VA-UM43 Bishop William McKendree

Marker text: BISHOP WILLIAM McKENDREE

William McKendree was born in King William County in 1757. He soon moved with his family to present-day Greensville County, and later served in the Revolutionary War. In 1786, the county licensed him to keep a tavern at his house (12 miles south). The next year, transformed by the Second Great Awakening, McKendree entered the Methodist ministry as a circuit rider. In 1790, Francis Asbury ordained him Deacon. McKendree became presiding elder in the Western Conference extending from western Virginia to Illinois in 1800. In 1808, he became the first native-born American elected Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal (now United Methodist) Church. He died on 5 March 1835.

Department of Historic Resources, 1995