Another noted man in
the history of this settlement was Daniel Freeman. He had lived during
the war in New Jersey, remaining loyal to England, though not taking
part in actual hostilities.
Always of a deeply
religious nature he was created by the Methodist Episcopal Church of the
United States, first an exhorter, next a licentiate, and finally a
regularly appointed minister. It may be remarked that he is credited
with having preached the first evangelical sermon ever delivered in the
city of Detroit.
However, in the year
1798 he came to Long Point country, and became the founder of the first
Methodist society in this district.
The Government granted
him lot 24 of the 4th concession of Charlotteville, and there he
established his new home.
As soon as he was
settled he set earnestly to work to organize class meetings, which have
always been the distinctive mark of the Methodist Church.
His work prospered, The
people of the little colony came willingly to hear him, and in the third
year of the century the settlers decided that a regular meeting-house or
chapel was necessary, and they immediately proceeded to erect the first
Methodist church in the county.
It was situated in
Woodhouse township and is called the Woodhouse Methodist Church. It was
a log church, forty feet long and thirty-four feet wide, and about
fifteen high. The church was quickly completed, and never did the
Methodist people of any part of the world worship God in truer sincerity
under gilded dome, than did the congregation of half a hundred in that
little log meeting-house in the centre of the forest.
No doubt the silent
grandeur of the lofty beech and maple, the oak and walnut trees, with
their branches spreading like the cedars of Lebanon, the green sward
stretching like folds of the richest velvet among the trees, the blue
sky and the singing birds, and all the beauties of nature surrounding
their little chapel would awaken in their minds feelings of veneration
and reverence for the great God who has measured the waters in the
hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended
the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance. The minds of the earlier settlers, trained
by habit to meditation in the forest, naturally found this a fit place
for contemplation and worship.
The second church was a
frame building (1818); the third a handsome brick structure, which now
stands on the identical site of the first church in the Long Point
district. |