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Underground Railroad
Chronology
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1829: Wesley Union A.M.E. Church is Founded |
1829
Wesley Union AME church is founded in a log building at Third and Mulberry Streets by members of the African Church. It's membership rises to 115 within a year.
George H. Morgan's Annals
of Harrisburg, published in 1858, gives a short history of the church's
founding:
The congregation, at present, worship in a plain, but neat church,
at the corner of Tanner's alley and South street, to which they
removed November 24, 1839. Present pastor, Rev. James A. Jones;
residence, Tanner's alley. Preaching every Sabbath morning at 10
o'clock, 2½ P.M., and in the evening at 7½ o'clock.
Class-meetings on Monday and Friday evenings, and on Sunday at
noon. Lecture or discussion on Wednesday evening of each week. note 1 Wesley Union Church was established in 1829 by a group of persons who withdrew from Harrisburg's AME Society. The church they established affiliated with the AME and by 1830 had 115 members, a quarter of Harrisburg's African American community. note 2
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Notes: 1. George H. Morgan, Annals of Harrisburg (Harrisburg, PA, George H. Brooks, 1858, Repr. Bowie, MD, Heritage Books, 1994) p. 292. 2. Gerald G. Eggert, " 'Two Steps Forward, A Step-and-a-Half Back': Harrisburg's African American Community in the Nineteenth Century" in Pennsylvania History 58 (January 1991): 1-36, p. 4. Eggert cites Mary D. Houts, "Black Harrisburg's Resistance to Slavery," (Pennsylvania Heritage, 4 [December 1977]: 10) for Thomas Dorsey's school for African American children; Rev. Jeanne B. Williams to Eggert, July 5, 1989, for specific information regarding the formation of Wesley Union Church; Gerald G. Eggert, Harrisburg Industrializes: The Coming of Factories to an American Community (University Park, PA, 1993) p. 236, for population figures. |
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material on this page copyright 2003-2005 Afrolumens Project
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This page was updated January 10, 2004.