In the next year, the mission was strengthened by the arrival of Rev.Messrs.William W.Meriam and James F.Clark and their wives, who commenced a station at Philippopolis, in ancient Thrace.

The Rev.William F.Arms and wife arrived in 1860, and were associated with Mr.Byington in a new station at Eski Zagra, seventy-five miles northwest from Adrianople, sixty northeast from Philippopolis, and twenty miles south of the Balkan Mountains.

Mr.Oliver Crane was transferred from the Western Turkey Mission to Adrianople, in 1860.

The population of Philippopolis was estimated at about sixty thousand, of whom twenty thousand were Bulgarians, sixteen thousand Mohammedans, fourteen thousand Greeks, and five thousand Jews.

Surrounding the city, there were, within a circuit of thirty or forty miles, more than three hundred villages, including a large population, mostly Bulgarians.
These villages were easy of access, and some of them would afford a healthy retreat in summer.