Ebenezer Hearn, Father of Alabama Methodism

On this spot, in the rough frontier settlement once called Bear Meat Cabin, organized religion took root in central Alabama. In April of eighteen eighteen, a young Methodist missionary named Ebenezer Hearn preached his first sermon here, just two blocks west of this marker. He was the first minister the Tennessee Conference assigned to the Alabama Territory.

Hearn became a tireless circuit rider, traveling on horseback to plant congregations across Shelby, Saint Clair, Jefferson, Tuscaloosa, and what is now Morgan County. He is credited with founding more Methodist churches than anyone else in the state, which earned him the title the Father of Methodism in Alabama. A circuit rider in those days received very little money and was bound to go wherever he was sent, without complaint. His churches still dot this country.