Thursday, December 5, 2013

May 5, 1991 Baltimore Sun: Carroll Is Remembered As The Cradle Of Methodism

May 5, 1991 Baltimore Sun: Carroll Is Remembered As The Cradle Of Methodism

Carroll Is Remembered As The Cradle Of Methodism


May 05, 1991

Although members of many religions organized churches in Carroll, and congregations of all varieties continue to meet, the county is remembered as the cradle of American Methodism.

Robert Strawbridge, an Irish-born farmer turned preacher, was the first man to preach Wesleyan Methodism in America.

Converted to the faith in his home community of Drumsna, in County Leitrim, he began his ministry in Ireland. But, in about 1760, he and his wife, Elizabeth, emigrated to the United States, where he settled on Sam's Creek, in Frederick County.

Shortly after his arrival, he began preaching to his neighbors in his home, which he later purchased along with 50 acres from John England for 50 pounds. The home was declared a shrine in 1940 by the General Conference of the Methodist Church. As soon as Strawbridge had established himself as a farmer-preacher, he began expanding his ministry to include Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Strawbridge's ministry included many firsts. He organized the first Methodist meeting in America, in about 1763.The first Methodist meeting house in America, a log building, was built 1764 in a large field near the tributaries of Sam's Creek and Pipe Creek. The original building was eventually destroyed, and a replica of it was erected at the Strawbridge Shrine near New Windsor.


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