User:WilyD/William Case/Peter Covenhoven
Peter Covenhoven or Peter Conover was a Methodist circuit rider.
Covenhoven was born in the area of Twenty Mile Creek in Upper Canada. His family were Methodists. Once he was old enough, Covenhoven began a farm near Flour-Mill Creek. He attended a revival in Ancaster township in the year 1809, which strengthened his religious devotion. He began to act as a local preacher that year, and in 1810 was accepted on trial as an itinerant preacher at the annual conference. He was assigned to the Bay of Quinte Circuit, also ridden by Thomas Whitehead that year. During their tenure on the circuit, membership increased from 622 to 655 people.[1] In 1811 he rode the Niagara Circuit, alongside Isaac B. Smith.[2] In 1812 he was reassigned to the Ancaster and Long Point Circuit with Enoch Burdock.[3]
Soon after the outbreak of the War of 1812, Covenhoven retired from circuit riding. He purchased a farm in Trafalger Township, near the Credit River. There he married a local woman. He continued to preach for some time as a local preacher, and even after he stopped doing that he remained a prominant member of the local Methodist congregation. Upon his death he left a large sum of money to the Methodist Missions.[4]
- ^ Carroll, John (1867). Case and his cotemporaries, or, The Canadian itinerants' memorial constituting a biographical history of Methodism in Canada, from its introduction into the Province, till the death of the Rev. Wm. Case in 1855. Vol. I. Toronto: Wesleyan Conference Office. p. 220.
- ^ Carroll, volume I, page 239
- ^ Carroll, volume I, page 259
- ^ Carroll, volume I, page 268