Smith, Eben

Smith, Eben, a Methodist Episcopal minister, was born in Lenox, Berkshire Co., Mass., July 18, 1774. His parents were religious persons, and members of the Baptist Church. He was converted at the age of thirteen years, was licensed to preach in 1801, began his itinerant labors in the Litchfield Circuit, Conn.

in November, 1803, was admitted on trial in the New York Conference in 1804, and appointed to Litchfield Circuit. He continued to fill appointments until 1819, when he was made presiding elder of the Hudson River District. In 1823 he was appointed presiding elder of the Saratoga. District; in 1826 without an appointment; six of the years between 1827 and 1840 he held an effective relation and received appointments; seven of these years he was a supernumerary; and from 1840 until his death, May 18, 1844, he was superannuated. Mr. Smith was a member of the General Conference in the years 1812, 1816, 1820, and 1824. He was a man of much zeal, diligence, and usefulness, and a great lover of Methodism. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 3, 473; Bangs, Hist. of the M.E. Church, 2, 305; 3, 33. (J.L.S.)