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The first Methodist preacher that is known to have visited Warren or Essex counties in New York, was Rev. Richard Jacobs. He was one of the band of pioneers under Mr. Garrettson, who first explored this region in that capacity. He belonged to a wealthy family of the "standing order" in Sheffield, Berkshire county, Mass. For becoming a Methodist he was disinherited by his father, and, with his young wife, thrown out penniless upon the world. In the spring of 1796, he left his family at Clifton Park and took a tour through northern New York, as far as Essex and Clinton counties, preaching to the few scattered inhabitants of that region. At Elizabethtown numbers were awakened and converted, and leaving the few sheep in the wilderness, for such that whole country then was, he promised that if possible a preacher should be sent them. After spending some weeks along the western shore of Lake Champlain, he started, in company with a Mr. Kellogg, to return to his family by way of the Schroon woods to the head of Lake George and thence to Clifton Park. They spent some seven days in the woods, meeting with almost insurmountable obstructions. Their provisions failing them, they became exhausted, and, attempting in that state to ford the Schroon river upon horseback, Mr. Jacobs was drowned. His family were all converted; three of his sons became ministers, and two of his daughters married Methodist preachers, one of whom is the wife of Rev. Dr. Luckey. (See Christian Advocate, May 20, 1836.)

The first circuit ever formed in Vermont was the Vershire circuit, on which Nicholas Snethen was the first stationed preacher. The first regular society west of the Green Mountains, Vt., was in Brandon, Rutland county. (See Chn. Adv., vol. 8, p. 7.) The first circuit in that part of Vermont embraced within the present

bounds of the Troy Conference, was the Vergennes, which first appears in the minutes of 1798. Joseph Mitchell and Abner Wood were the first preachers regularly appointed there. Mr. Mitchell was a man of extraordinary natural powers. He was shrewd, witty, energetic and an overwhelming preacher. Lorenzo Dow relates in his journal an instance in which such an impression was made under his preaching, on a quarterly meeting occasion, that the usual business could not be transacted. When he began to exhort, a trembling commenced among the unconverted; one after another fell from their seats, and for eleven hours there was no cessation of the cries of the smitten assembly.

While Mr. Mitchell was on Vergennes circuit, he received a youth into the church, of whom a brief notice is here given. This youth was born in Dutchess county, N. Y. His mother was a Methodist, and used to take her boy with her to the class-meetings. On one occasion, after Father Abbott had preached, he led the class; and after having spoken to the others, he turned to this lad and said: "Well, my boy, do you think you are a sinner?" He replied, "Yes, sir." Mr. Abbott then with his accustomed vehemence said, "There is many a boy in hell not as old as you are;" and went on exhorting him to repent. This unexpected address not only frightened him; it also produced a real religious concern, which, however, gradually subsided. Subsequently he removed with his parents to Vermont. When about fifteen or sixteen years of age, being a good reader, a Methodist neighbor, who held meetings at his house, engaged him to read one of Wesley's sermons each sabbath, while he led the other religious services. The lady of this family used to talk with him privately on the subject of religion, and he says: "Her conversations, more than any thing else, were the means of my seeking

religion." On his way home from one of these meetings, he went into the woods, and, kneeling by a large tree, renounced his sins, and entered into a solemn covenant with God to devote himself to his service. How that vow was kept, is happily evinced in his subsequent history. He did not, however, obtain a sense of the divine favor at that time. For several weeks he sought after God, night and day, with anguish of soul and many tears. At length, one sabbath, after preaching, Mr. Mitchell held a class-meeting, during which the distress of this youth became almost insupportable. At its close, special prayer was made in his behalf, and while the man of God and the pious cottagers bowed around him were engaged in earnest supplication, the sinner's friend spoke peace to his troubled soul. That day, December 27, 1798, the name of ELIJAH HEDDING was written in Heaven, and the same day entered on a class-book as a probationer in that church of which he afterwards became a distinguished minister and a truly apostolic bishop. To two pious females, his mother and the lady alluded to above, the church is indebted for the services of more than half a century, rendered her by the man whose portrait graces our volume, and whose memory will be precious as long as "Christianity, in earnest," is known in the earth.

In February of the year in which Bishop Hedding was converted to God, Joseph Sawyer preached a sermon at Petersburgh, on the barren fig tree. Among those present was a young man, a school teacher. It was the first sermon he had ever heard from a Methodist preacher; and the word brought him into the deepest distress in view of his exposedness to the Divine wrath. Soon after he was made a partaker of justifying grace. There was at the time a class in Hoosick, but none in Petersburgh; and the young man in question proposed

to unite with the Hoosick class; but as his wife and two or three others were brought to Christ about the same time, a class was formed of which he was made the leader. Thus originated the first Methodist society in Petersburgh, N. Y., and thus began the religious life and evangelical labors of Ebenezer Washburn, who for about half a century continued in the field.

Furnished with a Hymn Book and Discipline, he began first to hold class-meetings, and soon after to exhort publicly. Souls were converted to God, and at the close of the conference year the class numbered over thirty members. Soon Mr. Washburn was licensed to preach, and during the following winter his labors were the means of the conversion of about thirty persons on the Petersburgh mountain, who were formed into a class by Peter Vannest. "About this time," writes Mr. Washburn, "I went to New Ashford to fill an appointment for one of the circuit preachers. A great congregation came together, and I read a hymn and prayed; and after singing again I gave out a text and divided my subject into three general propositions, from each of which I promised to speak to the people. No sooner had I done this than the whole subject seemed to close up from my view; all my premeditated matter was gone from me; and my mind appeared to be wrapped in more than midnight darkness. I inwardly cried to God for help, but found no relief. I spoke to the people about thirty-five minutes, and sat down completely confounded and ashamed. I called on an exhorter to close the meeting, hoping that he would say something to the edification of the congregation; but he knelt down and made a short prayer, without making any reference to the preacher or the words he had spoken. I refused to wait for any refreshments, and hurried away to the afternoon appointment, which was distant about four

miles. Here I also met a large congregation, and, to my surprise, I recognized a number of faces which I had seen at the morning appointment. I had great liberty of speech in addressing them, and the Lord laid to his helping hand, and we had the shout of a king in the camp of Israel. About six months after this, I was passing through New Ashford with my wife, and put up for the night with brother Sherwood, the leader of the class. After supper, sister Sherwood began to speak to my wife about my having preached there the spring before. I said: 'Sister, do not say any thing about that unfortunate morning; let it pass into the land of forgetfulness.' Why so?' said brother Sherwood, 'it was one of the best sermons we have ever had in this place. We have seven very likely young men now in society who were awakened under that discourse.' 'Then,' said I, 'glory be to God; I am sure it is God that awakens souls, and not the preacher.'"

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Peter Vannest, in an account of his labors on Pittsfield circuit, in 1799, writes: "At a place called Dalton, I think, we had an appointment in a school-house, where there was great opposition; but the Lord carried on his own work. A number were converted; among whom was a young woman of a respectable family, an only daughter. When she was under conviction the Presbyterian minister waited on her, and wished her to join his church, saying that it was more honorable than the Methodist. I heard her say that she did not want honor; she would sooner crawl through the mud on her hands and knees to heaven, than to ride to hell in a coach. When she went home after joining the society, her father said he would not have the whore of Babylon in his house,' so he turned her out. Her mother followed her at a distance to see where she went; she found shelter in the house of a poor man, by the name

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