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252 HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
Waddel at the same time was appointed presiding elder, both succeeding
Finley.
The society worshipped in this way up to the year 1824, Avhen Rev.
True Pattee was sent here and preached a large portion of the time in
the frame schoolhouse, then standing on or near the north front of the
Sloane Block on Columbus Avenue. He was a man of easy manner,
very graceful and of natural eloquence. Services were conducted quite
regularly in this schoolhouse. Both Pattee and James Mclntyre, as
missionaries, had been in the Avoods of Northern Ohio since 1814. And
in the year 1826 the toAvn was put upon the circuit and Avas supplied
with the Rev. James Mclntyre and Rev. Adam Poe. It Avas said of
Mclntyre, who used to Avear a blue hunting shirt and tow pants and shirt,
that with the first glance of his piercing eye he would penetrate every
intellect and every heart. Of the Reverend Mr. Poe, who a feiv years
later became an elder, and Avhose name Avas a household word in almost
every Methodist family living in old Huron County, I will say he was a
man of herculean frame and a very able, earnest and effective speaker,
and attained great influence in the Methodist denomination.
In 1828 a town meeting was called to take into consideration the
religious needs of the town. A committee of three, consisting of C. F.
Drake, Samuel Pennewell and Durin H. Tuttle, Avas appointed to ascertain
Avhat amount of support could be pledged tOAvard the maintenance
of a preacher, and to ascertain the wishes of the people as to the denomination
perferred. Sufficient pledges were secured and a Methodist preacher
was preferred. The petition signed by these three committeemen was
dated August 28, 1828. The petition was granted and the Rev. John
Janes was appointed to this charge in 1828-29. He was the first station
minister ever sent to Sandusky. He Avas an able and earnest man, and
admirably adapted to liis Avork, and his Avife was equally qualified as a
helpmate. The Rev. John Janes agitated the matter of church building
and prepared the way. The Rev. William Runnells, his successor, began
the building, which Avas dedicated in 1830. The Methodist Episcopal
Church building therefore antedated any other church building by five
years.
The Western Christian Advocate of November 4, 1868, contained the
following extract from a letter written by Rev. W. Runnells, who Avas
stationed at Sandusky in 1829 and 1830:
"In 1829 I was appointed to Portland Station, an insignificant town
on Sandusky Bay, a magnificent sheet of Avater connected with Lake
Erie. Here we found a class of enrolled members numbering in all, big
and little, 18, more than half of whom resided on the other side of the
Bay. No church edifices—no public buildings open for religious services,
but one small school house out on the commons in the goose pasture, built
by a stock company and claimed by the Presbyterians Avho had just
received a missionary sent out by the Eastern Board of Home Missions.
"We tried to preach in Avare houses—on the dock—in cooper shops,
private dwellings and barns, and wherever we could find an open door.
A glorious revival began at one of our quarterly meetings in the old