Identity elements
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Name and location of repository
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Title
Date(s)
- 1944 (Creation)
- 1891 (Creation)
Extent
1-10000
Name of creator
Administrative history
The Wesleyan Methodist Church of America emerged in response to the Methodist Episcopal Church's support of slavery and its centralized, authoritarian governance. In November 1842, leaders O. Scott, J. Horton, and L. R. Sunderland withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal Church and launched The True Wesleyan, a weekly publication explaining their reasons for separation. In December, Luther Lee and L. C. Matlack also withdrew, marking the formal beginning of the Wesleyan movement. Although earlier separations had occurred—particularly in Michigan, where a conference was established—these events laid the foundation for the official organization. The first church of the new denomination was founded in Providence, Rhode Island. In February 1843, a preliminary convention was held in Andover, Massachusetts, which led to a General Convention in Utica, New York, on May 31, 1843. There, the Wesleyan Methodist Church was officially organized and adopted a governing Discipline. The first General Conference convened in October 1844 to revise this Discipline, followed by a second in October 1848, which produced a more comprehensive and clearly organized version.
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Scope and content
This series comprises records from the Nebraska conference. They capture the district’s role as a vital regional hub within the wider church. The materials include minutes from district conferences, correspondence between local pastors and district leaders, reports from area churches, pastoral appointments, membership and financial statistics, and policy documents specific to the region.
These records reveal how the district guided and supported local congregations and clergy, implemented denominational policies on a regional level, and fostered church growth and ministry within the community.
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Notes element
General note
The original Nebraska Conference was recognized by the General Conference of 1883. The gathering of scattered Wesleyan believers in Nebraska included several Wesleyan ministers and approximately one hundred laypeople. A severe drought which drove many of the settlers away gave the new conference a hard blow and the Nebraska Conference ceased to be listed as a separate body after 1891. The Nebraska churches in the southern tier of counties became a part of the Kansas Conference.
The Nebraska Conference was reorganization at Neligh, Nebraska, on November 23, 1944, with Rev . J. R.
Swauger serving as the first president of this new conference of five churches, 113 members. The General Conference of 1947 recognized the Nebraska Conference and assigned it "the State of Nebraska, except Franklin, Webster, and Nuckolls Counties,"25 which were a part of the Kansas Conference. Later the churches of this territory (by the permission of the Kansas Conference and the Board of Administration) affiliated with the Nebraska Conference.
In 1968 the Nebraska Conference had twenty-one organized churches and 451 total membership.
General note
Nebraska Conference Presidents:
J. R. Swauger, 1944-46
Clarence Budensiek, 1946-49
Arnold L. Nabholz, 1949-55
Charley A. Phipps, 1955-68