Christianity on the Early American Frontier: Christian History Timeline
Keith J. Hardman is professor of philosophy and religion at Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pennsylvania. He is author of Charles Grandison Finney: 1792–1875 (Syracuse, 1987) and a member of the Christian History advisory board.
January 1, 1995
American Religion
1771-1799 Preparation 1776 Methodists number 4,921 1784 Baptists number 35,101; Francis Asbury ordained as America’s first Methodist bishop 1790s First Methodist awakenings in North, West, and South 1798 James McGready begins revivals in Logan County, Kentucky; Bishop Asbury begins annual circuits from Maine to Georgia and along the Western frontier 1799 McGee brothers inspire revivals in Kentucky 1800-1835 "Second Great Awakening" 1800 Revivals in Gaspar River and Mud River, Kentucky 1801 Cane Ridge, Kentucky, revival under Barton Stone 1802 Revival at Yale under Timothy Dwight; collegiate awakenings throughout East 1804 Shakers send missionaries to frontier 1810 Founding of American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, America’s first foreign missions society 1816 American Bible Society formed 1817 American Sunday School Union begun 1825 Charles Finney begins seven years of intense evangelism in the Northeast 1826 American Tract Society and American Home Missionary Society begun 1828 Lane Seminary founded in frontier Cincinnati to provide clergy for the West 1830-1850 Fragmentation 1830 Finney’s greatest revival, at Rochester, New York; Joseph Smith founds Mormons 1833 Founding of Oberlin College, abolitionist stronghold 1835 Lyman Beecher’s “A Plea for the West” calls for Christian civilization of the West 1837 Presbyterian Church split into Old and New School branches over various issues, including revivalism 1838 Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Divinity School Address” outlines Transcendentalism 1844 YMCA founded; Methodist church splits over slavery 1845 Baptists split over slavery 1847 Mormon migration to Utah 1848 The Fox sisters begin the Spiritist movement, which sweeps America 1850 Membership in Protestant denominations soars to 3.5 million 1855 Dwight L. Moody converted at age 18; Methodists claim 1,577,014 members, and Baptists 1,105,546 members 1857 China opened to missions 1857–1858 Prayer Meeting Revival or “Third Great Awakening”—estimated one million converted U.S. History
1771-1799 Preparation 1787 Constitutional Convention 1792 Washington reelected unanimously; Kentucky statehood; Whitney’s cotton gin invented 1794 Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason 1796 Tennessee statehood 1800-1835 "Second Great Awakening" 1801 Thomas Jefferson becomes third president 1803 Louisiana Purchase doubles size of the United States 1805–1806 Lewis and Clark expedition explores West 1807 First successful steamboat 1812–1814 War with England 1817–1818 Seminole wars 1820 Missouri Compromise 1822 Santa Fe Trail opens 1823 Monroe Doctrine 1825 Erie Canal opens 1830-1850 Fragmentation 1826–1846 Indians removed across the Mississippi 1828 Andrew Jackson elected president; Baltimore and Ohio Railroad begun 1831 The McCormick reaper 1833–1837 Financial panic and recession 1835 The Colt revolver 1836 Samuel F.B. Morse’s telegraph; Texas gains independence; Battle of the Alamo 1845 The phrase “manifest destiny” appears 1846–1848 Mexican-American War 1846 Irish potato famine 1848 Gold discovered in California 1852 Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin published 1857 Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court 1859 Darwin’s Origin of Species; first oil well, Copyright © 1995 by the author or Christianity Today International/Christian History magazine.
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