USA > Ohio > History of Ohio Methodism : a study in social science > Part 19
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The record-book omits all further proceedings, until March 2, 1807. The Western Conference, at its session in September, 1806, had appointed its next
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session to be held at Chillicothe, on September 14, 1807. It is probable that this fact stirred up the luke- warm society at Chillicothe, and caused a meeting of the male members of the town classes to be held at the meeting-house on March 2, 1807, at which steps were taken "toward paying the rent due for the meet- ing-house," which had been used up to that time, esti- mated to the last day of that month at twenty-four dol- lars, which was to be paid over to John Carlisle. At the same meeting they elected five persons as trus- tees, to superintend the completing of the brick meet- ing-house. These persons were Samuel Monett, Thomas Scott, John Shields, John Martin, and Joseph S. Collins, and one hundred and fifty-one dollars were immediately subscribed for that purpose. On March 4th, the trustees, so elected, met and organized. They resolved themselves into a committee to procure and collect subscriptions for the purpose of finishing the meeting-house, and directed two of their number to wait on and solicit subscriptions from all the inhab- itants of Chillicothe. On March 7th they closed a contract with Bayless Nichols for part of the work, according to his proposals then on file. Here the record of their proceedings stops until February, 1808. In the meantime, during 1807, it is certain that the meeting-house had been gotten ready for the holding of the Conference. It was the first Methodist meeting- house in the Scioto Valley. Bishop Asbury, in his Journal, records the fact that on Friday, September 4, 1807, he came away to Chillicothe, exclaiming: "O the mud and the trees in the path! In our neat, new house I preached on Sabbath morning to about five
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hundred hearers." "There are some pleasing and some unpleasing accounts here; some little trouble in the society ; but good prospects all around in the coun- try. . . On Wednesday, rode to Deer Creek camp-ground, and returned in the evening to Chilli- cothe. On Monday, September 14th, opened Con- ference, and continued sitting, day by day, until Fri- day noon."
The trustees' records show meetings in February and August, 1808, and March 5 and 10, 1810, at which some changes in the members of the Board were made; but no other business was transacted, except the em- ployment of a sexton.
On September 12, 1810, a meeting was held, from which it would appear that the meeting-house was not yet completed; for it is recorded that "the trustees proceeded to take into consideration the best method of raising a fund to finish the Methodist meeting- house," and their secretary (Rev. Thomas S. Hinde) was directed to prepare five subscription-papers for that purpose. On September 20th they again met, and a subscription-paper was delivered to each trus- tee. It does not appear that anything was done toward finishing the house at that time. The next meeting was on February 2, 1811, when it was resolved to pro- ceed without delay to raise a sufficient fund to finish the house. Subscription-papers were drawn up and placed with three of the trustees, who were to report progress at a future meeting. On February 14th, an- other meeting was held, at which two hundred and fifty-four dollars was reported as having been sub- scribed.
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The work to be done consisted of supplying the house with window-shutters, building a gallery with stairway, and plastering the house, all of which was estimated to cost four hundred and thirty-seven dol- lars.
On February 23, 1811, further steps were taken to begin and complete the building. During the spring, contracts were made for that purpose. It was doubtless completed, in accordance with the plans, prior to the first session of the Ohio Conference, which was held in Chillicothe, October 12, 1812. (This Con- ference was formed out of the Western Conference, at the session of the General Conference held in New York City, in May, 1812.)
Dr. Samuel McAdow, in his "Old Time Reminis- cences," published in the Ross County Register, in Janu- ary, 1869, describes the house as built of brick, with one end and two side galleries; the pulpit in the east end, the front entrance in the center of the south side, a door also at the west end; a flight of stairs into the gallery at the northwest corner; the floor of brick; the gallery on the north side was appropriated to the colored members.
The writer has somewhere seen a statement in print to the effect that the walls of the house being only sixteen feet in height, the gallery was necessarily near the roof; but notwithstanding this, the Confer- ence, which sat there in 1812, transacted much of its business in the gallery; that public worship was held every day in the body of the Church, and that a half- hour before the opening of the service, the Conference adjourned to the gallery and continued its business
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until the service began, when it adjourned until the service was over, so that no time might be lost.
Dr. McAdow further says, that in 1819 the society erected a new edifice in the rear of the old one, which was put under roof in the fall of that year, when the old meeting-house was burned to the ground, and the roof on the new one destroyed; that the society then procured a room in the old woolen factory on the west side of Walnut Street, between Main and Second Streets, known in after years as "Wilson's Factory," situated on the lot now owned by Mrs. John Pere- grine. Here they worshiped until a new roof was placed on the Second Street church, and it was other- wise prepared for occupation.
In 1818, Chillicothe was still in Deer Creek Cir- cuit and Scioto District. In the autumn of that year the Rev. William Swayze and the Rev. R. W. Finley were appointed by the Ohio Conference to this circuit. Finley (the father of the Rev. James B. Finley, of Indian missionary fame) had been a Presbyterian minister, as has heretofore been noted. His education was far in advance of the average Methodist minister of that day. He had emigrated from Kentucky in 1796, at the head of the first settlers in Chillicothe.
The winter of 1818-19 was marked in Chillicothe by a most remarkable revival of religion in the Meth- odist Church, under the preaching of Swayze and Finley, during which hundreds of persons were con- verted and added to the Church. It was known and talked of for many years as "Swayze's Revival."
We have already noted the fact that in 1819 a new church edifice was erected in the rear of the old one
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on the same lot, just in time to take the place of the old one, which was burned to the ground in the fall of that year. The roof of the new edifice was also de- stroyed, and some delay in its occupation was caused by the necessity of re-roofing and finishing the in- terior.
At the Conference held in the autumn of 1820, Chillicothe Circuit was established. This was the first time that the name "Chillicothe" was given to a cir- cuit or station.
Adbeel Coleman was appointed preacher in charge. At the next Conference he reported 348 members in the circuit. Now the two Methodist Churches in this city number 785. Here let our history of early Meth- odism in Chillicothe stop.
The period covered is less than a quarter of a cen- tury. It witnessed the rescue from Indian barbarism of as fair a land as ever brightened under the shining of the sun by day, or the softer radiance of the moon and stars by night; the establishment of a Government based on the principles of freedom, and the introduc- tion and spread of the religion of Christ, under various forms of worship and minor differences in belief, but all tending to the one end, the hallowing of God's name and the establishment of his kingdom. Since then the Methodist Church has gone on, increasing in numbers, wealth, public esteem, and power of doing good, losing much of its early fervor, but gaining in steadiness, in learning, and in persistent effort to spread the gospel throughout the world. To God be the glory! W. T. MCCLINTICK.
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METHODISM IN CINCINNATI.
In the year 1804, John Collins, a local preacher re- siding on his farm in Clermont County, came to Cin- cinnati to purchase salt. He happened to enter the store of Thomas Carter, and after making his pur- chases, inquired whether there were any Methodists in the town. Mr. Carter replied that there were, and that he was one. So overjoyed was Mr. Collins at this unexpected information that he threw his arms around Mr. Carter's neck and wept, thanking God for the good news. He then proposed to preach, and inquired whether there was any place where he could do so. Mr. Carter offered him a room in his own house, and at night he preached to a company of about twelve persons, with manifest power, and to the great delight of his hearers. Mr. Carter's residence was on Main Street near the river, and in one of its upper rooms were gathered all the Methodists that Cincin- nati then had.
Upon Mr. Collins's departure the next morning, he promised to use his influence with the preachers traveling the Miami Circuit, adjoining Cincinnati, to take that place in, as one of the points on their work. At the Western Conference of 1803, held at Mount Gerizim, Harrison County, Ky., October 2d, William Burke was made presiding elder of the Ohio District, then extending from the Muskingum and the Little Kanawha Rivers to the Great Miami, and John Sale and Joseph Oglesby were appointed preachers on the circuit named. When Mr. Sale, at the solicitation of Mr. Collins, visited Cincinnati in 1804, he found a
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small class already formed, consisting of eight persons, but not regularly enrolled. He preached in a public house kept by George Gordon on Main Street, be- tween Front and Second Streets, and after preaching united the members into the first properly-constituted class, appointing James Gibson leader. The town was thenceforward made a preaching-place, and was vis- ited regularly every two weeks by one of the circuit preachers.
The first love-feast of the Methodists in Cincinnati was held in the court-house in 1805. This, with the other public buildings, all built of logs, was then lo- cated on the south side of Fifth Street, near Main. The love-feast was conducted by the presiding elder, and one of the circuit preachers, John Meek. The society continued to grow; and as it became difficult to find a place large enough to hold their meetings, they resolved to build a house of worship for them- selves. Accordingly they contracted with James Kirby for the purchase of two lots on the northwest corner of Fifth Street and Broadway, at that time in the outskirts of the city, and in the midst of open fields. Kirby's deed for these lots was dated Septem- ber 25, 1805, and the grant was made by himself and wife to William Lynes, Robert Richardson, Chris- topher Smith, James Gibson, and James Kirby, as trus- tees, for the sole purpose of erecting and maintaining thereon "a house, or place of worship, for the use of the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of the United States of America." A like deed from the same persons, covering the same premises, with some additional ground, was made October 17, 1807.
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On this lot the Methodists put up a neat and con- venient stone building, and in process of time a par- sonage and schoolhouse. The parsonage was on the north side of the lot fronting on Broadway, and the school-room, built of wood, stood east of the church, where the pastor's office afterward stood-a frame building containing a single room, in which the offi- cial meetings were held.
In 1812, when the earliest records of the Church were made, 209 persons were enrolled on its books. The membership continued to increase, and in 1819 a second church was built, of brick, on the corner of Fourth and Plum Streets. When the stone church became too small to contain the congregations, it was extended by building two substantial brick wings at the rear, on each side of the structure, each about twenty by twenty-five feet in size, running in length east and west. This proved to be only a temporary makeshift, for the Church soon outgrew both these houses of worship. By 1829 the membership had in- creased to 1,142, of whom more than 100 were colored persons, and the congregations were proportionably larger. It was then determined to remove the old stone building, and to erect in its place a brick church sufficiently large to accommodate all the Methodists of the city. This was the beginning of what is now known as Wesley Chapel. The house was completed in 1831, "for the people had a mind to work." With the main floor and the gallery on three sides, there is room for twelve hundred people; and for many years Wesley Chapel was a popular assembly-room for large religious and educational conventions. In this church the General Conference met in 1836.
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Up to the year 1822, when 662 names were re- ported to Conference, only one preacher had been appointed to Cincinnati; but the work was now grown so large that two preachers were sent,-John F. Wright and Leroy Swormstedt. The number of preaching-places was increased to three,-the stone church (Wesley Chapel), Fourth Street, and the Afri- can church on New Street, east of Broadway. Ten years later the work was manned by three preachers; and in 1834 the station was divided into two charges, the Eastern and the Western, and Fulton was set off by itself. Asbury Chapel had also become a place for preaching in the northern portion of the city, and there were two appointments in the Western Charge. Local preachers were regularly employed to fill pulpits in the city and vicinity, and services were held every Sunday in the morning, afternoon, and night. Sun- day-schools and class-meetings filled up the remaining hours, and the Sabbath was a day of spiritual refresh- ment and rest. The children were expected to stay for worship in all the Churches after the Sunday-schools were dismissed.
Wesley Chapel was the central point for the gath- ering of all the Methodists of Cincinnati. At the love- feasts and general class-meetings members from all the charges assembled together, and the connectional bond was strong. The Church was a unit in all re- ligious work. Plans were printed of the appointments, the arrangements for filling the pulpits having first been made by the preachers themselves, and these plans covered a period of three months each. In all the public congregations, and even in the prayer-
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meetings, the men and women were required to sit apart; and there were also separate classes for the sexes, though some of them were mixed. A failure to attend class regularly subjected the offender to discipline; and a continued neglect, except in cases of sickness, resulted in expulsion. In matters of dress there was great strictness, and the attire of both men and women was severely plain.
In 1837 a brick church was built on Ninth Street, between Race and Elm, and in 1839 Asbury Chapel was begun on Webster Street, between Main and Sycamore. Heretofore this charge had occupied a place of worship north of Liberty Street, on what is now known as McMicken Avenue-a plain frame structure which was consumed by fire. Until the new building on Webster Street was ready for occupancy, the congregation meanwhile met in one of the halls of Woodward High School.
Methodism now began to spread more widely, and to multiply the number of appointments in the city. In 1835 the entire membership was 1,575; two years later, it was 1,920. It was during these two years that the work began among the German population. Will- iam Nast was the first missionary. Though the oppo- sition to him was strong on the part of his fellow- countrymen, he persevered, and in 1839 the Book Agents commenced the publication of a German re- ligious paper, the Christliche Apologete, which has been continued ever since. William Nast was its first editor, and so remained by successive re-elections for over half a century. He has lived to see German Meth- odism well established, both in his adopted and in his
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native land, and to be honored and revered by the entire Church on both sides of the Atlantic.
In 1850 there were fourteen appointments in Cin- cinnati, with 3,128 members. Of these, three were German Churches, with 484 members. During the previous decade, the Fourth Street church was sold, and in its stead a larger house of worship was built on Central Avenue, and called Morris Chapel. Colonies from the older congregations established Park Street, Christie, Raper (on Elm Street), and York Street churches, and later Bethel, Mount Auburn, Clinton Street, Walnut Hills, and Union Chapel. This last mentioned Church was the first to introduce family or promiscuous sittings. In 1860, the old Ninth Street church was rebuilt, and dedicated as Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church. In this church many of the pews were rented to families, and in the other pews it was not required that the sexes should sit separately. This was now the leading charge, and the smaller Churches followed its example.
In 1870, Morris Chapel was replaced by St. Paul Church, built on the corner of Seventh and Smith Streets. It is constructed of blue limestone, and is one of the finest specimens of the modified Gothic archi- tecture in the city.
Methodism has not continuously advanced, nor even held its own. There have been years of declen- sion as well as of increase. In a season of great spir- itual dearth, it was felt by many that something must be done for those whom the existing Churches did not reach. In 1853 the Ladies' Home Missionary Society was organized, and procured the appointment
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of a pastor from the Cincinnati Conference. The prin- cipal points for preaching and other services were Mears Chapel, on Plum Street, near Second, and on Carr Street. During the eighteen years of its exist- ence, the society accomplished a good work. Souls were saved and brought into the Church, and the gos- pel was proclaimed to many who otherwise would never have heard it. When the society was disbanded, part of the work which it had fostered was continued by two or three of the down-town Churches, and some mission Sunday-schools were planted in the outskirts. But no further systemized effort was made to evan- gelize the city, until the formation of the Cincinnati Church Extension Society, which was chartered in 1888. During its first years its efforts were directed toward the extinguishment of debts on some of the weaker Churches, rather than to the planting of new ones. Latterly it has been operating five missions, in which church services, Sunday-schools, Epworth Leagues, Kindergarten and Industrial Schools, are conducted. In its forward movement it employed a city missionary until last year, and secured the use of a "gospel wagon," with coach horses, harness, and livery, from which to preach. It has been a common thing for it to be surrounded by audiences of from three hundred to a thousand on the streets, attracted by the music and the voice of the speaker. At present the Society employs no missionary, but the gospel- meetings are regularly held at different points.
Kindred with this Society is the order of deacon- esses, who are also employed in charitable and Chris- tian effort. They have their home in the building for-
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merly occupied as the Wesleyan College for young ladies on Wesley Avenue, with which is connected the Christ's Hospital on Mount Auburn. The Home is named in honor of Elizabeth Gamble, wife of James Gamble, who first founded it. Both these benevolent institutions are supported by voluntary contributions. The German Methodists have also a Deaconess Home and a hospital on the corner of Oak Street and Read- ing Road, in Avondale.
The first chartered institution for the education of girls, with authority to confer degrees, was estab- lished in Cincinnati in 1842. Perlee B. Wilber was the first president, and his wife preceptress. It was named the "Methodist Female Collegiate Institute," and subsequently the "Cincinnati Wesleyan Female College." Only girls were admitted to its classes, and for fifty years it held an honorable position among our literary institutions. The lack of an endowment, and a growing sentiment among our citizens in favor of the joint education of the sexes, the opening of our high schools and colleges to young men and women alike, and the consequent withdrawal of patronage from its halls, compelled it finally to close its doors, in 1893. The school edifice, erected on the former site of the old Methodist burying-ground, between Court and Clark Streets, is now occupied as the Deaconess Home.
Another institution of the Church in Cincinnati is the Methodist Social Union. It originally consisted of representative men from all the charges in the city, and its object was to cultivate fraternal intercourse between the Churches, to discuss and determine ques-
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tions of common interest, to promote the general wel- fare of the members in their spiritual and financial concerns, and to assist in establishing new missions in neglected fields. The Society is now open to any member of the Church. Both ladies and gentlemen are eligible. Once a year, or oftener if deemed best, a social banquet is held, to which all are invited, the admission fee being usually one dollar. The influence of this Social Union is already felt in a more intelligent appreciation of our Church needs, and a readier dis- position to meet them. S. W. WILLIAMS.
METHODISM IN CLEVELAND.
One hundred years ago, in this lake region, the gospel was heard, occasionally in groves and in set- tlers' cabins. Each branch of Protestantism is older in the suburbs than in the city proper. The pioneers of 1796-1818 finding Cleveland harbor at the foot of huge sand-hills, blown by lake winds, pushed for their first settlement further back, where fruit would grow, and for milling privileges; hence Brooklyn and New- burg came into prominence. These and several other remote centers are all now included in Greater Cleve- land.
History develops that a gentleman residing in an eastern city, and owning real estate in Cleveland, de- sirous of seeing our denomination established at the same time, sent to a person living in the place a deed of the lot corner of Ontario and Rockwell Streets for a Methodist meeting-house; but no one being found to pay the recorder's fee, the deed was returned to the donor.
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All of Cleveland lying east of the Cuyahoga River from 1798 to 1836 belonged successively to Baltimore, Ohio, and Pittsburg Conferences. The present West Side wards, known then as Brooklyn, a part of which later was called Ohio City, from 1824 to 1836 were al- lotted to Michigan Conference, and from 1836 to 1840 to Erie Conference.
Jacob Ward came to Brunswick, Medina County, from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1816. He was a local preacher of means, doing excellent work at home and throughout the surrounding country. He organ- ized a class of thirteen persons at Brunswick, in April, 1817. In 1818, James B. Finley being presiding elder of Ohio District, either Jacob Ward or a circuit-rider drew up to a log farmhouse built on a quarter section in Brooklyn, saying that he was looking up the lost sheep. He gathered a class of eight members; four of them named "Fish," the other half "Brainard."
This, then, is Cleveland's first Methodist society, dating back to 1818, out of which have come the pres- ent Brooklyn Memorial Church and the new beautiful Pearl Street Church, South Brooklyn. It is quite certain that the gospel was heard in 1818 in New- burg, at a camp-meeting held there; but of this no records remain. In August of that year Cuyahoga Circuit was formed. In 1819 the Rev. William Swayze succeeded to Ohio District. Thorough re- search proves that in 1821 a class was formed at Eu- clid Creek, numbering at least ten persons. In 1823, Cleveland was a remote and insignificant point upon Hudson Circuit, in Portland District; embracing in one round six hundred miles of travel, and forty-two
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appointments grandly undertaken by Ira Eddy. In 1822, Grace Johnson, wife of a lake captain, sowed the seed of Methodism in this reluctant soil.
The beginning of organized work in this city was at the house of the Rev. Job Sizer, a local preacher, and his sister Abigail, who came here in 1826 from Buffalo, New York. In 1827, in this hospitable home, the Rev. John Crawford, circuit preacher, formed the earliest Methodist class of Cleveland, composed of seven persons-the host and hostess, Grace Johnson, Lucy Knowlton, Elizabeth Southworth, Andrew Tom- linson, appointed leader, and his sister, Eliza Worley. To these must be added Elijah Peet and wife-resi- dent in Newburg-who joined a little later. These original nine set up our standard here, rallying forces and leading the infant Church to aggressive work. Immortal names are they, enshrined in our hearts as the founders of the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Cleveland.
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