1. MEMOIRS SEARCHED. The memoirs of all Deceased Members published in the annual Journals of each of the
Conferences have been read and pertinent data has been included in these records. This is the source of the dates for the
life span and for the given names of many of the ministers.
2. CONFERENCE JOURNALS MAJOR PRIMARY SOURCE. The Appointment Lists and the Disciplinary Questions
published annually in each of the Conferences are the sources for this information. To make confirmation of this data a
researcher will need to go to a file of the Journals for the Conference indicated in the record and for the dates cited.
3. PASTORAL TENURE IN THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. The numerous Appointments of the ministers of the
Pittsburgh and Erie Conferences during the nineteenth century are accounted for by the limitation on ministerial tenure in one
appointment that prevailed in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Until 1864 the allowable period in an appointment was two years.
This was increased to three years from 1864 to 1888 and to five years from 1888 to 1900 when the limitation was removed.
4. METHODIST EPISCOPAL ERIE CONFERENCE MINISTERIAL RECORDS. The Erie Conference Ministerial
Records have been published eight times in 1866, 1870, 1898, 1911, 1927, 1936, 1957 and 1961, the record being updated
with each publication. For this publication all former Erie Conference records have been updated to 1968 and the entire
list has been re-typed with the dating made consecutive, and life spans and given names added where they were obtainable
from the memoirs.
In the case of transfers of ministers to or from Erie Conference in many cases the Appointments in the other Conferences
are given. The Secretaries of the Conference who compiled the lists derived this information from a file of The General
Minutes.
5. METHODIST EPISCOPAL PITTSBURGH CONFERENCE AND METHODIST MINISTERIAL RECORDS. This is
the first publication of the total roll of the Pittsburgh Conference. Reynolds’s Manual of the Pittsburgh Conference
contains the appointment record of the ministers living in 1889 and 1927. It also contains the Classes of ministers admitted
to the Conference year by year from 1825 to 1927 and a listing of the appointments made by the Conference for the entire
period 1825 to 1927. It was an indispensable resource in compiling these records.
The records of the charter Members of the original Conference of 1825 are traced back to the beginning of their ministry
using the records of The General Minutes.
In most instances the Appointments of ministers who transferred into or out of the Pittsburgh Conference are only given while they
were in the Pittsburgh Conference. Conference Relations are given for other Conferences as far as they were available.
6. METHODIST EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE RELATIONS. The Pittsburgh and Erie Methodist Episcopal Conferences
had two levels of Conference Membership and two levels of ordination. In the earlier years a candidate for the ministry
would be admitted on trial, assigned to the first year in the Course of Study, and placed in an appointment. At the
satisfactory completion of the first two years of the four-year Course of Study, with satisfactory reports on their ministry
by the Presiding Elder, clergy would be admitted into full connection in the Conference and be ordained Deacon. At the
completion of the full Course of Study clergy would be ordained Elder. This procedure was modified in the twentieth
century as increasingly higher levels of academic training were required.
The names following the dates of ordinations in these records are the names of the Bishops who ordained the candidates.
7. TERMINATION OF CONFERENCE MEMBERSHIP. Once someone was admitted on trial in any Methodist Annual
Conference, the Conference was responsible for their employment in the annual appointments. Clergy could be
discontinued from being "on trial". When clergy attained "full membership": status, their Conference Relation could be
terminated in any of the following ways:
A. By Transfer to another annual conference (and later to another denomination).
B. By Voluntary Location. This meant the surrender of conference Membership at their own request.
C. By Involuntary Location. This meant dismissal from the ministry by Conference action.
D. By Withdrawal. This meant surrendering the Methodist ministry, sometimes to enter another denomination, usually
to its ministry (but later meant giving up their entire ministry).
E. By Expulsion. This was Conference action stripping someone of their ministerial credentials and their membership in
the Methodist Church.
F. By Death.
8. THE METHODIST PROTESTANT RECORDS. This was a difficult list to compile. The Conference never published
anything on ministerial records. The name "Methodist Protestant" in the Conference Relations section of the record
identifies these persons. A special research group, headed by Norman Carlisle Young compiled these records by a careful
reading of the Journals and appointment lists from 1828 to 1939.
All men are listed as "ministers" who served one or more appointments in the Methodist Protestant Conference whether they
achieved membership in the conference or not.
9. USE OF THE TERMS "SUPERNUMERARY" AND "SUPERANNUATED."
A. Someone could be granted the supernumerary relationship, and be left without appointment for impaired health or
other legitimate reasons without surrendering their ministry in the conference for a period of several years. When someone
took this relation it is entered in the list of their appointments in these records.
B. "Superannuated" = "Retired". This is a relationship granted by the Conference in which the Conference is released
from the requirement to give the clergy an appointment. In these records it is entered only in the Conference Relations,
UNLESS someone took one or more appointments after retirement, in which case it is entered in the proper place in the record
of appointments.
10. THE SUPPLY MINISTRY. Since the Conference is not under mandate to account for the appointment of Supply Ministers,
the Conference Records on these useful servants of the Church are incomplete. There were few Supply Pastors in the Methodist
ministry during the nineteenth century when the Course of Study route into conference membership was open. With the rising
ministerial education requirements of the twentieth century, the number of Supply Pastors in Pittsburgh and Erie Conferences
increased greatly.
The only Supply Pastors included in these records are the following groups:
A. All that were on the conference roll of appointments in 1968.
B. The retired Supply Pastors on the conference roll in 1968.
C. The Methodist Protestant ministers who never achieved conference membership.
D. The Supply years of those who went on to become Conference Members are accounted for.
Wallace Guy Smeltzer
The information on this page is from:
Pastoral Records, Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church
1784-2017
Compiled and Edited by Rev. Norman Carlysle Young, M.Div.; M.Ed.
and Naomi Kathleen Ivey Horner
Commission on Archives & History July 1, 2017
Copyright © 2017 by The Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference of
The United Methodist Church
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