The Methodist Episcopal Church seems to have been the very earliest to have established itself in Linn County. This is but natural since it was at her borders almost that Jason Lee built his mission in 1834. Just where or when the first Methodist preacher appeared first, south of the Santiam, is not on record, but there is a legend that Philip Legett Edwards, one of Lee’s men, preached to the Calapooia tribesmen in 1835, before any whites were in the country, under a great, spreading maple tree which still stands beside the road about three miles east from Brownsville (319). Better authenticated is the belief that the first organized Methodist Church in Linn County was founded at Albany in 1846 by the Rev. William Helm of Lee’s Mission. One year later Rev. John McKinney arrived from the east and was almost at once sent to have charge of all Methodist work in the southern portion of the Willamette Valley. “Father” McKinney made his headquarters at “Calapooia”, or “Kirk’s Ferry” (now Brownsville), where he took up a donation land claim and made a home. A widower when he arrived in Oregon, he later married Orpha Lankton, stewardess of Lee’s “Great Reinforcement” which came on the Lausanne in 1840 (320).

It is believed that Father McKinney built the first Methodist -- and perhaps the first of any sort of -- church in Linn County, on his land claim west of Brownsville. The church was known as McKinney’s Meeting House. McKinney’s circuit took him all over the country, but, seemingly, it was not officially organized until the Annual Methodist Conference at Corvallis in 1857, when Philip Starr was appointed in McKinney’s place. The circuit embraced: Calapooia, Peoria, Keeny’s School House, Independence School House (now Shedd), Prairie School House, Harrisburg, Brush Creek (near Crawfordsville) Rust’s School House and Wesley Chapel, (near Halsey) (321).

About this time Methodist meetings were beginning to be held at Lebanon. The first took place at the home of Jeremiah Ralston, pioneer of 1847. In 1849 the Rev. James H. Wilbur organized a congregation, and a log cabin church was built on Main Street across from the present High School campus. In 1850 the worshippers moved into a frame structure on the northeast corner, and in 1854 this was moved to the northwest corner of the present campus. In 1887 a new building was put up at the southwest corner of Vine and Park streets which in 1907 gave way to the present edifice (322).

In 1852 a Methodist Episcopal Church was organized at Shedd.  Preaching was done in the Independence School House until 1872 when Rev. John H. Roork became the first settled clergyman and a church building was dedicated. This was demolished in 1923 and replaced with the present structure (323). Wesley Chapel was established in 1865, near Halsey, with Father McKinney in charge, but is now defunct, the building being torn down many years (324). St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church (South) was formed by Bishop Kavanaugh in 1868, with about eight members. It was reorganized in 1875, when the church was built (325). Trinity Chapel, a country church on the Santiam Highway, three miles east of Albany, was established in 1872 under the leadership of Rev. Bagley, who preached the first sermon. It is now defunct, having lapsed in 1900 (326). A Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was organized about 1885 in the town of Peoria, the meetings at the start being held in the old Peoria Schoolhouse, but no records are available. Tangent had a Methodist Episcopal Church, South, organized about 1890, which lapsed in 1925 (327). Other churches were organized - Sodaville, 1891; Lyons, 1892; Lacomb, 1893 (all Free Methodist).

Links:

Halsey Area -- Methodist Church

First Methodist Church, Lebanon Oregon -- 1850-1860

Methodist Episcopal Church South -- Harrisburg

United Methodist Church Archives and History

Church histories were  abstracted from:  " History of Linn County", Compiled by Workers of the Writer’s Program, Works Progress Administration, 1941.  See bibliography for above-cited references.  All photos from the collection of Lisa L. Jones, unless otherwise noted.  Lisa L. Jones contributed and is solely responsible for the content of these pages.  Copyright 2001.