We had but seven conferences at that time. The Western Conference included all the vast tract of country lying west of the Alleghanies as far as it was settled with whites, with the exception of Monongahela District, which belonged to Baltimore Conference. It was a field that was widening and expanding every day. The conference met on October 1 at Liberty Hill, Tenn., at Rev. Green Hill’s. He was a local preacher, had emigrated from North Carolina, where Bishop Asbury had been well acquainted with him. A conference was held at his house in North Carolina as early as 1785, and Dr. Coke and Asbury were both there. Another conference was held there in 1792, at which Bishop Asbury presided. He and his family emigrated to Tennessee when all was a wilderness, and they had to make their way through a cane-brake to the place where their house was located. Liberty Hill was twelve miles west of Nashville, and Nashville was then but a very small village. This was the first conference I attended with Bishop Asbury as his aid, and all I saw and heard were full of interest. It was the first conference William M’Kendree attended as bishop. I saw him when he filled the episcopal chair for the first time, and so I did Bishop Whatcoat. M’Kendree had left Baltimore at the close of the General Conference and gone West by the most direct route. He was one of the fathers of the Western Conference, where his influence was unbounded. The preachers gave the new bishop as well as the old one a hearty welcome. There was a camp-meeting connected with the conference, and the preachers ate and slept in their tents. There were eighty ministers present, and there had been an increase of twenty-five hundred members during the year. It was a most pleasant conference, and the discussions were interesting. There were noble men belonging to the conference: Learner Blackman, William Burke, John Sale, Jacob Young, and James Ward. These were the presiding elders, and they were on districts that were large enough for conferences. There were present also Jesse Walker, the pioneer of Missouri. He was a young man then, only six years in the ministry. Samuel Parker, the Cicero of the West. He was a deacon. Peter Cartwright, young, strong, courageous; but he had not graduated to elders’ orders. Twelve were admitted on trial, six ordained deacons, and ten elders, among whom was the eccentric James Axley. The names of the districts now appear strange: Ohio District, John Sale, Presiding Elder; Kentucky District, William Burke; Mississippi District, Jacob Young. Some of the appointments also sound still more strangely to our ears: Illinois, John Clingan; Missouri, Jesse Walker. What a foundation they were laying for the opening future! Noble, self-sacrificing men as earth ever saw or the Church was ever blessed with were these pioneers of the West. With a single exception, I believe they are now passed away. “Our fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live forever?”