Francis Burns - Early Religious Life and Ministry

Early Religious Life and Ministry

The Atwood family was respectable and eminently pious.The Atwood family lived in Ashland, New York in a house now owned By Samuel Creech. Francis attended the North Settlement Methodist Church, County Route 10 Ashland. Mrs. Atwood was a Methodist class-leader. One who knew her said she was "a holy and zealous woman." At fifteen years of age Francis was converted to the Christian faith under the influence of Miss Stewart, a white teacher, the daughter of a Baptist preacher. At seventeen Francis felt that God required him to preach. Yet he refrained from doing so because he was bound to his master until the age of twenty-one.

His education was insufficient from Francis' own perspective. And there appeared no field in which he might labor in answer his calling. When the way finally opened, he felt unwilling to enter it. But possessing an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, Francis employed all his efforts to obtain it. While attending a high school he began to hold religious meetings, and to exhort. He also began to teach school. Indeed, Francis is said to have been "the first colored student in a white school," the Academy at Lexington Heights, New York. He is also said to have been "the first colored teacher in a white school," in his own community, where he received marked respect. He was subsequently licensed as a local preacher on the Windham circuit.

Bishop Matthew Simpson said of Francis Burns, in reflection:

By his intelligence, his consistent piety, and by the force of his character, he rose above the disabilities of his color, and commanded the respect of all that knew him.