Jessamine-Fayette-Mercer County KyArchives Biographies.....Metcalf, John 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com August 6, 2007, 1:26 pm

Author: Bennett H. Young

Rev. John Metcalf.

   To Rev. John Metcalf belongs the honor of laying off the county seat of
Jessamine, and also of naming the town. He was a native of Southampton county,
Virginia, and came to Kentucky in the spring of 1790, bringing with him not only
his credentials as a minister, but also a heart full of love to God. Bethel
Academy was established in 1790, and was opened for the reception of pupils in
January, 1794. It was the second institution of learning ever established by the
Methodist church in the United States, the one at Cokesburg being the first. The
labors of Mr. Metcalf were confined largely to Jessamine county. He traveled a
few circuits in Fayette and Mercer, but his life work was connected with
Jessamine. He took charge of Bethel Academy at the request of Bishop Asbury. He
began his work as founder and continued his labors there as the principal of
this school in the "wilderness." He infused his own earnest and enthusiastic
spirit into the institution. He labored under tremendous disadvantages in his
work, but he overcame most of them, and brought success where other men would
have had only failure.

   He was the first Methodist minister who ever preached a sermon in Lexington.
Pastoral work in those days was done under great difficulties, traveling on
horseback through the traces with no well-defined roads, and hunting up the
pioneers in their cabins, and far removed from neighbors in their loneliness and
their surrounding dangers, this man of God was ever ready to discharge his
duties. He was compelled to ride through the canebrakes and woods and pathless
forests, but he had the spirit of his Master, and he never faltered in the work
which the Head of the Church had given him to do. In his studies, in his
pastoral work and at the head of the school, he found enough in those days to
occupy the heart and hands of any man. Plain, practical and earnest, he
attracted attention and won hearts, and he generally drew large crowds of
people, who were glad to hear him. He was largely instrumental in building up
the Methodist church in Jessamine county. He was born in 1758 and died at his
home in Nicholasville, in 1820, having reached his 61st year. It was through his
labors that the white frame Methodist church, was first erected in
Nicholasville, in 1799.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

A HISTORY OF JESSAMINE COUNTY, KENTUCKY,
FROM ITS EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO 1898.
By BENNETT H. YOUNG,
PRESIDENT POLYTECHNIC SOCIETY; MEMBER FILSON CLUB; MEMBER CONSTITUTIONAL
CONVENTION, 1890; AUTHOR HISTORY OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF KENTUCKY, OF "BATTLE OF
BLUE LICKS, ETC, ETC.

S. M. DUNCAN, ASSOCIATE AUTHOR.

Every brave and good life out of the past is a treasure which cannot  be
measured in money, and should be preserved with faithfullest care.

LOUISVILLE, KY.: COURIER-JOURNAL JOB PRINTING CO., 1898.


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