohio conferences. So rapid was the growth of early Methodism in Ohio that only thirteen years from the time of the first organized circuits the ninth conference of American Methodism was organized in the new state.

Sunday, 13.

SundayKentucky

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 606

Notes on this page (1)
  1. Boehm says the party left Cincinnati on October 14, 1811, and “passed through Kentucky, everywhere preaching the word.” (Boehm, op. cit., 365.) Falmouth is in Pendleton County, Kentucky.

Sunday, 20.

SundayKentucky

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 606

Notes on this page (2)
  1. Neither Asbury nor Boehm relates details of their trip through Kentucky. The latter says that on Friday evening after dark they came to Rock Castle Bridge and were denied entertainment. They rode seven miles farther and were again denied. This occurred a third time a mile away. Then they met a person who conducted them several miles through the woods to the home of Colonel Milton at Waynesburg, in Lincoln County, “who exhibited a hospitality worthy of patriarchal times.” They retired at midnight and were on the road again at five o’clock. (Ibid., 365, 366.)
  2. Samuel Dunwoody had been transferred from Charleston in the South Carolina Conference to the Mississippi District of the Western Conference. Since Tobias Gibson had been sent to Mississippi in 1799, eight circuits had been formed, and there were 639 white and 150 colored members there. (See Minutes, 1812.)

Sunday, 27.

SundayGeorgia

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 607

Notes on this page (1)
  1. Asbury left no record of his route across Tennessee to Georgia. The chronology of the Journal is inaccurate and does not agree with Boehm’s account. The latter says they reached Athens, Georgia, on Friday, the eighth, and were received by Hope Hull, who had located in 1795 because of his marriage and was living at Athens. On Tuesday, Asbury preached at Bethel Chapel, and Hull and Boehm exhorted. (Boehm, op. cit., 366.)

Monday, 28.

MondayGeorgia

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Tuesday, 29.

TuesdayGeorgia

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Wednesday, 30.

WednesdayGeorgia

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Thursday, 31.

ThursdayGeorgia

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 607

Notes on this page (1)
  1. Asbury and Boehm had passed through Effingham County en route to Savannah. (Smith, op. cit., 107.)

Sunday, November 3.

SundayGeorgia

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 607

Monday, 4.

MondayGeorgia

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Notes on this page (1)
  1. Dr. Henry Kollock was the eloquent Presbyterian preacher at Savannah. (Ibid., 114.)

Tuesday, 5.

TuesdayGeorgia

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Sunday, 10.

SundayGeorgia

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Monday, 11.

MondaySouth Carolina

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Notes on this page (4)
  1. This was probably a tavern at Johnston in Edgefield County, South Carolina.
  2. Spann lived near Ridge Spring in Saluda County.
  3. Mrs. Hannon lived near Lexington.
  4. Colonel Hutchinson lived in Columbia. Asbury spent several days in his home.

Monday, 18,

MondaySouth Carolina

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Tuesday, 19.

TuesdaySouth Carolina

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 608

Notes on this page (1)
  1. Hilliard Judge (1787-1817), a North Carolinian, was in the South Carolina Conference for eight years. At this time he was on the Congaree Circuit but was soon to be appointed presiding elder of the Broad River District. His wife was a sister of Governor Means of South Carolina. He was the first Methodist preacher to be appointed chaplain of the legislature. (Betts, op. cit., 181.) Nicholas Snethen was the first Methodist chaplain of the House of Representatives in Washington. He served in that capacity while he was pastor at Georgetown in the District of Columbia in 1811. (Freeman: Francis Asbury’s Silver Trumpet, 25.)

Monday, 25.

MondaySouth Carolina

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 608

Notes on this page (1)
  1. This was the New Madrid, Missouri, earthquake of 1811-12. The shock of December 16, 1811, was one of the greatest known earthquakes of history, and it was this shock which Boehm said was felt in Columbia and not the one on the date mentioned by Asbury. Around New Madrid, Missouri, it made the most extensive known change of topography, opening up Reelfoot Lake in Kentucky, changing the course of the Mississippi River, and sank an area of thirty thousand miles from five to fifteen feet deep. The shocks were felt over an area of a million square miles, and the effects are visible today. The best account of the quake was written by Lorenzo Dow. (Boehm, op. cit., 367; Adams: Dictionary of American History, II, 181.)

Thursday, 28.

ThursdaySouth Carolina

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 608

Notes on this page (1)
  1. Asbury, McKendree, and Henry Boehm were entertained in the home of Samuel Mathis during the conference. (Boehm, op. cit., 367.)

Wednesday, December 4.

WednesdaySouth Carolina

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 608

Friday, 6.

FridaySouth Carolina

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 608

Notes on this page (1)
  1. This conference elected as its representatives to the first delegated General Conference soon to assemble the following: Lewis Myers, Lovick Pierce, Joseph Tarpley, Daniel Asbury, William H. Kennedy, Samuel Dunwoody, James E. Glenn, Hilliard Judge, and Joseph Travis. The session was enlivened by a speech by Lewis Myers against the ordination and admission into full connection of Henry Gramling because he had married. The young preacher was rejected but was admitted later. (Ibid., 368; Smith: Methodism in Georgia and Florida, 99, 100; Betts, op. cit., 125; Capers, op. cit., 143, 144.)

Sunday, 29.

SundaySouth Carolina

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 608

Monday, 30.

MondaySouth Carolina

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 608

Notes on this page (1)
  1. Pendergrass lived near Olanta.

Tuesday, 31.

TuesdaySouth Carolina

ASB_VOL2.PDF, p. 609

Notes on this page (1)
  1. The widow Kennedy lived in Berkeley County near Bonneau.
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