Tuckahoe River Trip - Bishop A. W. Wayman Pilgrimage

Bishop Wayman wrote the following short biographies of himself and his immediate family who were leaders in the A.M.E. church.  They were published in:

Cyclopædia of African Methodism,
by Alexander W. Wayman
Baltimore, Methodist Episcopal Book Depository
1882

[Bishop] WAYMAN, ALEXANDER W.-- the seventh Bishop of the A. M. E. Church, was born in Caroline County, Maryland, September 1821. He was brought up on the farm of his father, who put him to ploughing when he was a little boy. His father had to saw the handles of the plow off so that he could manage it. With this outfit he went to the field. He was once asked by some one after he had grown to be a man, what made him grow so large. His answer was, "My father put me to ploughing when I was young and made my muscles expand, and therefore I grew large." He was taught his letters by his father, and then he began to spell and read. It was not long before he got the idea in his head that he must write. The sand in the roads and the sides of the old frame houses were his copy books. Soon he was writing letters for his young friends to their young friends. In August 1835 he obtained hope in Christ. In 1837 he joined the M. E. Church. In 1840 he united with the A. M. E. Church. In 1843 he was admitted into the Philadelphia Conference. After filling stations in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D. C., in 1864 he was elected Bishop.

[Bishop Wayman’s older brother]
WAYMAN CHARLES HENRY, a local preacher of Caroline County, Maryland, was born a slave, March 25, 1812. He embraced religion when he was but a youth. His first owner died in 1837, when he was sold for five years. The gentleman who bought his time was very much afflicted with rheumatism, and was not able to get about, and so Charles had to attend to everything. When his time was up and he was proclaimed a free man, he very reluctantly left the home where he had lived for five years, He then engaged in farming and has had some success in that direction.

[Bishop Wayman’s father]
WAYMAN, FRANCIS, one of the first laymen of the A. M. E. Church in Denton, Maryland, was born a slave in Caroline County, Md. After he was free his attention was turned to farming. In this he was very successful. He had a large number of children, mostly boys. Before they were able to do much work he and his wife worked on the farm themselves. As soon though as the boys were large enough they put them to work. He had the good fortune to learn to read, and so taught all his sons to read. He lived to see all of his children grown up. One son a bishop, one an elder, and the other a local preacher. In February 1868, he died, aged 85. His wife, Matilda, survived him two years and two months and she died after an hour's illness.

[Bishop Wayman’s second wife]
WAYMAN, HARRIET ANN ELIZABETH, the wife of Bishop Wayman, was born in Baltimore, Md., December 11, 1828. She joined Bethel Church in Baltimore, March 1865.

[Bishop Wayman’s younger brother]
WAYMAN, ROBERT FRANCIS, a member of the Baltimore Conference, was born in Caroline County, Md., February 1831. He was raised a farmer. In 1856 he was admitted into the Baltimore Conference, and spent a few years in it, and was then transferred to the New York Conference, and spent a few years there. He was next transferred to the Philadelphia Conference, and filled the station at Wilmington, Del., and then Bethel Church, in Philadelphia. At the present time he is stationed at Hagerstown, Maryland.

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