esse Cowles, W. A. Cypress, J. A. Williams, J.
B. Small, B. J. Bolding, R. H. G. Dyson, D. H. Anderson, R. A. Fisher,
J. J. Clinton, and J. H. McMullen. Those who served the body in
Eighteenth Street were Rev. L. W. Kyles, W. A. Blackwell, P. H.
Williams, C. C. Alleyne, and Dr. William C. Brown. John Wesley Church
has had at different times six pastors, who later were elected to the
bishopric. These were Bishops Sampson Talbert, J. J. Clinton, J. P.
Thompson, S. T. Jones, J. B. Small and John Wesley Smith, all of whom
are deceased. Among the officers of the church may be mentioned
Gilbert L. Joy, who was made secretary of the Trustee Board in 1864,
and served thirty-two years in that capacity. He had the enviable
record of being a trustee of this church for forty-three years, a
longer period than that of any other person connected with it, and he
is still an active member.

The awakening of John Wesley A. M. E. Zion Church, characterized by
the selling of its property on Eighteenth Street to purchase at the
same time the edifice on Fourteenth and Corcoran Streets for $61,000,
is significant. It is the most important event in the history of Zion
Church in Washington. The Zion Church long needed a larger
representative edifice in this city. This advanced step was taken, and
under the leadership of Dr. W. C. Brown and Dr. W. O. Carrington the
progress of the congregation has been epochal.

The Galbraith African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was founded in
1859. That year five members of Zion Wesley, under the leadership of
Samuel Payne, withdrew and organized a church in a small house on L
Street between Third and Fourth Streets. They subsequently built a
house of worship near New York Avenue. Robert H. G. Dyson who had been
active as a class leader and chorister in Zion Wesley, became the
first pastor. It developed from its little frame church on L Street,
Northwest, into a larger congregation in the modern structure on its
present location, under N. J. Green, the pastor in charge. This church
has figured conspicuously in the religious, moral and civic uplift of
the city. It has been served by an array of prominent ministers, chief
among whom are J. Harvey Anderson, J. S. Coles, Wm. Chambers, J. B.
Colbert, H. P. Kyler, William Dixon, S. L. Corrothers, George C.
Clement, and William D. Battle. During Mr. Battle's administration the
church was relieved of its long-standing debt and the well begun work
was steadily deve