The Journals & Notebook of
 Nathan Bangs 1805-1806, 1817

 

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John Carroll on Henry Ryan and William Case and Itinerants
Carroll Case and His Cotemporaries 111-113

[...] Last of all comes Mr. Case's own Circuit, the Bay of Quinte, traversed both by himself and his laborious colleague each once in four weeks. It included all the "First Ten Towns," as they were for a long time called—"The first," "second," "third," "fourth," "fifth," "sixth," and so on, on both sides of the Bay, excepting Sidney aad [sic] Thurlow, which were the "eighth" and "ninth;" or otherwise—Kingston, Fredericksburgh, Adolphustown, Marysburg, Hallowell, Sophiasburgh, Hillier, and perhaps part of Ameliasburg, the north side of which was supplied from the other side of the Bay, the preachers crossing in a canoe,—eight town ships, at least; and perhaps, also, parts of Pittsburg, Louborough, Richmond, and Portland. This field was not so wide as some others, but it was more densely settled than most, and the preaching places were probably more numerous. This ground contained within it many of the most respectable of the early Methodist families of the Province, whose names ought not be allowed to perish from our history: such as the Clarkes, and Perrys, and Nevilles, and Switzers, and Shoreys, and Maddens, and Prindles, and Vandusens, and Hawleys, and Sills, and Gilberts, and Dorlands, and Bogerts, and Petersons, and Hoovers, and Duglands, and Fergusons, and Dulmages, and scores of others, nature's noblemen, who by grace were made to be of "the excellent of the earth."

3. Among the people in general, especially the young people, Case "took" at once, on account of his youth and beauty, his amiable spirit and winning manners, but especially his powers of song, in which he excelled, and which he made to subserve the great object of his ministry. He was wont then, and for many years after, when he finished his sermon, which was always persuasive, to break out in one of his melodious strains, by which he first spell bound and then melted his auditors. Next, he would pass around the room, shaking hands and speaking a word to each, perhaps throwing his arms around the necks of the young men, and entreating them with tears to give their hearts to God. There was no society in the town of Kingston, and its inhabitants were very irreligious. The market house was the only chapel of the Methodists. Case and his colleague [Ryan] made a bold push to arouse the people. Sometimes they went together. Ryan was a powerful singer, too, with a voice less sweet but stronger. They would ride into town, put their horses at an inn, lock arms, and go singing down the street a stirring ode beginning with

"Come let us march to Zion's hill."

By the time they had reached the market place, they usually had collected a large assembly. When together, Ryan usually preached, and Case exhorted, for which he had a peculiar gift.[*] Ryan's stentorian voice resounded through the town, and was heard across the adjacent waters to the neighboring points of land. They suffered no particular opposition, excepting a little annoyance from the baser sort, who sometimes tried to trip them off the butcher's block which constituted their rostrum; set fire to their hair, and then blow out their candle if it were in the night season. This was accomplished one evening by a wicked sailor, who then sung out, "Come on, boys, and see the Devil dance on the butcher's block!" Such opposition the preachers regarded as trivial, and held on. An intelligent and respectable man, who years afterwards became converted, and was a leader and local preacher among the Methodists, in conversation with the author, dates his first convictions in boyhood from having heard the then youthful William Case preach from a butcher's block in the Kingston market.

* Ryan was the more senior of the two itinerants and preaching (with a biblical text) as opposed to exhorting (without a biblical text) was considered a higher form of "pulpit oratory."

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Edited by Scott McLaren
Book History Practicum
University of Toronto