What were meetings like in the early church?

- When did they start calling it Sacrament Meeting?

I thought it was called 'Sacrameth'.

As published in the Ensign Jan 1978 “Mormon Sundays:”


It was at Nauvoo that the first wards were created, but these were for tithing purposes, not for regular meeting purposes. Records do not show any ward sacrament meetings in Nauvoo, only the community-wide morning and afternoon meetings.

The community-wide meetings would number in the thousands, easily larger than most modern day Stake Conferences. In Nauvoo Joseph Smith said:

This morning I preached at the grove to about 8,000 people

As a side note, with such large numbers, the Sacrament was not always a weekly event.

The “Mormon Sundays” Ensign article states:

From 1850 to 1900 the Sabbath day in the Church changed a great deal. Meetinghouses for each ward made ward sacrament meetings and Sunday Schools possible for the first time. Holding local meetings in turn meant that more local members participated in Sabbath activities as class teachers and members, officers and sacrament administrators, speakers, prayer givers, and choir members. Special fast Sundays and quarterly stake conference Sundays were introduced.

https://askgramps.org/become-practice-members-invited-assigned-give-talks-sacrament-meeting/