Bishop William McKendree (1757-1835)

William McKendree was born in King William Co., moved as a youth to present-day Greensville Co., and later served in the Revolutionary War. In 1786, the county licensed him to keep a tavern at his house. The next year, transformed by the Second Great Awakening, McKendree entered the Methodist ministry as a circuit rider. In 1790, Bishop Francis Asbury ordained him as a deacon. McKendree became presiding elder in the Western Conference, extending from western Virginia to Illinois, in 1800. He played a leading role in the westward expansion of Methodism. In 1808, he became the first native-born American elected bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a precursor of the United Methodist Church.