Bostwick, Shadrach

Bostwick, Shadrach, an early Methodist Episcopal minister, was born in Maryland, educated as a physician, and entered the itinerancy in 1791. For fourteen years he travelled extensively in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Ohio. In 1798-9 he was presiding elder on New London District, Conn. In 1803 he became the pioneer of Methodism on the Western Reserve, Ohio, then a wilderness, where his labors were of great and permanent value. In 1805 he located, and resumed the practice of medicine. The "intellectual and evangelical power of his sermons" gave him great popularity wherever he travelled. His piety was deep, and his bearing noble.-Minutes of Conferences, vol. i (appointments); Bangs, History of Methodism, ii, 80; Stevens, Memorials of Methodism, vol. i, ch. 26 ; Sprague, Annals, 7:200.