Rev. John Wrenshall
Rev. John Wrenshall, a great-great-grandfather of Mrs. Robert S. Hill, was the founder of Methodism in the city of Pittsburgh, Pa. He was ordained by Bishop Francis Asbury, on Saturday, September 10, 1803, under a tree in the grove surrounding the Hopewell meeting house, Jefferson County, Ohio. This was the first ordination among the Metliodists in the Northwestern Territory, now the State of Ohio. On the certificate Bishop Asbury wrote that it was the first ordination in the State of Ohio. After the close of the solemn ceremony he ordered John Wrenshall to open the new Hopewell Meeting House by preaching in it that evening and the newly ordained minister complied.
On the day following. Bishop Asbury preached at ten o'clock and then administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to a great concourse in the open air. Mrs. Hill preserves and treasures a copy of the certificate of ordination given to her kinsman. Rev. John Wrenshall. The original is preserved in the church archives, at Martin's Feriy, O.
20th Century History of Steubenville and Jefferson County, Ohio, by Joseph B. Doyle. Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., Chicago, 1910