METHODIST CHURCH 
      SURING 
 Oconto County, Wisconsin 
Taken from the  "Local History" Booklet - Suring School System, 
year unknown.

The oldest church denomination of the Village of Suring is the Methodist congregation. This congregation was organized in 1895 in the Joe

Armstrong farm home which was located across the road from the Charles Schimmel farm, now the Alvin Buhrandt place. The charter members of this congregation were Mr. and Mrs. Joe Armstrong, Mr. and Mrs. Ben Armstrong, Mr. and Mrs. Herman Dieck, Miss Anna Manalie, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Schimmel, Mr. and Mrs. Ede Raymond, Mr. and Mrs. H. W. Gilkey and Mr. and Mrs. Frank Dowen. The first minister to serve the Methodist people was Rev. E. D. Upson who came from Oneida and held services in the Hayes school. The first permanent church building was built of brick on a fieldstone foundation in the late 1800's in Suring and remains standing. 

In 1903 the present Methodist church building was erected. It is the oldest church building in the village. For several years the congregation was served by ministers who resided in Hickory. In 1923/24 a parsonage was built in town and the church had its own resident pastor, the Rverend John W. Horton who moved here from Hickory. 

The Evangelical United Bretheran Church of Hayes was sold and the congregation joined to the Suring Methodist congregation in June of 1967. The bell from the E. U. B. church in Hayes was placed at the Suing church as a memorial to the late Clara Gerndt and Mrs. Mary Suring in 1970. The bell was originally donated to the E. U. B. church in the late 1880's by Herman and Mary Hankwitz, early storekeepers in Hayes.