Timothy Goodwin was a circuit rider for the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Goodwin was born 2nd April, 1792, in Epsom, New Hampshire. As a child, he moved with his parents to St. Albans, Vermont. In 1811, he married Mary Clark, in St. Albans. He studied Medicine at Dartmouth Medical College, receiving a degree in 1813. About the same time, he converted to Methodism, joining the Methodist Episcopal Church.[1]
In 1818, he was received on trial as a circuit rider by the Genesee Conference, and assigned to the Malone circuit. The Malone circuit had never previously been visited by a Methodist circuit rider. In 1815, and again in 1816, he was assigned to the Chazy circuit. In 1817, he was assigned to the Georgia circuit, in New York. In 1818, he was assigned to the St. Lawrence circuit.[1] In 1818, membership in the Episcopal church increased by 42 people on the St. Lawrence circuit.[2] He remained on the St. Lawrence circuit in 1819, and was joined by Thomas Demorest.[3] The pair oversaw a membership increase of seventeen.[4]
In 1821, he returned to the United States, riding the Guilford circuit, where his proslytising lead to the conversion of more than three hundred people. In 1822, he was assigned to the Pompey circuit. His wife became seriously ill, and he quit circuit riding to care for her. He was made a local preacher. He took up medicine, working as a doctor in Washingtonville, New York from 1824 until 1835. During this time, his wife died.[5]
Goodwin remarried in November 1835, and resumed circuit riding the following year, being accepted into the Erie conference. In 1836 he rode the Jamestown circuit, followed by the Forestville circuit in '37 and '38, Painsville in '39 and '40, Cuyahoga Falls in '41 and '42, Akron in '43, Erie in '44 and '45, and Erie Street in Cleveland in '46.[5]
In 1853, he was superannuated, owing to poor health. That winter, he was struck by serious illness, and died 20th March, 1854.[5]
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.