A Moment in our History

A Moment in Our History #3 ­ February 1, 2009
By Drew A. Nicholson, Village and Church Historian

How many of you attended the ringing of the bell on our Church’s 200^th Birthday this past Wednesday evening? Almost twenty dignitaries, representing the State of NY, Dutchess County and the Town and Village of Pawling, as well most community organizations, did! The establishment of a church by Pawling Methodists 200 years ago was a big event then, just as celebrating it now should be! In the story that follows, you will see how important it was to our Church ancestors to have a house of worship.

The Pawling United Methodist Church was founded on January 28, 1809 during a meeting in the home of Col. William Pearce on his farm along what is now West Dover Road. There were five charter members: Archibald Campbell, Job Crawford, Solomon Gerow, Prince Howe, and Col. Pearce. The meeting of the “members and Congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Society in the Town of Paulings” legally incorporated the Society and held elections: Job Crawford and Col. Pearce were elected “Moderators”; Solomon Gerow, Prince Howe and Col. Pearce were elected as the first trustees, whose job it was to “superintend the building of a meeting house [in the town].”

Three days later on January 31st, Job Crawford and his wife Ruth deeded a parcel of land to the Society trustees for the price of $50.00! (As you may remember, this also was the price paid for land deeded for the current Church site.)

The parcel was located on the Pawling-Patterson Road (63-ft frontage) at the juncture of the dirt farm road which is now named South Street (109-ft frontage). This site was identified in the 1937 History of the Pawling Methodist Episcopal Church as a “plot of ground lying in the southwest corner of the golf course.” The was no reversion clause in the deed as it was “sold in trust that they shall erect and build…thereon…a place for worship for the use of members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the [U.S.A.].”

A small “but substantial” meeting house was constructed but never completely finished due primarily to the 1813 death of Col. Pearce. Even though it was an incomplete structure, it still was used by the congregation for many years.

An interesting adjunct to this story is the concurrent presence of a Camp Meeting Ground (on the site of the Dutchess Center for Rehabilitation, but better known to most Pawlingites by its prior name, Lovely Hill). As all Methodists know, the Camp Meeting is integral to the Methodist tradition; meetings took place there from 1810 through 1866.