Tag: Methodist Church

July 13, 1899: Greenbrier Co. Methodist Preacher Sam Black Dies at 86

  Methodist preacher Sam Black died on July 13, 1899, at age 86. The Greenbrier County native was a circuit riding minister who spread the gospel through Greenbrier, Clay, Fayette, Nicholas, Webster, and Kanawha counties. Affectionately known as ‘‘Uncle Sam,’’ he helped organize and build numerous churches with money earned by selling socks and deerskin gloves made by women from the congregations. Sam Black was an ordained deacon and a two-time delegate to the Methodist general conference. He also was one of the 16 charter members of the West Virginia Methodist Conference.

In 1844, the Methodist church split nationally, along North and South lines, over the issue of slavery. The two sides began competing for the hearts and minds of Methodists.

Black, who supported slavery, cast his lot with the Southern wing of the church. He supposedly won over all but two of his Western Virginia congregations to the Southern side.

A white frame structure named Sam Black Church was built in Greenbrier County in 1902 in memory of the Reverend Black. It’s listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and the community is named Sam Black Church. 

July 13, 1899: Greenbrier Co. Methodist Preacher Sam Black Dies at 86

  Methodist preacher Sam Black died on July 13, 1899, at age 86. The Greenbrier County native was a circuit riding minister who spread the gospel through Greenbrier, Clay, Fayette, Nicholas, Webster, and Kanawha counties. Affectionately known as ‘‘Uncle Sam,’’ he helped organize and build numerous churches with money earned by selling socks and deerskin gloves made by women from the congregations. Sam Black was an ordained deacon and a two-time delegate to the Methodist general conference. He also was one of the 16 charter members of the West Virginia Methodist Conference.

In 1844, the Methodist church split nationally, along North and South lines, over the issue of slavery. The two sides began competing for the hearts and minds of Methodists.

Black, who supported slavery, cast his lot with the Southern wing of the church. He supposedly won over all but two of his Western Virginia congregations to the Southern side.

A white frame structure named Sam Black Church was built in Greenbrier County in 1902 in memory of the Reverend Black. It’s listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and the community is named Sam Black Church. 

March 31, 1816: Bishop Francis Asbury Dies at 70

Bishop Francis Asbury died on March 31, 1816, at age 70. Born in England in 1745, he volunteered to come to America in 1771 on behalf of the rapidly growing Methodist church. During pioneer days, Asbury was one of many Methodist circuit riders who spread the gospel from community to community. His travels often brought him into what is now West Virginia. And his diary provides some of the best early accounts of western Virginia life.

His first documented visit to the region was in 1776, just outside Berkeley Springs. He noted in his diary that the area was “good for the health, but most injurious to religion.” Likewise, after visiting Morgantown in 1788, he lamented the town’s “excesses, particularly drinking.”

In 1785 or ’86, he preached the dedication sermon at Rehoboth Church in present Monroe County. He later held sessions of the Methodist Greenbrier Conference at Rehoboth, which is reportedly the oldest church building west of the Allegheny Mountains. Thanks to his efforts in establishing Methodist churches, Asbury is considered one of the most significant religious figures of the region’s frontier era.

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