Kentucky Conference (African Methodist Episcopal Church)

Talk of forming the Kentucky Conference took place as early as 1866. "The Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Rev. Wm. P. Quinn, Rev. D.A. Payne D.D., Rev. A.W. Wayman, Rev. J.P. Campbell, and some of the elders of the A.M.E. Church, will meet in Convention all ministers and delegates representing churches who are favorable to the formation of a Conference in the State of Kentucky, to be called the Kentucky Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church." ~ [source: "Kentucky Conference of the A.M.E. Church to be formed," The Christian Recorder, 06/16/1866]. It would take a few years before the Kentucky Conference of the AME Church was established on September 27, 1873 in Louisville, KY, under Bishop Daniel A. Payne. The officers of the conference were Rev. Robert G. Marshall, John W. Asbury from the Ohio District, and Charles Porter. Six sub-committees were formed, and a fire-proof safe was purchased by the trustees of Asbury Chapel (Louisville, KY) for the deposit of the Kentucky Conference archives. In 1880, the West Kentucky Conference split from the main conference, which resulted in the Kentucky Conference with 60 preachers, and West Kentucky Conference with 36 preachers. For more see History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (The Black Church in Action) by H. D. Gregg.