Samuel had made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ early in life. But his real conversion occurred under the influence of the Rev. George Benedum, a noted early itinerant minister. Benedum had come from Pennsylvania to Ohio in 1806, two years after the Hiestand brothers. Benedum immediately began preaching, and he and Abraham Hiestand became the leaders of the U.B. movement in Fairfield County and neighboring communities. And it was upon these two Christian leaders the Bishop Christian Newcomer called when he first visited Ohio in 1810.