History of Olivet United Methodist Church
in Galena, Maryland
Olivet Church began as a class meeting on March 13, 1773 by Bishop Francis
Asbury, a circuit riding Methodist preacher. The class met at the home of a Mr.
Dixon. At that time Galena was known as Georgetown Cross Roads. The first deed
for the church bears the date of June 27, 1804, and another on April 1808. The
land was donated by Cornelius Scott. The first church was built in 1808.
In 1842 that building was moved to one side and used by slaves. The present brick church was built in 1842. Later, the original wooden church was sold to a group of African-American Christians and moved to Olivet Hill in Galena where it stands in poor repair. (Note: The old church building at Olivet Hill collapsed into a ruin during Tropical Storm Isabel in September of 2003.)
In 1887 a bell tower was added to the brick church by Frank H.
Ruth in memory of his parents. The 800 pound bronze bell was cast by the McShane
Bell Foundry in Baltimore, Maryland. The inscription on the bell says:
“PRESENTED BY FRANK H. RUTH TO THE MT. OLIVET M.E. CHURCH GALENA, MD 1887 IN
MEMORY OF HIS PARENTS SAMUEL B. & MELVINA RUTH.”
In 1888 a Sunday School Chapel was built on the lot next door to the parsonage
on North Main Street in Galena. That Sunday School Chapel was used until it was
razed in the early 1960s.
In 1958 the present brick education building at 115 South Main Street was built
next to the Sanctuary. In honor of the old Sunday School Chapel, the original
bell is proudly mounted in front of the today’s school at a level where children
may still make it ring.
In 1997 the parsonage at 122 North Main Street in Galena was sold and the funds were invested.
A family in the church purchased the empty building lot at 117 South Main Street
and donated the land to the Olivet Church with the understanding that a
parsonage would be built there in the future. A new parsonage was
completed at 117 South Main Street in November 2001.
Pastors of Olivet United Methodist Church
Galena, Maryland
1855 J. Aspril
1856 G. Heacock
1857-58 John Allen
1859-60 Thomas W. Simpers
1861-62 S.M. Cooper
1863 S. Townsend
1864 J.F. Boone
1865 J.A. Massey
1866-67 J.E. Bryan
1868-69 John Hough
1870 E.B. Newnam
1871-73 E.P. Aldred
1874-75 Henry Colclazer
1876-77 E.G. Irwin
1878-80 J.E. Bryan
1881-82 W.M. Warner
1883-85 G.W. Townsend
1886 T.L. Tomkinson
1887-89 I.G. Fosnocht
1890-94 E.H. Nelson
1895-97 Frank Fletcher
1898-01 A.P. Prettyman
1902 S.P. Shipman
1903 E.K. Creed
1904-06 T.C. Smoot
1907-09 J.M. Mitchell
1910-12 R.H. Lewis
1912 Alfred Smith
1913 C.W. Moore
1914 Edwin Gardner
1915 W.C. Poole
1915-16 J.W. Sutton
1917-19 Frank White
1920 H.D. West
1921-24 G.E. Sterling
1925 O.T. Baynard
1926-28 Ivanhoe Willis
had a wooden leg
1929-31 W.L. Hess
1932 C.H. Atkins
hired to make communion table
at Olivet 20 years after he left
1933 E.B. Eckhart
a musician
1934 D.J. Givan
1935-37 W.G. Barlow
1938-40 W.A. Glass
1941 P.E. McCoy
1942-44 E. Leon Dage
1945-47 A.E. Kniceley
1951-52 Graham
1948-51 Charles Yoho
1952-54 Thomas Churn
1954-56 Owens
1957-1959 Charles Edward Strickler 3
built 2 story Sunday School building
1960-1962 R. W. Helms 3
1963-1967 Charles C. Huffman 5
1968-1969 C. H. Squires 2
1970-1973 Claude Brown 4
1974-1976 Edward E. Kester 3
1977-1979 J. Chapman O'Dell 3
1980-1983 James Walz 4
1984 Floyd Twilley
1984 Henry Caldwell
1985 D’Arcy Littleton, retired 1
1985 - 1987 Howard Link 3
******* Galena-Warwick Charge *******
1988 - 1993 Bernard D. Shuhayda 6
Student Local Pastor
1994-2000 William Humphrey 7
2001 Lawrence D. Jameson
parsonage at 117 S. Main St. built