CHURCH HISTORY

The history of First United Methodist Church is a long one, stretching back for over 170 years, to 1833. As you glance through this brief history, you will note the changes in the name of the church – from the Methodist Episcopal Church of Smith’s Crossroads to Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to First Methodist, to First United Methodist Church, our name since April of 1968. As you read you will be able to trace the changes that have taken place to make possible our most obvious heritage, this present church building here on Market Street with the parsonage on Edgewater.

Before the ½ acre of land here on Market Street was purchased in 1871, the congregation had worshiped in three locations – first, in what was called French’s Church on Sawyer’s Hill, where the cemetery now is; second, in the first floor of a two story building in Morgantown, where the Vine Grove Church is now; and third, in the old Academy building, which was across the railroad, west from here about a quarter of a mile.

Our present church building is the third one at this location – of course, with renovations and a number of additions. That means that the congregation has worshiped in this sanctuary for 103 years – since 1889.

But our church is not this attractive church plant. It is more importantly, a group of people who meet here to honor and worship God through Jesus Christ. First United Methodist Church is a place where the Bible is believed, preached, and taught; where the power of prayer is experienced, where the love of God is manifested. It is a place where people prepare to go forth to be the witnesses of Jesus Christ.

The first land purchased for the church in 1833 was used for the establishment of the Richland Campground. In those years the camp meeting was an important part of Methodism. In the center of the grounds would be a crude building or brush arbor where the meetings were held. Around this central building would be log cabins or tents where people would camp, having come from far and near in wagons, on horseback, and on foot. At night the grounds would be illuminated by a campfire and torches. There would be powerful preaching. One of the preachers at Richland Campground would have been John Henninger, presiding elder of the Washington District, whose preaching was described as being so powerful that people would crowd around the pulpit to catch his every word. And of course there would be enthusiastic singing.

The land for the first church, which was on Sawyer’s Hill, was given by Harvey and J. L. French and for that reason was called French’s Church. It was served by preachers on the Washington Circuit, one of the best circuits in East Tennessee, extending from Ross’s Landing (near Chattanooga) to the upper part of Rhea County. When the circuit rider would be preaching elsewhere on a Sunday, John Whaley, a local preacher, affectionately called Johnny Whaley, would preach; and when the circuit rider was unavailable, he would marry the couples and bury the dead. John Whaley was also a trustee of the church, for he was one of the trustees to sign the deed for the first property purchased in 1833.

According to the custom of the Methodists and unlike any other activity of any other denomination, there were weekly meetings from house to house, called class meetings, so that the members could enjoy close fellowship and encourage one another in the Christian life. Under the direction of the class leader, appointed by the itinerant preacher, there would be a hymn, prayer, Scripture with comments on it or the reading of one of John Wesley’s sermons. There would be testimonies and questioning of individuals about matters of faith and conduct.

From its beginning the Methodist Church had been a temperance society, a fact which probably explains the teaming up of the church with the Sons of Temperance for the use of the two-story building in Morgantown.

While in this second location, the church had the good fortune from 1854 to 1858 to be served by Sewell Phillips, described as the “ablest preacher in the Conference.” He was “rotund and ruddy, handsome and kind… noted for eloquence’ and for visiting the sick and the poor.

While the church met in the old Academy building, Bishop Kavanaugh came to preside over a District Conference and to conduct a revival, in which many were converted and joined the church. He was considered as “one of the greatest orators that Methodism has produced.” His preaching of one sermon in another place was described in this way:

…When he took his text and began its analysis and discussion, I looked for a dry, plodding sermon. But he gradually waxed animated, and I began to listen with a degree of satisfaction; then suddenly and unexpectedly with one fell rhetorical swoop he carried his unsuspecting audience up and above rolling worlds and burning suns, and kept them soaring for half an hour, then gently let them down. The effect was electrical. The people arose, shouted, and shook hands; and the excitement was so great and so general that it was half an hour before sufficient quiet had been restored to allow of the ordination ceremonies which had been appointed for the hour.

Is it any wonder, then, that his visit to the church meeting in the old Academy building was remembered and passed down even to this generation?

In the aftermath of the Civil War, the preachers of the Southern Methodist churches had to endure persecution. In February of 1868, Rev. Henry C. Neal, who later (in 1884) became a preacher of this church, was seized by an armed mob in Blount County, stripped, tied to a tree, and beaten with hickory withes until his blood flowed down to the ground. Let us thank God for faith of our fathers and mothers, many of whom endured hardship, rejection, and persecution for the sake of the Gospel.

As a result of the purchase of ½ acre of land in 1871, the church came to this present location. The land was bought from J. J. Abel, one of the original merchants of Smith’s Cross Roads and a member of this church from its earliest days.

The trustees in those early years at this location were kept busy with the selling of former church property for the use of the Market Street church: the Morgantown property was sold to the M. E. Church, now known as Vine Grove; French’s Church on Sawyer’s Hill was sold to a black congregation; and the Richland Campground was sold. The church that was first built here in this location soon became inadequate for the growing congregation of 240 members and was sold to a black congregation for $25 and moved some four miles south of town, where it was still standing in 1912. On October 28, 1888, the second church on this Market Street site was dedicated. The dedication sermon was preached by Dr. David Sullins, president of the Methodist Centenary Female College across the river in Cleveland. By this time the name of the village of Smith’s Cross Roads had been changed to Dayton, and the status of the church had been changed from a preaching point on the Washington Circuit to a station – Dayton Station.

According to a newspaper article of the Dayton News of October 25, 1888, the Ladies Aid Society had provided the new church with a “new organ, elegant chairs for the altar and pulpit, carpeting for the entire floor, chandeliers, upholstery, and so on.” And so it is that over the years the women of the church have faithfully served the church by whatever name they have been called at the time – whether the Ladies Aid Society, the Women’s Missionary Society, the Women’s Society of Christian Service, or the United Methodist Women.

Five months after the October dedication of that second church on this site in March of 1889, the church was destroyed by a fire, caught from a neighbor’s house. Members of the congregation so rallied to the challenge of rebuilding the church that it was ready for its first services on September 8, 1889, just six months later. From letters found in a secretary, we know that Mrs. V. C. Allen, who had written letters soliciting funds for the furnishing of the church destroyed by fire, after the fire began writing letters asking help in rebuilding it. Dr. David Sullins, “the silver-tongued orator of the Holston Conference” came again to preach a dedication sermon – this time for our present church.

In 1923 the evangelist Bascom Waters held a revival at the church. For the morning meetings, the shop owners closed their stores for one hour. Both the daytime and evening services were so crowded that some of the people had to sit in the windows. One night during the meeting there was an electrical storm and the lights went out. Brother Waters had the congregation sing “Nearer My God to Thee.” It was a wonderful spiritual experience, for those present said that they did experience the nearness of God. During the revival a number of prominent men in the town were converted: Sheriff Jim Frazier, Watt Johnson, F. H. Abel, and Colonel Brown. The people had been so blessed that they gave the pastor, R. C. Camper, a car. When Bascom Waters returned to the Dayton church for another revival in March and April of 1925, there were no conversions. At the concluding service, he proclaimed: “Some day this church will be so dead that not even the bats will roost in the belfry.”

But in July of that same year, 1925, the people of the church rallied behind William Jennings Bryan, who had come to Dayton to assist the prosecution in what was to become the “world-famous” Scopes Evolution Trial. Richard Rogers, a leader in the church, on the Board of Stewards, and Nettie Rogers, his wife, a Sunday school teacher, gave up their home for the use of this illustrious man, William Jennings Bryan, three times Democratic candidate for the presidency of the United States and Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson. There was an overflow in this church when he spoke at the Sunday morning service on July 12, 1925.

Two weeks later, on July 26, Bryan made his last public appearance when he attended the Sunday morning service at this church and led in prayer, for he died during a nap that afternoon in the Rogers home.

Richard Rogers became one of the founders and a trustee of the college named in honor of William Jennings Bryan.

By 1941 the addition of an upper story to the church provided the needed space for at least two Sunday school classes. One was Mrs. Grace Abel’s primary class, first called the Card Class because of the Bible picture cards given to the children. Because of lack of space, the class had started out in 1931 in the north vestibule and had later moved to the kitchen of that day. For forty years Miss Grace, as she was lovingly called, taught the primary children. Her daughter Emily Jo, who was one of her first pupils, later taught with her in that department. Miss Grace loved to play the piano and teach her pupils to sing Sunday school songs. In her memory, let us listen to the singing of some of our children in today’s Sunday school.

The other class to profit from the upstairs addition was the Volunteer Class which had been meeting through the kindness of Watt Johnson, a member of the church, in his vacant building across the side street from the church. The class was first taught by Mrs. Annie Abel, former missionary to Japan. Then later it was taught for 40 years by Mrs. Ellen Frazier, for whom it was eventually named.

In 1948 there was a critical meeting for the Administrative Board. The meeting had to be held at Dayton City School because the church was being renovated and enlarged. What had started out to cost $40,000 project was turning out to cost $100,000. What was to be done? Dr. J. J. Rodgers felt that he was on the spot, for it was at his insistence that something had to be done to provide separate Sunday school classrooms so that several classes would not have to meet in various sections of the auditorium. After much discussion, the consensus that day was that the need was so great that it was indeed necessary to make the leap of faith and continue the building program, which would provide for the renovation and brick-veneering of the sanctuary and a brick addition for fellowship hall, kitchen, and classrooms. The pastor, Curtis Wagner, suggested a plan to encourage giving—to sell bricks for $50.00 a brick. Members of the Board pledged generously. Among them was Fred Robinson, owner of Robinson’s Manufacturing Company, who had often said that God was his partner in his business. The people responded to the great challenge. Mr. and Mrs. F.H. Abel sold a government savings bond and gave the money to the building fund. When Roy Acuff, who had known Grace Abel in Fountain City, came through Dayton on his campaign for governor, she persuaded him to buy a brick for $50.00.

After meeting for about a year at Dayton City School, the congregation was able to return in the fall of 1949 to the renovated sanctuary, where the pews faced west, as they do now, instead of north as before. “The construction of the addition was completed in February, 1950. In 1951, over three years after the building campaign had begun and after more than $1000,000 had been raised, there was a ceremony in which the last note on the bank lone was burned. The participants in that event, along with the pastor, were Ben Purser, Dr. J. J. Rodgers, Fred Robinson, and William T. Robinson.

In January of 1955, very successful revival services were held at the church with Sullins Dosser, grandson of Dr. David Sullins (who had preached the dedication sermons for the new churches in 1888 and 1889) as evangelist. The song leader was Ben Purser, who for many years was a faithful song leader at the church. Dr. J. J. Rodgers said that it was at this time that he and his wife, Vivian, really became dedicated to the work of the church and to the promotion of missions. Perhaps another result of the Sullins revival was the founding of the Loyalty Class when a group of girls met together in the church sanctuary and formed a class with Josephine Jones as teacher. For 30 years she taught that class.

In the aftermath of the effective revival held by Sullins Dosser, there was increased attendance at the church services and at prayer meetings. In 1957 the church was engaged in another building program—a two-story addition at the back of the church to provide more classrooms and a parlor. The parlor was dedicated to the memory of Mrs. Annie Robeson, a little lady who met people at the church door with a friendly greeting and became known as the “Sunshine Lady.” With the building of the Family Life Center in 1987 and the purchase in 1991 of the adjoining lot and brick house on the north, the potential for the ministry of this church has greatly increased.

So it is that the work of our church, organized in 1883, continues to the present time with its reaching and teaching and sharing ministries for the glory of god and the furtherance of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

For our good heritage, we are indebted not only to the few we have had tiime to mention today but the hundreds of others, some of whom are named on the church windows;

With thanksgiving in our hearts for our cloud of witnesses, let us—as old timers and newcomers in the church, as administrative council members trustees, committee members, choir members, United Methodist Women, and Sunday school teachers—commit ourselves to the task that lies ahead of us – to truly be the Church of Jesus Christ.

Richard Rogers became one of the founders and a trustee of the college named in honor of William Jennings Bryan.

For our good heritage, we are indebted not only to the few we have had tiime to mention today but the hundreds of others, some of whom are named on the church windows;