History of the M.E. Church, Vol. IV - Media Sabda Org

savage men, and venomous serpents." In his second year on the circuit it was so enlarged as to
require six weeks' travel around, and a sermon every day. He subsequently labored on Pittsburgh
(1807) and West Wheeling (1808) circuits, thus traversing nearly the whole field, and no man
excelled him in work or hardships. He passed again to the eastward, (in 1809,) and thence (in 1816)
to his continental diocese as Bishop.
Gruber, appointed to the district in 1810, was in his element among its rude scenes and great
revivals. It was called the Monongahela District, and reached to the Alleghenies on the east, to the
Grenbrier Mountains of Virginia on the south, to the farthest white settlements of Ohio on the west,
to Lake Erie on the north, comprehending ten vast circuits. He held numerous camp-meetings,
convenient occasions for the dispersed population, and the whole region was pervaded with religious
interest. Methodism had effectually, though slowly, broken into the Western Reserve by the labors
of Shewel and Bostwick. The former a local preacher; whom we have seen working for the Church
in Western Virginia, and penetrating to the Reserve at the beginning of the century, now rejoiced in
the spiritual harvest around him, and, after toiling through the week with his hands, went about on
Sunday, usually on foot, to distant settlements, holding meetings and organizing societies. Like
McCormick, of Ohio, and other lay evangelists, he was practically an apostle in the wilderness. He
even moved his residence to extend his religious labors. Passing from Deerfield he settled in
Hartstown, Portage County, Ohio, in 1814, and began preaching in all the neighboring regions,
besides turning his own cabin into a Sabbath "appointment." He formed many classes. " Thus," says
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the local historian, "did this faithful old pioneer find his way into the new settlements, breaking
up new ground, and after raising up societies, he would hand them over to the preachers on the
circuit, and then seek out new places of labor. 'Father' Shewel was a terror to the wicked, and often
incurred their displeasure by his severity. One good Presbyterian lady was so exasperated at the
severity of his remarks one day that she said, 'Father Shewel was no more fit to preach the gospel
than a chestnut-burr was fit to be an eyeball;' but soon afterward, hearing a man who had been very
wicked date his conversion from Shewel's preaching, recalled the uncharitable expression, and
became a great admirer of the man."
Jacob Young, whose itinerant adventures in Kentucky and the Holston Mountains we have
witnessed, traveled this district for three years like a herald, directing, and inspiriting with his own
energy, a powerful corps of preachers, who made their way to the obscurest settlements. They
reached at last (about 1812) the place where Thomas Branch had met his affecting death in the
wilderness on his way from New England to the far West, as heretofore recorded. It was called North
East, and is in Erie County, Penn. There was not a Methodist with twenty miles of the dying hero,
but Young's pioneers soon formed a society on the spot, some of its members probably being the
fruits of Branch's last exhortations and prayers. A local preacher from Canada built his cabin there,
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and did good service for the young society. A chapel was erected, "and," says the historian, "the
Church has maintained a prosperous existence ever since, and many happy spirits have gone up from
that town to join the triumphant host in heaven." The same authority, referring to Branch, adds: "The
day of his burial found a few of his friends present who had been blessed through his instrumentality,
and who desired in turn to give him a respectable Christian funeral and burial. But the little log
Calvinistic church could not be procured for that purpose, nor were they permitted to inter his body
in the newly inclosed cemetery, nor could they procure a respectable team or carriage with which to
carry the corpse to the grave. At the hour appointed a prayer was offered, and the coffin placed on