[William McKendree]

[William McKendree]. Centenary Cameos: 1784–1884 by O. P. Fitzgerald.
Nashville, Tennessee: Southern Methodist Publishing House, 1885. Engraving. Reproduction. Stanley F. Horn Book Collection

William McKendree was born in Virginia in 1757. In 1810, his family moved to Sumner County, Tennessee. At the start of the American Revolution, McKendree joined a group of Tennessee volunteers. After leaving the army, he served as a school teacher. He joined the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1787 and worked as a minister. He was a circuit rider in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, and South Carolina. In 1801, he was sent to oversee the church of Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. After a number of years ministering in those areas, he was appointed bishop. William McKendree was the first Methodist bishop born in the United States.

In 1812, he, along with bishop Francis Asbury, organized the Tennessee Conference. Bishop McKendree never married. His brother, Dr, James McKendree, moved to Sumner County in Tennessee around 1810 and, when not traveling, stayed with his family at their home.

He died on March 5, 1835, in Sumner County, Tennessee. McKendree was initially buried in a family burial ground in Sumner County, but in October 1876, his remains were reinterred on the grounds of the recently founded Vanderbilt University.

McKendree’s legacy lies in his labors to establish Methodism across the growing country, where he was instrumental in shaping the religion’s rules and doctrine. His success in establishing new conferences over the Appalachian Mountains earned him the nickname of “The Father of Western Methodism.”