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 Methodist
Episcopal Church.
—This congregation dates its organization from the year 1820, when,
according to Greggs’ History of “Methodism within the Bounds of the
Erie Conference,” “Rev. Alfred Brunson,
ordained a deacon in Cincinnati, Ohio, July, 1819, was employed part of
the following year by Elder Swayze on the Erie Circuit, when he
succeeded in forming a class in Mercer, consisting of William
Stephenson and wife, Joseph McDowell
and wife, Robert Boyd and wife,
Sarah Stokely, Elizabeth Stokely, Polly Stokely and Esther Stokely.
Benjamin Hartley, Mrs. John Banks and John
Keck were likewise among the early members. Persecution ran high
in Mercer at that time, and it was with much difficulty that a place was
obtained in which to hold meetings. Churches, courthouse and school
houses were all refused. The society was organized in a small log house
a few rods from the place where the church now stands.” The first
house of worship was a frame structure - originally about thirty feet
square. To it additions were made until its length reached some sixty
feet. It was only one story in height, and had a gallery which was used
for a class room. It stood on the site of the
present parsonage, and cost in the neighborhood of $500. The
seats were plain wooden affairs, and were never contaminated with any
such substance as paint. Rustic as they were, and a sample is yet to be
seen in the present [1888] house,
they served the purpose of those early days when Methodism boasted of
its simplicity. The illumination was
continued
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Mercer
United Methodist Church, photographed in May 2000,
Click
to enlarge photo.
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What
the History of Mercer County, 1877 says about the United Methodist Church,
Mercer, 
