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Local church has deep roots
By Steve Moyer
Nevada Daily Mail
The United Methodist Church has a rich history, over the years several congregations have merged to make the church what it is today. Sitting on South College Street the colonial structure is a recent addition to Nevada's houses of worship but the history of the congregation goes back to before the founding of the city.
According to the church's Web site, Methodism came to the Nevada area in October of 1841 with the arrival of John Hale and Jesse Anderson. Hale was a circuit rider and worshippers would gather when he made his rounds. It was in Anderson's home that the congregation would gather. For many years the congregation met in homes, the school, courthouse or rented buildings.
According to church historian Constance Beaver, Anderson's wife, Sarah Armstrong Blevins Anderson, may have had more influence on Nevada's legends and lore than he did. During the Civil War, when Union soldiers came to Nevada to burn the town, Anderson confronted them from the front porch of her house on the southwest corner of Cedar and Austin. "Are you going to burn my home after accepting what hospitality I had to give?" Anderson said. "If so sir, you are no gentleman." The house survived.
The first Methodist building in Nevada was called First Methodist Church and had a cornerstone dated May 20, 1870. A frame building, it was located on the northwest corner of Cedar and Austin streets. It was sold in 1885 for $1,100 and for many years was used as a livery stable.
In 1884 a new building was erected on the southeast corner of Main and Austin streets. The new church was named Centenary Methodist because it was built 100 years from the founding of Methodism in the United States.
The building cost $10,054 and a remodeling project in 1923 cost $33,000. The building was sold when the congregation moved to its present location in 1961. The church was torn down and the space became a used car lot and is now the present location of McDonald's.
The First Methodist (Trinity) church was founded when several men of the community began to meet with a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church and in 1890 Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church was constructed on the corner of Arch and Cedar Streets. In 1912 the building was razed and a new structure, which now houses Calvary Baptist Church, was erected at a cost of $20,000.
Austin Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church South was started in 1888 as a missionary effort of Centenary Church.
The first church was built on the corner of Lynn and Lee streets. The church continued until 1942 when it closed due to a lack of membership. The building was ultimately sold to the Church of Christ.
Beaver said that storefront churches were nothing new in the Nevada area. "Austin Chapel was a storefront church in 1888," Beaver said. "There's nothing new under the sun."
The West Arch Street Methodist Church was also a result of the Centenary Church but it only lasted 16 years.
Two elderly ministers, The Revs. H.H. Watts and Enoch Wyan lived in western Nevada and thought that part of town needed a church of the same denomination. Purchased from the Methodist Protestant Church in 1898 the church was located at the corner of Arch and Chestnut streets and discontinued in 1914.
The Southern and Northern Methodist churches merged in 1939 and local churches began working toward a merger. On May 19, 1946, two Nevada churches, Trinity and Centenary, merged to become the Methodist Church of Nevada and worshipped in the Centenary building until 1961 when a new church was constructed at 500 S. College, for $397,700.
In 1968 the United Methodist Church was created with the merger of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church.