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On January 11, 1917, several men of Methodist persuasion met in the Hurley community school house for the purpose of forming a local Methodist Sunday School and Church.
Stewart Hamilton was elected the first Sunday School superintendent and the first minister was John Lovett Carter, an itinerant preacher from Escatawpa, Mississippi. The church became a part of the Estatawpa Church.
On September 18, 1919, the Hurley church was officially taken into the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and became a part of the eight-point charge known as the Americus Charge. The first preacher was the Reverend M.E. Allen.
Church service was held twice a month and Sunday School continued in the local school house until 1921 when, with the help of the Reverend Van R. Landrum, a committee made up of Stewart Hamilton, Joe Jones, and Brant Baria, set the wheels in motion to begin construction of the church building in Hurley. Six acres of land were purchased from Lampton Realty Company and a thirty-two-by-forty foot white frame building facing east was erected a few feet south of the present structure.
Mrs. Isabelle Hamilton donated the logs for framing; Joe Jones gave his time to hew the logs for the sells; Gant Sawmill cut the framing free of charge; J.B. Gibson contributed $75.00 for the roofing; Dantzler Lumber Company gave the material for drop-siding, floor and ceiling; Henry Godd of Wade gave his labor to draw the shingles for the roof; Mississippi Export Railroad Company hauled material to the site free of charge; and a Mr. Watson of Wade constructed the building for $200. Money for the erection of the building was borrowed from D.A. Galloway of Harleston.
The first Hurley United Methodist Church house was completed in the last few days of 1923. At the conclusion of a week's revival in April 1922, led by the Reverend M.R. (Russ) Jones, a native of Hurley, the first Methodist church in Hurley was dedicated. Once again in 1932 the local church became a part of the Escatawpa Charge; however, in 1935 the conference deemed it feasible to assign the church back to the Americus Charge.
No major improvement was made to the one-room edifice until 1942, when, in March plans were laid to enlarge the size of the original structure to accommodate a growing membership. A twenty-by-fifty-two extention was added to the west end of the building, giving room for a new inner sactuary plus a Sunday School room to the north and one to the south of the new inner sanctuary.
The Woman's Society of Christian Service, with the help of Dantzler Memorial WSCS, was organized in 1943. The Methodist Men was organized in 1952.
It was in 1945 that the church membership adopted a suggestion to set aside the fifth Sunday collection to start a building fund. In 1953 a red title block structure housing a sanctuary, fellowship hall, kitchen, and four Sunday school rooms was completed. Only $6,000 was needed to finish the building. Money was borrowed from the Pascagoula-Moss Point Bank.
In the late forties the church became part of a four-point charge known as the Hurley Charge. The four churches were Hurley, Rosedale, Tanner's Chapel, and Roberts' Chapel. The church became a half-time church at that time, since it paid half the charge expenses, including pastor's salary, district askings, and conference askings. A white frame three bedroom parsonage was built on the site of the present parsonage.
In 1962 the church was strong enough to become a station and in 1964 added a three bedroom red brick parsonage at a cost of $14,000, borrowed from First Federal Savings and Loan of Pascagoula. The brick parsonage replaced the white frame one which had been given to the other three churches as part of concessions to them.
Three years later the concrete block educational annex housing four additional Sunday school rooms, a nursery, and a pastor's study was added to the southwest of the church. This was accomplished with an additional loan of $15,000 borrowed from First Federal Savings and Loan.
The local church was asked in 1970 to share its pastor with the Rosedale Church since the three churches known as the Rosedale Charge was not financially able to support a charge.
In 1979 the sanctuary was completely remodeled with the addition of carpet, padding for the pews, a new piano, a new organ, and new lighting. The church borrowed $16,080 from the Bank of Lucedale to complete this renovation.
In 1980 the county school district returned to the church the six lots the church had given in 1937.
Doris Mizelle gave the church three lots. In 1945 Lampton Realty gave the church eight lots, and Mrs. J.B. Gibson gave one lot. Mrs. Clyde Glascox gave the church one lot, and in that same year the church acquired one lot from the state. The church was able to purchase from the county school district eight lots for expansion in 1986. Then the church property was bounded on the east by Highway 613, on the north by a line several feet north of the parsonage, on the west by a wire fence behind the church buildings, and on the south by the south entrance driveway.
The church was able to purchase, in 1995, approximately seven acres of land to the south, including what was known as the old school principal's home. Purchase price was $37,050. Ten thousand dollars of building fund, plus $27,000 loan from the Bank of Lucedale paid for the land. The old principal's house was renovated and became the "Genesis House," the youth building.
Plans are presently being made to build a ninety-by-ninety foot building just south of the present church building.
The church has 183 members, most of whom live in the Hurley area. All ministries are strong and growing stronger. Hurley has always been a moving, growing church, and that continues.