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DIMOCK
Camp-Meeting Ground
Serving Christ in the Endless Mountains
Dimock's History
The Dimock Camp-Meeting Ground was chartered on August 15, 1877, as the Wyalusing District Camp-Meeting Association.
However, its history stretches back a bit. In September of 1873, congregations within what was then the Wyalusing District in the Wyoming Conference of the Methodist-Episcopal Church held that year's camp-meeting near Meshoppen. Some interest arose to find a permanent site for a camp-meeting ground in the District. In October of 1873, a committee headed by the District's presiding elder Rev. Luther Peck began looking at sites along the narrow-guage railway from Tunkhannock that wasn't quite yet finished to Montrose.
No firm decision was reached by the summer of 1874, so that year's District camp-meeting was again held near Meshoppen.
However, not long after Rev. Ira Walker became the District's presiding elder on April 14, 1875, it was clear that Dimock had been chosen. He became chair of a committee comprised of 11 men from across the Wyalusing District (which included all of Wyoming County and parts of Bradford, Luzerne and Susquehanna counties in Pennsylvania) to work out all of the details for the Dimock Camp-Meeting Ground to come into being.
The others on the committee were: Rev. Jonathan K. Peck, Rev. W. L. Thorpe, Rev. J. H. Weston, Rev. S. Barner, Rev. H. G. Harned, E. L. Weeks, G. E. Palen, Wilbur F. Lyman, B. W. Van Auken and J. Beardsley.
All but Jonathan Peck (who was called away to preach a funeral) met on June 21, 1875, in Dimock. Responsibilities were divided up to handle such things as: securing the grounds through a lease arrangement; constructing a boarding house; acquiring supplies of provisions, horse feed and straw; getting lumber and erecting a preacher's stand and other necessary buildings; making water arrangements; working out a means of transporting baggage from the train depot to the grounds; leasing tent sites; and overseeing lighting. On July 9th, a work bee was held to clear the 23-acre grounds then being leased from Col. Olney Bailey.
August 25, 1875, was the first night of camp-meeting style preaching on the grounds. It was reported that 7,000 persons were present that week and a local newspaper said it never "saw so many at any gathering" in Susquehanna County "as were there on Sunday." The following year and again in 1918, local newspapers reported attendance at 10,000.
While it may be difficult in our present-mindedness to conceive of where a reported 1,455 cars, 588 horses and three motorcycles were parked in 1918, there is no question that the annual goings on at Dimock were quite an open-air spectacle.
No longer are events packed into a 7-to-10 consecutive day period, but in the summer of 2003, services in the chapel have been scheduled across nine consecutive Sunday evenings, and you're invited to take a step back in time to have a spirit-filled experience at Dimock.
Important Moments from the 1800s
Important Moments from 1900 to 2002