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

Mr. Russel was raised in the Church of England, but united with the Methodists in 1782. In the
following year he was made a trustee of Wesley Chapel: he continued in the office to the end of his
life; and was among the most useful that filled the office in New York; he was also a class leader.
His son, John Russel, was a preacher: he died in 1813. His daughter, Hester Russel, married the
Rev. Daniel Smith, who itinerated for a while, and then settled in New York. Mr. Smith was born
in Philadelphia, the same year that Messrs. Boardman and Pilmoor came to this city -- in 1769. He
died in New York, in 1815.
Abraham Russel, after a long, useful, and honorable life, died in 1833, in his eighty-eighth year.
His wife, who was nine years younger, survived him nine years, and died in 1842, in her
eighty-eighth year. Their son Theophilus, the only one of the twelve children now living, resides in
New York.
Andrew Mercein, whose parents were Huguenots, was born 1763. When sixteen years old, in
1779, he was pressed and put aboard of a British man of war in the Hudson river. He resolved not
to be found in arms against his country. Amidst the darkness of the night, he stripped himself, tying
his clothes on his back, he dropped into the Hudson, and swam for the shore, which he reached in
safety, though several shots were fired at him, he was bound to a baker who made bread for the army.
Provision was scarce and dear: flour was twenty dollars per hundred pounds, -- four hundred per cent
higher than before the war, -- butter went up from two to seven shillings per pound.
Mr. Mercein was awakened in the Reformed Dutch Church, under Dr. Livingston, but joined the
Methodists in 1786, through the influence of Israel Disosway and Robert Barry. Mr. Barry married
the sister of the Rev. William Jessup, who was raised in Sussex county, Delaware, near Bridgeville.
Mr. Mercein was class leader and trustee in New York for many years. Removing to Brooklyn,
he joined Sands Street Church. After exemplifying the shining graces of Christianity for more than
fifty years, he made a happy exit from time, in 1835: he sleeps in Sands Street burying ground, in
company with the Rev. William Ross, and the beloved Summerfield. His grandson, the Rev. T. F.
R. Mercein, is a member of the New York Conference. (Extracted from "Lost Chapters," pp.
558-561.)
George Suckley was a Methodist in England, where he saw and heard the Wesleys preach. He
came to New York with Dr. Coke. He was a leading merchant in New York, where he held offices
both civil and ecclesiastical.
Mr. Suckley married Miss Catherine Rutson of Rhinebeck, an intimate friend of Mrs. Catherine
Garrettson. She was born in 1768, and died in peace with God, in 1826, aged fifty-eight years. Mr.
Suckley lived to serve God and the Church until 1845. He was born in 1764, and was in his
eighty-first year when called to the upper sphere.
Stephen Dando was born in 1767, in England. He came to America in 1785, and joined the
Wesley Chapel Methodists in New York, under John Dickins. He, like Mr. Suckley, had sat under