Thomas Henry, memoir
in reference to 1835-1838
"…I was just forty years old when I came to the A.M.E. Church. In her wilderness of condition, from the year 1835 to 1837. I can only say that I was with the Elder, him and myself, and wending my way until 1837, when I was ordained Deacon by the Right Rev. Maurice Brown, at Baltimore, Md. In 1838 I was ordained Elder in full by the same Bishop. Thus ended my career in the M.E. Church, of which I was a member from the year 1819 to 1835, and on New Year’s day of this year I, with the assistance of Almighty God, began my pilgrimage in the A.M.E. Church.
After being ordained Elder by the Right Reverend Maurice Brown, I took up my pilgrimage. My first commission was the charge of Bethel Church, Frederick, (now Frederick city) in Frederick county, Maryland. Here I preached my first appointment, and my next was at my old home, Hagerstown, which is just twenty-six miles from Frederick. Our membership in Frederick, at that time, was fifteen, and the church was very much in need of repair, as it was in a bad condition at that time. The membership at Hagerstown was much more than that of Frederick, as we boasted at least forty-four members; this church was a small log building, covering about twenty-four feet by twenty-four feet, which was all the ground that we owned. I found it necessary to search the hills and valleys to get the people together in the good work of fairly establishing a church worthy of its name. I next started down in some of my old tracks in the neighborhood of Ringgold’s Manor…"
Author
Name: Thomas Henry
Unit: N/A
Document Information
Type: Memoir
Subject(s):
- African American
Event Location: Frederick City, Frederick Co., MD; Hagerstown, Washington Co., MD
Document Origin: N/A
Source
Rev. Thomas W. Henry, From Slavery to Salvation, The Autobiography of Rev. Thomas W. Henry, Jean Libby, ed. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1994), 22
Transcripts
document-88.pdf 
