Bishop William McKendree

McKendree was the organizer behind the sermons. In 1800 he became the Methodist church's Western District field marshal, setting up circuits and recruiting preachers for the frontier, and one historian calls him the superintendent who most shaped Tennessee Methodism. Francis Asbury visited Tennessee seventeen times between 1788 and 1815, but McKendree was the one who settled there. His last sermon was preached in Nashville in November 1834 at the dedication of the church now called McKendree Methodist. He died the next year and was first buried in Sumner County.

What the plaque says

Bishop William McKendree One and eight-tenths miles west of here was the home of Bishop William McKendree, who was born in King William County, Virginia. During the American Revolution. he served as Adjutant in the commissary department supplying the armies of Generals George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau. Present at Yorktown in 1781. McKendree witnessed Cornwallis' surrender. Nine years later, he was ordained a deacon and subsequently "set apart to the office of an Elder" by Bishop Francis Asbury. Reverse: At Baltimore, Maryland, McKendree was elected the first American born bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1808. Two years later. he moved here with his father and other family members. Near here, Bishops McKendree and Asbury presided over the formation of the Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1812. Before reinterment at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Bishop McKendree's body was buried locally in the McKendree family cemetery.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wynnewood State Historic Site — 16 mi
  A National Historic Landmark log inn at the Bledsoe's Lick springs, beside a Mississippian mound center and tied to the domestic slave trade.
• Andrew Jackson's Hermitage — 25 mi
  Andrew Jackson's cotton plantation east of Nashville, where visitors can walk to the quarters, Alfred's Cabin and the Enslaved Cemetery as well as the mansion.

More markers nearby

• Fountain Head — 0.8 mi
• Richland — 1.4 mi
• Zollicoffer's Headquarters — 2.0 mi
• Parker's Chapel "Old Taylor Field" — 2.1 mi