A History Of The Rise Of Methodism In America - Media Sabda Org

shades of itinerancy in by-gone days. The appointments at Mount Pleasant and at Red Clay Creek
did not succeed.
The preaching places in Chester county had been made chiefly by Isaac Rollins and Mr. Webster.
In this year a society was formed in Goshen. This was afterwards called the "Valley Meeting," and
now it is known as the Grove. This is the oldest society in Chester county, having continued from
its first formation, while several that once were, have ceased to exist. When this society was formed,
some of the landholders of the region belonged to it; this gave it permanency. Mr. George Hoffman
was said to be the first Methodist in Chester county. He joined under Richard Webster, was a
Methodist fifty-five years, and died, enjoying the hope of glory, in his ninety-second year. [6]
Mr. George Smith was a man of considerable estate. Mr. Daniel Meredith also belonged here.
Some of their descendants are still found among the Methodists in the same neighborhood. After
worshipping for a few years in a school house, they erected the Old Stone Chapel in 1783.
Mrs. Rebecca Grace at Coventry, who had been a disciple of Mr. Whitefield, but was convinced
by reading Mr. Wesley's sermon on "Falling from Grace," when she became a fast friend of the
Methodists, receiving, and comfortably entertaining the preachers from 1774 to the time of her death
in 1800, at which time she was eighty-two years old. She was the founder of Methodism at Coventry.
Her daughter Mrs. Potts, and her granddaughters Miss Martha Potts, afterwards the wife of the Rev.
Thomas Haskins, and Miss Henrietta, subsequently the wife of the Rev. Isaac James, were early
Methodists. The Coventry society is second in point of age in Chester county, following the Grove.
Mr. Asbury often visited Coventry. On one occasion he wrote in his journal, "Ah! where are my
sisters Richards, Vanleer, Potts, Rutter, Patrick, North, and Grace! at rest in Jesus; and I am left to
pain and toil; courage, my soul we shall overtake them when we are done!"
When the Methodist chapel was built in this village in 1813, the plan was furnished by Mr.
Asbury -- and it was called "Grace Church," in honor of Mrs. Grace. Sister Stephens, aged about
eighty years, is the only one now living that belonged to the first class at Coventry. For the last age
the family of Mr. George Christman has been the chief family of Methodists at this place.
About this time, 1774, the preachers made an appointment in Uwchlan, where a society was raised
up, near the Little Eagle, where Benson's Chapel was built in 1781. This meeting was the parent of
Batten's or Hopewell Church; the offspring lives, but the parent is no more. There was another
preaching place at Mr. Preston's at Unionville; after some years this ceased, but of late years it has
been revived, and a church built.
The following account of Colonel Caleb North, the last field officer of the Pennsylvania line; and
who, it seems, was a native of Coventry, and one of the first race of Methodists there, written by the
Rev. John Kennaday, D. D., is inserted without apology.
"He was born in Chester county, Pa., July 15, 1753. He early commenced business, as a merchant,
in the town of Coventry, where he continued until the commencement of the war determined him
to devote himself to the service of his country. To prepare himself for usefulness he hired a British