 Asbury worked tirelessly to bring Methodism to the new American nation as one of its leading itinerant ministers, traveling 270,000 miles on horseback and ordaining more than 4,000 ministers over the course of 45 years.The first conference at which Asbury presided in Philadelphia was held at St. George's on September 22–26, 1788.In the spring of 1773 Thomas Rankin, who had been appointed by Methodist founder John Wesley as superintendent of the American Methodists, called the first American Methodist conference.