Early Life
Bounds was born in Shelby County, rural Missouri to Thomas J. and Hatty Bounds. His father, Thomas J. Bounds, was instrumental in organizing Shelby County, Missouri, he was an original landholder in the county seat, Shelbyville, and he was a driving force in the building of the First Methodist Church in 1840. Because his father served as county clerk, the Bounds' home was used for court sessions. When Edward was fourteen years old, his father contracted tuberculosis and died.
Shortly after his father's death in 1849, Edward, his eldest brother (Charles), and several other relatives joined a wagon train and traveled to Mesquite Canyon in California in hopes of making a fortune in gold mining. After four unsuccessful years, they returned to Missouri and Edward studied law in Hannibal, Missouri. He became the state's youngest practicing lawyer at age nineteen. Although apprenticed as an attorney, Bounds felt called to Christian ministry in his early twenties during the Third Great Awakening. Following a brush arbor revival meeting led by Evangelist Smith Thomas, he closed his law office and moved to Palmyra, Missouri to enroll in the Centenary Seminary. Two years later, in 1859 at the age of 24, he was ordained by his denomination and was named pastor of the nearby Monticello, Missouri Methodist Church.
Read more about this topic: Edward Mc Kendree Bounds
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