Among the first appointments of the “Western Convention” (Illinois conference) we find “St. Louis, Joseph Travis.” This seems to have been the only appointment outside of the state in that direction until in 1867 when we find “Lawrence and Kansas, C.H. Lovejoy.” The next year there were reported from Kansas thirty full members and ninety-nine probationers. Four circuits in Kansas are found among the appointments for this year (1868) and five preachers were appointed to that field. A Kansas and Missouri district was formed including circuits in southwestern Illinois, Missouri and Kansas. C. H. Lovejoy was made chairman. The minutes of the Illinois conference for October, 1870, show a membership in Kansas, in full connection, of two hundred. The Kansas and Missouri conference was organized by vote of the General Conference held at Aurora, Illinois, October 12-21, 1870. The appointments were made by general superintendent B. T. Roberts and C. H. Love-joy and J. Matthews who had been elected chairmen of the work by the Illinois conference. These appointments were ratified by the General Conference. C. H. Lovejoy, J.  Matthews, I. Bliss, W. H. Neal, H. Matthews and O. Wisner, who had been members of the Illinois conference, identified themselves with the new conference. No records of this conference appear in the published minutes until the year 1877. They then report sixteen preachers in full connection and thirteen on trial, and a total of three hundred and sixty-seven members, but the reports are incomplete. The work steadily spread over the state of Kansas into Colorado, Nebraska and in Missouri. On account of the widely extended condition of the work it was adjudged best to divide it and in the fall of 1883, the territory was divided into three conferences known as the Kansas, West Kansas and Missouri. Their aggregate membership was about nine hundred and twenty-five, preachers about forty-five.

In the minutes of the Illinois conference for 1869 we find this appointment, “Colorado district, D. M. Rose, chairman; Colorado, D. M. Rose.” Colorado district does not appear again until nine years later in the minutes of the Kansas and Missouri conference, when we read “Colorado district, W. M. Adams, chairman. Colorado, to be supplied.” Two years later Colorado Springs reports seventeen members. The next year thirty-nine were reported. No report again appears from Colorado until 1884 when fifty-nine members and probationers are reported. The Colorado conference was organized at Fountain, Colorado, November 5, 1886, with the following preachers in full connection: J. F. Garrett, T. H. Vipond, C. W. Stamp, J. B. Roberts, G. A. Loomis, B. F. Todd, and J. I. Council and V. Roth on trial. No statistical report is given in the printed minutes, for that year. At this time (1908) there is a total membership of four hundred and thirty. Sixteen preachers are engaged in the work in the conference.

Very soon after the organization of the Kansas and Missouri conference the “joyful sound” drifted across the border into Nebraska and some who had been associated with our people in states further east, and who had settled in that state, and others who believed in a full salvation, called for Free Methodist preachers. In answer to these calls appointments were established and work opened up, especially in the southeastern and southern part of the state. In 1884 the Kansas conference formed a Nebraska district in the southeastern part of the state. The same year the Iowa conference appointed T. H. Allen and F. A. Smith to Omaha, North Kennard and Fletcher in the state of Nebraska. The next year the West Iowa conference was formed and the work in northeast Nebraska was taken charge of by that conference. In 1889 one year before the Nebraska conference was organized, the Omaha district reported to the West Iowa conference one hundred members from four circuits. The same year the Nebraska portion of the Kansas conference work, then known as the Lincoln and Elkhorn districts, reported one hundred and forty-five members. On August 14, 1890, the Nebraska conference was organized at Yutan, Nebraska. The conference roll shows nine preachers in full connection, and none on trial. A total membership of two hundred and ten was reported, but time Omaha district was reported to the West Iowa conference this year, and to neither conference for 1891. In 1892 there were nine preachers in full connection and seven on trial. A full report from all the territory of the conference gave a total of three hundred and fifty-five members and probationers.

The Platte River conference occupying the southwestern and western part of the state of Nebraska was organized at Ravenna, Nebraska, August 20, 1896, from territory formerly embraced in the West Kansas conference. As early as 1878 when the states of Kansas and Missouri were included in the Kansas and Missouri conference, the preachers from that conference had begun to open up appointments in this - part of Nebraska. The first society organized appears to have been at a place called Methodist Creek in the south central part of the state. Soon other points began to open up. In 1885 the Alma district was formed composed of five circuits, all of which were supplied with pastors. In 1890 about two hundred members were reported from this territory and the work was moving out toward the north and west. In 1893 there were two districts reporting about three hundred members and probationers. At the time of the organization of the conference in 1896 thirteen preachers in full connection and five on trial were enrolled. The aggregate membership was four hundred and sixty. The minutes for 1907 give the number of preachers as twenty-four and the total membership a little over five hundred.

The first appointment in the bounds of the Oklahoma conference was made by the Kansas conference in 1887. In 1893 sixty-three members were reported from the territory. In 1898 there were one hundred and forty-eight. The Oklahoma conference was organized at Emporia, Kansas, October 21, 1899. C. E. Harroun, Sr., C. E. Harroun, Jr., J. L. Brown and A. J. Donaldson in full connection, and C. W. Van Treese, M. Wright and S. Freer on trial were the preachers. No statistics are available for that session. There are at present eight hundred and eighty members and about twenty preachers in active service.

The Arkansas and Southern Missouri conference, occupying the southern part of the state of Missouri and the state of Arkansas, was organized at Fairplay, Missouri, September 4, 1895. The reason for its organization was the widely extended character of the work in the Missouri conference. There are at present seven preachers and a total of two hundred members.

Some time in the latter part of the year 1877 or early in 1878, G. B. Harvey, an elder in the New York conference, removed to Texas. There being no Free Methodists in that state, and having formerly been a preacher in the Methodist Protestant church, he united with the East Texas conference of that church and was appointed to a charge. As he began to preach entire sanctification as a second work of grace and separation from the world as a necessary fruit of salvation, opposition developed and he was, at the request of the people removed from his pastorate. He immediately wrote to B. T. Roberts requesting the restoration of his membership in the New York conference and at the same time asking for a transfer to the Kansas and Missouri conference and appointment as missionary to Texas. At the next session of that conference September, 1878, he was received and appointed to Texas. His first work was in Lawrence, Kauffman county, where a society was organized and a small chapel erected. This work however did not become permanent. Some time later a society was organized in Ennis, Ellis county, and a church building erected. This society was the foundation of our work in Texas. Some of the members of this society were: J. A. McKinney, J. C. McKinney and wife, F. Glasscock and wife, Cyrus T. Hogan and wife, Mary McCullough, ___________ Snow and wife and ____________ Ainsworth. This society was organized in 1879. Mr. Harvey now removed his family to this place and held meetings quite extensively through central Texas. Societies were organized and some preachers were raised up and the work was known as the Texas district of the Kansas and Missouri conference. The Texas and Louisiana conference was organized at Corsicana, Texas, July 10, 1881. G. R. Harvey, an elder, was received from the Kansas and Missouri conference and Philip Allen by certificate of location from the Louisiana conference of the Methodist Episcopal church South. W. Parker, J. A. McKinney, H. V. Haslam, H. A. Hanson and S. H. Hurlocke were received on trial. The number of members is not given. The Texas conference at its last session reported seven hundred members and probationers and twenty-five preachers in active service.

The work in Louisiana grew out of the work in Texas. Philip Allen, an ordained elder in the Louisiana conference of the Methodist Episcopal church south, having been led into the experience of entire sanctification began to preach the doctrine and testify to the experience on his fields of labor. Others were led into the experience, among them two preachers, J. A. Biggs and J. P. Byars. The latter two meeting with much opposition withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal church south and organized the Union Methodist church. At the session of his conference held in 1880 Mr. Allen was located. Having heard of the Free Methodists, he, in the summer of 1881, went to Texas to meet with them. Returning to Louisiana with him, Mr. Harvey organized the first Free Methodist society in Louisiana at Welcome Home, Caldwell Parish, in the early summer of that year. Those who had been members of the Union Methodist church largely, came into the society, including Rev. J. A. Biggs and Rev. J. D. Byars. The latter were received into the conference at its next session. The work in Louisiana being widely separated from that in Texas it was thought best to organize it into a separate conference. This was done by the organization of the Louisiana conference at Welcome Home, November 13, 1884. Since then some progress has been made in extending the work in Louisiana and Mississippi. There are now eleven preachers and a total of about one hundred and seventy-five members.