History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

Church in the South, and published at Raleigh, N. C., under that title since 1844. It is exhaustive of
the whole church history of the Christians, and supplies not a few facts as to O'Kelly not before
generally known. This issue of the paper bears date December 6, 1894. From it information is
gleaned that O'Kelly was born in Virginia, his father at least being an Irishman, and that he had the
best educational advantages the country then afforded, being a school chum with Thomas Jefferson
and Patrick Henry. On the 4th of August, 1794, a Conference of the O'Kelly reformers was held at
Lebanon chapel in Surry County, Va., and Rice Haggard then moved "the adoption of the name
Christian to the exclusion of all party or sectarian names," and the motion prevailed. The several
divisions of the Christians (not the Church of Alexander Campbell) in the South, West, and North
have been united, making today quite a strong denomination, with college and seminary and other
appliances of a well-equipped organization. O'Kelly is buried in the cemetery attached to the Raleigh,
N. C., church, and his grave designated with a marble monument. The Church he originated is
essentially Methodistic in its teaching and methods today, though the sections West and North differ
in some particulars; and the reunited body has a respectable standing and a reasonable degree of
prosperity.
10 Baltimore, Sherwood, printer. 1860. 16mo. 72 pp.
11 Bishop McTyeire says " Impartial history requires us to say we find no evidence of the heresy
alleged against James O'Kelly — that he was unsound on the Trinity, and hastened his secession for
fear of being brought to trial. . . . The trouble was government, not doctrinal." "History of
Methodism," p. 412.
12 Dr. L. M. Lee's "History of Jesse Lee," p. 287.
13 Methodist Protestant, April 2, 1859.
14 Simon Sommers, of Alexandria County, Va., was a Major in the Revolutionary war, was on the
staff of General Washington, and, residing so near Mount Vernon, was socially intimate with him.
He was an educated Christian gentleman who had embraced the Methodist religion, and became the
head of a large and influential family of Methodists, some of whom were among the founders of the
Methodist Protestant Church in that section. He was intimate with Asbury, and occasion will be had
in a review of the General Conference of 1706 and the events to 1800 to note an incident in which
both figured in church affairs. He was born in Fairfax County, Va., November 23, 1747, and died
in Alexandria County, Va., at his homestead, "Sommerville," December, 1836.
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