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

some sixty or seventy souls. They all came to hear him; and; having preached three successive days,
he read the General Rules, and proposed that as many of them as desired to unite to serve God,
according to the Bible, should come forward and make it known. The most prominent man among
them rose to his feet, and said, 'Sir, I trust we will all unite here with you to serve God;' then walked
forward, and all the rest followed. As the result of his first year's experiment in Illinois, two hundred
and eighteen Church members were reported in the printed Minutes." [5]
His next field was Missouri, and he continued to travel thenceforward, alternately in each
territory, down to 1812, when, as presiding elder, he took command of all the Methodist interests
of both; both appertaining to the Tennessee Conference. He had charge of districts in one or the other
till 1819, when he was appointed Conference missionary, that he might range about "breaking up
new ground," a work for which he was singularly fitted, and in which he persisted for years.
Before Walker's arrival, however, Methodism had penetrated Missouri. Joseph Oglesby, who was
appointed to Illinois in 1804, writes that in June of 1805 he "reconnoitered the Missouri country to
the extremity of the settlements, and had the pleasure of seeing Daniel Boone, the mighty hunter. He
preached frequently, which was novel to the people, as he was the first Methodist that had ever
preached in that territory." [6]
The first intimation that the Minutes give of an appointment to Missouri is in 1806, when Walker
entered Illinois. John Travis, then a youth, recently admitted to the Western Conference, was
dispatched immediately to the Missouri wilds, when the whole country had but about sixteen
thousand inhabitants. His circuit pertained to the Cumberland District, which comprised West
Tennessee, parts of Kentucky, Indiana, and Arkansas, and all Illinois and Missouri. The young
pioneer returned a hundred white and six African members at the next Conference, at which two
Missouri circuits were recorded, "Maramack and Missouri," and Walker and Edmund Wilcox sent
to them. Slow but steady progress was made till the field was mature enough to be constituted a
Conference in 1816, without a boundary on the West, "but including the last Methodist cabin, toward
[7]
the setting sun," and taking in all Missouri and Illinois and the western part of Indiana. Its first
session was held in Shiloh Meeting-house, St. Clair County, Ill., about ten miles from St. Louis,
September 23. McKendree presided, and John C. Harbison acted as secretary. Its original members
were but seven, but, before the adjournment, candidates were admitted, enlarging the little corps to
twenty-two. Seven of its appointments were in Missouri, four in Indiana, four in Illinois, and one in
Arkansas, at Flat Springs, sixty-four miles southwest of Little Rock. The Conference included three
thousand and forty-one members, only eight hundred and forty-one of whom were in Missouri
Arkansas had one hundred and eight, Illinois nine hundred and sixty-eight, Indiana, one thousand
one hundred and twenty-four.
Walker was a great sufferer as well as a great laborer in these fields.' "I think it was in the fall of
1819," says Peter Cartwright, "that our beloved old Brother Walker, who had traveled all his life, or
nearly so, came over to our Tennessee Conference, which sat in Nashville, to see us; but O how
weather-beaten and war-worn was he! -- almost, if not altogether, without decent apparel to appear
among us. We soon made a collection, and had him a decent suit of clothes to put on; and never shall
I forget the blushing modesty and thankfulness with which he accepted that suit, and never did I and