Church, in the private residence of Mrs. Heck, and in a
rigging-loft, sixty by eighteen feet, in William Street, which was
rented in 1767. Here Capt. Webb and Mr. Embury preached thrice a week
to large audiences. The original design to erect a chapel must be
credited to Mrs. Heck, the foundress of American Methodism. Mr.
Richard Owen, a convert of Robert Strawbridge, the founder of
Methodism in Baltimore, was the first native Methodist preacher on the
continent. The first American Annual Conference was held in
Philadelphia, Pa., twenty-nine years after Mr. Wesley held his first
conference in England, with ten members, precisely the same number
there were in his. They were Thos. Rankin, President; Richard
Boardman, Joseph Pilmoor, Francis Asbury, Richard Wright, George
Shadford, Thomas Webb, John King, Abraham Whiteworth, and Joseph
Yearbry. It began Wednesday the 14th and closed Friday the 16th of
July, 1773. All the members were foreigners, and in the Revolution
many of them were subject to unjust suspicions of sympathy with
England, in consequence of this fact alone. The aggregate statistical
returns for this conference showed 1,160, which was much less than Mr.
Rankin supposed to be the strength of Methodism in America.

On the 2d of September, 1784, Rev. Thomas Coke, D.D., LL.D., a
presbyter in the Church of England, was ordained by John Wesley, A.M.,
Superintendent or Bishop of the Methodist Societies in America. He was
charged with a commission to organize them into an Episcopal Church,
and to ordain Mr. Francis Asbury an Associate Bishop. He sailed for
America at 10 o'clock A.M., September 18th, and landed at New York,
Wednesday, November 3, 1784. Mr. Coke at once set out on a tour of
observation, accompanied by Harry Hosier, Mr. Asbury's travelling
servant, a Colored minister. Hosier was one of the notable characters
of that day. He was the first American Negro preacher of the M. E.
Church in the United States. In 1780 Mr. Asbury alluded to him as a
companion, suitable to preach to the Colored people. Dr. Rush,
allowing for his illiteracy--for he could not read--pronounced him the
greatest orator in America. He was small in stature and very black;
but he had eyes of remarkable brilliancy and keenness; and singular
readiness and aptness of speech. He travelled extensively with Asbury,
Coke, and Whiteworth. He afterward travelled through New England. He
excelled all the whites in popularity as a preacher; sharing