Seeking more information on N.S. BASTION, sometimes spelled BASTIAN, in Edgar Co. He was a Methodist minister who was appointed to the Danville circuit from the fall of 1846 to the fall of 1848. Methodist Districts did not necessarily correspond to counties, but it seems that he lived in Paris, which isn't (now at least) even in the same county as Danville. May 14, 1848, his first child, John Tenbrook, was born in Paris, according to his Bible. Late that year, he wrote a letter from Paris to his brother-in-law in Indiana making arrangements to transfer the care of his father to his sister and brother-in-law, because he and his family were going to Liberia as missionaries. Apparently their father was not in good enough health to live independently; he shows up on the 1850 census with his daughter in IN and then disappears. One question I have is whether in that time period Paris was more central than Danville? Does anybody know enough about Methodist history in the area to know if it was central to the Methodist district he would have had to travel? More generally, what were the comparable sizes of the town? Bastion shows up again in Paris in 1858. By this time, he is a Christian (Disciples of Christ) minister. There has developed a tradition of ministers of one denomination debating those of another; these are sometimes one or two day affairs, social and political as well as religious events. Sometime that year Bastion debated a Methodist, whom, it is noted, he had granted preaching credentials to back when he had that authority--during the 1846-1848 time period. I would be extremely interested in any other information, from county histories or church records, on Bastion's time in Edgar Co. and Paris. I don't know the names of the churches he served. I suspect he was first a circuit rider and then the supervisor of the circuit rider, filling in as needed. Any other information would be gratefully received. Thank you, Doris Waggoner Seattle