ABSTRACT
Peter Youmans was born on 22 February 1777, probably in Sussex County, New Jersey. Like many New Jerseyians of his generation, he immigrated to Ohio, arriving in Morgan Township, Butler County, sometime between 1804 and 1812. He was one of the founders of the Methodist Church in the county, and services were conducted at his residence on Paddy's Run near Okeana, Ohio. Youmans's work succeeds in many ways where Brown's fails. Brown's Countercheck is a whopping seventy-six pages of dense, stultifying theological analysis. Youmans judged the Shakers to be 'filthy dreamers', a 'body are principally made up of members, fallen from different churches, as the angels fell from heaven'. When Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan, Lo! the heavens were opened, and there came a voice from heaven saying, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.".
