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250 HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
seven years before the new society AVIIS visited by an itinerant preacher
connected with a circuit. In 1812 the cloud of war spread ovtnuthe land
and the settlers fled to the southern part of the state for safety.
From the autobiography of Rev. J. B. Finley we find that after peace
had been restored and most of the settlers had" returned to their homes
and many more had moved to Northern Ohio that at the fifth session of
the Ohio Conference at Louisville, Kentucky, September 3, 1816, Bishop
McKendree presiding, J. 13. Finley Avas appointed presiding elder of Ohio
District, which embraced eight circuits, ten traA'eling preachers and 4,000
members. This district extended from the mouth of the Captina in
Belmont County on the Ohio River to the Huron River on Lake Erie,
including the northeast part of Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, south to
the Ohio River, and east to the Alleghenies, and Western NeAV York as
far as Silver Creek. The first quarterly meeting for GrandvieAv and
Mahoning Circuit (which was the nearest to the firelands) Avas held at
Hartford, Trumbull County, Ohio, November 2-3, 1816.
On the 3d of September, 1817, the Ohio Conference held its sixth
session at Zanesville. Rev. J. B. Finley AA'as reappointed presiding
elder, with the following brethren as circuit preachers: Beaver Church,
Jacob Hooper and Samuel Baker; Erie, Ira Eddy; GrandvieAv and
Mahoning, D. D. Davidson arid Ezra Booth; Chautauqua, Curtis Goddard;
Steubenville, S. Hamilton, William Knox and Calvin Reuter;
Tuscarawas, James MeMamm; Huron, John C. Brooke.
Mr. Finley says in a true spirit gospel ministers these brethren went
to their respective fields of labor. Great AA'ere the toils and hardships
they were called to endure. The winter Avas extremely cold, being almost
beyond endurance, yet the Lord croAvned the labors and sufferings of
his ministers Avith success. The country Avas but sparsely settled; the
rides were long and roads rough; but in the midst of all God was with
them. The Huron Circuit Avas the neAvest and consequently the most
difficult field. When Mr. Brooke went onto the circuit there were tAA'entyfive
preaching places, but he Avas enabled to increase the number so that
it was necessary to divide the circuit, and Rev. Alfred Brunson, then a
local preacher, Avas sent to the firelands or Huron part for the purpose
of establishing a new circuit. The labors of a circuit preacher were
arduous then as compared with the present, usually preaching almost
every day and leading class after having traveled from ten to thirty
miles over the often almost impassable road, and preaching and leading
class tAvo or three times on the Sabbath.
It AA'as the first AA'eek in January, 1818, that Mr. Brunson started for
this new circuit. In the Western Pioneer, page 179, he says: "I AVIIS
clad in homespun, the product of my Avife's industry. She had spun
the AVOOI, woven the cloth and after the cloth came from the fuller's, made
my garments. My horse and equipage Avas of the humblest kind, though
the best I had means to procure. The journey Avas mostly through a
country of AA'hich I had no knoAvledge. mostly a dense forest. I reached
Avhat is IIOAV Medina County by the southern tier of tOAvnships on the
Reserve, but finding no road further Avest, turned north through Pitts-