Seth Crowell was a Methodist circuit rider.
Crowell was born in Toland, Connecticut in 1781. His family moved to Chatham, Connecticut in 1783, where Crowell was raised. He converted to Methodism in 1797. He began exhorting at some point, then in 1801 was accepted on trial for the Methodist itinerary. He volunteered to be sent to Canada, and was assigned to the Niagara Circuit in 1801. In 1802 he was assigned to the Oswegotchie and Ottawa Circuit, but during the year some re-arrangements took place, and he spent some time around the Bay of Quinte. There, with his short stature and boyish looks he acquired the nickname Little Crowell.[1] In 1803 he was ordained a Deacon and made an Elder, then assigned to the Fletcher Circuit. In 1804, he was assigned to the Brandon Circuit. In 1805, he was assigned to the Albany Circuit, and in 1806 to the City of New York. He spent 1807 has a missionary in the New York Conference, and in 1808 he was stationed in Schenectday. In 1809 he was declared supernumerary, and the same the next year. He returned to work in 1811, as Presiding Elder of Chatham. He was moved to the Reading Circuit in 1812. Still in ill health, he was declared superannuated in 1813. He returned to work in 1816, however, as a missionary in the New York Conference. He spent 1817 and 1818 as a circuit rider in New York City, and was located there in 1819. He stayed then in New York City until his death on July 6, 1824.[2]
- ^ Carroll, John (1867). 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. I. Toronto: Wesleyan Conference Office. p. 61.
- ^ Carroll, Volume I, page 62