The history of Methodism in Earlham is as old as the community itself.  When the town was founded in 1869, thirteen members made up the first congregation.  The Friends Meeting House and the Presbyterian Church buildings served as a place of worship (every other Sunday) until a building could be erected.  Work on the first church building began in the summer of 1871, but a severe wind storm destroyed the framework of that building and the salvaged lumber was taken to Penn Center and used in the first church there.

The Methodist continued to use the facilities of the Presbyterian Church until 1886 when they completed work on a frame building located on the site of the present structure as shown on the right..

Mr. J. E. Walton designed and erected the building which cost $12,000.  On Sunday, July 23, 1911 the building was dedicated.  First services were actually held before the building was completed.  Cornerstone laying ceremonies were held under the rough-shod roof, hastily constructed for the occasion on October 18, 1910. Financing the structure exceeded all expectations with an excess of $2000 raised.

The basement of the church building was completed and dedicated on November 2, 1911.  In 1939 the Ladies Aid Society contracted a Winterset firm to decorate the basement walls.

Also in 1939 the heads of the divisions of the Methodist Episcopal, the Methodist Church South, 

Earlham Methodist M. E. Church (1886)

United Methodist - Earlham (1911)

 Photo courtesy of Google Maps

and the Methodist Protestant Church united in Kansas City and became a church with eight million members to be known as the Methodist Church.

In 1941 a merger of two church connected groups, the Missionary Society and the Ladies Aid combined to form the Women's Society of Christian Service.

In 1954 work began on the project of remodeling the interior of the sanctuary and entry ways.  And in 1958 the basement and kitchen were renovated under the direction of the Reverend Robert Edwards.

In 1968 the Methodist Church and the Evangelical Unite Brethren Church merged to become the United Methodist Church.  There is one great significant fact in the life of the Church of God.  It knows no turning back, the only direction it knows is forward.  It is this indomitable will to achieve which had made possible its progress.

For a list of ministers, see the 1970 Earlham Centennial Book.

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