OUR GODLY HERITAGE
A HISTORICAL SERMON ON METHODISM IN BEDFORD, PENNSYLVANIA

given by the Reverend Earl E. Kerstetter
Sunday, October 25, 1964

On December 24, 1784, sixty-three preachers met in Baltimore, Maryland, to organize the Methodist Episcopal Church in America under the leadership of Thomas Coke of England, who had been commissioned by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, to be one of two General Super- intendents. The other was Francis Asbury, who was to become the great leader of American Methodism in its early years. Asbury was ordained by Coke at the instruction of Wesley and consecrated bishop at this Christmas conference.

The first Methodist preaching in America was done by two local preachers in 1766 --
Robert Strawbridge in Maryland and Phillip Embury in New York City.

Methodism in Bedford County was introduced by Thomas Lakin, who moved from Montgomery County, Maryland, to Bean's Cove about 1783. He was a local preacher, having been ordained deacon in 1801 and elder in 1813. Lakin, though never having been appointed to a charge, served the Church in parts of Bedford County, Alleghany County in Maryland, and Hampshire and Hardy Counties in Virginia. James Riley, in 1816, wrote that Lakin "was the most able minister I ever listened to in the locality, who had traveled."

What Methodist circuit rider first preached in the village of Bedford is not known. We do know that Robert Ayers helped to organize Huntingdon Circuit in 1788. He preached in Bedford on June 13, 1788, at Thomas Norton's house to between twenty and thirty people. His text was II Corinthians 4: 3-5. He noted that there were sixty to seventy houses and a courthouse. He had breakfast next morning at the home of Dr. Elisha Wall.

Bedford was probably a preaching appointment on the Huntingdon Circuit from 1788 to 1809, when the Bedford Circuit was formed.

Bishop Francis Asbury passed through Bedford in July, 1789, on the first of his nine westward tours along the route of Forbes Road. His forthright comments in his Journal reveal some of his feelings about the traveling ministry. He writes: "Monday, August 19, 1805. We reached Bedford. At night we had fiddle and flute to enliven our prayers and assist our meditations. I had but little rest. On Tuesday we rode sixteen miles to breakfast."

Bishop Asbury and his traveling companion were in Bedford again on Wednesday, August 12, 1807. He wrote in his Journal: "We lodged at the stage house: Mr. Graham, my host, had known me in my early visits - I had preached at his father's: the son was as kind as a king could be, and charged us not a cent for our entertainment: in a hundred public houses, possibly, that I have thus stopped at in the years, I have received no such favors."

He was constantly moving from house to house, from village to village, city to city, state to state. He entered this comment in his Journal: "I calculate the distance we have traveled since January 9 (1809) to this day (August 3, 1809), from Georgia to Bedford, Pennsylvania, at three thousand miles. We are generally amongst the poor; too frequently it is a tavern or starvation; many time and oft the preachers crowd us; and sometimes we are wedged among the people so that we can neither write nor think."

On Sunday, August 6, 1809, Bishop Asbury preached in the local colonial court house, the service being in the court room on the second floor. "I spoke to a very decent congregation on Acts IV, 12. 1. By original and actual transgression, sinners altogether born in sin; lost as to strength, and wisdom, and righteousness. 2. The character of Christ, the only Saviour; in Deity, in his humanity, suffering, resurrection, ascension, and mediation. 3. The Gospel method of salvation. 4. The work of the ministry. I spoke in the court house by necessity, not choice. There was one bit indecorous thing observed; a presiding elder put his feet upon the banister of my pulpit whilst I was preaching; it was like thorns in my flesh until they were taken down."

The court house was used by the Methodists as a preaching place until1826, when they occupied the first church. The court house was also used for Quarterly Conference, the earliest one known to be held here in 1907. Class meetings were held in the homes, such meetings being held for instruction, Christian testimony, and prayers.

Preaching in each appointment of the circuit was scheduled once in every two to four weeks. In 1802 the eccentric Jacob Gruber, circuit rider on the Huntingdon Circuit, served an area which embraced Woodcock Valley, Blood Run, Bedford, Dunnings Creek, Morrison's Cove, Frankstown, Warrior's mark, Half Moon, Stone Valley, Manor Hill, Warrior's Ridge, and Huntingdon. Gruber described his work thus: "We had a wilderness to clear and cultivate. The handful of corn among the mountains grew, the Lord gave the increase, and we gave him the glory in the public congregations, and frequently in loud shouts in family worship. Truly we had times of refreshing from the pressure of the Lord."

The Bedford Circuit was formed in 1809, being a part of the Carlisle District in the Baltimore Conference. The first preacher was the thirty-one year-old John G. Watt. A year later he left the charge with seventy-one members enrolled.

The eccentric Methodist preacher from Maine, Lorenzo Dow, who traveled through the States and the British Isles, spoke in the last days of his circuit riding in the local court house on September 22, 1815.

The Methodist Society here was small in numbers for several decades, ever since its formation in the last 1700's. This is revealed in reference to the coming of Mrs. Henrietta Fishburn to Bedford in 1816 when she found a class of six Methodists. She and her daughter Elizabeth joined immediately. Mrs. Fishburn joined the Methodist Church in 1783 at Salisbury, South Carolina. She and her husband Philip settled in the eastern part of Bedford County in 1791. For more than forty years she was a faithful Christian leader in this Church.

In 1816 Bedford Circuit still was so large that it took the preacher two weeks to speak once at each appointment. James Riley was the preacher that year. He wrote: "The circuit extended from Bedford to Everett, down the Juniata, thence over to Brush Creek, thence to Woodcock Valley, thence by Hollidaysburg to the neighborhood of Martinsburg, thence to Dunnings Creek embracing two appointments, thence through Schellsburg, a few miles toward the Allegheny Mountains -- 15 to 18 appointments."

The small society here began to plan for the building of a church. As a first step a lot was purchased in 1818 from Dr. John Anderson, the sale price being seventy-five cents. The lot was 50 feet wide on East John Street, on which the present church building stands. The depth was 60 feet. Trustees were Charles Ashcom, Esq., who lived in the Everett community; Dr. Frederick Albright, Daniel Lybarger, Daniel Dean, and William Creighbaum (Krichbaum).

When Daniel Shuck came to Bedford from Cumberland, Maryland, in 1825, the few Methodists were still meeting for worship in the court house. A small one-story brick church was begun in 1825 and completed the next year. The membership then included Mrs. Henrietta Fishburn, and her daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Daugherty, Daniel Lybarger and daughter Rosanna, Margaret and Hester Cruseberg, William Krichbaum and wife, Juliana Piper, Daniel Shuck, Sr., and wife, Henry Hoblitzell , Jacob K. Miller, William Lysinger, Jesse Kelly, and Albert Grubb.

The Sunday School was an early institution in Bedford, dating back to 1817, when the Reverend Jeremiah Chamberlain, a traveling Presbyterian missionary, organized a school supported by all the town churches. This Union School continued until the churches organized separate schools in 1832.

The organization of the first Sunday School in our church is detailed in the biography of Bishop John Emory. On his way to the Pittsburgh Conference, Mr. Emory stopped a few days at Bedford, the healthful influence of whose waters he had frequently tested. After preaching on Sunday, and addressing the society, he formed a Sunday School Union. The circumstance is thus mentioned in a letter to the editors of the Christian Advocate and Journal:

Bedford, Pa., Aug. 6, 1832

"Dear Brethren,
Yesterday I preached in this borough to a very full and attentive audience, collected from various parts at this watering place. After preaching I spoke to the society, and made an experiment on the facility of forming a Sunday School Union. There had formerly been one here on the American Sunday School Union plan, but it had not worked well, and was fallen into a very low state. Our friends were very much gratified with having an opportunity offered to them to form one auxiliary to our own Union, the nature of which I briefly explained to them. In half an hour a society was formed, a superintendent and teachers appointed, a sufficient sum subscribed to commence the school, notice given that it would be commenced on the next Sunday, and a meeting of the superintendent and teachers appointed for the afternoon to make arrangements for obtaining additional subscriptions, collecting scholars, etc., etc., which was all accordingly attended to, and I am now, as the result, authorized to request you to send them twenty dollars worth of books and tracts....

The plan on which I have advised this school to be commenced immediately is, to collect the scholars, class them according to their attainments, teach them their letters, to spell, read, recite verses of Scripture, hymns, etc., to sing and pray with and for them, and give them good advice how they are able to behave at home, at school, at church, to keep the Sabbath, to be cleanly, to attend public worship, keep out of the streets, out of mischief, etc., and as to their morals and interests generally....

J. Emory"

More land was purchased for specific use by the church. In 1828 a plot of ground immediately to the rear of the first church was purchased from Dr. John Anderson for a cemetery. The plot is filled with graves. No interment has been made in recent years.

In 1835 the lot on the east side of the church was purchased from Dr. William Watson for thirty dollars. The new lot, measuring 53 feet on East John Street and 240 feet in depth, became the site for the new parsonage.

In 1839 an addition was made to the rear of the original church, making it a long narrow building.

The Circuit was divided in 1842 into the Bedford and East Bedford Circuits, the latter embracing the Everett, Saxton, and Hopewell region. Bedford was made a station in 1851 with 176 members on the roll. The Sunday School was in a "flourishing condition."

For some years consideration was given to the erection of a new church. It was observed that "in windy weather we have a house full of smoke, the walls are cracked, the curtains are faded, and the roof slightly perforated in many places." The cornerstone for the new church, which is the present church, was laid on Friday, September 12, 1870, with the presiding elder, the Reverend Milton K. Foster, and the pastor, the Reverend Andrew W. Gibson, officiating.

On September 5, 1871, the lecture room (now Wesley Hall) was dedicated, Dr. Robert L. Dashiell, president of Dickinson College, preaching the sermon. Dr. B. B. Hamlin, the presiding elder, assisted in the dedication.

The building cost between $14,000 and $15,000. On the above Sunday $2,601 was raised amid much rejoicing. The membership was two hundred at this time.

On July 20, 1873, the sanctuary was dedicated with the Reverend S. V. Leech preaching. $2,100 was raised that day.

Comments on the two-story brick structure with a tall steeple included these: The new church "marks a new era in the history of Methodism in this famed and beautiful town." The church "is a noble testimony ... to the enterprise and liberality of (the) congregation."

In 1889 an extensive church remodeling program was begun. A steam heating system and electric lights were installed; the walls were frescoed; and new windows replaced the old ones. The total cost was $2,000.

The old parsonage, not in good repair, was torn down and a new one begun in 1890 on the same site. The new parsonage was built and furnished for $5,500.

Stained glass windows, many of them memorials, were installed in 1903 in the sanctuary and on the first floor. The Estay pipe organ was purchased in 1904, for $2,100, half of which came from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. The organ is still being used.

The two-story unit at the rear of the church building was added in 1935 at a cost of $10,471.

Our new Education Building was begun in December of 1962 after the razing of the parsonage. The cornerstone was placed on May 12, 1963, with the service being conducted by Dr. John F. Stamm, the district superintendent, and the minister. The building was consecrated by Bishop W. Vernon Middleton, resident bishop of Pittsburgh Area, on August 18, 1963. First use of the building was on October 13, 1963, and Open House was held on the following Sunday. Construction of the building at this time was made possible by the generous initial gift of Mr. and Mrs. John H. Moorehead of more than $50,000. This church has one of the finest and best equipped education buildings in the entire Central Pennsylvania Annual Conference to serve the educational and social needs of this congregation.

The cost of construction was $163,000. Furnishings, architect's fee, and other expenses totaled $20,000.

Time does not allow for the mention of the faithful and devoted men and women who through the past 175 years have served this Church. Those early years were hard and discouraging. Then more than a hundred years ago, the Church began to prosper. The last 83 years can be partly understood through the life of one woman -- Mrs. Lizzie Bain Lysinger. It was December 25, 1881, when she and members of her family were received into Church membership here by certificate of transfer from the Methodist Episcopal Church in Fort Littleton. She celebrated her 102nd birthday last February 13.

Through these years "Miss Lizzie" has witnessed great revivals resulting in many conversion; has been in class meetings with their emphasis upon personal spiritual growth; has attended the mid-week prayer services for spiritual renewal; has given leadership to such organizations of the past as the Junior and Senior Chapters of the Epworth League, the Woman's Foreign and Home Missionary Societies, and the Ladies Aid Society; has seen two young men enter the Methodist ministry from this Church -- The Reverend Joseph V. Adams and the Reverend Ellis B. Davidson, the latter enjoying in his native Bedford his retirement from the ministry.

These brief glimpses of the past do not reveal all of our goodly heritage, but they strongly remind us to be grateful for the many blessings we enjoy today because our forefathers were faithful.

What of the morrow? No church can live upon its glorious past and retain its spirituality and life. Great inspiration may be experienced by a contemplation of a worthy past. But now we must continue to follow the life-line into the future. As in the past, sacrifices need to be made, leadership must be devoted, liberal financial support is a necessity, and Christian living day by day shall be the effective witness in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The following ministers have served the Bedford Church since it became a station in 1851:

Only one former minister is living -- G. Cecil Weimer, now retired. *********************************************
This is where The Reverend Earl E. Kerstetter ended his sermon. If you have any stories about our church and its history (even if it was something that happened yesterday) please contact us. I know something has to have happened since October 25, 1964 and I look forward to hearing from you.