Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1856-03-13
NO. II.

John Cuthbertson, Mathew Lind, and Alex. :
Dobbiu, ministers, ard James Bell, John
Cochran, and Robert Patterson, elders, from
the Preshytery of the Reformed Presbyterian
Church.
The fEst General Synod of the Associate
Reformed Church was held at Greepcastle,
Franklin county, Pa, on Wednesday the
goth May, 1904. Rev. John NJ. Mason,
D. D., Of New York, preached sermon :
from Tit. i. 9-"Holding fast the faithful
word," and constituted the Synod with pray,
er. The Rev. Alexander Dobbipwas chosen
the first Moderator, and the Rev. James Gray
the first stated Clerk. Thirteen ministers
and nine ruling elders were in attendaneeon
certified commissions from four Synods and
high Presbyteries. 2
The first Methodist class.meeting in this:
country was formed in the city of New York,
by Philip Embury, in 1865. The FIRST IN.
nual conference was held in Philadelphia, in
l77S, when the body consisted of 10 preach.
ers and about !, 100 members. The first for
NAL organization Of the Methodist Episcopal
Church as an ecclesiastical body took place
on the 25th Of December, 1854, in Balti.
more, when 81 Of the SO preachers belong
ing to the Church were assembled together
for conference and the Rev. Francis Asbu.
ry was ordained by DR.. Coke, who was pre-.
sent from England, the first Bishop in the
American Church. The first delegated Gen.
eral Conference was held in the city Of New:
York, in May, 1912, when the body had 50
increased that there were connected with it
6SS travelling preachers, and 196,957 men.;
bers in the churches.
The first Baptist Church organized in this
country was at Providence, Rhode Island, by
Roger Williams, in 1889. One attempt.
ed the same year in Massachusetts, but was
forcibly broken up, and its members we're
fined by the General Court The first minis.
ter ever settled in New Hamshire was the
Rev. Hanserd Knollys, ofthe Baptist Church.
This body has so increased that it now pre-,
sents the following statistics:--14, 1928 church.
es, 9,Sl7 ministers, 1,251, ,059 members.
The first Protestant Episcopal Convention
formed in this country met in Philadelphia,
on the 9th of September, 1889 and there
being no bishops of that Church in the Uni.
ted States except the Rev. Samuel Seabury,
D. D., (who had been consecrated by the
non;juring Bishops of Scotland, and was not,
on that account, cordially received BY the
Church at large,) Rev. VIM. White, D. D.,
Of Philadelphia, and Rev. Samuel Provost,
D. D., of New York, were selected to. pro.
ceed to England and obtain the proper con.
secration. Accordingly, proceeding thither,
they were consecrated Bishops in the Arch.
iepiscopal place Of Lambeth, BY the the Rev.
John Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury; and
returning to this country, commenced at
once the exercise Of the episcopaey in their
respective dioceses. The first Bishop con.
secrated in the United States was the Rev:
Thomas John Claggett, D. D., from the dio.
cese Of Maryland, by Bishop Provost, at the
triennal Convention in New York, in 1892.
This body now has 81 bishops, 13 dioceses,
LIP ministers, and 10000 members.
The first Yearly Meeting of Friends, or
Quakers, in this country, waa held August
2S, 1881, at the house of Thomas Gardner,
in Burlington, N. J. This meeting contin.
ued to be held every year in that place until
1854, when it began to be held at Burling.
ton and Philadelphia alternately.
The first open preacher of the principles
of Unitarianism in this country was DR.. Ere.
man, at first reader, and afterwards, on
being ordained by some members Of his own
congregation, minister of the Episcopal
Church in Kings Chapel, Boston. The
FIRST American Unitarian author was the
Rev. Hosea Ballou, afterwards minister of
the second universalist Society in Boston.
In 1903, he published treatise on the
Atonement, which was the first American
work in which Unitarianism was avowed and
defended. The first attempt to build in the {
United States Unitarian house of worship
was made in Philadelphia in 1872, when a
large part of the means for its erection was
raised in England.
The first minister that preached sermon
in the English language in any Reformed
Dutch, Church in this country was the Rev.
Archibald Laidlie. He was born on the 4th
of December, 1897, at Kelso, in Roxbury
county, on the north bank of the Tweed,
opposite its junction with the Teviot, Scot
land. After studying in the University Of
Edinburgh, he was ordained to the holy
ministry in 1759,a settled as one of the
pastors Of the English Church, at Flushing,
in Netherlands.
1ar DR.. Thompson, proprietor of the