Authors, Evangelists, Missionaries, Preachers, Wood engravings, Wesley, John, 1703-1791
Print of a John De Pol wood engraving of John Wesley. This print is from a limited edition collection of six prints commissioned by Lycoming College. Wesley Hall, a residence hall on the Lycoming College campus, is named in his honor. John Wesley was originally a priest of the Church of England and a member of the group know as the Oxford Methodists. The group was organized for study and communion, and later became a philanthropic and evangelical group. He traveled to North America to do missionary work, settling in Georgia for a time, and then returning to England. He was affirmed as head of all Methodist congregations in 1744, and was a circuit preacher mostly in northern England and Ireland, and a prolific writer of histories, and biblical commentaries, as well as compiling an English dictionary and, with his brother, publishing twenty-three collections of hymns. As a preacher, he attracted large congregations of people, even when in his late seventies. He presided over the annual conferences at which the preachers were selected, and began 'ordaining' preachers to work in America. He is considered the father of American Methodism. 'John Wesley.' Historic World Leaders. Gale Research, 1994. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2006. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC.