Lovely Windows - First UMC, OKC

Lovely 'Rose Window' has initials 'G.A.R.' in the center - Grand Army of the Republic. No apparent religious symbols in this glass.

A familiar scene in glass - The Good Shepherd

A colorful decorative panel - with a sheaf of wheat signifying abundant life

Early History of OKC Methodism by Local News Reporter

The First Eight Months of Oklahoma City was written by a news reporter who was there, busy collecting tidbits for publication and to be sent over the news wires. Among the information, political reports and accounts is a valuable section for the history of Methodism in Oklahoma City. "HISTORY OF THE M. E. CHURCH IN OKLAHOMA CITY AND A SKETCH OF ITS PASTOR, REV. A. G. MURRAY" offer important details and information about the actions of early Methodists from that first Sunday after the run and the leaders who were involved.

Maud Methodist Church Bells

Maud, Oklahoma was founded in Seminole County in 1896.  In 1902 the Methodist Church was founded there and closed in 2007. The bells from the church are displayed outside the Maud Historical Society Museum (open according to their sign on Saturdays and Sundays only).

History Told Through Buildings

Wesley UMC in Oklahoma City sits on the fringe of several historic districts, and is part of two urban development areas, The Asian District and Uptown 23rd.  Sitting majestically at the corner of NW 25 and Classen it towers over the surrounding area. Mere blocks from Oklahoma City University it has shared in its 100+ years a relationship with the university with many faculty, students, and administration serving on its boards, staff, Sunday School teachers, choir members and attendees.

 

Various church published histories of this church established in 1910 always list three versions of the church: the first wooden structure, affectionately called the "Cow Shed", at NW 32 and Classen; the second, and larger, structure at NW 25th and Douglas (just off of Classen) in 1911. That structure redesigned and augmented the building materials of the first structure in order to make more room.  Not as well documented was the third incarnation of the church, what was lovingly called the "Dutton Tabernacle" improved while Dr. Dean C. Dutton was pastor (1919-1923).  Here, for perhaps the first time, is more accurate chronology of the phases of development for this Methodist Episcopal Church (north).

First service here was Sunday, Dec. 25, 1910 with Bishop William Quayle preaching and Rev. Frank A. Colwell as pastor. Members were accepted that day and children baptized. Bishop Quayle also gave the first $100 to a building fund begun that day. The above building was built using a $300 mission grant from the M.E. North Oklahoma Conference in October 1910. The church formally organized on Nov. 10, 1910.

The "Sheep Shed" at NW 25 and Douglas, just off Classen Blvd.
An addition buts out on the right side for some fifteen feet (ca. 1911/15.).  They moved in the spring of 1911 to this location due to an influx of members with the closing of  Epworth University. The property was purchased for $600.00.  Members recounted tales of the way the tarpaper would whip and rustle in the high Oklahoma winds and remain cold in winter and warm in the summer. In the summer they brought in blocks of ice and set up fans to blow over the congregants to keep them cool. Pastors in these years : Frank A. Colwell (1910-1911); H.C. Betts (1913); Thomas Pingrey (1913); E.R. Houck (1914-1915); J.W. Cater (1915-1916); Charles Clark Smith (1916-1918).

 

"The Dutton Tabernacle" 1920; You can see the 'bones' of the other structures if you look closely. Aggressive growth, diverse program and strong membership participation saw the church grow to nearly 1,000. Dr. Dean C. Dutton (Ph.D.) was there from 1919-1922.

 

In 1923 the pastor was J.W. Waldron, J.A. Baldwin (1924) and in 1925 Dr. William Forney Hovis arrived. In 1924/26, F.A. Colwell, first pastor and now a contractor was responsible for tearing down the Dutton Tabernacle to make room for the new sanctuary; a building across NW 25 was used for classes and events. In 1928 the above sanctuary was completed and dedicated. Later, the house was used as a youth and education building, Hadduck Hall. It was torn down in the 1970's.

---Appreciation to Wesley United Methodist Church for use of these photos from their archives collection

Church Commorative Plates: Wesley UMC (OKC)

First in a series.

As benchmarks in a church's life were achieved there were celebrations and plates were created to mark the anniversary of the birth of the local church in communities across the country.  These are sometimes found in antique stores as well as church files or display cabinets.  They are a unique and fragile piece of church history often expressing notes of history, showing images of long gone buildings, and naming names of leaders long forgotten. Sometimes there merely show an image important to the congregation ( a beloved leader, a church building, a feature of the building, or something reflective of local character and heritage).  Their construction can range from sturdy stoneware to the most fragile and delicate of finer china.

 

These images are from Wesley United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City. The church began life in 1910 as Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1928 they constructed a classic English Gothic sanctuary with stained glass windows at the corner of NW Classen Blvd. and NW 25th.

50th Anniversary Plate, 1960

100th Anniversary Plate, 2010

 

The Work in Moshulatubbee and South of the Canadian

Before Oklahoma was admitted as a state to the union in 1907, the Choctaw Nation was divided into three districts: Apukshunnubbee, Moshulatubbee, and Pushmataha. They were all named for renowned leaders, spokesman and chiefs.  Each had an administrative center where business, laws, punishments and economic activity was held by the Nation. These were all administered by The Choctaw Nation and had been since their forced removal from the southeast United States in the early 1800's.

 

• Apukshunnubbee District included areas known today as the counties of  Haskell, Hughes, Latimer, Le Flore, and Pittsburg.
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• Moshuatubbee District covered original Choctaw counties of  Gaines, Sans Bois, Skullyville, Sugar Loaf, and Tobucksy. It's court house was north east of modern McAlester.
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• Pushmataha District covered the areas known today as Atoka, Bryan, Choctaw, and Pushmataha counties.

 

Many of the Native Americans who made that forced March to the area of present day Oklahoma had been converted to Methodism in their home territories in the southeast.  The pastors and religious leaders - both European American and Native American - of these Native American Methodists made the march alongside their spiritual brothers and sisters.

 

According to Bryce's History of Methodism: The Story of the Indian Mission Conference of the Methodist Episcopal South, there are listings for ministry assignments into all of these districts going back to 1844 or the date of the first Methodist conference in the region of Oklahoma.

 

A list of the names of the persons sent to work in "Moshulatubee" [sic] in Bryce's work begin in 1844 and end in about 1893. It is unclear if the work faded or was subsumed by other works and appeared under a different designation. Research into the boundaries and labeling for these early works is ongoing. The ministers were often assigned in teams and in this district they were re-assigned periodically. The names provide a starting place for further and more detailed work into these early periods of church work.

 

L.F. Collins and John Page

E.B. Duncan and D.W. Lewis

William Wilson

G. Bastiste

W.F. Folson

B. Dury

G. Perry

Jakeway Billy

J.B. Luce

William Wetson

 

A list of the persons sent to what was labeled the "Canadian" begins 1849 and goes to 1856 when it is called the "Canadian School". Then, in 1870 it is labeled once more "Canadian" until 1884 when it is labeled "Canadian District" (with a Presiding Elder designated indicating it was an ecclesiastical district) until 1888 when it is labeled the "Canadian Circuit" until 1889.  That year there is listed both a "South Canadian" and a Canadian District. The District is identified once more with a Presiding Elder until1890 when it is just a name without a designation. That same year again the South Canadian designation is used. In 1891 there is the "Canadian Circuit", in 1893 there is the "South Canadian", in 1895 both a "South Canadian" and a Canadian Circuit, in 1897 a Canadian District and a Canadian (Circuit is assumed).

 

The names associated with these groups are as follows. Since overlap is unclear they will be listed by the group classification used by Bryce.

 

Canadian

John F. Boot (1849-1852)

Walter Carey (1853)

Henry Butler (1870)

John Sevier (1871)

S.P. Hicks (1872)

J.G. Forrester (1895)

Frank Naylor, J.F. Wagman (18896)

 

Canadian School

James Essex (1856)

 

Canadian District

C.W. Myatt, Presiding Elder (1885)

W.B. Austin, PE (1889)

G.W. Atkins (1890)

W.P. Pipkin (1891)

C.M. Coppedge, PE (1892)

J.J. Lovett, PE (1896, 1897)

 

Canadian Circuit

G.S. Yarbourgh (1884)

A.C. Pickens (1887)

 

South Canadian

R.H. Grinstead

J.F. Wagnon

F.E. Shanks

J.R. Smith

S.J. Oslin (?)

 

With the entry of the regions of the twin territories of Indian and Oklahoma in the union as the state of Oklahoma in 1907 all of these early Choctaw Nation designations were abandoned as new designations replaced them. Areas once in one county, suddenly found themselves in brand new geographical regions with new names, county seats of government and more.  As the saying goes, there is always "more to the story" and failing to look deeper and wider can mean a loss of historical vision. This was made apparent to this author in investigating the history of the Atwood Church and realizing that there was a vast Methodist work in the larger region going back to a far earlier date than the accepted beginnings designated in some historical volumes.

Companions on the Journey and Tools for the Task

John Wesley, Founder of Methodism, had much to say about the need for the minister to be well read but also thoroughly committed to the Bible.  Wesley spent his time on the long and frequent journeys he undertook riding the countryside of England and Ireland praying and reading.

Wesley wrote this letter to a pastor, John Trembath, of Cork, on August 17, 1760:

To John Trembath CORK, August 17, 1760.

MY DEAR BROTHER,--The conversation I had with you yesterday in the afternoon gave me a good deal of satisfaction. As to some things which I had heard (with regard to your wasting your substance, drinking intemperately, and wronging the poor people of Siberton), I am persuaded they were mistakes; as I suppose it was that you converse much with careless, unawakened people. And I trust you will be more and more cautious in all these respects, abstaining from the very appearance of evil. [See letter of Sept. 21, 1755.] 

 

That you had not always attended the preaching when you might have done it you allowed, but seemed determined to remove that objection, as well as the other of using such exercises or diversions as give offence to your brethren. I believe you will likewise endeavour to avoid light and trifling conversation, and to talk and behave in all company with that seriousness and usefulness which become a preacher of the gospel. 

 

Certainly some years ago you was alive to God. You experienced the life and power of religion. And does not God intend that the trials you meet with should bring you back to this You cannot stand still; you know this is impossible. You must go forward or backward. Either you must recover that power and be a Christian altogether, or in a while you will have neither power nor form, inside nor outside.

Extremely opposite both to one and the other is that aptness to ridicule others, to make them contemptible, by exposing their real or supposed foibles. This I would earnestly advise you to avoid.

 

It hurts yourself; it hurts the hearers; and it greatly hurts those who are so exposed, and tends to make them your irreconcilable enemies. It has also sometimes betrayed you into speaking what was not strictly true. O beware of this above all things! Never amplify, never exaggerate anything. Be rigorous in adhering to truth. Be exemplary therein. Whatever has been in time past, let all men now know that John Trembath abhors lying, that he never promises anything which he does not perform, that his word is equal to his bond. I pray be exact in this; be a pattern of truth, sincerity, and godly simplicity. 

 

What has exceedingly hurt you in time past, nay, and I fear to this day, is want of reading. I scarce ever knew a preacher read so little. And perhaps by neglecting it you have lost the taste for it. Hence your talent in preaching does not increase. It is just the same as it was seven years ago. It is lively, but not deep; there is little variety; there is no compass of thought. Reading only can supply this, with meditation and daily prayer. You wrong yourself greatly by omitting this. You can never be a deep preacher without it any more than a thorough Christian. O begin! Fix some part of every day for private exercises. You may acquire the taste which you have not; what is tedious at first will afterwards be pleasant. Whether you like it or no, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way: else you will be a trifler all your days, and a pretty, superficial preacher. Do justice to your own soul; give it time and means to grow. Do not starve yourself any longer. Take up your cross, and be a Christian altogether. Then will all the children of God rejoice (not grieve) over you, and in particular Yours, &c

It was in this spirit of continual professional and spiritual development that a later minister wrote. Rev. James Murray of the Methodist Episcopal Church noted in an address to the 1889 Conference of the Oklahoma Indian Mission that preachers should "let your library consist largely of the Bible, the Dictionary, the Discipline, the Catechism and the Hymn book..." (Brill, A History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Oklahoma, 1939, pg. 27)

 

Early circuit rider of the Indian Territory, Rev. Albert S.J. Haygood always traveled with specific tools in his saddlebags. Thus the Methodist Episcopal Church, South minister carried with him a clean shirt, his Bible, a small edition hymn book, a Discipline, and a copy of the Methodist Armor.  (Turner, A History of Methodism in Holdenville, 1897-1957).

Many of the books are unknown, for example what dictionary did Murray prefer to carry? What versions were available? Where did they acquire them?  Others, thankfully, have been digitized so there is some ability to explore and enjoy the resources these early preachers used to improve themselves in mind and heart.

The Methodist Armor : or, A popular exposition of the doctrines, peculiar usages, and ecclesiastical machinery of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. (Hilary T. Hudson, 1882) is one example. This no doubt served as an ongoing classroom for the wide traveled minister and teacher, Albert S.J. Haygood.

The "Catechism" was most probably  Catechisms of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South , Thomas O. Summers. This 1861 work was widely used in schools, churches, and mission work by the M.E.S.

While it is unclear what copy of the Book of Discipline such ministers might have carried, they would have been similar for M.E.S. ministers to this 1856 version or this M.E. Church 1876 version.