272 IT [story of Methodism 



pioneer preacher among the Presbyterians in Iredell 

 county. The success of this first camp-meeting, at 

 which it was estimated that three hundred souls were 

 converted, led to the appointment of another the fol- 

 lowing year (1795) at Bethel, about a mile from the 

 famous Rock Spring, and subsequently of yet another 

 by Daniel Asbury and Dr. Hall, which was known as 

 the great Union Camp-meeting, at Shepherd's Cross 

 Roads, in Iredell county. The manifest blessing of 

 God upon these meetings, resulting in the conversion 

 of hundreds of souls, gave them great favor with both 

 the Presbyterians and Methodists, and caused them 

 to be kept up continuously in the South Carolina Con- 

 ference. The camp-ground established for the whole 

 circuit was changed in 1815 from Bethel to Robey's 

 Church (Friendship), and in 1828 to the Rock Spring, 

 where such meetings continue to be held to this day. 

 John McGee, whose name is associated with the 

 origin of camp-meetings in the West, was born on the 

 Yadkin River below Salisbury, in North Carolina, and 

 in the upper part of the Little Pedee and Anson cir- 

 cuits in the South Carolina Conference, and entered the 

 traveling connection in 1788. He was associated with 

 Daniel Asbury in the work in 1789, placed in charge of 

 the Lincoln Circuit in 1792, and located in 1793, and 

 remained in a section of country where camp-meetings 

 had become well known and popular until 1798, when 

 he removed and settled in Sumner county, in Tennes- 

 see. It was a great service rendered the Church at 

 large when he transferred these meetings from the Ca- 

 tawba River to the banks of the Red River, in Ken- 

 tucky, and the Cumberland River, in Tennessee, and 

 five years after their origin made known practically 

 to the Western country an instrumentality by which, 



