“It must be acknowledged that wherever Methodists abound, vice and im- 
     
     morality are made in great measure to hide their head, and every man and woman is 
     
    
   
   
    
     taught to pray”.“ 
     
    

    
     An exclusive zealousness for their own church blinded many of the early 
     
     Methodists to possible virtue in any of the other denominations. Nathaniel Wright, 
     
     faithful class leader and exhorter for forty years as well as a kind father to his twelve 
     
     children, was insistent that all should marry Methodists. Jane, the third daughter of 
     
     the family, professed ardent affection for one of another denomination, but the 
     
     marriage was forbidden by her father, saying that he would rather follow her to her 
     
     grave. She pined quickly away, dying in 1841 in her twenty-third year. Her father 
     
    
   
   
    
     died in 1860. 
     
    
   
   
    
     2. CROP FAILURES BRING NEW SETTLERS TO 
     
     WESTERN PRINCE COUNTY SEEKING CHEAP LAND 
     
    
   
   
    
     Hard times had fallen on the Island farmers in the 1840’s following a disastrous 
     
     potato blight in 1845. Unable to cope with his disease, the potato farmers suffered 
     
     through another crop failure in 1846 despite some persistent optimism that the 
     
     disease would disappear and that once more the hard-working Islanders would have 
     
    
   
   
    
     a successful harvest. 
     
    
   
   
    
     During the next few winters, more and more families made the decision to leave 
     
     Tryon River. Having barely survived two ruinous farming seasons, with lease rents 
     
     remaining to be paid and all hope fading away of outlasting the fatal potato blight, 
     
     families had little alternative but to make a complete change. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The seriousness of their plight is emphasized by the knowledge that some of 
     
     these new settlers moving west were over sixty years old and faced the challenge of 
     
     moving into a wilderness area where survival would mean further hardship and suf- 
     
    
   
   
    
     fering. 
     
     The choice of the year 1847 to leave Tryon River was a fortunate one in view of 
     
    
   
   
    
     the farming situation in 1848 which had intensified. In Prince Edward Island, the 
     
     year 1848 was called “The Year of Distress” which saw the potato crop nearly total- 
     
     ly destroyed by blight and the comparable failure of grain harvests. Grain became so 
     
     scarce that it had to be imported, and very little flour was produced by the Prince 
     
    
   
   
    
     Edward Island grist mills in 1848. 
     
    
   
   
    
     3 . MISSIONARY CONCERNS OF THE BEDEQUE CIRCUIT 
     
     FOR WESTERN PRINCE COUNTY 
     
    
   
   
    
     In spite of their own problems, not only those connected with their local con- 
     
     gregations and chapels, but also those resulting from the difficulties of severe 
     
     winters and extremely difficult and hazardous travel conditions, the following 
     
     Methodist ministers in the Bedeque Circuit were aware of their responsibilities of 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     21 Walter Johnstone, Travels in Prince Edward Island, 1824 
     
    
   
   
    
     20