Rev. John Metcalf was one of the founding members of the Bethel Academy in Kentucky and was its first principal.

The history of Nicholasville is intertwined with Nicholasville United Methodist Church. The Methodist minister, Rev. John Metcalf, who founded the church in 1798, also founded the city of Nicholasville. The church has been at the heart of the community for 217 years in a mission of faith that has expanded with each turn of the shovel.

JOHN METCALF

In the article "The Bethel Academy Story," Rev. John Metcalf was discussed quite often. This brief biography will summarize some information not found there, and tie the data in the article together in a sequence.

John Metcalf was born in Southampton County, Virginia, in 1758 to a well- known family. The Virginia Historical Index8 has a number of entries under the Metcalf and Metcalfe names. His father was Henry.9 Nothing is known about how he became acquainted with Methodist preachers, nor how and when he was converted. Records of the early years of the Methodist Episcopal Church10 do not show john Metcalf as received on trial as a preacher in 1790, but he is listed as assigned to the Cumberland, Virginia, circuit with john Lindsey. The minutes of 1791 show that he was continued on trial that year, so his name must have been omitted in 1790 accidentally. That year he was appointed to the Banks circuit in Virginia. He was ordained a deacon and appointed to the Bedford, Virginia, circuit and to the Botetourt, Virginia, circuit in 1793 .

In 1794 he was sent to be co-pastor of the Lexington, Kentucky, circuit with Tobias Gibson. Metcalf had a dual task that year-he was also designated the principal of Bethel Academy which he opened for instruction either in January or June, depending on the accuracy of the dates on the three versions of a letter he sent to George Nicholas. SEE THE TEXT OF THESE LETTERS IN THE ARTICLE, "The Bethel Academy Story." Since the 1794 conference met on April 15, of that year, this fact may indicate the June date is correct.

While in charge of Bethel Academy, Metcalf married in 1795 a niece of his presiding elder, Rev. Francis Poythress. She was Ann (Nancy), daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Poythress) Penniston, who lived near Lexington, Kentucky. Together they managed Bethel Academy until 1798. That same year they built a log home among a small cluster of log structures about ten miles to the northeast. Anticipating that a portion of Fayette County would soon become Jessamine County, Metcalf, having surveying skills, laid out several streets. Soon the place was called Nicholasville and made the county seat. Metcalf was successful in his efforts to honor his friend George Nicholas in this way.

In the year these events took place, 1799, Metcalf founded a Methodist society in Nicholasville and promoted the construction of a building for the congregation. This is interesting, because in 1795, Metcalf was located and thus not appointed to a circuit in official records of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Neither is the Nicholasville congregation mentioned in the early journals of the Western Conference from 1800 through 1811.

Either in the fall of 1801 or early in 1802, Metcalf started a school for boys in his home and then in a log structure next door. He called it Bethel Academy, though Rev. Nathaniel Harris was still conducting classes at the original site by the Kentucky River. When Harris closed the school, Metcalf took all moveable equipment from the original building and used it for his own purposes. For this act he was suspended from ministerial activity for twelve months.

Metcalf continued his school in Nicholasville for over a decade and a half, but also engaged in the ministerial activities of preaching and marrying couples. At the same-time he served as a Justice of Peace from at least 1804 to 1812. He also was much involved in the buying and selling of real estate in Jessamine County, as a series of deeds recorded in the county court house indicate.

In 1818, Metcalf began selling some of his property. A two-acre plot was sold to the trustees of Bethel Academy for a new building to be constructed from materials gained from razing the original structure in 1820.

Apparently, Metcalf closed his Bethel Academy about this time and did not live to see the new Bethel Academy completed. He died August 15, 1820, at the age of sixty-two.

He was survived by his wife, Ann, and five children: Henry, b. Nov. 9, 1800; Elizabeth, b. Feb. 23, 1805; Sarah; john W.; and Lucy Ann. Cemetery gravestones show two children died before their father: Lucy A. age 19 years, d. July 26, 1815, and Thomas H, age fifteen, d. Jan 21 , 1815. His estate was settled July 19, 1832.