The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1922-09-29

ISOLATION. ana having listened 20 /
these Cody men they did not return |
to the Church but joined the Metho- |
dist Society and Trinity was closed
for twenty years. At q
meeting of the Vestry on September
30, 1906 it was agreed that it may be
opened, and used by the Clergy of the
Baptist denomination, provided they
were men of good and upright char
acter." The Vestry minutes of May
%, 1921, show that 4 committee was
appointed to examine into the condi-
ton Of the Chapel of Ease at the
Fork of the Falls and to report to the
Vestry. And DIR. Allen states that
rs far as the records show, had
been utterly neglected by the Vestry,
and used only by the Methodists ana
Baptists who were supposed to have
swept away the Church in that neigh
borhoOd." (The Garrison Church p
SD.
When Trinity Parish was formed
in 1S43, no services had been held IL
the Church for twenty years, that
is since Wesley Chapel had been
built, its doors, windows and roof
wer gone, the floor had been taken
up i'll order to get ut the rabbits that
harbored there, and it was only IA
shelter for horses and cattle (The
Garrison Church p. So, Il condition,
am sorry to say, it is again rapidly
approaching.
But il must have been neglected
even before 1906, for in that year an
Act was passed by the Legislature
authorizing the Parish of St Thomas
to hold a lottery to raise 100000,
$4,000 of which was to be applied %
the repairs of Church commonly
called the Chapel OF Ease in Della
ware Hundred" (Acts of 1906, Chap
ter 80. Lotteries were favOrite
means of raising money in the old
days. practically every christian de-
nomination used them to build their
Churches, except one, for Il most care
full and painstaking examination Of
all laws relating to this subject fail
ed To disclose that this means was
ever used by Methodists.
And we know that along the road
leading from this Church to the farm,
,bortIN IN Ira tho hanna nf the nrnhon
Boys of the Church, there stood i
log school house, and tradition says
it was called Antioch" and in it
Methodist services We're held. That
there was place near here, known
as Antioch" is established by the
deed from DR.. Elisha Payne to John
A. Mitchell in April 1884. conveying
the farm surrounding this Church.
which speaks of hfty-five acres of it,
as THE Buildings and premises
called Antioch" (W. G. l76. folio
7l5).
Who were the ministers of this
early society? This | can not say
with certainty, though Scharf in his
History of Western Marylanl states
that the Rev. Samuel Gore. who died
in 1858. was its lay minister for fifty
years, or from the year lSOS to his
death The great Bishop Asbury,
must have preached i'll this neishbor-
hood, for We lind entered i'll his
~ u
ing visited my friends i'll Baltimore !
rode to Mr.. G'S, met Mr.. K. and had
some agreeable conversation on the
work of God in different parts of
America, went next day To the Forks
where | met brother G.. S. i'll great
Harmony. and found divine assistance
in dispensing the word" Vol /. p.
1927.
Again on Sunday, April 30. l7SO. Il
went to the Fork preaching house:
an Episcopalian Minister preaching
just by" (VOl. l, p. 2S2).
And when he was reaching the
close of his Cody life We find this
entry On ouuudSt aplil -, IHA", III
great weakness, | gave nv farewell
exhortation at the Fork Chapel"
CVol. ,. p. 31SJ.
Was the society he was addressing
at the Fork" your ancestors, or was
il a society at some other Fork? /
have been unable to answer this
question satisfactorily. for the section
of our State lying between the Great
and Little Gunpowder falls, at the
edge OF Baltimore and Hartford coun-
ties, was known as THE Fcrk" from
which a little village has taken its
name, and there was chapel au-
thoriZed to be built there in 1882
(Bacon's Laws 1872, Oh. 81, but NY
limited time for research, has not en-
abled me to find out if il was ever
erected.
Was that the Fork to which Bishop
Asbury referred. or did he mean this
neighborhood? | consulted the Rev.
Hobart Smith. for long years the Rec
tor of the Garrison Church, Il student