It was on this date in 1835 that William McKendree, the first American-born bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church (forerunner of today's United Methodist Church), died in Sumner County, Tennessee.
He was born in King William County, Virginia, the son of John and Mary McKendree. He served in the Virginia militia during the American Revolutionary War. He preached in circuits in Virginia and South Carolina and the Baltimore Conference. In 1796 he was appointed Presiding Elder (now District Superintendent). The General Conference of the church elected him bishop in 1808. He travelled over 1,500 miles on horseback in the company of Francis Asbury or alone. McKendree was initially buried in a family burial ground in Sumner County, but in October 1876 his remains were reinterred to the grounds of the recently founded Vanderbilt University.
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