558 History of Methodism 



were also built, and served as residences of the teach 

 ers and as boarding-houses. About a hundred yard: 

 distant, at the foot of a hill, ran a bold spring of pure 

 cold water of sufficient volume to supply all the wants 

 of the resident population. 



The academy was built and sustained by annual 

 collections, in aid of which Bishop Asbury preached 

 sermons and sent out written appeals. The salary of 

 the rector (three hundred dollars) was pledged and 

 raised by the South Carolina Conference. Of this 

 monument of the bishop's zeal nothing scarcely re- 

 mains. All the buildings have been pulled down, 

 and the place much altered in its appearance, and the 

 traveler .who might now visit it would hardly conceive 

 its former glory and usefulness. Nothing now re- 

 mains to mark the spot except the chimneys of Father 

 Finch's house,' which yet stand as- solitary sentinels 

 over this classic ground. Near by is a large grave- 

 yard, in which many of the original settlers and some 

 of the students quietly sleep in death. Here, too, lie 

 in modest seclusion the mortal remains of the Rev. 

 John Harper. A rude stone some six or eight inches 

 above ground, bearing the letters "J. H.," marks his 

 grave. Mr. Harper was an Englishman, and came to 

 tins country with Dr. Coke and Mr. Brazier. He 

 had been for some time a preacher, and when he ar- 

 rived in America he entered the regular itinerant min- 

 istry. Bishop Asbury continued annually to visit 

 Mount Bethel Academy until the year 1815, when old 

 age and increasing infirmities contracted the field of 

 his labors. After years of prosperity and usefulness, 

 it began to decline, and finally ceased to exist about 

 the year 1820, when it was superseded by the "Tab- 

 ernacle Academy," made immortal as the scene of the 



