METHODISTS. 



489 



The mmiUr of effective preachers in 1866 

 was 0,287; of supenmmiat. -.1. 1,-J.si); of local 



hora, 7,576. The number of churches 

 i houses of worship), is 10,462, an increase of 

 The estimated total value is $29,594,004, 

 an increase of $2,843,502. The number of par- 

 sonages is 8,814, valued at $4,420,958, an in- 

 crease of 171 in number, mid of $24,277 in value. 



total value of church edifices and parson- 



.1)14,962, being an increase of $2,867,- 



i he following are the summaries of the 



'mti'UH tor the principal benevolent causes, 



omitting all receipt from legacies: for confer- 



laimants, worn-out preachers, and widows 

 and orphans of ministers who have died in the 

 \vork, $107,892, an increase of $14,743; for 

 missionary society, $671,090, an increase of 

 $69,025 ; for Tract Society, $23,349, an increase 

 of $1,026 ; for American Bible Society, $107,- 

 238, an increase of $6,495 ; for Sunday-school 

 Union, $19,850, an increase of $782. The total 

 contributions for these objects is $929,221. This 

 is an increase over the returns of 1865, of $91,- 

 073. The total number of schools is 14,045, an 

 increase of 96; that of officers and teachers, 

 162,191, an increase of 8,492 ; scholars, 980,622, 

 an increase of 48,898 ; volumes in library, 2,- 

 644,291, an increase of 169,195. The Sunday- 

 school Advocate, at the close of the volume in 

 October, issued a regular edition of over 300,000 

 copies, a barge increase over the subscription 

 list of the preceding year. 



The progress of the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church in the late slave-holding States, continues 

 to be more rapid than that of any other of the 

 northern anti-slavery churches, and to augur 

 important results, ecclesiastical as well as politi- 

 cal. At the beginning of the civil war, the 

 Church only had six conferences, which wholly 

 or partly were situated in the territory of these 

 States. They extended but little south of the 

 frontier of the northern and southern sections, 

 embracing only the States of Missouri, Mary- 

 land, Delaware, the valley of Virginia, with a 

 few isolated congregations in Kentucky and 

 Arkansas. Early in 1865, the Holston Confer- 

 ence in East Tennessee, was organized with a 

 membership (almost exclusively white), of 6,462. 

 The progress of this conference has been most 

 extraordinary, the number of members in 1866 

 rising to 18,211, an increase of nearly 200 per 

 cent. On October 11, 1866, a second annual con- 

 ference was organized in the State of Tennessee, 

 called the "Tennessee Conference," and num- 

 bering, at the time of its organization, 2,689 

 members, 484 probationers, 22 Sunday-schools, 

 with 2,548 scholars. The Mississippi Mission 

 Conference, which was organized in Deo. 1865, 

 with 2,216 members, counted, in 1866, 6,568 

 members and 1,831 probationers, exclusive of 

 the congregations in Texas, which on January 

 8, 1867, were organized into a separate annual 

 conference (the u Texas Conference "), that on 

 its start as a conference, counted a member- 

 ship of 1,093 members and 491 probationers. 

 Iho missions in South Carolina, Eastern Georgia 



and Florida, were organized into an annual con- 

 ference (South Carolina Mission Conference), on 

 April 2, 1866, the membership of which, at its 

 lir>t meeting, was reported at 5,165 members in 

 full connection, and 887 probationers. The 

 progress of the Church was particularly rapid 

 in Western Georgia and Alabama, where the 

 missions on Jan. 24, 1866, were organized into 

 the "Western Georgia and Alabama Mission 

 District." Before the close of the year, this 

 district had sprung into the proportions of an 

 annual conference, having, in December, 44 

 travelling, about 52 local preachers, and near- 

 ly 6,000 members. The missions in Eastern 

 Virginia and North Carolina, with 15 ministers 

 and 675 members, were erected into an annual 

 conference, on January 3, 1867. Together, these 

 new conferences, organized in the late slave- 

 holding States in 1865, 1866, and Jan. 1867, em- 

 braced a membership of about 43,000. There 

 were also in successful operation, within the 

 bounds of these conferences, two theological 

 institutions, " The Thomson Biblical Institute," 

 at New Orleans, and the "Baker Theological 

 Institute," of Charleston ; and two weekly pa- 

 pers were issued, the New Orleans Christian 

 Advocate and the Charleston Christian Advo- 

 cate. It was the common expectation of all the 

 missionaries, that the Church would continue to 

 make rapid progress in all the Southern States. 



The "foreign missions" of the Church in 

 Liberia, South America, China, Germany, India, 

 Bulgaria, Scandinavia, embraced in 1865 202 

 missionaries, and 7,478 members ; and the " do- 

 mestic missions" among the Germans, Indians, 

 Scandinavians, and Welsh, 26,075 members. The 

 General Missionary Committee appropriated, for 

 the year 1867, the sum of $1,030,778 ; namely : 

 foreign missions, $306,674; foreign population 

 in the United States, $64,350 ; Indian missions, 

 $4,600; American domestic missions in 57 an- 

 nual conferences (including six conferences in 

 the South, $158,400) $449,100 ; missions in the 

 United States not included in any annual con- 

 ference, $55,554 ; for building churches in the 

 South, $70,700; miscellaneous appropriations, 

 $80,000. 



The number of colleges, universities, and 

 Biblical institutes was in 1866, as follows : 



Name. Location. 



Albion College Albion, Michigan. 



Alleghany College Meadville, Pa. 



Baker University Baldwin City, Kansas. 



Baldwin University Berea, Ohio. 



Ctfrnell College Mt. Vernon, Iowa. 



Dickinson College Carlisle, Pa. 



Galesrille University Galesville, Wisconsin. 



Genesee College Lima, .New York. 



German Wallace College Berea, Ohio. 



llamline University Red Wing, Minnesota. 



Illinois Wesleyan University.. Bloomington, Illinois. 

 Indiana Asbury University. ... Greencastle, Indiana. 



Iowa Wesleyan University Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.. 



Lawrence University Appleton, Wisconsin. 



McKendrce College Lebanon, Illinois. 



Mount Union College Mount Union, Ohio. 



Northwestern University Evanston, Illinois. 



Ohio Wesleyan University Delaware, Ohio. 



University of the Pacific Santa Clara, Cat. 



