dual personalities

On this day in 1784 Charles Wesley chartered the Methodist Church in America. He believed he could not wait any longer for the Bishop of London to ordain someone for the American Methodists, who were without the sacraments after the American War of Independence. The Church of England had been disestablished in the United States and had not yet appointed a United States bishop for what would become the Protestant Episcopal Church in America. In a bold move Wesley ordained Thomas Coke by the laying on of hands although Coke was already a priest in the Church of England. Wesley appointed him to be superintendent of Methodists in the United States.

In a side note, Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT (founded in 1831) was the first institution of higher education to be named after John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. About 20 unrelated colleges and universities were subsequently named after Wesley. Several members of our family attended Wesleyan in the 19th century, including the brothers of our great-grandfather William Carnahan. He was thought too sickly to go to college and was sent instead to Colorado for his health.

He doesn’t look too fragile to me. Anyway, he met our great-grandmother Anna Barnsley Hough in Lake City.

Several years later they were married in Las Animas, Colorado, moving to Chicago thereafter. Their youngest child was our maternal grandmother.

None of them were Methodists, although you will remember that Anna’s uncle, the Colorado cattle baron, was named…John Wesley Prowers.

This is how my brain works.