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

een composed, which, on returning to the house, has been preached in demonstration of the Spirit
and of power. Horses usually had to be tied to a tree or fence."
He continued in the itinerancy till 1819, when he located; but the Baltimore Conference, without
his solicitation, put his name upon its honored roll of superannuated preachers in 1886. He died in
Fredericksburgh, Va., in 1843, aged seventy-four years. His last words were, "Come, Lord Jesus;
come, Lord Jesus, in power; come quickly!" [20]
On Kobler's return to Kentucky Lewis Hunt was sent to the territory, and in 1799 the Miami
Circuit, the first Methodist appointment in Ohio, appears in the Minutes, with the name of Henry
[21]
Smith as preacher. Dimmitt's house was on Hunt's circuit, and was made a preaching place; it was
a cabin about sixteen feet square. Here was commenced a small class, consisting of Ezekiel Dimmitt
and Phoebe his wife, Samuel Brown and Susan his wife. At this time there were very few settlers
in that section, and the country was almost a trackless wilderness, with no public roads except those
which had been temporarily opened for the army engaged a short time before in the frontier war with
the Indians. Dimmitt usually accompanied the preacher, removing the obstructions, and breaking
bushes to guide him when he should have no pilot. No effort or sacrifice was too much for the
zealous layman to make for the good cause.
Smith says: "Lewis Hunt, a young man from Kentucky, was appointed to travel the Miami Circuit,
in the year 1799, by the presiding elder. We had heard that he was broken down, and I was sent to
take his place. On the fifteenth of September I set out, in company with McCormick, to meet Hunt
on Mad River. We met him at Hamor's, and found him so far recovered as to be able to go on in his
work. My instructions were, that if he should be able to continue, to go up to Scioto and form a
circuit there. We consulted our friends, and formed the plan of uniting Scioto to Miami, and making
a six weeks' circuit of it. This plan was, however, abandoned on account of the great distance
between the circuits, and the dismal swamp we would have to pass through every round." The
distance between the two streams was nearly one hundred miles, and the swamp was nearly twenty
miles in extent. He organized therefore a separate circuit, the Scioto, nearly four hundred miles in
range. He found several classes already spontaneously formed by emigrant Methodists; one, the first
on the circuit probably, at Anthony Davenport's, Deer Creek, on the west side of the Scioto. It had
been organized by Tiffin, who was now effectively helping to found Methodism in the territory, as
we have already seen, and who "preached regularly to the little society." "We had a powerful time,"
says Smith, "at our first meeting, and looked up for a revival of God's work, and an ingathering of
precious souls." [22]
He went on laboring unceasingly over his long circuit, preaching twenty sermons every three
weeks, and organizing small societies in almost every settlement, for he found emigrant Methodists
nearly everywhere. The first quarterly meeting of the circuit was held in March, 1800. "We had," he
says, "no elder to administer the sacrament of the Lord's Supper; but the great Head of the Church
deigned to be with us, and blessed us indeed. Many tears were shed, and some thought they never
were to such a meeting before. We had twelve classes, and eight or nine local preachers, and some
exhorters. I was re-appointed to the circuit, and returned in June, 1800. No preacher was sent to the
Miami Circuit that year, so I was alone in that wilderness, as it was then, for about eighteen months,
and withal I was much afflicted, and not able to do much. Our first quarterly meeting (for Scioto