William McKendree (July 6, 1757 – March 5, 1835) was the fourth
Bishop of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, and the first Methodist bishop born in the United States
. He was elected in 1808.
Early years
William
was born in King William County, Virginia
, the son of John and Mary McKendree. His
parents were both of
Scottish
ancestry.
As a young man, McKendree served in the
Virginia militia during the
American Revolutionary War. He
entered the ranks as a
private, but
eventually served as an
adjutant in the
commissary department. He was present at
the
siege of Yorktown and the
surrender of
Lord Cornwallis. After
the war, he returned to private life.
William was
converted to Christ
in 1787. Shortly thereafter he began conversing with his friends on
the subject of the
Christian faith
and making them the subjects of his fervent
prayers. He soon volunteered to take part in public
religious meetings, and his addresses produced a powerful
effect.
Ministry
In 1788,
while living in Brunswick County, Virginia
, William was received on trial into the ministry of
the Methodist Episcopal Church. Unusually, he was admitted
without first obtaining a
License to Preach and without
anyone's recommendation. Bishop
Francis
Asbury appointed him as junior
preacher
to
Mecklenburg circuit and he served for
several years on neighboring circuits.
The Rev. McKendree continued as an
itinerant preacher until November 1792,
when, having been influenced by Mr. O'Kelly to join in certain
measures of pretended
reform, he was greatly
disappointed by their failure at the General Conference. Mr.
O'Kelly withdrew from the M.E. Church. Mr. McKendree, sympathizing
with him, sent in his resignation as a minister. But the Conference
agreed that he might still preach among the Methodist
societies.
Rev. McKendree soon obtained leave to travel with Bishop Asbury,
that he might ascertain for himself whether his impressions had
been well founded. In a short time he was convinced he had been
deceived. He therefore devoted himself to a careful examination of
the Rules and Discipline of the Church as drawn up by
John Wesley, and as established by the General
Conference in the U.S.A. McKendree became fully convinced both of
their harmony with the primitive church and of their particular
adaptedness to the circumstances and wants of this nation.
In 1793 the Rev.
McKendree was sent to South Carolina
, but returned the next year. For the next
three years, his circuit was vast—extending from
Chesapeake Bay to the
Blue Ridge and
Alleghany Mountains. In 1796 he became
Presiding Elder. In 1798, he was appointed to the Baltimore
conference, and in 1800 he went with Bishop Asbury and Bishop
Richard Whatcoat to the Western
Conference, which met that year at
Bethel, Kentucky.
Rev. McKendree was appointed the Presiding Elder of the
Kentucky-Holston District, 1800-01.
In 1801, the conference sent McKendree to
oversee the church's efforts in Southeastern Ohio
, Kentucky
, Tennessee
, and western Virginia
and part of
Illinois
.
He
subsequently became Presiding Elder on the Cumberland
District. He served as a circuit preacher in
addition to his organizational efforts, becoming a respected figure
in the region. He was the leader of the
Great Revival in the West.
As bishop
The Rev. William McKendree became widely know and most highly
esteemed because of his popular talents in the pulpit and his
faithful attention to every part of his work. Consequently, the
1808 General Conference of the M.E. Church, meeting in Baltimore,
elected him to the office of Bishop. Indeed, when called to preach
before the General Conference, such was the power and
unction connected with his
sermon, that Bishop Asbury was quoted as having said
at its close, "That sermon will make McKendree bishop."
From that time, then, Bishop McKendree traveled with Bishop Asbury,
or alone, over every part of the Church.
His first episcopal
tour of 1,500 miles extended through Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri
, and Illinois. After 1816 he was Senior
Bishop for nineteen years.
In 1830, he lent his support to the Lebanon
Seminary, Lebanon,
Illinois
. As a result, the school chose to change its
name to
McKendree
University.
Bishop McKendree never married.
His family had moved to Sumner County,
Tennessee
about 1810. So when the bishop was not
traveling, he also called that area home.
He died 5 March 1835 at the home of his
brother, Dr. James McKendree, in Sumner County near Nashville
. One of his last expressions was said to
have been, "All is well."
Legacy
Bishop Matthew Simpson wrote of Bishop McKendree:
He was a man of great energy and genius, and was deeply
pious and modest almost to timidity.
His mind was clear and logical, his knowledge varied
and extensive, his imagination lively but well regulated, and his
eloquence was unusually powerful.
He was careful in the administration of discipline, and
intruduced system into all the operations of the
church.
Bishop McKendree's influence was patent everywhere, but especially
was he regarded in the West. He had given years of earnest labor to
establishing Methodism on the western frontier. He therefore felt a
deep and abiding interest in the success thereof. He thus earned
the nickname "Father of Western Methodism", and was considered one
of the greatest Bishops of the M.E. Church.
People named for Bishop McKendree include
William McKendree Springer,
William McKendree Robbins,
and
William McKendree
Gwin.
References
- Leete, Frederick DeLand. Methodist Bishops. Nashville,
The Methodist Publishing House, 1948.
- Paine, Robert. Life and Times of William McKendree: Bishop
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 2 volumes. Nashville, 1874.
Accessed via Google Book Search
- Short, Roy Hunter. Chosen to be Consecrated: The Bishops of
The Methodist Church, 1784-1968. Lake Junaluska, N.C., General
Commission on Archives and History of the United Methodist Church,
1976.
- Simpson, Matthew, ed. Cyclopaedia of Methodism.
Revised edition. Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1880. [143079]
- Sketches of Holston Preachers [143080]
See also
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