Nicholas Sneathen (Snethen) (November 15, 1769 Long Island, Province of New York - May 30, 1845 Princeton, Indiana) was an American farmer, itinerant preacher, minister, and church leader. Sneathen served as chaplain of the US House of Representatives and was a founder of the Methodist Protestant Church in the United States. He was referred to as “my silver trumpet” by Rev. Francis Asbury, Early years Sneathen was born to Barak Snethen and Ann Weeks on November 15, 1769 in Fresh Pond, a settlement near present day Glen Cove, New York. Barak Snethen was an officer in the American militia during the French and Indian War and participated in the Montreal Campaign. Nicholas Sneathen helped his father and grandfather in various family businesses during his youth. At various times, his family operated a schooner, ferrying people and goods around New York harbor, farming operations on both Long Island and Staten Island, and milling services in New Jersey. Sneathen attended a country school and was instructed in religious matters by his mother, who came from a Quaker family, and his father, whose family belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church. Sneathen first professed religion to a Bishop in the Episcopal Church at age 18, but he soon converted to Methodism. Ministry While upgrading his education, Sneathen served as the first Methodist class leader in the Old Sands Street Methodist Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, New York. He was accepted into the Methodist Ministry in September, 1794 at age 25. For the next four years, Sneathen served the church followers in remote rural areas of Connecticut, Vermont and Maine. He returned to New York in 1798, From 1798 to 1800 Sneathen ministered in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1800, he was ordained an Elder at a regional Methodist conference there at age 31. That same year, he traveled with Asbury to the General (National) Conference of Methodists in Baltimore. After the conference, Sneathen stayed in Baltimore. While there, he met Susannah Hood Worthington, whom he married 1804. The couple then moved to New York, where Sneathen served as senior preacher. In 1806, the couple moved back to his wife's farm in Linganore, Maryland, Living in Lignanore, Sneathen preached in Baltimore, Georgetown and Alexandria, Virginia. In 1811, he was appointed Chaplain to the US House of Representatives. During this assignment, Sneathen met Henry Clay of Kentucky and John Randolph of Virginia. Church schism From at least 1800