Tent Revivals in 19th Century

Did you know that in the early 1800’s tent revivals, lasting several days, attracted up to 20,000 or more people at a time? That’s more attendees than a sold out Lakers game at the Staples Center!
In the booming area of western New York, professional clergy was still scarce and many people enjoyed the enthusiasm of folk religion. Traveling Protestant preachers were very successful in winning converts to their sects.
When he began writing his history in 1838, Joseph Smith said “in the process of time my mind became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to be united with them.” Additionally, in 1828, the year following his marriage to Emma Hale, Joseph wanted to join the Methodist Probationary class while they lived in Harmony, Penn. He, along with many others, were drawn to join the Methodist church. The numbers swelled dramatically during the nineteenth century due to the many revivals taking place in western NY.
Two years before Joseph Smith began dictating the Book of Mormon, a revival was held in Palmyra, NY June 1826. Thousands came to the spot and pitched their tents around the raised podium to hear the farewell speech of a beloved, aged Methodist preacher named Bishop McKendree. The Memoirs of Rev. Benjamin Paddock, another clergyman in attendance, gives his report of the events:

“The Genessee Conference for 1826 was held at Palmyra, Wayne, County. “...On another account the session was remarkable. A great camp-meeting was held in connection with it. The ground was only about a mile from the village (of Palmyra) so that members of the conference not immediately and specially employed could take part in its services. At that early day and previously, meetings of the kind were not infrequently held in the neighborhood of our Annual Conferences; but the present one was exceptionally large. There were more than one hundred tents on the ground, and these were occupied by our people from almost all parts of the country, many of them coming from a distance of one hundred miles or more. The spirit of the meeting was admirable. Conversations were numerous and powerful.”

~Bishop William McKendree- Beloved Methodist evangelist gave farewell speech, Palmyra, NY. 1826 at the Gennessee Conference camp meeting.