Third Episcopal District of the AME Church

The Development of the Third Episcopal District of the A.M.E. Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church was born Sunday, November 4, 1787. Richard Allen, Absalom Jones and other persons of color walked out of St. George Methodist Church because of racism and organized Bethel Church at 6th and Lombard Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1816, the African Methodist Episcopal Church was incorporated and Richard Allen was the first elected and consecrated bishop during the first General Conference.
As early as 1822 a debate arose in the Baltimore Annual Conference relative to the Western Territories, and the Annual Conference under whose jurisdiction they should be placed. The record refers to it as “the country west of the Allegheny Mountains.”  In 1824 the Philadelphia Annual Conference included five churches in Western Pennsylvania and six in Ohio, one of which was in Cincinnati.