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 11
In 1771, Captain Hood, of this city, the nephew of Brother John Hood, brought Messrs. Asbury
and Wright to this country: they landed in Philadelphia on the 27th of October, two years after the
arrival of Messrs. Boardman and Pilmoor; and now we count ten Methodist preachers in America
at this date. In the order that they entered the work here, they were, Strawbridge, Embury, Webb,
Williams, Boardman, Pilmoor, King, Asbury, Wright, and Richard Owen (the first native American
that became a Methodist preacher) of Baltimore county, Maryland.
Mr. Richard Wright was received by Mr. Wesley as a traveling preacher, in 1770, one year after
he came to this country. His first winter here, he spent chiefly in Maryland on Bohemia Manor. Mr.
Whitefield had labored much on this Manor. The chief families -- the Bayards, Bouchells, and
Sluyters, were mostly his disciples. There is a room in a certain house where he slept, prayed, and
studied, that is still called Whitefield's room. The Wesleyans now began to cultivate this field. Mr.
Solomon Hersey, that lived below the present Bohemia Mills, at what was then called Sluyter's Mill,
was the first available friend to Methodism. He had the preaching at his house for a number of years;
and, though the first Methodist preaching on the Eastern Shore of Maryland was in Kent county, yet,
the evidence in the case leads us to believe that the first society on this shore was formed at Brother
Hersey's, in 1772. This society is still represented at the Manor Chapel. The old Log Chapel which
was called Bethesda, which fell into decay an age ago, was built between 1780 and 1790. The
Methodists had another appointment at Thompson's school house -- here a society was raised up, at
a later date, and a chapel called Bethel (at Back Creek) was erected subsequent to 1790. These two
appointments were established, on what was called Bohemia Manor, as early as 1771.
While Mr. Wright was laboring on Bohemia Manor his attachments became so strong to the
people that it was feared he would settle there: he had the art of pleasing, and it is likely that
overtures were made to him by some of the principal men, in now of having constant, instead of
occasional preaching.
Mr. Francis Asbury, son of Joseph and Elizabeth Asbury, was born in England, August 20, 1745,
near the foot of Hamstead Bridge, in the parish of Hansworth, four miles from Birmingham, in
Staffordshire. There were but two children, a son and a daughter. His sister Sarah died young. Her
death was blest to her mother in opening the eyes of her mind, so that she began to read the Bible,
and urged her husband to family reading and prayer; they were also fond of singing. The death of
Sarah Asbury was the apparent cause of bringing the family to enjoy spiritual religion; and may have
been the cause of giving Mr. Asbury's labors to Methodism in America. After his parents had
supported Methodism with their means for forty years or more, they died at an advanced age; his
father died in 1798, in his eighty-fifth year; and his mother in 1802, in her eighty-eighth year, leaving
to their son the rich inheritance of a blameless and holy life.