Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1894 (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.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
This series comprises records from the South Ohio 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.
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
Physical access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Languages of the material
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related archival materials
Related descriptions
Notes element
General note
The first session of this conference was held in Bellefontaine, Ohio, beginning August 22, 1894.
South Ohio District, which included the former Wesleyan Methodist Negro churches in the states of Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana, and in that part of West Virginia not occupied by the Allegheny District. The South OH conference is first mentioned in the 1892 Discipline, “South OH CONFERENCE shall comprise that part of Ohio lying southerly from a line commencing at Richmond, Indiana, and running along the Pan Handle. Railroad to Xenia, Ohio ; thence east to the west line of the Central Ohio Conference; thence south along this line to the northern border of the southern tier of the counties of Ohio ; thence east along said northern border to the county of Monroe; thence south to the Ohio River; also the States of West Virginia and Kentucky.”
General note
"Churches formerly a part of the Miami and the Central Ohio Conferences were brought together by permission of the General Conference of 1891 to form this body; the churches were made up almost entirely of Negroes. Rev. H. C. Pierce was the first president; eight elders, six licentiates and ten churches were reported at the first conference. The year 1957 saw two significant events. The first was the merger of the Negro Wesleyan churches from West Tennessee Mission with the South Ohio Conference, bringing all Wesleyan Negro work into one body." Conscience and Commitment The History of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America, Ira Ford McLeister & Roy Stephen Nicholson
General note
Conference Presidents:
A . C. Mayle, 1932-33, 1936-37
Isaac Kennedy, 1933-36
J. W. Wilson, 1937-47
A. M . Gilmer, 1947-52, 1954-57
Henry Mayle, 1952-54
Eugene Ramsey, 1957-68