Note 21 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
Looking into the History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, by Rev. Dr. Bangs, Vol. 1, p. 253, we find the following under 1786.
“At the Conference in Virginia, a proposal was made for some preachers to volunteer their services for the State of Georgia, and several offered themselves for this new field of labor. Two of those who offered themselves, namely, Thomas Humphries and John Major, were accepted, and they went to work in the name of the Lord, and were made a blessing to many. They formed a circuit along settlements on the banks of the Savannah river, round by Little river, including the town of Washington. During the year they formed several societies, containing upwards of four hundred members—so greatly did God bless their labors.”
The preceding year (1785) Thomas Humphries was on Tar river circuit, N. C., and John Major on Mecklenburg circuit in Virginia. Very probably the emigration of Methodists from his circuit to Broad river in Georgia, drew him there.