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

and two or three times on the Sabbath, leading as many classes, with the privilege of being at home
three days out of thirty, would now be regarded as severe work."
William Swayze succeeded Finley on the district in 1819. He also was one of "the giants of those
days." He was born in New Jersey in 1784. In his youth he was led, by a pious African, to hear a
Methodist preacher near Baltimore, was awakened and converted, and soon after received into the
Church by Philip Bruce. It was not long before he was preaching "with surprising ability." A horse
and outfit were presented to him, and he started on a ministerial tour through Delaware, New Jersey,
New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont. In 1807 be was received by the New York Conference, and
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began a course of eight years' most successful travels and labors, chiefly on New England circuits.
"He became," says the western historian, "emphatically a 'son of thunder,' attracting great crowds of
people to his ministry, and speaking with a power and pathos that few have ever equaled, moving
and exciting many, some to tears, others to cry for mercy, while others would shout for joy." [7]
In 1815 he was transferred to the Ohio Conference, where his ministrations were attended with
his former success, and where living witnesses of his usefulness still survive, especially on
Columbus Circuit and in Chillicothe. In the latter place his word was eminently. In the demonstration
of the Spirit and power. In 1820 he took charge of the Ohio District, and "his labors, for almost four
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years, were crowned with unexampled success. By the division of the Conference in 1824, he was
assigned to the Pittsburgh Conference, and appointed to the Erie District, where he was distinguished
by "his usual prosperity." In 1828 he superintended the Canton District. In 1830 he was re-transferred
to the Ohio Conference. After having borne the burden of twenty-seven years' labor and suffering
in some of the most difficult portions of the ministerial field, the infirmities of age and illness at last
disabled him. When no longer able to perform effective service, his brethren of the Pittsburgh
Conference invited him, by formal request, to return to their body, share their provisions for
worn-out preachers, and die among them. In honoring him with this, act of generous consideration
the Conference still more eminently honored itself. He was placed upon its superannuated list, where
he remained till he departed to his final rest, at Edinburgh, Ohio, in 1841, in the fifty-seventh year
of his age, and in great peace and resignation. His fellow-laborers pronounce him, "a martyr to his
work." "He was," says our western authority, who knew him well, "a very remarkable man, differing
greatly from Finley, Young, and Gruber, but in moving, melting eloquence not inferior to either of
them. He was tall, straight, and slim in person, with great power of endurance. His complexion was
dark, his eyes black, deeply set, and very expressive. His voice possessed great compass, and was
perfectly at his control. At times it would be soft and mellow, then it would become like peals of
thunder, or the roar of a lion. Himself full of feeling and interest, and possessing a wonderful
command of the feelings of others, he would at times sway the multitude of astonished listeners like
trees by a hurricane, carrying his congregation up with him, until they would rise them their seats
and rush toward the speaker, some weeping, others shouting, and others falling like dead men. He
could never contentedly close a quarterly meeting or a camp-meeting without having a big break in
the ranks of the wicked. We will venture the opinion that more souls, along the southern shore of
Lake Erie, have gone up to shine like stars in the heavenly sky through the instrumentality of
William Swayze than by that of any other man dead or living." [9]
He had many able young preachers under his authority on this district; among them was Charles
Elliott, whose important services belong to dates beyond our present chronological limits, a man of