Abel Stevens on Bangs's appointment as
presiding elder of the Rhinebeck district
Stevens Life and Times of Nathan Bangs 202-203
In this desultory way he [Bangs] passed
through the ecclesiastical year and returned to the
Conference, which began its session at Amenia, N.Y. May 5,
1813, where he was honored by his brethren with one of its
most important appointments, the presiding eldership of the
Rhinebeck district. It was a grand field for his energies,
extending from Rhinebeck through Dutchess county, and
through western Massachusetts to Pittsfield, and thence
through Connecticut to Long Island Sound. The territory of
this old district includes, in our day [1863], some half
dozen presiding elders' jurisdictions. It reported, at that
time, but three or four chapels and no parsonage whatsoever.
Dr. Bangs was then in the maturity of his manhood. His
preaching was powerful: his quarterly meetings and
camp-meetings were jubilatic [jubilant] occasions, crowded by multitudes
from many miles around. He traversed his great field with
tireless energy, and before he left it, was begun that
liberal provision of chapels and parsonages which has dotted
the whole region with Methodist edifices — a chapel and a
preacher's home in almost every village. The old Rhinebeck
district may now, in fine, be called the garden of
Methodism. He had under his command nearly a score of
powerful evangelists, who caught inspiration from his own
unflagging zeal. Among them were James M. Smith, Coles
Carpenter, Samuel Luckey, B.[illy] Hibbard, Aaron Hunt,
Elijah Woolsey, Marvin Richardson, Ebenezer Washburn, and
James Coleman. Some of them had been trained, like himself,
in the heroic itinerancy of Canada.[*] He not only labored
with his might for the spiritual advancement of the
societies, but incessantly endeavored to promote their
financial support, the improvement of their places of
worship, and the better arrangement of their circuit
appointments. In these respects he was a model presiding
elder.
* These included James Coleman
(1791-1800) and Samuel Luckey (1811-1813).