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

A HISTORY
OF THE
RISE OF METHODISM IN AMERICA
by
John Lednum
CHAPTER 40
Mr. Garrettson was appointed to the Baltimore Circuit in 1780. After laboring here for several
weeks with his usual success, he crossed the Chesapeake, and spent about six weeks on the
peninsula, visiting the principal appointments in this promising and prosperous field. Here he found
the congregations larger than usual, and never were his prospects brighter. When he reached Brown's
Chapel in the Fork, he found many gathered together from all quarters; and in this crowd his old
uncle, Thomas Garrettson, who had come to detect him in the midst of the people, concerning certain
evil reports that were in circulation about him. Under the sermon, the heart of his uncle was melted,
and his tears flowed copiously. On leaving the chapel, he was heard to say, "surely, my cousin is
belied." He would have Mr. Garrettson go home with him; and the next day accompanied him five
miles towards his next appointment, and wept much on parting with him, urging him to receive a
present of a suit of clothes from him, which was declined. To please his uncle, he at last accepted
eighty continental dollars, which were equal in value to twenty silver dollars and soon after gave
them away to a needy brother; this was the last interview they had in this world. Mr. Garrettson
returned to the Baltimore Circuit, where he continued to the end of the year; and saw many brought
home to God, and added to the Methodist societies.
The preachers that were appointed at this conference, for the Peninsula, were Caleb B. Pedicord,
Joseph Cromwell, Thomas S. Chew, Joseph Hartley, William Glendenning, James O. Cromwell,
James Martin, and George Moore
It was during this, or the previous year, that Mr. Pedicord, while laboring on the Peninsula, had
such strong evidence of God's watchful care over his children. He went to bed at a certain house one
night, but could not sleep, though he tried again and again. At last he was obliged to rise, and going
down stairs with the man of the house, they found the house on fire.
While Mr. Pedicord was preaching in Kent county, Del., about 1779 or 1780, among the many
who were drawn to the Saviour by his soothing sermons, was Leah Hirons. She became, and
continued to be, a full-hearted Methodist for about fifty years, until her death, which was in 1829.
When the Rev. Joseph Wyatt was commencing his itinerant career on Dover Circuit, about 1781, as
his garments were well worn, and his elbows and knees were almost through, she spun, wove, and
had cloth fulled, out of which a suit of clothes was made for him; all this she took out of the income
of her labor, which was only one dollar and fifty cents per month, or eighteen dollars per annum. For
many years she found a comfortable home with the Rev. James Bateman's family.
The Hirons' family was one of the first in Kent county; the name of Simon Hirons is found in the
colonial records as early as 1683 -- one year after Philadelphia was founded.