ORIENTAL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

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HISTORY OF ORIENTAL UNITED METHODIST CHURCHby

Marion W. HardyRevisions with L. Elbert Wethington

Twelve years before the town of Oriental was incorpora-ted (May 10, 1899), a Methodist congregation was establishedin 1887. At first the Methodist congregation was primarily aSunday School with worship services--generally called "prea-ching"--about once a month. The Oriental Methodist Churchwas added to the Pamlico Circuit of the New Bern District.

Pamlico County was created in 1873 out of the northeas-tern part of Craven County. The population was sparse, andthe transportation was probably more by water than by land.Fishing, lumbering, and farming were the main occupations.A few churches--"meeting houses"-- and schools were spreadthroughout the county. Stonewall was the first county seat,then Vandemere, and a little l'-\terBayboro. The first Meth-odist Church in the area of what is now Pamlico County wasat Kershaw, and the second, in 1848, was at Stonewall, namedin the year 1865, incorporated in 1870.

Oriental Methodist Church came into being as an expres-sion of the missionary, evangelistic, educational concern ofthe Methodist Episcopal Church organized in America in Balti-more on Christmas Day 1784. Through the efforts of the firstbishops, Thomas Coke whose mission focused primarily on theWest Indies and Africa, and Francis Asbury who travelledthroughout the thirteen colonies, Methodism was becoming oneof the two or three most numerous Churches in the UnitedStates.

In the year Oriental Methodist Church was founded,1887,Louisburg College was 100 years old, North Carolina hadthree Methodist colleges, about 700 churches, and approxi-mately 60,000 members.At this time the denominationwas called The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, reflectingthe division th~t occured in 1845-46 over the issue of slav-ery.

Before 1887 the few people who were around what is nowOriental traveled by horse and buggy to the only MethodistChurch within 8 miles, the Kershaw Methodist Church. Fromits beginning the Delamar and Harris families were among itsfaithful. The last service, a funeral, was held in he KershawChurch on July 9, 1955; The Annual Conference officiallydiscontinued the Kershaw Meth~dist Church July 1, 1958, andthe remaining Jtl'?:;:;~:)~1'"C~':er~ transfered into the Oriental Meth-oni:::t. Churci~.

Oriental Methodist Church began in a little wooden schoolhouse on the Walter Paris corner lot across the street fromthe present church building. Sunday School and worship ser-vices were held in this building from 1887 until 1894. Sun-

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day School was every Sunday afternoon, and Church (worshipservice) was once a month. The Methodist Church was the onlychurch in Oriental until the Baptists organized in 1899 andthe Free Will Baptists in 1900.

Oriental was growing by the turn of the century. Thebirths were increasing and new families were coming in. Someof the new-comers were from the South River area on thesouth side of the Neuse River and near Adams Creek wherethere was a Methodist Church, Merrimon, which was served fora time by the pastors assigned in the earlier days to theOriental Methodist Church. If that same arrangment had exis-ted in the winter of 1917-18, the pastor could have walkedacross the 5 mile-wide Neuse on ice instead of coming byboat! In those early days the appointed pastor had severalchurches to serve, so he arrived for "preaching" about oncea month for each congregation. The lay members conducted theSunday School weekly.

Everyone went to church in those early years. The pop-ulation was small, but the few members were determined tohave a church of their own. They managed to raise money fortheir first wooden church in Oriental by having ice creamsocials, oyster and barbecue suppers. They also had foodbaskets that the women of the church prepared and auctionedto the highest bidder. Some older members still recall somecases when eating together led to love and marriage! Theyalso had "apron parties" when the women would bring apronswithout hems to be SOld. The men would hem them, and the onewho did the best job received the prize.

About 1894 the Methodists accumulated enough money tobuild their own building, a new wooden church, located atthe present site on land donated by Mr. Arthur Midyette. Thebuilding was finally completed in 1897. The architect was aman from New Jersey who had come to Oriental to catch eelsand buy fish.

In the early 1900s a farmer-minister named Tom H. Car-mine came to Oriental and rented the Bob Midyette farm. Hewas a fine, very friendly person, a good singer and speaker.He would sometimes speak and sing at the church, and peoplecame from all around the sparsely populated county to hearhim. After his death his wife and daughter donated a churchbell to the Oriental Metnodist Church. That bell, 'stillhanging in the tower, will sound its 100 peels on SundayMarch 1,1987! To the glory of God! and a reminder to all thecongregation and town of its good heritage of grace and truthin the Lord Jesus Christ.

The records show that the first pastor was Fernie S.Becton who was appointed again in 1890-93. Oriental waslisted as a part of the Pamlico Charge in 1893, and in 1900part of the Pamlico Circuit was set apart as the OrientalCircuit (Oriental, Kershaw, Arapahoe, and town of Pamlico).

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It was the Reverend Walter Patton, sent to Oriental on hisfirst appointment 1909-1910, who managed to get the membersinterested in puilding a brick church. The old wooden churchbuilding was sold to the Episcopalians who moved it a shortdistance away in 1911. During Pastor Patton's appointmentMary Love Ritch was the music and choir director. She was afaithful member of the church in the early years, taught theMen's Sunday School class which had been organized by Ben O'-Neal, and she has continued to be loved and fondly remem-beredthroughout the years. Mr. Will Midgette, son of "UncleLou," was the organist for many years; although he could notread music, he could play in perfect chord. Mrs. Etta ClarePerry followed Miss Love as music director; she also servedfaithfully until her death, but not before she had trainedEdward Lupton to succeed her. The worship of God was enhancedthrough the purchase of an electronic organ. A house for theminister and his family was purchased in 1918.

A great loss was suffered in 1934 when the church buil-ding was destroyed by fire; only the brick walls were left.Members contributed generously of their time and money forthe rebuilding in 1936 during the midst of the Great Depres-sion. While the church was being restored services were heldunder .the leadership of Pastor C.E. Hix in the school buil-ding and Free Will Baptist Church. It is interesting to notethat in spite of the fire and severe economic hardship, themembership of Oriental Methodist Church had grown to 325 byits Jubilee, fiftieth anniversary in 1937. During those days,the typical offering of a child in Sunday School was 1 or 2cents.

Precious memories of individuals have enriched the fel-lowship in Oriental. Some living members still remember whenMr. Arol Land joined the church in 1915 while the ReverendJ. B. Brasse was pastor. Mr. Land who served as custodianfor more than ten years remembers attending church as a boywith his friend Rufus Whorton. They said one Sunday theMethodists were singing "Will There Be Any Stars in Mycrovn ," while across the street the Episcopalians were sing-ing "No, Not One .•• !" Mrs. Hugh Harris, Sr. (Miss Ethel) whohad come to Oriental to teach in 1915, and later got married,transferred her membership to Oriental Methodist Church. Sherecalls when Messers Jess and Preston Spruill came from theFree Will Baptist Church in Merritt (Trent) in 1923, thesame year Mr. Amy Lupton joined the church. When asked in1987 what was the most important thing that happened in Ori-ental, she replied: liMy marriage to the finest man in thechurch.1t As young boys, Hubert and Tom Smith, Rodman Spruill,J.J. and Lester Goodwin, Virgil Nelson, Gerald Midyette andLin Spruill, played ping-pong in competition at the parson-age. In those days also Maude Allen was very active in thechurch; after first being a member of Kershaw MethodistChurch, she came to Oriental, and gave strong leadership inthe choir and the Woman's Society of Christian Service. Dur-ing that time she also took orders for flower arrangements

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and applied her commission to the remodeling of the church'sinterior. The chancel woodwork is the fruit of her labor. Shewas honored for her lifetime of devotion when the women'sSunday School class took her name after she died in 1980.The oldest living member of Oriental United Method-ist Churchis Mrs. Ada Harris who celebrated her 109 birthday February14, 1987!

The other "heroes of faith" are too numerous to mention"in such a brief history. But one faithful member of OrientalMethodist Church, vividly remembered and loved, was John Hen-ry Wiggins, a successful farmer and highly respected Negromember of the community: he is remembered best perhaps forhis spirit-filled prayers in the worship service.

Throughout its 100 years The Methodist Church has beenmuch involved in the common lif9 of Oriental. It has rejoicedand suffered with many changes through the years. In 1890 thesteamships "NeuseU-and "Ocrakoke" carried freight and passen-gers between New Bern, Oriental, Manteo, and Elizabeth City.In addition to fishing and farming, timber became a big in-dustry after the turn of the century, especially with the com-ing of the John Roper Lumber Company to Oriental. The rail-road came in 1905 with two trips daily until 1954. Bus ser-vice began in 1930. With the in~reased production of truckfarming and shipping of potatoes and grain by 1935 largetrucks began to be used for more rapid shipping. In the 1930sOriental had 2 cotton gins, an ice plant, a cememt block andtile plant, a bottling plant, a tobacco warehouse, and GeorgePerry's Ford dealership. Oriental boasted the first electricplant in the county, and the first school bus in the state.

, The first bank was "established in 1906.Telephones came toOriental in the early 20s. Most all supplies and servicesessential to life in a small town of less than 1000 peoplewere available in Oriental-on-the-Neuse. Musicians, millin-ers, druggists, barbers, mechanics, carpenters, physicians,fishermen, farmers, teachers, students, homemakers, hotel-keepers, cooks, clerks, realtors, morticians, and ministers!They all were a part of Oriental Methodist Church.

The Great Depression of the 1930s and impact of WorldWar II probably brought the greatest changes to life inOriental. Many youth and some adults went away to school,armed services, or employment, and population decreased fora period until the early 1960s. Yet, the Oriental church ex-perienced the up8urge in church membership in the late 1940sand !iCs s-e!::L throughout most of l'~erica. In 1948 a woodenb~idge was constructed across Green Creek on the west sideof Oriental; that bridge was replaced with a high concretebridge in the early 70s. In the early 60s Oriental began tobe "discovered" as a sailing mecca and an idyllic retirementhome. New families from other states began to come into themembership and were warmly welcomed by those who had grown upin the church. New possibilities of more effective ministrybegan to appear in the 1960s and 70s.

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From its beginning Oriental Methodists have been' anintegral part of the Methodist connectional system andcontributed faithfully to its missionary, educational, andadministrative agencies. It has also participated in thoseecumenical concerns. In 1939 there was a healing of the earl-ier national divisions in Methodism with the uniting of TheMethodist Episc0pal Church, The Methodist Episcopal ChurchSouth, and the Methodist Protestant Church, to form The Meth-odist Church. This organizational structure did not greatlyaffect the local congregations except to give them more of a'sense of participating in the larger ministry of the Church.Another union occured in 1968 when the former United Breth-ren, previously German-speaking Methodists largely in thenorth and midwest, joined with The Methodist Church to becomethe United Methodist Church. Such unions meant mergers andreorganizations of general boards like missions, publications,pensions, discipleship, finance and administration. But itmeant the consciousness of being a part of a 10 million mem-ber body of Methodist Christians composed of a rainbow ofethnic groups of Native Americans, European descendants, Ne-groes, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Mexicans,Puerto Ricans, Indians, Hawaiians, and others. These unionswere expressions of increased ecumenical emphasis upon theGod-given unity of the Body of Christ and the integrity ofits witness to the world. The United Methodist Church is alsoa member of the National Council of the Churches of Christin the USA, The World Council of Churches, and The WorldMethodist Council.

Oriental has enjoyed an interesting and special rela-tionship with Duke University, formerly Trinity Collegewhich was established in 1841 as Union Institute Academy,then Trinity in '1857 in Randolph County before moving toDurham in 1892 and becoming Duke University in 1924. In 1920and for several years a summer school program directed byDuke was held in Oriental. Duke faculty and students becameclose friends of the people of Oriental. And Oriental Meth-odist Church has felt a much closer relationship to Dukebecause for many summers since the 1930s ministerial stu-dents through the Duke Endowment have served as summer in-terns in Oriental. In 1986 the Duke Endowment contributed23% of the construction costs of the long-awaited fellowshiphall and educational wing to the church.

Growth in mewbership and expansion of its ministry be-came :mor-e~~a 1, in the early 1970s when in 1973 Orientai wasmad~ a Charge with its own pastor, the Reverend David Lupton,In 1980 Oriental made a leap of faith in accepting a full-time pastor and becoming self-supporting. Other "firsts" werethe visit of a bishop, Bishop William R. Cannon in 1982, andin the same year the first ordained woman to preach th~re,the Reverend Carol Coehring. Bishop Cannon came again to,preach for the July 4th program in 1983. Bishop C.P. Minnickwas our guest February 1, 1986. Outstanding growth in member-ship and expansion in ministries of the church have been seensince 1980 during the pastorates of the Reverends David O.Jenkins and H. Gray Southern. In;God's grace Oriental is pre-pared to move out courageously and faithfully into its secondcentury.

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ORIENTAL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH DIRECTORYOF CHURCH MEMBERS AND FAMILIES

Oriental United Methodist ChurchP.O. Box 70

Oriental, N.C. 28571(919) 249-0229June 1983

Many people contributed to the making of this first directory - Eula May Walker and EthelHarris to the history, Marie Borden to the typing and organization, Norma Smith to the loca-tion of many lost members - but the directory is complete and full because of the efforts andwork of Diane Piland. Thank you.

The Methodist Episcopal Church of Oriental was first organized in April, 1887. Those firstmembers came together for worship in a school house which was located near our presentchurch. Its first pastor on record was F.S. Becton. Ten years later a church building was con-structed across the street from the present home of Mrs. Okla Caroon with H.E. Tripp serv-ing as minister to this new church. That church building was later sold to the Episcopalchurch.

In 1900 the Pamlico Circuit was set apart and the Oriental Circuit was organized under theleadership of J.L. Rumley. Then in 1911 and 1912 a new and large church was built on thepresent site, the land having been donated by Arthure Midyette whose son, Robert, is an ac-tive member of the church today.

On a Sunday morning in 1935 that church burned and the existing sanctuary was built oneyear later in 1936, still the Oriental Methodist Episcopal Church. C.E. Hix was the pastor.The church remained part of the Oriental Circuit until 1973 when it became a charge untoitself, pastored by David Lupton until 1980. That year Oriental made a leap of faith in accep-ting a full-time pastor and beginning a new era of growth and fellowship.

PASTORS

1887 Fernie S. Becton1888 unknown1889 D.A. Watkins1890-1892 Fernie S. Becton1893 J.C. Jones1894 J.C. Jones and

Edward Kelley1895 C.P. Snow1896-1897 H.E. Tripp1898-1899 J.M. Lowder1900-1901 J.L. Rumley1902-1903 Fernie S. Becton1904 W.E. Brown1905 J.J. Barker1906-1907 W.T. Usry1908 G.B. Webster1909-1910 Walter Patton

1911-1913 E.C. Glenn1914 H.B. Hill1915 J.P. Bross1916-1917 S.N. Hurst1918-1920 R.R. Grant1921-1922 O.P. Fitzgerald1923-1924 J.C. Whedbee1925 L.T. Singleton1926 B.B. Slaughter1927 J. T. Stanford1928-1931 R.E. Atkinson1932-1935 J.C. Humble1936-1938 C.E. Hix, Jr.1939-1941 J.K. Ormond1942-1943 C.E. Kinlaw1944 Perry and

Reisinger

1945 A.S. Lancaster1946 L.C. Vereen1947 C.G. Nickens1948-1952 P. R. Maness1953 W.G. Lowe1954-1956 R.L. Hithcox1957-1960 L.A. Green1961-1962 F. Fortescue1963-1964 G.C. Smith1965-1966 Harold Elliott1967-1968 Paul Oldaker1969 George Campbell1970 J.H. Coile1971 E.F. Seymour1973-1980 David Lupton1980~t David Jenkins

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