Where did the names Abingdon and Cokesbury come from?
“Abingdon” was the name of the town in Maryland where Cokesbury College, the first Methodist college in the U.S., opened in 1787 (an ultimately unsuccessful venture, the college lasted only until 1796; see http://www.gcah.org/Heritage_Landmarks/Cokesbury.htm). The college was called “Cokesbury” from the names of the first two Methodist bishops: Coke and Asbury. In the early twentieth century, when the Methodist Episcopal Church decided to give their publishing house a name, they chose Abingdon, and when the Methodist Episcopal Church South (the southern branch of the church due to a pre-Civil War split) decided to name their publishing house, they chose Cokesbury. When the two churches merged (along with the Methodist Protestant Church) in 1939, the combined publishing house was called Abingdon-Cokesbury Press. In 1954, the name was shortened to Abingdon Press, and Cokesbury became the name for the retail stores run by the denomination (including a presence now in cyberspace at www.cok
