USA > Delaware > History of the state of Delaware, Volume II > Part 33
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As early as 1769 Captain Thomas Webb, a brave English officer who bore, in his own person, the proofs of his valor, an eye lost at Louisburg and a second wound received at Quebec under Wolfe, preached at New Castle as a Methodist preacher
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though they closed the Court House, open to every frivolity, against him. He was wont to preach in full regimentals, lay- ing his sword on the pulpit the open Bible. Robert Fur- ness, a tavern keeper, open: " preaching though at
the cost of much lost custom ; later It ,. : h ... lets, and in 1780 while the noted Benjamin Abbott was pa 1
the ruffians from disturbing the meeting. After a numis failures the present society at New Castle was formed in 1820, a new church was built in 1863, enlarged in 1876, and in 1883 a parsonage was erected. The charge became a station in 1837, with Rev. Pennel Coombe as the first pastor.
Methodism in Delaware had its early center chiefly in Kent County, and it is there we find its historic churches. Thus, the oldest Methodist church in the State and one around which cluster many notable historical associations, is the well- known Barratt's Chapel situated about a mile north of the town of Frederica in Kent County. The noted Freeborn Garretson, who probably gave the first strong impulse to Methodism in the State, was instrumental in its founding. In 1778 he preached at the house of a Mr. Lewis, and Philip Barratt and Jonathan Sipple and their families were so much affected by his preaching that they, with others, formed them- selves into a Methodist Society meeting at their own houses. They soon felt the need of more room in their meetings, and in March, 1780, Barratt and Sipple began the erection of the brick building 42 by 48 feet, two stories high which after- wards became the celebrated " Barratt's Chapel," the foremost of the Mecca spots of American Methodism.
On November 14, 1784, Rev. Dr. Samuel Megaw, thereafter rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church at Philadelphia, Rev. Francis Asbury, Caleb B. Pedicord, Joseph Hartley, James Cromwell and Rev. Thomas Coke, LL.D., met at Barratt's Chapel and celebrated the first quarterly meeting in the pres- ence of one thousand people. This was the famous historic occasion when Francis Asbury, entering the room while Coke was preaching, ascended the high, old-fashioned pulpit, and
CAPTAIN THOMAS WEBB. A Pioneer Methodist Preacher.
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warmly embracing Coke gave him the apostolic salutation, a kiss. Here were then concerted those measures by which the Methodist Episcopal Church was a few weeks later duly organ- ized at Baltimore, Maryland, and this same Francis Asbury consecrated the first American Bishop of the Church. Refer- ring to this event, Abel Stevens in his inimitable " History of Methodism " says: "Here in the forest solitude the momen- tous scheme of Coke's mission was fully disclosed, the first general conference of American Methodism appointed, Garret- son 'sent off like an arrow' to summon it together, and the project of Dickens for a Methodist college revived. It was with prayerful counsels, sacramental solemnities, liberal devis- ings, and with singing and shouting, that the young denomi- nation prepared, in this woodland retreat, to enter upon its new and world-wide destinies." In a foot-note Stevens says: " This meeting was further memorable as the occasion on which Ezekiel Cooper, one of the most important preachers of early Methodism, was induced, after long hesitation, to join the itinerant ranks."
Scharf is in error in stating that Coke and Asbury met at Barratt's Chapel the year following, and that "their own con- secration to the Episcopacy for the ordination of Cooper " took place there ; Coke had been set apart as a superintendent by Wesley in England, before coming to America, and Asbury was elected to that office in December following in Lovely Lane Chapel, Baltimore. Barratt's Chapel has enjoyed the ministrations of some of the brightest ecclesiastical luminaries in the church. Unfortunately the old pulpit has been re- modeled to suit modern ideas, although the bench upon which sat Bishops Coke and Asbury and other pioneers of the min- istry, is still kept as a memento. For the first sixty years of its existence the ground was the only flooring of the church, and the walls were left in an uncouth and primitive state.
A notable sermon preached by the celebrated Freeborn Garrettson in Dover, September 12, 1778, from the academy steps, led to the formation there of another early Methodist
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society. Stevens gives a lively picture of the scene : "He began his labors in Dover smid a storm of opposition. Hardly had he dismounted from his horse when the mob gathered crying 'he's a Tory, hang him, hang him,' while others shouted in his defence. Hundreds of elamorous voices resounded around him. 'I was in a fair way to be torn in pieces,' says Garrettson. Mr. Smithers and others protected him, and he addressed the multitude with marvellous effect, even causing the conviction and conversion of an unseen auditor seated in a window a quarter of a mile away. More than twenty of his hearers, the ringleader of the mob among them, were awakened."
The first church in Dover was built by Richard Bassett, Esq., afterwards Governor of the State, himself donating one thousand dollars, one-half the cost of the building. Another generous giver, Vincent Looskerman, Esq., donated the lot June 1, 1782, and the church was named in honor of the founder of Methodism, the " Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church." Its walls also echoed in former years to the stir- ring appeals of the great leaders of the denomination, whose names are to-day a part of its history, Dr. Coke, Freeborn Garrettson, "Father Connelly," Bishops Asbury, Whatcoat, McKendree, George and Emory. Bishop Whatcoat died in Dover in 1806, and his remains were buried under the altar of the old church ; and when the building was torn down, a suitable monument was erected over his grave to mark the spot. A new church was dedicated February 9, 1851, and has been thrice enlarged and improved, and is now a hand- somely appointed edifice, seating six hundred people. The membership numbers four hundred and fifty, and the present pastor is the Rev. Albert W. Lightbourne. A commodious parsonage adjoins the church. Its undenominational Sunday- school was organized in 1826 by Judge Willard Hall, Dr. Martin W. Bates and Mr. A. Strong. It was given up in 1830, two of its founders going away ; whereupon Mrs. Ann Clark Sipple collected the children together, and organized
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the school in the Methodist Church. She was fittingly hon- ored as its first superintendent.
The first Methodist services in Smyrna were conducted by Rev. Philip Cox in the house of J. L. Stevenson. Rev. Fran- cis Asbury preached his first sermon there in 1780 to three hundred people in an orchard at Duck Creek Roads, as Smyrna was then called. A frame church was built in 1780 on land given by Allen McLane. In 1845 Smyrna became a station with a resident minister, and in 1872 a new church costing twenty-two thousand dollars was erected. It is the largest Methodist church in Kent County, and has (1904) four hun- dred and seventy-nine members. Its Sunday-school, begun in 1827, has two hundred and ninety scholars.
Asbury also preached at Milford in 1787, and a church was built soon thereafter, a second in 1840, and the existing one in 1871, at a cost of nineteen thousand dollars, with a parsonage costing four thousand dollars. Three great revivals are re- membered in Milford, the first under Rev. Charles Carsner in 1837, which lasted night and day, and one hundred and thirty-seven members were added to the church; the second in 1.855, and the third in 1874, when Rev. D. C. Ridgway was pastor, three hundred joining the church.
The first Methodist church established in Sussex County was Bethel Church, in Seaford Hundred, built in 1781 by White Brown, a large frame building holding, with its triple galleries, six hundred people. It was so strongly built that up to August, 1SS1, when its one-hundredth anniversary was held, only seven hundred dollars had been spent in repairs. Asbury, Garrettson and other noted pioneers preached there one hundred years ago, when it was an important missionary center.
Methodist ministers preached in the locality of Lewes so early as 1774, and in 1788 the second church in Sussex was built, the " Old Ebenezer Church," on what was known as Shankland's Lane, and in 1791 Bethel Church was erected in Lewes and used for many years alternately with Ebenezer.
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In 1828 Bethel was moved to the new site, enlarged, and used until replaced by the present structure in 1872. It is one of the leading churches of Methodism in the county, and has three hundred and twenty-eight members under the pastoral charge in 1905 of Rev. T. A. H. O'Brien.
Cokesbury Church, near Georgetown, was next founded, the first church being built in 1803; the church out of its own funds supported the first free school in the neighborhood. Its last edifice was built in 1869. It has a large and flourishing Sunday-school. The third church to be built in Sussex was at Bridgeville in 1805; a new building was put up in 1871. The largest Methodist church in the county is St. John's at Seaford, founded 1818. The first building, after two enlarge- ments, was superseded by a fine stone edifice erected in recent years. The church has five hundred and forty members, and Rev. William A. Wise is the present pastor (1905).
The largest Methodist church in the State, and one of the pioneer churches of Delaware Methodism, is " Old Asbury," in Wilmington, which traces its origin back to 1766, when Cap- tain Thomas Webb preached there, near the corner of King and Eighth streets, John Thelwell, who kept a public house, acting as clerk and leading in the singing. He offered his school house at Third and King streets as a place of worship, and there Asbury Church was organized. Lednum, whom the foremost Methodist historians cite as high authority, says : " Mr. Harris in 1860, in his eighty-fourth year, told us he saw the corner-stone of Asbury laid in 1789. The Rev. Wil- liam Jessup was the first stationed minister in Wilmington, in 1789, and Henry Willis and Samuel Green, presiding elders over the district, which then extended from the Delaware river to Ohio." The church was dedicated in October, 1789, by Bishop Asbury, after whom it is named. Its career has been one of marked success. It now (1905) numbers one thousand members, with a Sunday-school of five hundred and forty-eight scholars, making it the largest church and Sunday- school in the State.
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WASHINGTON HEIGHTS M. E. CHURCH, WILMINGTON. A. D. 1905.
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St. Paul's was next founded in 1844, and is now a thriving church with eight hundred and sixty members and a Sunday- school of five hundred and sixty scholars and fifty-five officers and teachers. Its great success is a monument to the foster- ing care of Mr. Joseph Pyle, under whose superintendency for over a quarter of a century, it had in 1888 over six hundred scholars and seventy-two officers and teachers. Mr. Pyle had a worthy successor in Samuel H. Baynard.
Union Church was established in 1847, but was soon dis- banded owing to a quarrel among the organizers. In 1849 Miss Margaret Rumford had the half-erected building roofed ; the Rev. Andrew Manship was appointed pastor, and began preaching in the Odd Fellows Hall with Miss Rumford and "another elect lady," as the sole members of his congrega- tion ! A larger church was built in 1865 on the present site. Scott Church began in 1851 as a Union Sunday-school.
Grace Church, the second in numbers and the first in wealth, was dedicated January 23, 1868, by Bishops Scott, Ames and Simpson the last named preaching the sermon. It is the most handsome and costly church edifice of the denomination in the State and is built in the decorated gothic style out of three kinds of stone and is also handsomely finished within. The total cost of church and parsonage is given at two hundred and fifteen thousand dollars. The membership is seven hun- dred and eighty-four and its Sunday-school numbers seven hundred and ninety-nine. Its present pastor is the Rev. Hiram W. Kellogg, D. D.
There are ten other Methodist Churches in the city : Brandy- wine founded 1857, Epworth 1867, Kingswood started in 1873 by Mrs. Rinker in her own kitchen, Silver Brook 1881, Wesley started in a store by Jabez Hodson in 1885, Madeley, Mt. Salem, Harrison Street, Cookman, and East Lake. Two other Methodist Episcopal churches, to be named Trinity and Wash- ington Heights are now (1905) about to be organized in Wil- mington. There is also a Swedish Mission, and three colored M. E. churches, named respectively Ezion, Haven and Mt. Joy.
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Delaware still merits Asbury's phrase, " the garden spot of Methodism," since the national census of 1890 shows that over six per cent. of its total population are Methodists, a propor- tion, safe to say, not elsewhere seen. From colonial days to the present time many of the leading families and many of the foremost names in the State's history have been members of its communion, and greatest by far in numbers, most zealous and active in propaganda, the Methodist Church in Delaware has necessarily exerted a strong influence upon public and private morals, and as a factor shaping the character of the people must be considered the first in the period since its intro- duction in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Dela- ware has contributed one bishop to the Methodist Episcopal Church in the person of Levi Scott. Born in Appoquinimink Hundred in 1802 of parents who traced their lineage to Ire- land, and who from early days had been devoted Methodists, the man who afterwards became bishop had intended to follow a business life, but his early conversion turned him towards the ministry, and he became an itinerant preacher very soon after reaching his majority.
His devout piety and his faithfulness as a worker soon attracted attention, and after preaching for years in the lead- ing charges of the denomination, and engaging for a few years in educational work, he was, at the general conference of 1852, elected bishop. He was a member of every general conference of the Church from the year 1836 until his death. During the almost thirty years that he occupied the high seat of a bishop he made his home near the place of his birth, within a few miles of Odessa. Here in a kindly, gentle way was dis- pensed a genuine Christian hospitality, the memory of which abideth still. The end came when Bishop Scott had almost filled out the full four score of years, his death occurring on July 13, 1882, and his remains lie buried in the Union Church graveyard, in the same Hundred where he was born.
Ilis one son, Alfred T. Scott, has for many years been a preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Several grand-
BISHOP LEVI SCOTT. 1802-1882.
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sons, sons of Alfred T. Scott, and of a daughter Cornelia, who married George L. Townsend, are now in active business in Wilmington, four of them being engaged in the business of banking, for which they show a decided aptness. Henry P. Scott, the senior member of Scott & Co., bankers; Levi Scott Townsend, the treasurer of the Security Trust Company, and Sylvester D. Townsend, Vice-President of the Wilmington Trust Company, all leading young men in financial affairs in Wilmington, are grandsons of the Bishop.
One of the strongest preachers in Delaware Methodism was Jonathan S. Willis. Born in Talbot County, Maryland, in 1830, of parents who came from sturdy English stock, his first American lines of ancestry tracing back to the early English settlements in Virginia, he possessed a commanding physique, and a strong intellectuality. In 1854 he was admitted to the Philadelphia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His earlier life had been marked by a genuine conversion, fol- lowed by a clear call to enter the Christian ministry.
His first charge was at Centreville, Maryland, and from there he went successively to Camden, Dover, Frederica and Odessa. In 1860 he received an appointment in Philadelphia, and re- mained in that city until 1868, when he was transferred to New York City, where he occupied leading Methodist pulpits for six years, and served at Stanford, Connecticut, for three years. In 1878 he returned to Delaware and for a period of nearly six years continued in the active ministry.
A man of vigorous constitution he had a great love for agri- cultural pursuits, and for outdoor life. Having acquired large landed interests near Frederica, in Kent County, he de- voted himself with great enthusiasm, for several years, to peach-growing and stock-raising, and the annual dinners given by him, on his farms, were famous, and brought together the leading farmers of the State. In 1885 he located on the out- skirts of Milford, where he built a handsome home, called " Glenworthe " and where he resided ever afterwards.
Mr. Willis married in 1851, Anne S. Valiant of Talbot
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County, Maryland. She died young, Three children of this marriage died in early childhood. In 1864 he was married to Anne Townsend, daughter of William Townsend of Fred- erica, and after a happy married life of over twenty years, Mrs. Willis died in 1885. Of this marriage two children were born, a son who died in infancy, and a daughter, Elizabeth Townsend Willis, who had many of the attractive character- istics of her father, and shared his popularity. Miss Willis married in 1896 William H. McCallum, and has since made her home at Germantown, Philadelphia. In 1889, Mr. Willis was married to Edith Gillespy of Connecticut, a representative of the best type of New England womanhood, who proved herself a worthy and devoted wife, and who, with one son, Jonathan S. Willis, Jr., survived him at his death.
Mr. Willis had a varied career. His ministerial life was eminently successful. As a preacher and public speaker he had but few equals. His diction was pure, he had an unusual vocabulary, and there was a richness and fulness in his voice that attracted and held an audience. As a campmeeting preacher he was far-famed throughout the peninsula, and no one was more popular with the masses. His preaching was marked with rare imagery and with frequent bursts of elo- quence, but he did not depend upon these gifts for his success. He preached Christ crucified with an earnestness and sincerity that brought conviction and led men to the better life.
A man of strong conviction, Mr. Willis was a firm defender of the Union during the Civil War, and always a pronounced Republican. In 1892 he was nominated by the Republican party as its candidate for Representative in Congress, but was defeated. Two years later he was renominated and elected. He served as a member of the Fifty-fourth Congress, and his public utterances, while at Washington, attracted unusual at- tention for a new member, and had he been continued in the place, he would have made a national reputation. The fac- tional difficulties in the Republican party led to his defeat in 1896. He was appointed by President Mckinley, Supervisor
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of the Census of 1900, for Delaware. That was the last public office held by him.
His death occurred at his home near Milford, on November 24, 1903. As husband, father, and friend, he was loving, faithful, and true. As a Christian minister he carried aloft the banner of Him whom he served, with courage and devo- tion: As a public servant his record was above reproach, he served his State with splendid loyalty, and for integrity and fair dealing no man stood for higher ideals. A great multi- tude admired him for his gift and talents. To those who were closest to his life, he will be long remembered as one of the most lovable and attractive of men.
The first preaching by a colored man in Wilmington was in 1783 by Rev. Richard Allen, afterwards bishop. The first colored church in Delaware was Ezion, formed in 1805 by fifty of the colored members from Asbury under the leadership of Rev. Peter Spencer. The church, hewever, had for some time a white minister. Despite several divisions in the church and withdrawals therefrom, it has persisted a Methodist Epis- copal church, and since 1864 has been connected with the Delaware Conference, which is composed wholly of colored Methodist Episcopal churches. The building was enlarged in 1844, and rebuilt in 1870 at a cost of forty-five thousand dollars, and has since had a prosperous career, having now (1904) four hundred and ninety-nine members and a Sunday- school of four hundred and ninety scholars under the care of the Rev. P. O'Connell. It is the largest as well as the oldest colored church in the State.
The Townsend colored Methodist Episcopal church stands second in size, with one hundred and eighty-seven members. A colored Methodist Episcopal church named the Whatcoat Methodist Episcopal Church, built in 1852 in Dover, stands near the grave of this honored and zealous bishop. Colored Methodist Episcopal churches are found at Lincoln, one hun- dred and forty-four members ; Middletown, one hundred and thirty-three members, and in nineteen other places, making a
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total of twenty-three colored Methodist Episcopal churches in the State with a total membership of two thousand two hun- dred and ninety-three. The most notable name in the history of the colored church in the State is that of the Rev. Peter Spencer, a local preacher. He was born in Kent County. After forming Ezion Church he and William Anderson founded in 1813 the " Union Church of African Members," the first church in the United States originally organized by and afterwards wholly under the care of the negro race. The reasons given by them for separating from the Ezion Church, which do equal credit to their hearts and to their heads, are plainly enough ecclesiastical echoes of the old doctrines for which the "embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard round the world." Their church, built in 1813, was rebuilt in 1827 and enlarged in 1842. A conference of the new de- nomination elected their founder, the Rev. Peter Spencer, and Rev. Isaac Barnes, Bishops of the States of New Jersey, Dela- ware and Pennsylvania. Bishop Spencer died in 1843, and the " Delaware Gazette," noticing his death, spoke of his char- acter and qualifications in terms of the highest respect, not to say of eulogy. After his death, a dispute arising over the election of his successor, Bishop Barney, in 1851, with thirty churches withdrew and formed the " Union American Metho- dist Episcopal Church."
The leading Union American Methodist Episcopal church was formed in 1851 by some seceding members from the orig- inal Bishop Spencer Church in Wilmington, under the guid- ance of Rev. Edward Williams, building their first church in 1856, and replacing that in 1882 by their present church cost- ing eight thousand dollars. The African Methodist Episcopal church has five representatives in this State. The one at Bishop's Corner was founded in 1830, and is called Sutton's Chapel. In 1876 a fine building was erected and the church renamed the Manship African Methodist Episcopal Church in honor of Rev. Andrew Manship. The largest church of this denomination and the second in size in Delaware, is Bethel in
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Wilmington, founded in 1845. Its first church was built in 1846, a second in 1852, and in 1878 the handsome edifice now used, was built, costing seventeen thousand dollars, with a fine pipe organ costing eleven hundred dollars more. There is also an African Methodist Episcopal church at Pilot Town, Lewes, whose second church was built in 1883. Another at Moore's Chapel founded 1875.
Next to the colored Methodist Episcopal churches, the most numerous are those of the African Union Methodist Protestant denomination. St. Peter's African Union Methodist Pro- testant Church, was founded by Rev. E. H. Chippey who preached on a platform in a graveyard on Union street and built their first church in 1870. St. James' was formed by the Rev. Chippey in 1873, a church was built in 1874, and a Sunday-school and day school established at the same time, the last becoming the first public school for colored children in Delaware. St. Paul's was erected in 1874. The parent church of this sect was founded in 1851, and in 1861 united with a church in Baltimore, Maryland, and formed the " Afri- can Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church." Their church, built on the site nearly opposite Ezion was remodeled in 1877. The first General Conference of the African Union First Colored Methodist Episcopal Church was held in 1866 in Wilmington.
The famous "Big Quarterly " is annually held in the parent church, and draws immense crowds of colored people from all quarters in neighboring States as well as in Delaware. Itself the survivor of four similar " Quarterlies," it is now attracting less numbers than formerly. The Plymouth Church in Wilmington, organized in 1876, is the only African Metho- dist Episcopal Zion church in Delaware. There are four colored Baptist churches in the State, three in Wilmington and one at Dover. Shilch Church in Wilmington was founded in 1876 by Rev. B. T. Moore. He has been continuously its pastor, and has impressed himself upon the community as an earnest and conscientious Christian worker. Under his man-
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agement the church has grown and prospered. The Eighth Street Church is in charge of Rev. Henry C. Jones, and is gaining its way, claiming a membership of one hundred. Enon Church, with Rev. J. H. Holliday as pastor, has been under way only a few years, but is gaining ground. Calvary Baptist Church at Dover was started in 1883, and a few years later a church was built costing two thousand dollars. There is a total membership in the colored Baptist churches of about six hundred.
There is one Swedenborgian Church in Wilmington, organ- ized in 1857, with Daniel LaMotte as president and Hon. Edward W. Gilpin as treasurer. The first pastor was Rev. · Abiel Silver; the present pastor is Rev. J. H. Dole. The sin- gle Unitarian church in the State is in Wilmington. It was organized in 1868 under the charge of Rev. F. A. Farley. The present minister is Rev. Alexander T. Bowser.
END OF VOLUME II.
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