Samuel Wakefield

WAKEFIELD, Samuel.  b. Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, 6 March 1799; d. West Newton, Pennsylvania, 13 September 1895.  He was an ordained minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, author of a leading treatise on Christian theology, composer, compiler of tunebooks, and a Democrat in the Pennsylvania General Assembly during the Civil War.   According to some accounts, Samuel Wakefield was born in Path Valley, Cumberland County (now Perry County), Pennsylvania.  This mistake perhaps stems from the fact that Samuel’s grandfather, David Wakefield, having immigrated from Ireland, eventually settled in Path Valley.  Samuel Wakefield’s grandmother, whose maiden name was Mary Wade (ca. 1734 –...