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

a wood-sled and drawn by a yoke of oxen about one mile and a quarter west from the present village
of North East, and on the north side of the Erie and Buffalo road this sainted man was buried in a
beautiful grove. To the honor of the people of that town be it said, they have long since so enlarged
the cemetery as to bring within its inclosure the grave of the lamented Branch. The writer was
permitted several years since to visit the place, and shed a few tears over the turf that covers his
sacred dust."
An important western character appeared in this field in 1816. Young failed to reach the district
after the General Conference of that year; James B. Finley came to supply his place, and continued
to superintend it till 1819 with extraordinary zeal and success. Few men have attained more
distinction as evangelical pioneers of the West; he was, in all respects, a genuine child of the
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wilderness, one of its best "typical" men; of stalwart frame, "features rather coarse," but large
benevolent eyes, "sandy hair, standing erect," a good, expressive mouth, a "voice like thunder," and
a courage that made riotous opposers (whom he often encountered) quail before him. He did not
hesitate to seize disturbers of his meetings, shake them in his athletic grasp, and pitch them out of
the windows or doors. Withal his heart was most genial, his discourses full of pathos, and his
friendships the most tender and lasting. All over the northwest he worked mightily, through a long
life, to found and extend his Church, traveling circuits and districts, laboring as missionary to the
Indians, and chaplain to prisoners, and in his old age making valuable historical contributions to its
literature. [5]
Though born in North Carolina, (in 1781,) his childhood was spent in Kentucky, where he grew
up with all the hardy habits of the pioneer settlers. In early manhood he and all his father's family
were borne along by the current of emigration into the Northwestern Territory, where he lived to see
his state (Ohio) become a dominant part of the American Union. He had been a rough, reckless, and
entirely irreligious youth, associating with Indians, a "mighty hunter" among the "backwoodsmen,"
fond of nearly every excess, and of the most hazardous adventures with savage men and beasts. The
camp-meetings of the Presbyterians and Methodists in Kentucky had spread, about the beginning of
the century, a vivid religious interest all over the West. Finley's sensitive though rough nature could
not escape it. He went with some of his associates to Cane Ridge, Ky., his former home, to witness
one of these great occasion His own story gives us a striking view of them in the primitive, their rude
western grandeur and excesses, "A scene presented itself," he says, "to my mind not only novel and
unaccountable, but awful beyond description. A vast crowd, supposed by some to have amounted
to twenty-five thousand, was collected together. The noise was like the roar of Niagara. The sea of
human beings seemed to be agitated as if by storm. I counted seven ministers all preaching at the
same time; some on stumps, others on wagons, and one, William Burke, standing on a tree which,
in falling, had lodged against another. Some of the people were singing, others praying, some crying
for mercy in the most piteous accents. While witnessing these scenes a peculiarly strange sensation,
such as I had never felt before, came over me. My heart beat tremendously, my knees trembled, my
lip quivered, and I felt as though I must fall to the ground. A strange supernatural power seemed to
pervade the mass of mind there collected. I became so weak that I found it necessary to sit down.
Soon after I left and went into the woods, and there strove to rally and man up my courage. After
some time I returned to the scene of excitement, the waves of which had, if possible, risen still
higher. The same awfulness of feeling came over me. I stepped up on a log, where I could have a
better view of the surging sea of humanity. The scene that then presented itself to my eye was