Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-02-21
PERSONALS.
THE VALLEY CITY.
The Approaching Methodist Confer
ence-The Boundaries.


STAUNTON. VA, February 2O-(Spe-
cial.)-On the fourth Wednesday in March
the 18th annual session Of the Baltimore
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church will begin in this city and will
continue it's sessions for about a week.
Already preparations are being made
by the committees TO provide for the
entertainment Of the delegates and
others who will be In attendance There
viii be about 2S0 official visitors, in
Guiding 225 clerical and lay delegates to-
gether with candidates for ordination and
candidates 10 be admitted on trial. This
conference. according to the Methodist
form Of church polity. is purely an adj
ministratve body. and does not legislate,
the latter function being exclusively eX-
ercisod by the General Conference. which
meets every four years. so that in the
conference to be held here in March there
Is no promise for other than general
routine administrative work. However,
an interesting matter will come up. when
a special committee, of which the Rev.
DR. p. II. Whisner presiding elder Of this
district is chairman, makes its report
Of a plan TO settle the difficulties Of
debt. which have hampered the operations
Of the Church school in this city-the
Wesleyan Female Institute. The Right
Rev. Charles b. Galloway, Of Jackson,
Miss, will call the conference TO order,
and will preside over its sessions. Last
year Bishop r. X. Hargrove, Of Nash
Vile, Tenn. presided over the conference,
when IL convened at Roanoke.
Some of the most eminent men OF the
Church viii attend the stanton sessions,
and the pulpits of the city will peal with
pulpit oratory.
MEMORABLE NAMES.
Our people have not forgotten the con-
ference here I'm 1874. and the array Of
able men present at that time. Your
correspondent recalls the names Of many
here then who have gone to rest with
the silent majority. In that battery OF
brains, now silenced in death. but whose
deeds. indeed. live after them, were
Bishop Doggett, Of Virginia; Bishop Atti-
Gus C. Haygood Of Georgia; the Rev. DR..
McFerran. Of Tennessee; Bishop Nc
Tyelre, and the thunder-throated pulpit
orator, the Rev. DR.. RoZzel. of Virginia.
The geographical jurisdiction OF the
Baltimore Conference is an extensive one,
carving out as IL does. points of Virginia,
West Virginia. Maryland; RAINING up
into Pennsylvania, ande embracing Wash
ington, and the District Of Columbia It's
precise boundaries are as follows: Be
ginning at the Potomac rivers mouth, il
extends along the e stern border Of Stat
ford county across the Northern Neck of
Virginia to Fredericksburg following the
Rappahannock river to its source, in the
Blue Ridge; thence in a long line fol-
lowing the Blue Ridge TO Floyd county;
from thence to Christiansburg, and along
the New river line TO Sommers county,
w. Va, embracing Greenbrer and Poca-
hontas counties. Stretching on along the
summit Of the Alleghenies, it reaches
out North 10 Somerset and Bedford
counties. in Pennsylvania, and embraces
Maryland as far east as the Choptank
river. on the Eastern Shore.
STATISTICS.
In this conference are TO be found Cos
congregations and 512 church edifces, the
value Of which buildings is 81 1855. The
Church owns, too 1872 parsonages, valued
at SH845O. and FIVE district parsonages,
worth $1,000. According TO the latest
figures. there are $3.50 church members in
the Jurisdiction Of the conference, of
which 49, Al are white. and 80 negroes.
The Stanton Methodists nave a beau
tiful new church. and the local pastor,
the Rev. Dr. J. II. Boyd, and Dr. Whis-
her. tho presiding elder, will be heartily
coined by the citizens of stanton in well
coming the visitors when they assemble
here March Path.