BIO: Francis Gendall, Wyoming Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, PA & NY

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by 
Judy Banja & Denise Phillips

Copyright 2007.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
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Chaffee, Amasa Franklin. History of the Wyoming 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
New York: Eaton & Mains, 1904, pages 186-187.
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  GENDALL, FRANCIS, was born on January 28, 1845, in the village of 
Trigaminion, County of Cornwall, England.
  He was converted in the Wesleyan chapel, on the evening of Good 
Friday, 1862, in a revival conducted by Rev. William Booth, known now 
as General Booth, of the Salvation Army.  From early youth he was the 
subject of deep and lively religious impressions.  The ecstatic death 
of his oldest sister, a girl of thirteen, produced a profound 
impression upon him.  To these must be added the influence of his godly 
mother.  Shortly after his conversion he joined the Bible Christian 
Church, of which his mother was a member.  In about a year he became an 
exhorter, and shortly afterward a local preacher, on the St. Just 
Circuit, within which he lived, the family having moved within its 
bounds, at a place called Trewellard.  His call to the ministry was as 
clear and emphatic as his conversion.  He traveled sixteen miles on 
foot, walking both ways, to preach his first sermon.  During three 
years after receiving local preacher's license he worked during the 
week and preached on Sunday, reaching his appointments by foot, and the 
distances varied from little or nothing to twelve miles.  In February, 
1867, he was called to fill the unexpired year of Rev. W. Bird, the 
junior preacher on the Redruth and Camborne Circuit.  In the following 
May he was examined as a candidate for the ministry and appointed as 
junior preacher to Helston, in Cornwall, a circuit fifty miles in 
circumference, and having thirteen chapels.  In 1868 he was appointed, 
as one of the junior preachers, to the Scilly Isles Mission (a group of 
small islands thirty miles for Land's End, England).  Here he labored 
two years, when he was sent as junior preacher to the Truro Circuit.  
In the spring of 1871 severe bronchial affection compelled him to 
resign his work.  He accordingly returned to his home at Trewellard.
  On May 20, 1871, he married Miss Grace Bolitho White, of Pendeen, 
Cornwall, England, and in June came to America, settling in Plymouth, 
Pa., where he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, taking rank as 
local preacher on his credentials.  The following spring he moved to 
Kingston.  His vocal powers returned so that he usually preached once, 
and frequently twice, on Sunday, as opportunity offered.  In 1873 he 
accepted work at Beach Lake, as supply, and in the following year was 
admitted to the Conference.
  He secured eight years' work in the schools in England, covering the 
English branches, some history, theology, and English literature, and 
continued to be a hard student after entering the Conference.
  After an illness of five weeks he died at Peckville, on August 26, 
1902, and was buried in the cemetery of that place.  His wife, three 
sons and five daughters survive him - Richard, Frank, Bert, Anna, Lena, 
Sadie, Nellie, and Ruth.
  His pastoral record is as follows:  1874=75, South Canaan; 1876-78, 
Waymart; 1879-80, Peckville; 1881-83, Newton; 1884, Nanticoke; 1885-87, 
Waverly and Clark's Green; 1888-89, Dallas; 1890-92, Schenevus, 1893-
97, Jermyn; 1898, Plains; 1899, Taylor; 1900-02, Peckville.