User:WilyD/William Case/Robert Hibbard

Robert Hibbard was a Methodist circuit rider.

Hibbard was born in Coxlackie, New York on February 8th, 1787. He moved to America, New York with his family around 1782. Hibbard converted to Methodism at the age of 15. Later, he moved to Ulster County, where he began working as a local preacher around 1808. In 1809, he was received on trial as a circuit rider, and sent to the Grenville Circuit. At the 1810 conference he was ordained a deacon after volunteering for assignment to Lower Canada, where he rode the St. Francis Circuit. At the end of 1810, St. Francis had 47 members in the Methodist Church. He was reassigned to St. Francis in 1811. Hibbard was moved to the Ottawa Circuit in 1812. Due to the War of 1812, other circuit riders failed to arrive on their circuits that year, so Hibbard travelled to the St. Francis Circuit, where J. F. Chamberlain and Samuel Luckey both failed to arrive at their assignment there. Hibbard drowned on the journey there, when crossing the St. Lawrence River, the ice gave way, and he fell into the river. This occurred on October 7th, 1812.