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

Gibson. "Here," say his brethren, "a new scene presented itself to his view. He is now to face
uncivilized nations, and a wilderness of four or five hundred miles. After a journey of ten or eleven
days, and lying out as many nights, making his saddle-bags his pillow, his blanket and cloak his bed,
the heavens his covering, the God of Israel his defense, he arrived safe in the territory. At the time
of his arrival Methodism was in its infancy in that country. Notwithstanding there were some
respectable men and women [who were] friendly, yet it is a lamentable truth, that a number of the
first settlers of that country were bankrupts in morals, and their proud hearts and irreligious lives
made them oppose the truths which this, as well as other good men, delivered. As such, our first
preachers in those parts had considerable difficulties. We may venture to affirm that they were the
subjects of almost universal contempt; and Blackman shared largely in these sufferings. In 1806 he
was appointed to preside in the Mississippi District: God honored his ministrations with success,
sinners were converted, and houses were built and dedicated. In 1807 he still presided in the district;
his labors were still blessed, souls were converted, and he left the low lands, followed by the
blessings of the people. [14]
When he left the Southwest it had a large district, five circuits, six preachers, and more than four
hundred (415) members. Returning to Tennessee he labored faithfully on various circuits and
districts till 1815, when, crossing the Ohio in a ferry-boat, his horse was frightened and threw him
into the river, where he perished, "an event which caused the heart of the whole Church to throb with
sadness." He ranks as one of the great men of early Methodism. "He had the appearance, both in and
out of the pulpit," says a contemporary authority, "of being quite a cultivated man." In stature he was
about the middle height, well-formed, with a full face, and an eye which shone with the light of
genius. Every feature became strikingly expressive while he was preaching or conversing. "He was
an eloquent divine," says one of his fellow-itinerants, and "perhaps under the labors of no one, in his
day, were the borders of our Zion more enlarged, in the lengthening of her cords and the
strengthening of her stakes." [15]
While the range of Western Methodism was thus extending southward, it was also advancing in
the opposite direction into the great Northwestern territory. We have traced its introduction and first
movements there under the agency of McCormick. Repeatedly did this faithful local preacher go
over to Kentucky to solicit itinerants from the Conference, but none could yet be spared from their
urgent work. Meanwhile laymen, like himself, were planting the Church. He met in Kentucky
Ezekiel Dimmitt, a young emigrant from Berkeley County, Va., where he had been received into the
Church by Joshua Wells. McCormick urged him to move into the Northwestern Territory, and help
to found Methodism and a new state there. Dimmitt, full of religious and patriotic ardor, went in
1797, and built his cabin on the east fork of the Little Miami, not far below the present town of
Batavia. He was eight or ten miles from any neighbor, but attended McCormick's class, twelve miles
distant on the little Miami, near the present Milford. He became a powerful coadjutor with
McCormick. His home was long a lodging and preaching appointment of the itinerants, and he
[16]
deservedly ranks among the founders of the denomination in Ohio. He "possessed extraordinary
physical strength, and his great muscular power seems to have been made an auxiliary to his
usefulness. By it he was enabled to suppress disturbances that would sometimes occur at seasons of
worship in the newly settled country. No man, knowing his tremendous force, was willing to come
within reach of his iron grasp. Disorderly persons, who happened to be so unfortunate, were sure to
be subdued, finding resistance entirely useless. Indeed, he seemed fully persuaded that it was better