Jesse Lee and Our Beginnings

At a glance: Tilghman Methodist Church began in 1784, when the circuit-riding Methodist preacher Jesse Lee, then 26, rode to Tilghman’s Island on horseback and preached to four farming families. Lee went on to become one of the leading pioneers of American Methodism, its first historian, and Chaplain of both the U.S. House and Senate.

“1784 I preached at Tilghman’s”

In the book The Garden of Methodism (1948), Reverend Ernest C. Hallman refers to the journal of Jesse Lee, in which Lee writes: “1784 I preached at Tilghman’s. There was a gracious move among the people. I preached in a new meeting house to a large company.”

Who was Jesse Lee?

  • A circuit-riding Methodist preacher who preached all over the Delmarva Peninsula, as far south as North Carolina and as far north as Maine.
  • One of the leading pioneers of the Methodist Church during the first 40 years of the nation’s history, and the first Methodist historian, who wrote many books about the Methodist Church.
  • Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives (1809–1814) and the U.S. Senate (1814–1815).
  • He died in 1816 at the age of 58 and is buried in the “Garden of Bishops” at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Baltimore. In 1909, William H. Meredith wrote Jesse Lee, A Methodist Apostle.

From homes to a church

  • 1784: Jesse Lee preaches to four farming families on Tilghman’s Island.
  • Until 1845: services are held in homes. In 1845 Louisa and James Seth deed land near the village of Fairbanks, where the first church is built, with an open-air building for summer services and camp meetings.
  • 1879–1882: more land is donated and a small church is built at the current site in the village of Avalon.
  • 1913: the congregation builds the current church, and Rev. Ivanhoe Willis becomes the first full-time pastor.
  • 1964: Abe and Lena Kronsberg donate the land for Kronsberg Park, used for outdoor services and church picnics.
  • 1784 to 2018: more than 200 circuit-riding and full-time pastors serve Tilghman Methodist Church.

Today the church still worships every Sunday at 10:00 AM at 5731 Tilghman Island Road. Plan your visit.

More of our history: Our History · People · Stained Glass Windows · Virtual Museum · Jesse Lee and Our Beginnings