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Welcome to the Monticello United Methodist Church |
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Our Church’s History |
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A Methodist minister who had stopped there overnight held the first church service in Piatt County in the home of James Piatt about 1833. The next mention of preaching services by the Methodists was at the home of James Outten opposite the jail in 1839. A camp meeting was held in the area about 1842. Peter Cartwright, one of the famous Methodist Circuit riders preached in the old log courthouse in 1843 and 1844. Monticello became a new charge on a circuit in 1843.
The Methodists built the first church edifice in the county in 1847 at the northwest corner of Market and Marion Sts. By this time the church was on a three weeks circuit. In 1857 and 1858 the minister held a revival and added 150 members to the church. A bell was purchased by the Mite Society in 1861 and placed outside on four posts and was used by the nearby school. Today the bell is located across the street from Washington School with a plaque telling its history.
In 1868 Monticello was constituted a station and was no longer on a circuit. In 1869-1870 a new brick church, The Methodist Episcopal Church was built at the site of the present building, and a new bell purchased. The old church and parsonage next to it were sold and until 1889 there was no parsonage. At that time a new one was built on E. Main St. and in order to pay for it was rented until 1891. In 1908 one of Billy Sunday's evangelists, C.P. Pledger, held a month long revival in town. Church membership after that increased so that in 1911 a new brick church was built.
A house across the street east of the church was purchased for a parsonage (the present one) in 1920. In 1939 the three branches of Methodism (Protestant, North & South) came together and united to become The Methodist Church. An adjoining education building was added to the property in 1954-1955. A national merger of the Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren Churches in 1968 brought another name change, and we became The United Methodist Church.
Also in 1968 the home to the west of the church was purchased for additional space and was named The Steppe Inn and later the home to the south of the church in 1977 was purchased for a second parsonage. |