Some History of the Methodist Church in Stroud, Oklahoma

Stroud, Oklahoma was settled  in 1892 and by February of the next year a Methodist group was forming. At that time individuals began formalizing meetings and services. These included a "Methodist minister" named Dell Nichols, a Rev. from Guthrie named Walter Bilby, and soon after a  Rev. J.C. Parker (who entered the Territory by transfer in 1892 and died in 1933 as a Methodist Episcopal Church minister). From this information is probable the first congregation in Stroud was a Methodist Episcopal Church (sometimes called the Northern branch to differ it from the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The two had diverged in the 1840's over slavery).

About 1900 a church building was under construction on West Fifth in Stroud. Locals had hoped to ring the bell there for New Year's that year but construction problems prevented that.

The Clegg and Oden history of the Oklahoma Conference of the United Methodist Church lists the pastors for Stroud for both denominations.

Methodist Episcopal Church Pastors, Stroud, Oklahoma

1907 -S.K. Jewell

1908- N.E. Wood

1909- G.W. Green

1910-11 -E.F.S. Darby

1912-13 - G.T. Andrews

1914- - D.T. Morton

1915 - Harry Royce

1916 - H.E. Brill

1918 - J.T. Riley

1920 - FEDERATED [A system introduced to allow churches to unite and an early movement prior to the 1939 union of the two denominations as the Methodist Church]

1922 - A.W. Faucett

1923-24 - H Ivan Byrd

1925 - F.W. Galyon

1926-29 - F. Singer

1930 - L.L. Brown

1931-32 - H.F. Draper

1933-34 - T. Parker Hilbourne

1936-39 - Paul E. Osman

Information concerning the location and services of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (M.E.C.,S) is less available. 

Methodist Episcopal Church, South Pastors

1907 - George W. Lewis

1908 - S.M. Sartin

1909 - H. K. Monroe

1910 - W.D. Sasser

1911 - W.T. Ready

1912-13 - U.G. Reynolds

1914 - A.M. Dupree

1916 - J.R. Hardin

1917 - G.E. Ryan

1919 - R.J. LaPrade

1920-21 - J.C. Crowson

1926 - C.N. Smith

McCurtain County: When Oklahoma and Arkansas Were One

At one time, the area of eastern Oklahoma was part of a conference that included Missouri and Arkansas. Taking this time period into account pushes back date of a "first" Methodist work. The first Protestant Church service was held in the Pecan Point Methodist Circuit by Rev. Wm. Stevenson (see Personal Note page), a Methodist preacher in the vicinity of present Harris, McCurtain County, in 1818. (Although another source says the Methodists were present in 1816).

 

Two miles northwest was the well-known Harris Ferry. This area of Harris was an early white settlement on the Red River within the limits of Arkansas Territory. A marker for Pecan Point was erected in 1962 by the Oklahoma Methodist Historical Society, under the auspices of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Regular mission work among the Choctaws in this area was begun in 1831. The marker is Co-located with Harris House marker on U.S. 259 south of Harris.