USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884 > Part 127
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1396
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
their ministers were not ordained, and the members went to other churches for baptism and the Lord's Supper; they held a membership in the Episcopalian or Presbyterian, or some other church, as well as being members of a Methodist society. During the war some of the ministers of the Church of England left the country. Other churches also were greatly disorgan- ized, and the Methodists were anxious to be organ- ized into a separate church, that they might have the benefit of the ordinances from time to time. This state of things continued until 1784, when Mr. Wesley, assisted by some ministers of the Church of England, ordained Dr. Thomas Coke as superin-
from that of the Church of England, which he deemed suitable for the American churches.
The famous Christmas Conference in Baltimore commenced on the evening of Dec. 24, 1784, and closed Jan. 2, 1785. At this session the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized, and the outlines of the present Discipline were adopted. Francis Asbury was elected as joint superintendent or bishop with Bishop Coke, and was ordained by him, and a number of the ministers were elected deacons, and a few elected as elders. At this time the number of min- isters amounted to eighty-three, and the membership to fourteen thousand nine hundred and eighty-eight.
SY GEDAGE S
ME CHURCH
ACV I CICPEŁ
ST. GEORGE'S METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
tendent or bishop of the Methodist society, and requested that Francis Asbury should be associated with him. Dr. Coke, accompanied by Richard What- coat and Thomas Vasey, sailed from England for the United States, and Bishops Coke and Asbury first met in November, 1784, at Barratt's chapel, Dela- ware. Messengers were sent out to request the at- tendance of all the ministers in Baltimore at Christ- mas to hold a Conference and determine various matters in reference to the organization of the Church. Mr. Wesley had prepared a copy of his minntes and directions to ministers, and he also prepared a Sunday service and a liturgy abridged
The Conference also took incipient measures to estab- lish a school at Abingdon, Md., to be called Cokes- bnry College, aud Bishops Asbury and Coke were very earnest in making collections for it. It opened under favorable anspices, and was doing great good, but in ten years the building was destroyed, probably hy an incendiary. Another building was secured in Baltimore, but it was subsequently destroyed, aeci- dentally, by fire. The early ministers, though they met in Maryland, were of one mind in reference to slavery, and in their minutes said, " We do hold in the deepest abhorrence the practice of slavery."
The membership of St. George's continned to in-
1397
RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.
crease, and about 1789 a prayer- and class-meeting was established in the southern part of the city, which developed, in 1790, into a separate church, which was called Ebenezer. The building was of brick, of small dimensions, and of the plainest style. It was located on the east side of Second Street, between Catharine and Queen Streets. This building gave way, in 1813, to a larger one, on Christian Street, between Third and Fourth, and this again was rebuilt in 1851. In its cemetery a number of the earlier ministers rest in peace.
In 1789 a book concern, or publishing-house, was projected by Bishop Asbury and Rev. John Dickens, and a few small publicatious were issued and put on sale. This enterprise started on six hundred dollars, borrowed capital, but so enlarged that in 1804 it had accumulated a capital of forty-five thousand dol- lars. The prevalence of the yellow fever and its ravages in Philadelphia a few years previous had produced an unfavorable feeling as to the location of Philadelphia, and in 1804 the book concern was moved to New York. In 1796 an association was organized to aid iu the sup- port of superannuated min- isters, called the chartered fund, and was located in Philadelphia.
During the early years of the church the colored people worshiped in the gallery of St. George's, but in 1794 a separate church was organized by Richard Allen and others, who were men of more than ordi- nary ability. Some differ- ence of opinion took place between the colored and the white churches. The colored members complained of inequality and of in- justice. Their church, however, continued in eccle- siastical relations with the other churches until 1816, when it became an independent church, and organ- ized with other churches what is known as the Afri- can Methodist Episcopal Church, and elected Richard Allen as bishop. In 1796 a second colored church was organized in Brown Street, between Fourth and Fifth, and was called Zoar. Its membership has re- mained in connection with the regular church to this time, and it now occupies a site on Melon Street, near Twelfth. This secession affected considerably the membership of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. In 1815 the white membership was
reported at seventeen hundred and twenty-five, and the colored membership at thirteen hundred and seventy-one. After the secession took place, while the white membership had slightly increased, the colored membership had been reduced to seventy- five, showing that almost the entire colored member- ship had seceded from the church. While there may have been personal causes and individual griev- ances, the secession arose out of that preference which each race has for an association with its own people. Up to that time Methodism had not fully recognized the importance or propriety of giving a colored pastorate or separate church organization to the individual colored churches. From that time to the present the great majority of the colored mem- hers of Methodist Churches in this city have affiliated with the African Church. A secession also occurred in New York, and formed what was termed the Zion Church, also claiming to be Methodist Episcopal, and one or two organiza- tions of that order have for many years existed in Philadelphia. In the mean time in the regular Meth- odist Episcopal Church new churches have been established, and there are now some six colored churches belonging to the regular organization. A small organization, also, known as the Union Af- rican Methodist Church, has existed as an indepen- dent body.
While new churches were established from time to time, what was termed the circuit system still pre- vailed in the city, and for many years the ministers'alternated between the dif- ferent churches. But in 1800 a movement was made to establish a second church in the vicinity of St. George's, fifty members withdrawing and renting the north end of Whitefield's Academy. At first this organization was regarded as independent, but was subsequently approved by the Conference, and was known as Union Church. They purchased the south- ern part of the academy in 1815, and the edifice was rebuilt in 1833. The charter of St. George's Church allowed them to organize other congregations, and at first they acquired title to the Ebenezer and subse. quently to the Nazareth and Salem Church properties, and owned a cemetery lot on Crown Street, near Vine. The lot being too small, they bought a burying-ground
89
1398
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
on Sixteenth and Coates Streets, where Hedding Methodist Church was afterward erected.
A Methodist Episcopal Church in Germantown was built abont the beginning of the century, but a society had been founded some years previously. Bishop Asbury preached there as early as May, 1773, and Capt. Webb and others delivered sermons in the open air, "once under an apple-tree." The venerable Henry Boehm says of them, in 1802, that there was a small class formed, originally in a school-house, but from which they were soon excluded. He drew up a subscription, heading it with his yearly salary, which was then eighty pounds, and secured a suffi- cient amount to buy a lot and erect a small house. This church, though now included in the city, was at that time connected with the Bristol Circuit, which extended from the Northern Liberties beyond Easton. The ministers traveled over that immense area on horseback, visiting the societies abont once a month, the other religious services being conducted by local preachers, exhorters, and class-leaders. The Ken- sington Church, in the northern part of the city, was built in 1804. This church was called the Old Brick. It was under the control of St. George's Church, but was deeded to separate trustees in 1809. After these earliest churches were founded there came a period of comparative inactivity, and for some ten years but little was done in church-building. The only excep- tion was that the Union Church purchased a location and founded the church of St. Thomas on Tenth Street below Market. The attendance, however, was bnt small, and the church was finally sold.
In 1816 commenced a new era of church extension, and St. John's, Nazareth, and Salem were founded, and shortly afterward St. James and Holmesburg. Again a period of inactivity followed for ten years, when, in 1829, Asbury, in West Philadelphia, was built, and from 1832 to 1834 there followed in quick snccession Fifth Street, St. Paul's, Paul Street, Frank- ford, Mount Zion, Manayunk, Bustleton, Haddington, Somerton, Western, Bethel, and Front Street. The spirit of church-building continued, and, in 1836, Mount Carmel was founded ; 1837, Emory and Green Street ; 1838, a small colored church called Wesley ; and, in 1840, Cohocksink and Milestown. Since that period the progress in church-building has kept pace with the population, until now, in the area of the city, embracing the county, there are nearly one hun- dred church edifices belonging to the Methodist Epis- copal Church, valued at nearly three millions of dol- lars. In 1881, the membership, as shown in the minutes, was twenty-six thousand one hundred and eighty-seven, and the number of Sunday-school scholars thirty-four thousand eight hundred and sixty-four. The growth, which is large, was never very rapid, but was steady in its increase, and was largely owing to the activity and efficiency of its early ministers and their successors. It is impossible to name in the limits of this article but a few of
them. Ezekiel Cooper was one of the most remark- able men who especially labored for the progress of the church in Philadelphia, and was at one time spoken of most favorably by his brethren for the office of bishop. By his business skill he placed the Book Concern on advanced ground, and took a deep interest in all the enterprises of the church. A tablet was erected to his memory in front of St. George's Church. Dr. Thomas Sargent was also a distin- guished minister, who filled many appointments, not only in Philadelphia, but in Baltimore and in Cin- cinnati. In one of the pulpits in the latter city he died. William Ryland was one of the finest orators, and was six times congressional chaplain. James Smith, John Emory, afterward bishop, Charles Pit- man, Rusling, Bartine, Lybrand, Barnes, Durbin, Kennedy, and many others adorned the pulpit from time to time.
Under the supervision of many of the ministers there were occasionally remarkable and extensive revivals, wherein in a single church sometimes from four hundred to nine hundred persons were sup- posed to be converted. Henry Boehm, to whom we have allnded, who was the companion of Bishop As- bury, was the first to make arrangements for trans- Jating the Methodist discipline into German. The early members of the Methodist Churches were gen- erally plain people, of but small means, and the early churches were remarkable for their simplicity and plainness, and all of them had free seats. In 1841 a number of the members associated together to build Trinity Church, which was erected in 1842, and was the first church of more modern architecture, and was for many years the chief centre of Methodistic wealth and influence. It was located on Eighth Street, but in the increase of business the site was abandoned, and, uniting with Sixteenth Street [ Hedding], they erected a beautiful edifice on Mount Vernon near Fifteenth Street. Trinity was followed by the erection of a number of finer churches. The most commodions and beautiful structure is the Arch Street Church, at the corner of Broad. Thongh the Philadelphia Conference originally embraced Northern Pennsyl- vania and a large part of Western New York, as well as New Jersey and Delaware, with the Eastern Shore of Maryland, its bounds have been from time to time contracted by the erection of other Conferences, and now it embraces but a compara- tively small territory in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania. The sessions of the Conference have been very frequently held in Philadelphia, and large andiences are always in attendance. In 1832 and in 1864 sessions of the General Conference were held in this city, and a large number of delegates from all parts of the Union were in attendance, and the Gen- eral Conference of 1884 will be held here in the month of May.
The Philadelphia Conference about 1860 estab- lished a Conference Tract Society, and a small store
1399
RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.
was opened for the circulation of tracts. In 1866 a building at 1018 Arch Street was purchased by the society, large subscriptions having been made by a number of gentlemen for the purpose. The lower rooms are occupied as book-stores, while the upper rooms are set apart for a bishop's office, for a histori- cal society, and a hall in which preachers' meetings and other Methodistic associations are held. The room for the book-store is spacious and well arranged. At the General Conference of 1864 a board of church extension was established, and its office was located in Philadelphia. For some years it occupied rooms in the building owned by the Tract Society, but in 1878 erected a building at 1026 Arch Street, which is also large and commodious.
During the civil war a number of the ladies were associated together in benevolent work, preparing ar- ticles and sending aid to the soldiers at the front. At the close of the war, they turned their attention to other benevolent efforts, and founded a home for the aged. A large block of ground containing nearly six acres was purchased on Lehigh Avenue and Thirteenth Street, and a large and substantial build- ing was erected. The property is now valued at about two hundred thousand dollars, and is wholly free from debt. In 1880 the ladies also took in hand the build- ing of an orphanage. A property was temporarily rented, moneys were collected, and subsequently Mr. J. M. Bennett tendered two acres of ground on the north of the park, with a building sufficiently commo- dious to furnish provision for about fifty orphans. To this foundation he afterward added twenty acres of ground adjacent. As a benevolent institution it is now in operation.
While the Methodist Episcopal Church has thus grown, there have been several secessions from it, and other branches of Methodism have been estab- lished. Allusion has already been made to the African Church, which embraced Bethel, Union, Allen, Frank- ford, Germantown, and West Philadelphia Churches, the African Zion Church, and the African Union Church.
There was also a secession in 1829. A number of prominent members united to form a Methodist Pro- testant Church, omitting from their discipline the episcopacy and presiding eldership, and adding lay delegation. For a time the body seemed to flourish, and several churches were erected. All of these, however, have since either disappeared or reunited with the parent body. A small branch, known as the Free Methodists, have opened one or two churches with comparatively small membership. In addition to the work among the English and colored population, in 1846 services were commenced in the German language, and there are now two churches, composed of a membership exclusively German. The English-speaking portion of the Methodist Episcopal Church is in connection with the Philadelphia Con- ference, the colored with the Delaware Conference,
and the German with the East German Confer- ence.
The following table presents the names, date of erection, and the number of members, embracing probationers, together with the value of church prop- erty and the number of Sunday-school scholars, as shown in the minutes of 1881 :
Date.
Churches.
Mem- bers.
S. S.
Church
1769. St. George's ....
275
2260
$$9,000
1790. Ebenezer 1
504
521
60,000
1796. Zoar (colored)
365
355
18,000
1797. Germantown, laines Street ?..
564
702
36,000
1801. Union 3
227
160
50,000
1804. Kensington4
595
925
45,000
1816. St. John's 5
790
640
38,000
1816. Nazareth 6
4:15
491
40,000
1816. Salem 7
410
2260
20,000
1818. St. James' 8
140
184
18,500
1819. Holmesburg 9
87
135
9,000
1829. Asbury
225
388
19,800
1832. Fifth Street.
400
437
31,000
18 33. St. Paul's 10
580
508
30,000
1833. Frankford, Paul Street.
474
483
31,000
1833. Manyunk, Mount Zion 11
370
503
48,000
1833. Bustleton 13
140
182
16,500
1834. Haddington
126
194
17,000
1834. Somerton.
92
100
6,000
1834. Western
200
140
65,000
1834 Bethel 13.
751
406
90,1 00
1834. Front Street 14
200
221
45,000
1836. Mount Carmel
1227
218
24,000
1837. Emory 15
193
200
15,000
1837. Green Street 10.
600
390
50,000
1838. Wesley (colored)
100
110
2,000
1840. Cohockeink 17
645
629
35,000
1840. Milestown
110
140
8,500
1841. Sanctuary.
140
105
22,000
1841. Wharton Street
1186
1500
47,000
1841. Trinity 18.
369
328
60,000
1843. Twellth Street
503
512
8,000
1847. Port Richmond.
200
300
17,000
1847. Manayunk, Ebenezer.
354
400
24,000
1848. Fletcher 19
233
502
55,000
1848, Summer field
453
859
22,0100
1850. Brilesburg ..
140
235
9,500
1851. Falls of Schuylkill.
120
175
60,000
1854 Broad Street.
375
650
30,000
1854. Tabernacle
599
576
40,000
1855. Patmint 21
140
194
35,000
1855. Central
461
334
30,000
1856. Germantown, St. Stephen's.
359
301
35,000
1-56. Hancock Street.
¥41
319
21,000
1856. Scott
334
5 23
40,000
1857. Messiah 22
390
22,500
1858. Twentieth Street 23
470
633
55,000
1858. Twenty-eighth Street 24
57
200
8,900
1858. Roxborongh, Ridge Avenue,
74
137
16,000
1859. Paschallville.
153
194
18,000
1859. Siloam 25
587
1660
50,000
1860. Spring Garden ..
490
377
90,000
1860. Nineteruth Street ...
3.33
620
40,000
1860. Fortieth Street.
216
195
40,000
1861. Girard Avenue (German).
104
85
22,500
1862. Arch Street.
557
467
260,000
1863. Twenty ninth Street 20
100
225
15,000
1863. Christian Street #7
J29
251
22 000
1866, Centenary 38
425
700
30,000
1867 Cambria
53
2,500
1867. Olivet ..
62
90
1,500
1868. Fitzwater Street ..
136
2200
22,000
1869. Memorial "
400
752
17,000
1 Rebuilt in 1818 and in 1951.
16 Rebuilt 1854.
2 Rebuilt 1823 and 1858.
17 Rebuilt 1857.
3 Rebuilt 1833.
18 Consolidated with Hledding, still called Trinity.
19 Relmilt 1873.
6 Relmilt 1827.
20 Rebuilt 1870.
21 Rebuilt 1873.
8 Rebuilt 1864.
" Rebuilt 1875.
9 Rebuilt 1874.
2 Rebuilt 1871.
10 IL-built 1837.
24 Rebuilt 1871 ; society disbanded.
11 Rebuilt 1842,
" Rebuilt 1868.
2 Rebuilt 1875.
12 Rebuilt 1844 and 1874.
27 Rebuilt IN74
14 Rebuilt 1857.
2 Retault 1874.
15 Rebuilt 1852.
2) Rebulit 1876.
20,000
1853. Christ Church 20
2232
488
30,1 00
1855. Eleventh Street.
2.30
225
47,000
1844. Thegrant Hill.
102
4 Rebuilt 1855.
6 Rebuilt 1850.
7 Rebuilt 1819 and 1841.
12 Rebuilt 1868.
Scholars.
Property.
1400
HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.
Date.
Churches.
Mem- bers.
S. S
Church Property.
1869. Franklinville.
108
174
$4,000
1869. Epworth.
98
150
3,000
1870. Roxborough, Central,
200
262
150
22,500
1870. Frankford Avenue ...
75
150
2,500
1871. Tacony.
90
154
5,0 0
1872. Lehigh Avenue
34
76
8,000
1872. York Street (German)
490
1193
45,000
1873. Cumberland
283
430
45,000
1873, Park Avenue
581
601
110,000
1873. Grace ...
56
59
1,700
1873. North Penn (colored).
47
20S
2,000
1873 Nurth Broad Street 1
293
541
40,000
1874. East Montgomery Avenue
244
450
30,000
1874. Eighteenth Street ..
113
350
9,000
1874. Bethany
282
334
4,000
1874. Belmont.
107
100
14,000
1874. Kingsley ?
114
....
5,000
1875. Tasker ..
36
30
800
1875. Fraukford (colored)
66
60
1,700
1875. Germantown (colored)
137
340
2,000
1875. Sepviva ..
231
643
18,500
1875. Spring Garden Mission 8
315
553
18,000
1876. Frankford, Central.
40
120
3,000
1876. Aramingo ..
3,500
1876. Mount Airy
166
435
12,000
Norris Square ..
160
601
15,000
1881. Tioga
53
125
10,750
Columbia Aveque.
26,057
34,537 $2,782,641
AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
Church
Churches.
Mem- bers.
S. S. Scholars. Property.
Bethel.
583
317
22,100
Union ..
155
225
10,000
Allen.
196
137
15,600
Germantowo.
167
87
4,500
West Philadelphia.
155
180
5,500
Free Methodists.
48
50
7,000
African Zion Church.
Thus in a little more than a hundred years the Methodism of the city has grown from an humble commencement to become one of the largest, if not the largest, Protestant body in the number of its churches, the number of its members, and of its Sab- bath-school scholars, within the bounds of the city of Philadelphia.
Much of the present growth and prosperity of the Methodist Episcopal Church in this city is due to the gifted and highly respected Bishop Matthew Simp- son. Bishop Simpson is the son of James Simpson and Sarah Tingley, and was born in Cadiz, Ohio, June 21, 1811. James Simpson, the father, was a native of the county of Tyrone, Ireland, and in 1793, being then thirteen years of age, left his native country in com- pany with his parents, and landed in Baltimore after a three months' passage, during which the family had been captured by the British, and had lost all their possessions. They first settled in Huntingdon County, Pa., then went to Pittsburgh, and subsequently to Cadiz, where James was married. The latter became a merchant; was associated for a time with Mr. Wren- shall, grandfather of Mrs. Gen. Grant, and finally died in 1812, in Pittsburgh, to which place he had removed for medical attendance. James Simpson's mother belonged to an old Scotch family. His father had served in the British army, and the family
on that side had been Presbyterians, but Bishop Simp- son's grandmother heard John Wesley preach in Ireland, and from that period became a Wesleyan Methodist. Sarah Tingley, the bishop's mother, was the daughter of Jeremiah Tingley, of New Jersey, a Revolutionary soldier, and belonged to a very old family of French and English ancestry which early settled in America. A near relative was Rev. Mr. Manning, one of the early presidents of Brown University. Besides Matthew there were two other children, hoth daughters ; one married a Methodist clergyman, and the other George Mccullough. After the death of James Simpson at Pittsburgh, his family returned to Ohio. In 1828, after having been for some time at Cadiz Academy, where, partly under the care of Rev. Mr. McIntosh and Dr. McBean, he made considerable progress in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and the modern languages, he attended the Madison College, Pa., where he reviewed the course in mathe- matics and read Hebrew, etc., and was appointed tutor, succeeding Judge Moses Hampton, of Pitts- burgh. He soon returned home, however, studied medicine, and in 1833 practiced a short time. Being urged to enter the ministry, he was admitted in the summer of 1833 into the Pittsburgh Conference, and was given an appointment on the circuit in which he had been brought up, together with one year's time in which to arrange his personal affairs. At the end of eight months he relinquished his secular business altogether, and in 1834 was stationed in Pittsburgh, where he remained two years. He then removed to Monongahela City, where he remained until 1837, being in the mean time elected vice-president of Alleghany College and professor of Natural Science. In the spring of 1839 he was elected president of the Indiana Asbury University, which office he filled until 1848, declining in the interim the presidency and a life trusteeship of what was then Woodward College in Cincinnati.
In 1844 he was a member of the General Conference when the great discussion took place which led to the separation of the Methodist Churches North and South. In 1848 he removed to Cincinnati for four years, hav- ing been chosen editor of the Western Christian Ad- vocate. At the Boston Conference, in 1852, he was chosen bishop, there being then but three active bishops,-Waugh, Morris, and Janes. Previously thereto he had declined the presidency of the North- western University at Evanston, Ill., and also of Dick- inson College. He was elected a delegate to the Irish and British Conferences by the General Conference at Indianapolis in 1856, and in 1857 attended the Irish Conference at Cork and the British at Liverpool. From there he went to Berlin as a delegate to the Evangelical Alliance, and then traveled extensively through Europe, Asia (including the Holy Land), and Egypt, from which tour he returned early in 1858 so debilitated as to be unable to preach for a year. In 1859, removing from Pittsburgh to Evanston,
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