Addison

HEDDING, Elijah

Vermont Historical Magazine, No. XI, October 1867, pp 104-105
(Author is the subject. Extracted from a section on the history of 
Starksboro, Addison County, Vermont. Edited.)

I [Elijah HEDDING] was born 07 June 1780 in Duchess County, New York. I was 
carried by my parents to the State of Vermont in 1791. On 27 December 1798 I 
was received as a probationer by the Methodist Episcopal Church; March 1800 
licensed to preach; 15 November 1800 called out by a presiding elder as a 
traveling preacher, and placed on the Plattsburgh circuit, which lay on the 
west side of Lake Champlain, part in the State of New York, and part in 
Canada. After laboring there a few weeks, I was removed to Cambridge 
circuit, which lay north and northeast of Troy, and part in the State of New 
York and part in Vermont. In June 1801 went to conference; was admitted on 
trial as a traveling preacher by the New York Conference 16 June 1801 in the 
city of New York, in John Street; the following year again traveled to 
Plattsburgh circuit; 1802 appointed to Fletcher circuit, which lay on the 
southeast side of Lake Champlain, part in Vermont and part in Canada; 1803 
ordained deacon by Bishop WHATCOAT at Cambridge, New York, and appointed to 
Bridgewater circuit New Hampshire; 1804 labored on Hanover circuit, New 
Hampshire; this year [1804] the east part of Vermont and the State of New 
Hampshire were set off by the General Conference, from the New York 
Conference to the New England Conference; consequently became a member of the 
New England Conference.

Summer 1805 attended the New England Conference for the first time, at Lynn, 
Massachusetts; ordained Elder by Bishop ASBURY; appointed to Barre circuit, 
Vermont; 1806 appointed to Vershire circuit, Vermont; 1807 and 1808 traveled 
New Hampshire district, which covered nearly all that state; 1809 and 1810 
labored on New London district, which embraced parts of Connecticut, Rhode 
Island, Massachusetts, and a small portion of New Hampshire; 1811 stationed 
in Boston; 1812 in Nantucket; 1813 and 1814 in Lynn; 1815 and 1816 in Boston, 
all stations in Massachusetts; 1817 appointed to Portland district, Maine, 
and my name so stands in the Minutes; but on account of want of health for 
the district, Bishop McKENDREE changed my appointment a few weeks after 
Conference, and I labored that year in the city of Portland; 1818 and 1819 
again stationed in Lynn; 1820 appointed to New London, a station in 
Connecticut; 1821 appointed to Boston district, Massachusetts, but for want 
of health remained on the district but one year; 1822 and 1823 again 
stationed in Boston; 1824 ordained Superintendent, at Baltimore, Maryland, by 
Bishops McKENDREE, GEORGE, and ROBERTS. Consequently, it is perceived, I am 
sixty-six years old; have labored six and a half years on circuits, five 
years on districts, twelve years in stations, and twenty-two years in the 
superintendency. - Elijah HEDDING, Auburn, New York, 31 July 1846.

From that date Bishop HEDDING lived about six years, and continued in the 
discharge of the duties of his office until December 1850, when he was 
attacked with acute disease, from which he but partially recovered. He 
[Bishop Elijah HEDDING] died 09 April 1852 in Poughkeepsie [Dutchess County], 
New York, in the seventy-second year of his age.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly