Bishop Matthew Simpson

Matthew Simpson, an eminent Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church, was born on June 21, 1811, in a log house that stood on the north corner of Market and Main Streets in Cadiz. He spent most of his youth in Cadiz, where he gained a thorough classical education, learned the trade of reedmaker, taught school, and began the study of medicine. In 1828 he attended a camp meeting held in a grove near the present Dickerson Church, 3½ miles southeast of Cadiz, and was moved to become active in church work. Later he gave up his medical career and entered the ministry, preaching his first halting sermon in a small frame church on Buffalo Street in the village. After leaving Cadiz, he served as President of Indiana Asbury (De Pauw) University from 1839 to 1848. In 1852 he was elected a Bishop of the Methodist Church. In later years he became a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, urged the President to prepare and issue the Emancipation Proclamation, and in 1865 gave the oration at Lincoln's funeral in Springfield. Bishop Simpson died on June 18, 1884, and was buried in Philadelphia.

Cadiz, Ohio · United States