The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Hedding, Elijah

HEDDING, Elijah, American Methodist bishop: b. Dutchess County, N. Y., 7 June 1780; d. Poughkeepsie, N. Y., 9 April 1852. At 19 he entered the Methodist ministry, and was appointed successor of Lorenzo Dow. He extended his travels to Canada, and preached the Gospel in various parts. He became a member of the New York annual conference in 1801, and was made a bishop in 1824. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Zion's Herald at Boston, the first journal published by the Methodist Church in the United States. Consult the ‘Life’ by D. W. Clark (1855).