page_title: Thomas S. Hinde
section_title: Conversion to Methodism
hierarchical_section_title: Thomas S. Hinde / Conversion to Methodism
caption_attribution_description: English: Illustration from The Circuit Rider: A Tale of the Heroic Age by Edward Eggleston depicting a Methodist circuit rider on horseback.
context_page_description: Thomas Spottswood Hinde was an American newspaper editor, opponent of slavery, author, historian, real estate investor, Methodist minister and a founder of the city of Mount Carmel, Illinois. Members of the Hinde family were prominent in Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Illinois. His sons Charles T. Hinde became a shipping magnate and Edmund C. Hinde an adventurer. He was the father-in-law of judge Charles H. Constable.
  Hinde was an active businessman, pursuing real estate, construction, and publishing opportunities in Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois. In his early years, Hinde publicly opposed slavery. He also used his newspaper, The Fredonian, in Chillicothe, Ohio between 1806 and 1808, to highlight issues about Indian treaties and the conspiracy of Aaron Burr. He served in the War of 1812. In later years he was a pioneer in the settlement of Indiana and Illinois, and the expansion of the Methodist Episcopal Church in these areas. He contributed to the Madoc Tradition and was a noted historian and biographer. Hinde cofounded the Wabash Navigation Company, which engaged in real estate speculation and dam construction.
context_section_description: Hinde was involved with the newspaper for less than two years. He converted from Deism to Methodism and decided that operating a political journal conflicted with his new religious views. After retiring from the newspaper business, he engaged in locating military lands and in land speculation. For the rest of his life, Hinde published editorials in newspapers and religious publications. He organized several camp meetings with other preachers, saying that the camp meeting could unite the different Protestant denominations.
  At times, Francis Asbury ventured into the wilderness to visit Hinde. An 1856 account states, 
  In 1810 Bishop Asbury visited an obscure part of the western country (Kanawha) which was then a wilderness, and pleasantly told the Rev. Thomas S. Hinde that he had visited the region in order that the people might see and know their superintendent; remarking, "The shepherd ought to know the flock, and the flock the shepherd: they ought to know what man it is that governs them, and I have come nearly one hundred miles out of my way to see them." The writer exclaims, "O Asbury, the inhabitants of these hills and mountains will long make mention of thee!"
  Hinde is thought to have received his license to preach sometime around 1810. His first sermon was in Chillicothe in either 1807 or 1808, and people were so eager to hear him that they filled the church. The sermon was described as having "...no coherence in his discourse." During the sermon, Hinde repeatedly stated, "My bowels, my bowels!"
  According to a 19th-century account,
  As a preacher, he was rather eccentric. He was not very fluent and gifted as a speaker, but had the power of engaging the attention of his hearers, and was very successful and useful in a revival of religion. He entertained rather singular views on the subject of the orders in the ministry, objecting to the order of deacons, and holding that the eldership is the only true order. In consequence of these peculiar views, he would never consent to be ordained a deacon, and therefore never entered into orders at all.
  Hinde became a circuit rider in the early 1800s. While his circuit varied over the years, he served large portions of Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Much of the territory he covered was generally lawless, violent and dangerous. Circuit riders served numerous churches and were supposed to plant new ones in new or underserved communities. They were critical to the development of the frontier.
  An avid writer, Hinde wrote mostly about Methodism and church songs. He wrote a popular hymnal entitled The Pilgrams' songster; or, A choice collection of spiritual songs, which was said to have sold more than 10,000 copies. Rev. Thomas S. Hinde was said to be, "...exceedingly earnest, and very zealous in promoting the interests of the Church and of religion and morality. His zeal, however, was rather of the ascetic kind; and he usually took prominent part in the arraignment and trial of brethren accused of offenses." He was quoted as saying that he was,"...doing God service."
caption: Methodist circuit rider on horseback
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