A HISTORY OF JESUP FIRST METHODIST CHURCH (1872 – 1983)

By Madge Sewell (Amended)

Jesup First Methodist Church was established in 1872, the first Church of any denomination founded in Jesup.  The Church is still located on the corner of East Cherry and North Brunswick streets, in the third building to serve the congregation since the first small, wooden one was completed in late 1872 or early 1873.

However, much earlier a “little log store served as a meeting place where people talked and praised the Lord”, according to Tindall Littlefield, whose great uncle T.P. Littlefield owned the store.  Railroads were running through the area before the town became a fact, and it was during the laying of right-of-way pegs that the first meeting occurred.  During pouring rain and amid discontented men seeking a drink of the Red Corn Whiskey available from the heavy oak stump, the first prayer was said, according to the story.

When Mike Darvis, foreman of the survey group, was offered a drink, he gave the other three men a “long, straight look, squared his broad shoulders and drawled, ‘What I need and what ya’ll need most, is for us to get down on our knees and pray.’”  The men fell to their knees, and Darvis said the simple words, “Oh Lord, we need you here.”  The prayer was surely answered, because the little store became the meeting place for the early settlers as they moved in.

Sunday School meetings preceded Church in Jesup.  During the late 1860s, Mrs. Matilda George with one or two other persons, held Sunday School on the second floor of a wooden building on the corner of East Cherry and Northwest Broad streets.  The names of both Mrs. Lucinda Clary and Mrs. George’s daughter, Mrs. Virginia Williams, have been handed down as the second person.  There was no local Baptist Church during these early years, but a group of Baptists was active in the Sunday School.  For several years, the two denominations cooperated in a Union Sunday School, with a John J. Black as superintendent.  During that period, Sunday School was not managed by the Quarterly or Annual Conference, and the officials were elected by the local group, with the cooperation of the pastor.

Soon an itinerant preacher, a Mr. McKenney, began holding services there, and Jesup was on her way to her first Methodist Church in that room over the mercantile business of W.H. Whaley and Sons.

Capt. Willis Clary, late of the Confederate Army, donated a 200’ x 200’ lot, site of the present-day building, and the small nucleus of the First Methodist Church was ready to begin its first Church building.  Forces for Methodism in Jesup gathered strength with the arrival of Archibald Clark, a Virginia native and graduate of Randolph Macon College.  The Rev. Clark had preached in the Virginia Conference for 16 years when concern for his invalid wife’s health forced him to seek warmer climates for his family.  Although the building was not yet completed, services were being conducted in the Church by the time the Rev. Clark arrived with his family in February 1873.  Public school was also being held in the small building for a time, and it is thought that “Old Parson Clark” taught in the school.

The congregation began construction on a new Church in the late 1880s and moved into the new facility in 1980, marking a giant step forward for Methodism in Jesup.  Like the first building, the new one was made of wood, and it also had a steeple, and like its older sister, the building was headed by a pot-bellied stove.  However, it had a charm all its own, with its porch for early arrivals to gather, and inviting double doors.  The first sanctuary was moved back on the lot in 1887 and used as a parsonage until a new one was built facing Brunswick Street in later years.

Records of the early 1900s show that 160 were enrolled in Sunday School with an average attendance of 100; preaching services were “well attended” and prayer meetings were called “most devout.”  Sunday School classes were held in different sections of the sanctuary and all joined together for singing.  Popular with dating couples (who found little entertainment in the small hamlet of Jesup) many attended the Sunday School at the Baptist Church in the mornings and at the Methodist Church in the afternoon.  A Boy Scout Club was organized by the Church in 1912 with 40 members.  Foreign and Home Mission Societies were a part of the Church by this time, and a Children’s Mission Society was added.  An Epworth League group had “struggled” for many years, and in this period a Junior group was added.

Growth of the Church demanded that additional space be provided, and sentiment favored a new sanctuary.  The “Sunday School Annex enterprise” was approved and committee appointed in 1923 and, by 1924 under the promotion of the Rev. W.A. Brooks, was well into the first phase of the ambitious building program.  The completed Annex was utilized not only for class rooms but for Church services as well after work was begun on the new sanctuary.  During the Rev. J. Lytle Jones’ pastorship, the building committee for the sanctuary was appointed, and the firm of Greer and Biggers of Valdosta recommended as architects.

But as the nation swung into the Era of the Great Depression, the future of the First Methodist’s building program appeared to be in jeopardy which only an act of God could alleviate.  The ladies of the Church cleaned the Annex, and some families paid Church dies with fresh vegetables and with wood for cooking and heating the parsonage and Church.

However, even in the hard times, the pressing need for a new Church building was stressed at Quarterly Conference by the Rev. W.L. Wright in 1930.  A bequest by Mrs. Caroline Hinkley, who died in April 1929, had furnished the Methodist Church with a large portion of the capital needed for construction of the new building, given for “… the sole purpose of …”

The Rev. Charles W. Curry, known in the Conference as a “Church builder” was assigned to the Jesup Church in December 1930 for the express purpose of expediting the building program.  At a Special Quarterly Conference on February 15, 1935, the final Building Committee was elected.  Before the first of September, the Church had “completed its $25000 Church without one penny owed for construction”, according to an Atlanta Journal news story.

Upon completion of the building, the Board of Trustees was authorized to borrow money “… not exceeding the sum of $1,000 for the purpose of furnishing the Church …,” from the Board of Church Extention of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.  A kitchen was equipped in the basement, and the great room there served as dining area, meeting room, and recreation parlor combined.  An active youth program was inaugurated, and table tennis and other games were made available.

An electric organ was purchased and installed in the choir loft in the early 1940s, largely the result of the interest of Dr. T.G. Ritch and the work and efforts of Mrs. F.E. Murphy, organist, and Mrs. J.T. Colvin, toe-tapping choir regular.  This Wurlitzer Organ replaced the piano which had been used since the pump organ of the early part of the century.

The war years brought many changes in the Jesup Church as in others across the country.  Open House was observed every Sunday, and many eager young voices from nearby Camp Stewart joined in the choir and attendance reached the point that chairs were required in the aisle for Sunday night services.  A Garden of Memory was started in which azaleas were planted in memory of deceased members, and the Wesleyan Service Guild was organized in 1942.

The Jesup Church has been blessed through the years with ministers who inspired the members to live a good life and to march with progress.  When the young Rev. Tom Whiting arrived in Jesup for his two year ministry in 1954, he immediately gave the impression of a man who knew where he was going and that he intended to take the Jesup Church along with him.  The drive for the gigantic building program for a new education building and parsonage costing $140,000 was begun only three months after this minister arrived in Jesup.  The funds were raised in seven days with the help of a professional fund raiser, and soon the new parsonage was built, the Annex torn down, the old parsonage sold and moved, and work begun on the new educational plant.

Bishop Moore had talked for some time of the possibility of First Methodist’s being instrumental in establishing a Church on the west side of town, and the Rev. Whiting felt “one of the finest things any Church can do is to mother another Church.”  A special Quarterly Conference was called in October 1956 to transfer a piece of property to the proposed Church, and at the Bishop’s request for transfers, 56 members moved their letters to the newly formed Epworth Methodist Church.

The Rev. Albert Hall, full of enthusiasm and sincerity, kept the Sunday School and Church attendance at record highs as construction progressed on the new educational plant.  In August 1957, a resolution was passed, giving authority to borrow $40,000 to finish the educational building and to redo the sanctuary.  Stained glass windows were installed at that time as memorials.

Bishop William R. Cannon dedicated the new Education Building at Homecoming in 1964.  The Intermediate and Senior MYFs began a drive for a Prayer Room, and the groups raised $700 to buy pews, carpet, record player, and curtains for the room.  The Pulpit was given as a memorial.

A new District was created in the mid 1960s, and Jesup was assigned to this new Statesboro District after having been in the Waycross District.  In 1968, as part of overall changes in the Methodist Church structure, Jesup First Methodist Church became Jesup First United Methodist Church.  The first Charge Conference of the United Methodist Church received the report, “The WSCS and the Guild continue to lead the District in financial support of women’s work.”

Youth revivals became an integral part of the Church program at this time, and in 1970 Charles Strickland was recognized as Usher of the Year at the South-eastern Jurisdictional Conference at Junaluska.

The Rev. Bruce Wilson came to the Church on the eve of the One Hundredth Year of Methodism in Jesup.  Among the innovations introduced by him was “Dial-A-Prayer”.  The first Church School picnic in recent years was held in the Fall with an impressive Galilean service at lakeside.  The present tradition of “Hanging of the Greens” was begun and Chrismons were made by the Guild for use on the Fellowship Hall tree.  A live Nativity Scene made the meaning of Christmas come alive in the courtyard, and the Holy Week Services were inaugurated between Palm Sunday and Easter.  The “Widening Circle” was a feature of summer services, with called-in requests for songs and prayer a part of night services carried over radio hook-up.

The Centennial of Jesup’s first Church was an unprecedented highlight of the Church life, climaxed by a four-day revival by the New Bishop W.R. Cannon and Homecoming Day on November 19.  The Homecoming featured a museum depicting the history of the Church, a pageant honoring pastors through the years and presentation of a 150-page history of the Church. (This history, Wayne Windsong by Madge Sewell, was later judged the “best Church history of the decade” of the Southeastern Jurisdiction.)

A daily preschool program was begun in the Fall of 1971 called The School of Discovery.

Dr. Aubrey Alsobrook brought his caring ministry to the Church in 1975.  Such friendship developed between Dr. and Mrs. Alsobrook that the couple purchased a home and remained in the city upon his retirement in 1980.  Although he is not superannuated, he has served the Odum Circuit since that time.

During Dr. Alsobrook’s years in the pulpit, First Methodist Bell Ringers, under the direction of Keith Taylor, brought national recognition to the Church when they performed at Carnegie Hall and in England as guests of the National Children’s Home.

The Rev. Jullian Tucker came to Jesup First United Methodist with the decade of the 1980s, bringing with him such innovations as the reenactment of the Lord’s Supper on Maundy Thursday and the Crucifixion in the Courtyard of the Church on Good Friday at high noon, with himself being nailed to the cross as Jesus.

The Church is presently embarked on a renovation program of the sanctuary and offices of the Church. Chandeliers will be installed in the sanctuary which will have new pews and new carpeting.

And Jesup First will once again have a steeple.  Donated by a member of the Church, plans are now underway for a steeple to be placed atop the sanctuary.  Once again, a steeple will reach upward to the sky as it did on the first Church, more than 100 years ago.

Beloved Pastors of Jesup First Methodist Church