Moses Ashworth

Moses Ashworth (1783[1] – 1838) was an American Methodist minister known for being the first appointed preacher to have lived and died in Indiana.[2][3] He was first ordained as a preacher in 1805 by bishop Francis Asbury,[1][2] and was the organizer of the first Methodist circuit in the territory of Indiana.[4] He died in 1838 and was buried near Prairie Chapel.[3]

Life

Moses Vernon Ashworth was born in 1783 in Culpeper, Virginia.[5] He later moved with his parents to Tennessee. He married Eliza David-Kenkins in 1809 and they had at least eleven children.[5][6]: 884 

Ministerial work

Moses Ashworth began his ministry in the early 1800s along the Methodist frontier in the Ohio River region.[7] In 1807 he was assigned to the newly formed Silver Creek Circuit, the first full Methodist circuit in the Indiana Territory, where he rebuilt Robertson Chapel and helped organize societies that formed the foundation of early Methodist work in the region.[1][4] His year on this circuit concluded with a prominent camp meeting near Robertson Chapel, noted in early histories as one of the first major gatherings of its kind in Indiana.[8]

Following 1807, Ashworth continued to receive appointments in the region.[4] In 1808 he was transferred to the Holston District, and in 1809, after a three-month ministry in Holston, he married Eliza Davis-Jenkins (cousin of Jefferson Davis).[1] His name no longer appears in Western Conference minutes after 1809.[9][10]: 193  Johnson notes that, according to the rules laid out by Wesley and promoted by Asbury, Ashworth then became a "located preacher," formally severing his connection with the Western Conference.[1] In 1817 he was appointed at Lebanon, Tennessee, appearing in the Tennessee Conference in 1817 and 1818;[11] otherwise, from 1809 to 1829, he served locally in western Tennessee, balancing family responsibilities with his preaching.[1] After later settling in Posey County, Indiana, in 1829,[1] Ashworth continued to preach locally at congregations like Prairie, Farmer's, Greathouse and Black.[1][8] After his death in 1838, his remains were buried in a cemetery close to the Prairie Chapel in Black Township.[1][3][12]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Johnson, Deidré Duff (October 1923). Moses Ashworth, Pioneer of Indiana Methodism, and His Times. Proceedings of the Southwestern Indiana Historical Society. Vol. 18. pp. 94–118.
  2. 1 2 "M. E. Centennial Opens Tuesday". The Indianapolis Star. 18 October 1915. p. 7. Retrieved 19 November 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 Fritsche, C. G. (14 August 1903). "A Pioneer of Methodism". The Indianapolis Journal. p. 5. Retrieved 19 November 2025.
  4. 1 2 3 Sweet, William W. (1914). "Early Methodist Circuits in Indiana". Indiana Magazine of History. 10 (4): 359–368. ISSN 0019-6673. JSTOR 27785648.
  5. 1 2 "Memory of Noted Circuit Rider Will Be Honored". The Evansville Journal. 13 September 1925. p. 5. Retrieved 19 November 2025.
  6. ↑ Harshman, Charles William; Harshman, C. C.; Harshman, Mavourneen (1976). The Harshman, Hashman, Hershman, Hersman Family: A History and Genealogy. Vol. 2. Harshman. OCLC 1011960434.
  7. ↑ Sweet, William Warren (1916). Circuit-rider days in Indiana (PDF). Indianapolis: W. K. Stewart.
  8. 1 2 Holliday, Fernandez C. (1873). Indiana Methodism. Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Walden.
  9. ↑ Iglehart, John E. (1921-06-01). "Methodism In Southwestern Indiana (Continued)". Indiana Magazine of History. ISSN 1942-9711.
  10. ↑ Price, Richard Nye (1912). Holston Methodism: From Its Origin to the Present Time. Vol. 2. Publishing House of the M.E. Church, South, Smith & Lamar, agents.
  11. ↑ M'Ferrin, John Berry (1872). History of Methodism in Tennessee: 1804 to 1818. Nashville: A. H. Redford. Retrieved 19 November 2025.
  12. ↑ St. John, Jennifer (1 December 1989). Posey Co, IN. Turner Publishing Company. p. 200. ISBN 9781681624433. Moses Ashworth was buried near the Old Prairie Church in Black Township. The story is told that during the fifties when J. Kenneth Forbes was pastor, he went looking for the grave of Moses Ashworth. While unable to find the grave, he did locate the grave marker in a hog lot. The marker was transported to the campus of DePauw University where it now serves as a monument to our early Methodist circuit riders and itinerant pastors who laid the cornerstone of the church in this new frontier.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.