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 62
A short chapter, containing some account of some of the Methodists in and about New York,
during, and after the Revolutionary War.
Israel Disosway, a descendant of the Huguenots, and a native of Staten Island, was a leading man
among the Methodists on the island when they were first organized there. According to Brother
Wakeley's account, the wife of Mr. Disosway was born the same year that Methodism was
inaugurated in New York -- in 1766. At twenty-one, which was in 1787, she was married: her name
was then on the class paper, Ann Doughty; the class must have been formed before 1787 -- some
time between 1785 and 1787. Mr. Disosway was the leader when it was first formed. "The first
quarterly meeting was held in his barn; and the timbers of the first Methodist church built on Staten
Island, were cut from his trees." Bishop Asbury first notices this house in 1791, under date of
September 2: "I preached in our new chapel to a large congregation," he says. This was on Friday;
the text was "Jeremiah li. 50. It was a gracious season: after preaching, the society met." (Asbury's
Journal, vol. ii., p. 115.) This chapel was built in 1790, or in 1791.
Gabriel P. Disosway, thinks he has the first class paper of this island. "The first class paper, I
presume, is now in my possession. At its head stands the name of my own pious father -- useful,
beloved, holy, and gone to heaven. There are nineteen other names, which at that time embraced the
whole of the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church on the island. As this old document is
curious and interesting to many, I will here, for the first time, make a public record of it -- a small
contribution towards the history of early Methodism upon Staten Island. The names of the members
on the class paper: Israel Disosway, Abraham Cole, Hannah Cole, Peter Woglam, Judith Woglam,
John Slaught, Ann Doughty, Susannah Cole, Christian Woglam, Ann Woglam, John Marshall, Sally
Totten, Catharine Woglam, John Winnants, Ann Woglan, Peter Winant, Fanny Slaught, Nancy
Totten, Priscilla Woglam.
"Here is the small seed from which has sprung the abundant fruit in after years. Hallowed be the
memories of this little Christian band! But one of their number remains -- a mother in Israel,
lingering at a very advanced age. What a harvest since! We now number six churches, four stationed
preachers, with large congregations; and we are blessed with the occasional ministration also of that
faithful man of God, the venerable Henry Boehm, whose home is among us.
"What region, embracing an extent of only some fourteen miles in length, and from two to four
broad, with a population of sixteen thousand souls, can be more favored or more blessed with
religious privileges? There are now thirty churches on Staten Island, and some twenty regular