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��THE GRANITE MONTHLY.
��he preached his first sermon in that city under the large elm tree on the common.
He was for three years the traveling companion of Bishop Asbury, whom he greatly assisted in his apostolic work. In 1S00 Lee and Whatcoat re- ceived a tie vote for the office of bish- op, but on a second ballot Richard Whatcoat was elected by a majority of two.
Lee was the first historian of the church, having published a history of Methodism in America in 1S09. From 1809 to 181 3 he was chaplain to the United States House of Representa- tives, and in 1814 chaplain to the Linked States Senate. During the intervals of Congress, and, indeed, at all times, he was diligently employed in Christian effort.
His last regular station was at Annap- olis, Md. He was regarded as a lead- ing minister of his church, and was conspicuously influential in the confer- ences of his day. Performing won- derful services in an heroic age, he gained, among his contemporaries, a rank second only to Asbury as an in- defatigable itinerant and a controlling power in the church.
Rev. Ezekiel Cooper was born in 'Caroline county, Md., February 22, 1763. Bishop Asbury placed him upon a circuit in 1 7S4. He was ad- mitted to conference in 1785. He- died in Philadelphia February 21, 1S47, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, having been sixty-four years in the gospel ministry, and, at the time of his death, the oldest member of any Methodist Conference in America.
In 1793 he was Presiding Elder of the Boston district. In 1 785 the en- tire territory of Long Island was his circuit.
He served with distinction and great fidelity in many important stations, namely, Trenton, Baltimore, Annapolis, Alexandria, Boston, New York, Brook- lyn, Philadelphia, and Wilmington. He was the editor and general agent of the Book Concern from 1 799 to 1804, and discharged his duties
��with marked ability. He located in 1. Si 3. but reentered the traveling min- istry, and was appointed in [820 to St. George's M. E. Church, Philadelphia. He became a supernumerary soon there- after, but continued to render efficient service as conference missionary, in visiting churches, superintending a dis- trict and other effective work. He ac- quired the title of a i( Walking Ency- clopedia," and was further compliment- ed by his associates in being called the "Lycurgus" of the church, in recog- nition of his profound wisdom, exten- sive knowledge and admirable discre- tion. As a powerful and eloquent preacher, and as an able, logical and versatile debater, he was conceded to have few, if any, superiors.
Rev. George Pickering was born in Talbot county, Maryland, in 1769. At the age or eighteen he was con- nected with the Methodist Church in Philadelphia, and early devoted him- self to the ministry, and commenced preaching. He entered the Itineracy in 1 790, and was appointed to the Caroline circuit ; in 1 792, to die Dover district in Delaware ; and, in response to a call by Jesse Lee for additional helpers, he entered New England in 1793, and was abundant 111 labors and effective to the last. He died at VVal- tham, Mass., after a service of more than fifty years, characterized by great fidelity, constancy and zeal. He was scrupulously precise and methodical, dignified, gentlemanly and reliable. In the performance of every duty he promptly and rigorously responded to every engagement. George Pickering was a remarkable man, and rendered great and effective services to the church as missionary, preacher, presid- ing elder, and delegate to the General Conference, of which, with the excep- tion of two meetings, he was an influ- ential member for forty years. For fifty-seven years he was effective as a preacher, being at no time supernu- merary or superannuated. He died the " oldest effective Methodist preacher in the world," Dec. 8, 1846, aged 77, at the Bemis mansion in Waltham,
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