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Henry Bidleman Bascom (1796–1850) was an American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, elected in 1850. He also distinguished himself as a Circuit rider, pastor and Christian preacher; as chaplain to the U.S. House of Representatives; and as an editor, a college academic, and a denominational leader.
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Of Huguenot and Basque ancestry, Henry was born 27 May 1796 in Hancock, Delaware County, New York. He was a descendant of Windsor, Connecticut founder, Thomas Bascom, who came to America in 1634. The name Bidleman came from the family of Henry's maternal grandmother Rosanna Bidleman. Henry married Eliza Van Antwerp 7 March 1839 in New York City. Henry united with the Methodist Episcopal Church in Western Pennsylvania in 1811.
Henry had but little education, but was Licensed to Preach in 1813 at the age of seventeen and was received on trial by the Ohio Annual Conference of the M.E. Church. Rev. Bascom worked hard as a frontier Circuit Rider. For example, one year he preached 400 times, receiving a salary of just $12.10. Nevertheless, he soon became famous as a pulpit orator.
Yet, Rev. Bascom's style being too florid to suit many to whom he preached in Ohio, in 1816 he was transferred to Tennessee. He served appointments there and in Kentucky until 1822, when he returned to Ohio.
The Rev. Henry Bidleman Bascom was awarded the Honorary Degree Doctor of Divinity.
M.E. Bishop Matthew Simpson, in his Cyclopaedia of Methodism, wrote this about the Rev. Dr. Henry Bidleman Bascom's pulpit ministry:
In 1823 Henry Clay obtained for him the appointment of Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives, serving 1824–26.[1] At one time he visited Baltimore, where his fervid oratory made a great sensation. He was known as a powerful speaker, fond of strong epithets and rather extravagant metaphors.
Rev. Bascom served as the first President of Madison College, Uniontown, Pennsylvania (1827–29). He then became the Agent of the American Colonization Society (1829–31). In 1832 he was elected Professor of Moral Science and Belles-lettres at Augusta College, an early Methodist school in Kentucky, serving until 1842.
Rev. Bascom then was elected President of Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky (1842–1849), having previously declined the presidency of two other colleges. A portrait of Rev. Bascom [1], painted circa 1826 by the artist John Neagle, hangs in the University Board Room.
From 1846 until 1850 Rev. Bascom edited the Southern Methodist Quarterly Review. He was a delegate to every M.E. General Conference from 1828 until 1844.
Rev. Bascom played an important role at the M.E. General Conference of 1844, when the denomination divided over the question of slavery. The Church suspended Bishop James Osgood Andrew because he refused to manumit his slaves. Dr. Bascom wrote the famous "protest of the minority" of the southern members against this action by the majority. He was also a member of the convention held the next year at Louisville, at which the Methodist Episcopal Church, South was organized, also serving as author of its report. He then became chairman of the commission appointed to settle the differences between the two branches of the Church. He also published an elaborate volume in defense of the Southern Church, entitled "Methodism and Slavery."
The Re. Dr. Bascom was elected to the Episcopacy by the General Conference of the M.E. Church, South in 1850 at St. Louis. He was consecrated a Bishop in May 1850, just a few short months before his death.
Bishop Bascom died 8 September 1850 in Louisville, Kentucky. He is buried in Louisville's Eastern Cemetery. Photos of the grave stone can be seen on FindAGrave: Henry Bidleman Bascom
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| Preceded by John Brackenridge, D.D. |
Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives December 1, 1823 – December 6, 1824 |
Succeeded by Reuben Post |