Mr. Ed Lawson comments that Mr. Adam Trieschmann, Company Sales Manager and Mr. Carroll who worked in his office were devout Methodist Church members. They, with the help of Mrs. Gates and later Mrs. Rule, began working with the Methodist Conference to get a new building and a permanent organization. Mr. Shaw was a local man who was drafted as Mayor and he was also a preacher; so he preached on Sundays. The new building, erected in 1903-4, at the corner of Main and Third Avenue, cost about $15,000 which was considered a stupendous sum. The company gave half and we raised the other with Mr. Trieschmann, Mrs. Gates, and Mrs. Rule paying a good part of that. It included a sanctuary, Sunday School rooms, kitchen, etc. The most used room was the Baracca room named for the Baracca Class; a class for men, which later became the Men's Bible Class. Miss McKinsey was deaconess and taught the Baracca Class. She was a wonderful person. A book, Morning Glory was written about her.

One of the last gifts made to the church by Adam Trieschmann was a prayer mounted on a stone in front of the present church. The main street sidewalk was heavily used in early days by workmen walking to and from the sawmill. Mr. Trieschmann wanted workers to read the prayer each day as they walked to work. The prayer was:

Rev. C. Pope, then Presiding Elder of the Monticello District attached the Crossett church to the Hamburg Circuit. With the building of the 1904 church, Crossett became a station. The little one room building that was the original church became a school and later a barber shop.

At the first Quarterly Conference, December 6, 1903, a resolution was introduced by the Pastor, A.M. Shaw, Jr. thanking the Crossett Lumber Company for making it possible for the Methodist Church to have a beautiful and commodious building within such a short time. At the fourth Quarterly Conference, November 14, 1904, the Board of Trustees reported completion of the building; and it was dedicated on September 24, 1904 by Bishop Key.

In a town heavily populated with young bachelors, the church became an early recreational center as well as a place of worship. There was a close relationship between the benevolent Crossett Lumber Company and the people of the town. Each year the company held a Sunday School picnic involving 1,000 to 2,000 people. The group would leave Crossett on flat cars on which seats had been built, and a different location was chosen each year.

In those days all of the electricity for the town was generated at the Crossett lumber company power house. In order to save money and give the workers a good night's sleep, the power to residential buildings and churches was shut off at ten p.m. each evening after blinking a warning to the residents. This resulted in a definite and effective curfew for all social events in town.

The church became involved in evangelism very early by sponsoring the "Gospel Car", a railroad car about thirty-five feet long, open at both ends. It was equipped with tables, book shelves, chairs, books and literature. The car traveled from logging camp to logging camp, staying about a week and was the first religious opportunity of the camps. These meetings later led to the formation of churches at the camp sponsored by the Methodist Church. Mr. Trieschmann would travel to the camps frequently to hold Sunday School.

The first marriage in the church was on September 6, 1904. Dr. J. E. Sparks married Miss Frankie Morton.

During the War years 1917-18, Crossett experienced a very bad influenza epidemic. The Methodist Church was turned into a hospital where people came to live and be fed. Bandages were rolled at the church for the hospitals in France.

A city band was organized in 1920 and an orchestra in 1922. Many prominent Methodists played. The orchestra frequently played for Sunday School and church. Some of the church members did not think it was appropriate for the band to play for dances and for church too and this was mentioned to the Pastor. There is no record however that the Pastor took any action.

The depression years were very hard on the people of Crossett. At Christmas time, the church would always distribute a stocking on Christmas Eve to every child attending which included an orange, an apple, some nuts, and a stick of "candy cane" candy. This was the only Christmas gift many of the children received. Mr. Phillips would dress as Santa Claus for the event.

One of the most regular church attendees was "Puppy" Hastings, a little brown dog owned by the Hastings family. The family would attend and "Puppy" would sit on the front steps of the church each Sunday with Mr. W. A. Phillips the head usher. The only bad part of this story is that when the Hastings family was out of town, "Puppy" would continue to faithfully attend, and the congregation never missed the opportunity to inform the Hastings family.

Rev. Henderson liked to end his most profound statements with the question: "Why didn’t someone say A-Men"? At one Sunday evening service, Max Cruthirds, probably about ten at the time, heard Rev. Henderson ask his famous question. Maz promptly jumped to his feet and said: "A-Men Brother Henderson, A-Men". Rev. Henderson was so taken aback that he immediately pronounced the benediction.

Just north of the church was the city park and North of that was the Rose Inn hotel. Some long-time members remember their Sunday school classes picking up their chairs and moving outdoors to the park to enjoy what little breeze there was on the hot summer days with no air conditioning. In this same park, tent revivals would come in the summer to compete with our church services.

Another episode with the hot summer weather is vividly recalled by the writer at his wedding in the summer of 1946. The heat was so high in the church in August that all of the photographer's color film melted.

A large bell was in the church steeple and regularly called people to Sunday School each Sunday morning. Some members also managed to ring the bell on each New Year’s Eve. The old original bell was saved and installed in the present church steeple through the efforts of Mr. J. C. McGoogan.

During World War II, the men of the church purchased a 38X66 inch service flag made of white silk with red borders and mounted it at the front of the sanctuary near the pulpit. Mrs. Stewart Erwin placed a blue star on the flag each time one of the church members entered the service. At the dedication of the flag, Sunday evening June 25, 1944, there were one hundred stars on the flag.

On Easter Sunday, 1943, D.C. Hastings made the motion that a new church be built after the war and that money should now be collected for this project. Hastings was named as the first building committee chairman. A year later $11,788 had been pledged to the project. The Crossett Lumber Company agreed to provide a site and to match $30,000 in pledges. Money continued to be pledged during the war. Mr. Hastings retired to Little Rock in 1945 and was replaced by Mr. Edwin Bird as building chairman. The new church, located at Main and Fifth Avenue was completed and dedicated July 1, 1949. The new structure cost $147,865 and at the completion, $53,500 was owed on loans.

A Parsonage was built on the corner of Main and Fifth Avenue and dedicated in August 1954 and a fellowship hall was added in 1959. Mr. W.S. Arnold was building committee chairman. In 1967 a new parsonage was built on Cedar Street and the old parsonage was converted to church offices. The new parsonage was built during the pastorate of Rev. Ferris Norton who had four boys and needed room. The first baby born to a serving Pastor was born to Rev. Ferris and Connie Norton. In 1986 a new pipe organ was completed for the sanctuary.

With the addition of the new Fellowship Hall in 1959, the church expanded its youth program. With the help of church and non-member volunteers, numerous activities, including monthly dances, were held in the new fellowship hall. These activities attracted youth from every church in Crossett. In addition, numerous outside groups utilized the hall for their meetings. This has always been considered an outreach within our community and non-profit groups are not charged for the use of the Fellowship Hall.

Growing up in Crossett, the author’s view was that the first responsibility of the church was sponsoring a Boy Scout troop, not the saving of souls. It was customary in those days for the Methodist minister to serve as the scoutmaster. So, every time we had a change in pastors, the first question was asked was: ‘can he lead a Boy Scout troop?’ The church did finally sponsor Crossett’s first Boy Scout Troop 39 in 1935 and later Cub Pack 39; however, the Pastor was not the scoutmaster. The troop came about through the effort of some of the fathers, L.J. Arnold, D. C. Hastings and others. Hershell Moore, the school manual training instructor was the first scoutmaster.

Mrs. N. J. Garrett started the Methodist Day Care center, the first in Crossett. The church, through the years has strongly supported the day care center by providing space, utilities and money as a community project.

During the pastorate of Rev. Ferris Norton, the church started an annual guest speaker series funded by memorials donated by the church membership. There are five talks: Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m., Sunday evening at 7 p.m., Monday noon at a luncheon, Monday evening at 7 p.m., and Tuesday noon at a luncheon. The series was held each year from 1970 through 1984, then discontinued.  It was reinstituted again in 1990.