Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/253

 DELAWARE COUNTY. 229 social and moral improvement. Their peculiar hardships and privations, the ingratitude frequently bestowed upon their ardent labors for the good of others, without emolument or profit to themselves, are fitting themes for discussion in these modern times. The establishment of churches commenced about 1816, and has kept pace with the gradual increase of population to the present time. The dilFerent sects or denominations which exist in sufficient numbers to support stated preaching, are the Baptist, Congre- gational, Christian, Dutch Reformed, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Union. The Methodist denomination is the most numerous : The whole county is comprised in the Delaware, now Prattsville district of the New York conference. The county is subdivided into twelve circuits, and each circuit is filled by two preachers appointed by the conference at their annual meeting, with a limited period, not to exceed two years. The Methodist Episcopal Church, was first regularly orga- nized in the United States, December 25, 1784, by John Wesley and his associates, to whose laborious and energetic perseverance the church in the new as well as old world is in an eminent degree indebted for its present high degree of prosperity. The doctrines and beliefs of the society are found elsewhere, but a brief history of the origin and progress of the institution, may not prove uninteresting to the general reader. In 1729, Mr. Wesley, A.M., Fellow of Lincoln College, in the University of Oxford, a regularly ordained minister of the Church of England, became afi'ected by the general apathy exhibited in that body, and associated himself with a few col- lege associates of like opinions. 20