The first title to property on which to build a church was granted in
1848. The first church evidently stood in property to which the church
did not hold title. Mr. Allen Urquhart “sold” (the $100.00 of the
transaction seems to have been given by Mr. Urquhart) to the Trustees of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in the town of Jefferson the lot
on which the present church stands. Construction of the brick church
must have started shortly, for many older residents of Jefferson today
state that “the Methodist Church was the first church in town.”
Mrs. Mamie Tullis Smith remembers hearing a former slave of her father
tell how her father put him to work wheeling brick and mortar and how
tired he became. He spoke, however, of what a great honor to him it was
to work on the Methodist Church.
The lots on which the parsonage was later built were acquired in 1866.
One lot was purchased fer $100.00 from a Mr. and Mrs. Rooks. The second
was “purchased” from Mr. F. A. Schluter for $500.00, the money being
given by Mr. Schluter himself. It was this honored resident and pioneer
Methodist who served as one of the trustees in 1848 when the church lot
was acquired and who gave the whole $1500.00 in Mexican silver dollars
to go into the bell. Mr. J. C. Murphy, a wholesaler with a great
business, likewise served on this Board of Trustees, and it was he who
carried the dollars on a steamer to New Orleans for shipment to New
York.