Resource Library

Robert Strawbridge

 1732 – Robert Strawbridge born in Drumsna, Ireland. 

1760 – Robert Strawbridge, 28, comes to America from Ireland, where he was an itinerant preacher. 

1761 – Strawbridge holds first class meeting. 

1762 – Strawbridge performs first Methodist baptism in America, baptizing 5-year-old Henry Maynard. 

1764 – Strawbridge builds a log meeting house about a mile from his home. 

1768 – The first class meetings begin at the home of John Evans, who was converted by Elizabeth Strawbridge. 

1773 – Strawbridge, as a layman, appointed to Baltimore circuit. 

1776-1781 – Strawbridge leads the church at the Log Meeting House on Sam’s Creek. 

1781 – On a preaching mission, at age 49, Strawbridge dies. 

1866 – Robert Strawbridge and his wife, Elizabeth reinterred in the Preacher’s Lot near the grave of Francis Asbury in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Baltimore. 

1916 – Ruthella Mory Bibbins, a member of Lovely Lane UMC, discovered site of the Strawbridge House. 

1937 – Strawbridge Shrine Association formed. 

Francis Asbury 

Aug. 20, 1745 – Francis Asbury born in Staffordshire, England. 

1763 – Converted to Methodism and became an itinerant preacher. 

Oct. 27, 1771 – Asbury lands in Philadelphia. In his journal, on the sea voyage, he wrote, "Whither am I going? To the New World. What to do? To gain honor? No, if I know my own heart. To get money? No; I am going to live to God and to bring others to do so." 

December 1784 – Ordained a Deacon, Elder and consecrated as a Bishop at the Christmas Conference in Baltimore.

During his ministry, Asbury was known as the “Prophet of the Long Road,” one of the denomination’s most fervent circuit riders. From his journals, we know that during his ministry he traveled 300,000 miles, delivered 16,500 sermons, prayed more than at least 80,000 public prayers, and ordained 4,000 preachers. 

March 24, 1816 – Asbury preached his last sermon. He died a week later as penniless as when he landed in Philadelphia 45 years before. His salary never topped $85 a year, most of which he gave away. 

After Asbury died in Virginia, his body was buried there. The 1816 General Conference ordered his remains moved to Baltimore, where it was reported that 20,000 people lined the funeral procession. He was re-interred at the Eutaw Street Church.

The 1852 General Conference authorized the transfer of Asbury’s remains to Mt. Olivet Cemetery, just southwest of Baltimore. It was at that spot that people gathered in the afternoon of April 3 to dedicate a new memorial to Asbury and the other bishops and pastors buried in what is now called “The Bishop’s Lot.”