Frye Joseph

Frye Joseph, a Methodist Episcopal minister of the Baltimore Conference, was born in Winchester Frederick County, Virginia, in 1786, of Lutheran parents; was converted under Methodist preaching, and began to exhort while young, and entered the itinerancy in 1809. He retired from the ministry in 1836, and died in Baltimore May 1845. Mr. Frye had remarkable powers as a preacher. Hundreds were converted through his preaching. The Reverend Alfred Griffith relates that on one occasion General Jackson (then President of the United States) heard Mr. Frye preach. "The tears ran down the President's face like a river; and, indeed, in this respect, he only showed himself like almost everybody around blue. When the service was closed, he moved up towards the altar with his usual air of dignity and earnestness, and requested an introduction to the preacher. Mr. Frye stepped down to receive the hand of the illustrious chief magistrate; but the general, instead of merely giving him his hand, threw his arms around his neck, and, in no measured terms of gratitude and admiration, thanked him for his excellent discourse" (Sprague, Annals, 7:472). — Minutes of Conferences, 4:8.