Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XVIII. 1816. We have seen that the last Conference appointed its next session to be held at Pine Ridge, November 16, 1815, and in their address to the Tennessee Conference they express the hope that the Bishops may find it possible to meet them then and there. The Pine Ridge referred to was a dense settlement extending from four or five miles to ten or twelve miles north of Natchez, and was bordered on the west by the Mississippi River. As there is no Journal of this Conference extant, some suppose it was never held, and others think it identical with the first Conference attended by Bishop Robert R. Roberts at the house of William Foster, on Pine Ridge, October 10, 1816. Both suppositions are erroneous. It is true there is not a line of Journal, either written or printed, within our knowledge, to show that the Conference appointed for November 16, 1815, was ever held. No living minister of our acquaintance has even a plausible tradition that the Conference of 1815 was held on Pine Ridge according to appointment. Of late years it has been referred to as the lost Conference, with but little prospect of its ever being found. Most of those who give the subject any attention (seeing every thing in relation to it is wanting), conclude that by some mishap or misunderstanding it did not meet at all; and yet we have sufficient evidence to Drove that it was held on the same plan of the two former Conferences, though it was not held on Pine Ridge. In the General Minutes we find the numbers in Society from every pastoral charge had been regularly given in, and for the current year we have the appointments of all the preachers, including several valuable transfers from the Tennessee and South Carolina Conferences, given in the usual form. A...