into Kentucky. "He was" tary of an Annual Conferenc was a member of the Genera and 1808. We will here, ho Mr. Burke for the present; b meet with him in the prosecu John Ball, who also came t had entered the lists as an although his name is not am for that year-an error in th he traveled the Russell Circul 1792, the Cumberland, in tucky, we find him, in 1793, cuit, where he only remains is reäppointed to the Cumbe close of which year he loca on the Lexington Circuit we *Rev. Jonathan Stamper, in Hom +Ibid. Western Methodism, p. 20. . He is represented by one who knew him, as a 66 "son of thunder. He smote with his hands and stamped with his feet. He warned the people faithfully to flee from the wrath to come." "He was about medium height, rather slender, but compactly built. He was firm, independent, and opinionated. He was regarded as a pious, useful minister, of the medium grade, and was well received wherever he traveled. He was a bold, intrepid man, who never turned his back on an enemy; and, if my information be correct, he and the Rev. William Burke were two of the guards, who, in 1793, met Bishop Asbury some distance east of the Cumberland Mountains, and conducted him to the Kentucky Conference and back again.”† The name of Gabriel Woodfield appears only for the present year on the roll of the Conference. Among the names of those "admitted on trial," that of Woodfield is omitted, and we only find him mentioned as one of the preachers on the Lexington Circuit. As a local preacher, he came to Kentucky from Pennsylvania at an early day. He was "of the first order of local preachers," and in that capacity "labored with success." Anxious to extend the sphere of his usefulness, he offered himself to the Conference; but, from some cause, only spent one year in the itinerant work. We afterward find him, in 1802, as a local preacher, faithfully dispensing the word of life-in his pulpit * John Carr, in Christian Advocate, February 5, 1857. † Judge Scott. Western Methodism, p. 63. Besides the log structure which was put up in 178' had been built in 1790, in Poplar Flats, and bore Chapel-to which allusion after the worthy local p faithfully in the cause About the same time a erected in Jessamine coun and called Lewis's Chap Madison county; Garrett forks of Dix River, and a had also been built. D Chapel was built, in Garr Chapel had also been buil Asbury had attended a d 13th of April of this year. We are called upon this *Jacob Young's "Au of Henry Birchett, the third itinerant minister, who had been connected with the work in Kentucky, to pass away-including the Rev. Samuel Tucker, who was murdered by the Indians.* Among the pioneer preachers who came to Kentucky, no one was more devoted to the work of the ministry, or prosecuted his calling with greater ardor, than the subject before us. He was born in Brunswick county, Virginia, (the time of his birth is not known.) After laboring for two years in the State of North Carolina, he freely offered himself as a missionary to the West. In the year 1790, he was appointed to the Lexington Circuit, where, with untiring zeal, he labored assiduously and usefully for two years. In 1792, he was removed to the Salt River Circuit, where, it is said, "he was eminently useful."+ No circuit in Kentucky was more trying to the constitution than this-spreading over a vast extent of territory, sparsely settled, accommodations poor, rides long, and preaching almost every day; "requiring more labor and suffering than any other in the country." His slender constitution necessarily gave way. At the close of the year it was the judgment of his friends that he ought to desist from preaching until he recovered. He was present at the Conference at Masterson's Station, "in a poor state of health," and was suffering from "weakness in his breast and spitting of blood." Owing to the scarcity of preachers, great difficulty * See page 75. † Western Methodism, p. 69. |