Our Church History

"Blountsville Methodist Church was founded in April of 1818 by Ebenezer Hearn. He was sent by the Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Church to organize churches in the northern area of the recently-opened Alabama territory. He preached his first sermon at Bear Meat Cabin. The first church was a log building located near the present church. It had no steeple, and only one sizable room, with rough log benches – no backs. From all accounts, that building survived until 1886, when the present church was built.

Following a fundraising campaign in 1885, the present church was built in 1886 by Otto Puls, a German builder who had come to this country to help rebuild following the great fire of 1871 in Chicago. He subsequently came south, building several buildings in both Garden City and Blountsville. The original building had a high steeple, removed in 1930 because it was dangerous to maintain.

The altar table in current use at Blountsville United Methodist has a distinguished history itself. In 1939, at the first session of the North Alabama Conference, delegates from the Methodist Protestant Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Methodist Episcopal Church South united to form The Methodist Church. The table used for the bishops to sign the unification documents now serves as the Blountsville United Methodists Church altar table. It was donated to the church by Mrs. George Duncan in memory of her husband.

When The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church united in 1968 to form The United Methodist Church, the table was sent to Birmingham-Southern College to be used again in the signing ceremony. Then it returned to Blountsville where it stands before the pulpit today."

-Ron Gholson, Blount Countian