Nathaniel Reeder was a Methodist circuit rider.
Reeder was born on 11th April, 1789 in Wilksbury, Pennsylvania. His father was a soldier in the American Revolution, who spent only 36 hours at the family home until the conclusion of the war. He was raised a Calvinist.[1] In Wilksbury he converted to Methodism, and began working as an exhorter and local preacher.[2]
In 1813, he was accepted on trial as a circuit rider by a Methodist annual conference of the Susquehanna District.[3] He was assigned to the Shumokin Circuit in his first year. In 1814, he rode the Chenango Circuit, which he rode alongside the more experienced preacher Ralph Lanning. In 1815 he volunteered for assignment to the Canadas, and was sent to the Ottawa Circuit.[4] The Circuit had one hundred fifty three members in the Methodist church at the end of the year, while at the start of the year no church hierarchy had been in place in the Ottawa Valley.[5] This was followed in 1816 with an assignment to the Smith's Creek Circuit, which streched from Whitby to Belleville.[6] Reeder's year on the Smith's Creek Circuit was very successful, with membership in the church increasing from ninety-two to two hundred ten individuals. That year he founded Whitby's first Methodist class, with eight individuals.[7]
In 1818, Reeder was assigned to the Cornwall circuit. There he laboured alone, with two missionaries of the Methodist Church of Great Britain competing with his proselytising. The Methodist Episcopal Church saw an increase of four members on the Cornwall circuit that year.[1] He was appointed to the Osewego circuit in 1819, the Black River circuit in 1820, and the Lake circuit in 1821. Subsequent to that, he retired from circuit riding, but he returned to it in 1824, riding the Chetanque circuit, and the North-East circuit in 1825. In 1826 and 1827, he was assigned to the Erie circuit, in 1828 to the Hartford circuit in Ohio. He again retired in 1829.[8]
He married Orra Colt, of New Haven, New York, on 9th March, 1820, showing symptoms of Cholera.[2]
He died 10th August, 1838, in Canaan, Ohio.[1]
Notes
editReferences
edit- Carroll, John (1869). Case and his cotemporaries, or, The Canadian itinerants' memorial constituting a biographical history of Methodism in Canada, from its introduction into the Province, till the death of the Rev. Wm. Case in 1855. Vol. II. Toronto: Wesleyan Conference Office.