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DIMOCK
Camp-Meeting Ground
Serving Christ in the Endless Mountains
What is a Camp-Meeting?
In the late 1700s, a tradition was begun in America in which individuals eager to spread their Christian faith gathered in revival-styled services for days on end, first camping out under the stars, later in tents, and eventually in wooden cottages all surrounding an open-air sanctuary. Originally, the Baptists, Presbyterians and Methodists were a part of the mix, but it was the Methodist Episcopal Church, that saw camp-meetings as an integral part of helping people renew their faith commitments at the same time of sharing fellowship with like-minded individuals from others in their region.
By 1810, Methodist Bishop Francis Asbury noted in his journal that it was his hope that at least 600 camp-meetings could be held annually throughout the young United States. In 1807, the first known camp-meeting in this area occurred about 30 miles northwest of Dimock, near present-day Smithboro, New York. It went on for four days and during the last two, Asbury was in attendance.
By the 1870s, plans were underway to get permanent camp-meeting grounds in each of the regional districts within the Methodist Episcopal Church's annual conferences. The Dimock grounds were to serve the Wyalusing District, then one of seven districts in the Methodist Episcopal Church's Wyoming Conference. The Wyalusing District was dissolved in 1879, but camp-meetings continued.
For a listing of known camp-meetings in this region (or what in 1852 became known as the Wyoming Conference), click here.