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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.