Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Religion.

The United States, being the land of religious freedom, presents a constantly increasing number of denominations or sects. In 1900 there were more than 28,000,000 people enrolled on various church lists. The following is the annual compilation of the number of ministers, church edifices, and communicants or members by The independent for the calendar year 1900: [394]

Number of ministers, Church edifices, and communicants.

Denominations.	Ministers.	Churches.	Members.
Adventists:
Seventh Day	372	1,470	55,316
Life and Advent Union	60	33	3,000
Arminians	15	21	8,500
Baptists:
Regular (North)	7,415	9,374	975,820
Regular (South)	12,058	18,963	1,608,413
Regular (Colored)	14,351	15,654	1,864,600
Seventh Day	119	115	8,991
Freewill	1,619	1,486	85,109
General	450	550	28,000
Separate	113 103	6,479
Brethren in Christ (River)	152 78	4,000
Catholics:
Roman Catholics	11,636	12,062	8,610,226
Independent Catholics:
Polish branch	19	18	15,000
Old Catholic	6	5	10,000
Catholics: Reformed	6	6	1,500
Christians	1,248	1,520	111,835
Christian Catholic (Dowie）	55	50	40,000
Christian Scientists	12,000	600	1,000,000
Church of God	460	580	38,000
Church of the New Jerusalem	143	173	7,679
Congregationalists	5,614	5,604	629,874
Disciples of Christ	6,528	10,528	1,149,982
Dunkards:
German Baptists (Conservative)	2,612	850	95,000
German Baptists (Old Order)	150	100	3,500
German Baptists (Progressive)	231	173	12,787
Episcopalians:
Protestant Episcopal	4,961	6,686	716,431
Reformed Episcopal	103	104	9,743
Evangelical Bodies:
Evangelical Association	1,052	1,806	118,865
United Evangelical Church	478	985	60,993
Friends: Orthodox	1,279	820	91,868
German Evangelical Synod	909	1,129	203,574
Greek Church:
Greek Orthodox	4	4	20,000
Russian Orthodox	41	58	45,000
Jews	301	570	211,627
Latter Day Saints:
Mormons	1,700	796	300,000
Reorganized Church	2,200	600	45,500
Lutherans:
General Synod	1,226	1,568	194,442
United Synod in the South	215	390	38,639
General Council	1,156	2,019	370,409
Synodical Conference	2,029	2,650	581,029
Independent Synods	2,084	4,496	481,359
Mennonites:
Mennonite	418	288	22,443
Amish	365	124	13,051
Reformed	43	34	1,680
General Conference	138	79	10,395
Bundes Conference	41	16	3,050
Defenceless	20	11	1,176
Brethren in Christ	45	82	2,953
Methodists:
Methodist Episcopal	17,521	26,021	2,716,437
Union American M. E.	63	61	2,675
African M. E.	5,659	5,775	673,504
African Union Methodist Protestant	80	70	2,000
African M. E. Zion	3.155	2,906	536,271
Methodist Protestant	1,647	2,400	181,316
Wesleyan Methodist	587	506	17,201
Methodist Episcopal South	6,041	14,244	1,457,864
Congregational Methodist	210	240	20,000
Colored M. E.	2,187	1,300	199, 2060
Primitive Methodist	65	92	6,470
Free Methodist	944	1,123	28,588
Evangelist Missionary	87	13	4,600
Moravians	118	111	14,817
Presbyterians:
Presbyterian in United States (Northern)	7,335	7,469	973,433
Cumberland Presbyterian	1,734	2,957	180,192
Cumberland Presbyterian (Colored)	400	150	39,000
Welsh Calvinistic	105	185	12,000

[395]

Number of ministers, Church edifices, and communicants—Continued.

Denominations.	Ministers.	Churches.	Members.
Presbyterians. — Continued.
United Presbyterian	918	911	115,901
Presbyterians in United States (South)	1,461	2,959	225,890
Associate Reformed Synod of the South	104	131	11,344
Reformed Presbyterian in United States (Synod)	124	113	9,790
Reformed Presbyterian in North America (General Synod）	33	36	5,000
Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanted)	1	1	40
Reformed Presbyterian in United States and Canada	1	1	608
Reformed Presbyterian (Russellites)			2,500
Reformed:
Reformed in America (Dutch）	698	619	107,594
Reformed in United States (German)	1,082	1,660	243,545
Christian Reformed	96	145	18,096
Salvation Army	2,689	753	40,000
United Brethren:
United Brethren in Christ	1,897	4,229	243,841
United Brethren (Old Constitution)	670	817	226,643
Unitarians	550	459	71,000
Universalists	735	764	48,426

Bodies concerning which no reliable information is available.

Denominations.	Ministers.	Churches.	Members.
Adventists:
Evangelical	34	30	1,147
Advent Christians	883	580	25,816
Church of God	19	29	647
Church of God in Jesus Christ	94	95	2,872
Baptists:
Six Principle	14	18	937
Original Freewill	118	167	11,864
United	25	204	13,209
Church of Christ	80	152	8,254
Primitive	2,040	3,222	121,34
Old Two-seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian	300	473	12,851
Brethren (River):
Old Order, or Yorker	7	8	214
United Zion's Children	20	25	525
Brethren (Plymouth) :
Brethren (1）		109	2,289
Brethren (2）		88	2,419
Brethren (3）		86	1,235
Brethren (4）		31	718
Catholic Apostolic		10	1,394
Chinese Temples	95	47
Christadelphians		63	1,277
Christian Missionary Association		13	754
Christian Union	10	294	18,214
Church Triumphant (Schweinfurth)	183	12	384
Communistic Societies:
Shakers		15	1,728
Amana		7	1,600
Harmony		1	250
Separatists		1	200
New Icaria		1	21
Altruists		1	25
Adonai Shomo		1	20
Church Triumphant (Koreshan Ecclesia)		5	205
Dunkards (Seventh Day)		6	194
Friends (Hicksite)	115	201	21,992
Friends (Wilburite)	38	52	4,329
Friends (Primitive)	11	9	232
Friends of the Temple 4	4	340
German Evangelical Protestant	44	52	36,156
Mennonites:
Bruederhoef	9	5	352
Old Amish	71	22	2,038
Apostolic	2	2	209
Church of God in Christ	18	18	471
Old (Wisler)	17	15	610
Methodists:
Congregational (Colored)	5	5	319
Zion Union Apostolic	30	27	2,346
Independent	8	14	2,569
New Congregational Methodist	20	17	1,059

[396]

Bodies concerning which no reliable information is available—Continued.

Denominations.	Ministers.	Churches.	Members.
Presbyterians:
Associate Church of North America	12	31	1,053
Schwenkfeldians	3	4	30
Social Brethren	17	20	913
Spiritualists		334	45,030
Theosophical Society		40	695
Society of Ethical Culture		4	1,064
Waldenstromians	140	150	20,00
Independent Congregations	54	156	14126