The Split of the
Methodist Episcopal Church
The Methodist Episcopal Church was established with an abolitionist platform. As Methodism spread throughout the rest of the nineteenth century, the Church took a more neutral stance on slavery to appease Southern members. These appeasement measures enraged abolitionist members of the North. The activities of abolitionist members such as speeches and petitions, would enrage members from the South. Due to these rising tensions, the Methodist Episcopal Church split. The pro-slavery, Methodist Episcopal Church, South split off in 1844. This national split impacted the Methodist community in Nodaway County.
VIOLENCE
The turmoil of the Civil War was mirrored in several incidents that occurred regarding the Methodist Episcopal Church and slavery in Nodaway County.
Post- Civil War
The Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South lived together in relative peace after the Civil War in Nodaway County.
REUNION
​On May 10, 1939, the Methodist Episcopal Church and Methodist Episcopal Church, South merged nationally to form the Methodist Church.
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Methodism made its way to Nodaway County in the 1840s. Early services were small and conducted within homes. Ministers at this time would travel throughout the circuit to hold services. The Maryville Circuit was established in the 1850s. A circuit in the Methodist Episcopal Church was a group of churches organized under one pastor. The first Methodist Episcopal Church in Nodaway County was organized in 1840 in Hughes township. The first Methodist Episcopal Church building was built in Maryville opened in 1867 on the southeast corner of First and Main. This was the first Protestant building in Maryville. A second Methodist Episcopal church was built in 1894 on the northwest corner of First and Main. This church is the present United Methodist Church in Maryville.
The first Methodist Episcopal Church in Maryville. This was the first Protestant church in Maryville.
Image from Nodaway County Historical Society.
The Methodist Episcopal Church, South was built in 1890 on the corner of Second and Buchanan in Maryville.
Image from Nodaway County Historical Society
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In 1846 the Methodist Episcopal Church, South was organized in Nodaway County. Early services were held in schoolhouses and the courthouse. During the Civil War, church services were suspended for three years due to members fleeing Nodaway County or serving in the war. The first church building for the MEC, S in Nodaway County was built in 1867 in Maryville. Another building for the MEC, S was built in 1890 on the Southwest corner of West Second and Buchanan in Maryville. In 1881, the MEC, S church that was built in 1867 was sold to the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Maryville for $400.
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​Nodaway County faced unrest during the Civil War. This unrest spread to the Methodist Episcopal community in the county. An anti-slavery preacher in northern Andrew County, William Sellers, was tarred and feathered by a pro-slavery mob in 1854. Another preacher, D.W. David, was forced to hide in a tree stump to escape a pro-slavery group. In 1857 Methodist Episcopal preacher, John Chivington, threatened pro-slavery churchgoers with a gun in Pickering. Despite these acts of violence leading up to the Civil War, there is not much evidence of Methodist Church-related violence after the war.
Sellers Tarred and Feathered
“Methodists Go From Old to New; From Circuit Rider to Minister,” The Maryville Daily Forum, 20 March 1971
Image from Newspapers.com
Chivington's Two Bibles
“The Olden Times: An Interesting Account of the Early Days of Nodaway County," Maryville Republican, 15 January 1891
Image from Newspapers.com
There was not much evidence of there being violent incidents directly involving members of the Methodist Episcopal Church or the Methodist Episcopal Church, South after the Civil War. That is not to say that incidents did not happen, nor is that to say that members of these churches were not involved in documented acts of violence in the decades since the Civil War.
However, the archival record does not present any major incidents that specifically included members of these churches as perpetrators or victims, nor does it present Methodist Church doctrine as a specific motive.
What the archival record does show is that the churches were relatively friendly with each other. The churches would hold meetings and would host guest preachers from different churches. For example, in 1928 a preacher from the Methodist Episcopal Church, South held a sermon within the African Methodist Episcopal Church. During World War II the Methodist Church, the AME, and other churches in Maryville joined together to support the Red Cross.
Map is from 1886.
Despite the close proximity of the churches, there is no documented case of turmoil that specifically involved church members fighting.
Image from University of Missouri: Sanborn Maps
Men from the Methodist Episcopal Church on Main Street, 1910
Image from Nodaway County Historical Society
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On May 10, 1939, the National Methodist Episcopal Church and Methodist Episcopal Church, South merged to form the Methodist Church. A week later the measure was adopted in Maryville. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South on Buchanan Street was sold. The Methodist church on Main Street was designated as the primary Methodist church. On June 11, 1939, a service and dinner were held to celebrate the reunion. While this reunion was described as happy, the MEC, S only agreed to merge if the Methodist Church instituted segregationist policies. This segregation was met with harsh pushback from Black Methodists. The Methodist Church remained segregated until 1968. Little to nothing could be found in the archival record as to how Black members of the Methodist Church in Nodaway County felt about this measure, as there were Black members of the Methodist Churches in Nodaway County outside of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Opened in 1895, this is the present First United Methodist Church, as photographed in the 1960s.
Image from Nodaway County Historical Society.