First Methodist Church
Dalton
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This structure was completed in 1851; additions and renovations were made in 1887 and 1907.
They moved in 1951 to Thornton Avenue. Photo courtesy of Vanishing Georgia
"At the session of the annual conference held at Madison that
year, Dalton
was made a station, and attached to it were three country appointments, viz: the
Cove, Union and Sugar Valley. Reverend Levi Brotherton was placed in charge.
"In 1849 the station at Dalton, not being able of itself to support
a
preacher, was thrown back into a circuit and Mr. Simmons was returned to the
work. It should have been before stated that the Reverend James Quillian was the
presiding elder in charge of Spring Place circuit in the year 1847.
In 1850 Mr. White offered to donate a lot to the Methodists for a
church, and
the site was selected where the present church now stands. Mr. White conveyed
the lot selected to Captain Wm. Hammond, George Chappell, John Odell, J. E.
Wells and Levi Brotherton, in trust for the church.
During the year 1851 five hundred dollars was subscribed for the
building of
a church. In this house the congregation worshiped until after the war, when it
was removed to make room for a more commodious building. During the year 1851
there was a union protracted service held in the church erected by Mr. White.
This meeting lasted forty days and was conducted principally by Reverends
Archibald Johnson, of the Presbyterian church, Geo. W. Selvidge, of the Baptist,
and Levi Brotherton, of the Methodist church, and Reverend John Strickland,
presiding elder of the circuit. During this revival there were nearly one
hundred conversions. The churches, very weak up to this time, were all greatly
strengthened by additions to their number. In the fall of 1851 the new Methodist
church was finished, and Reverend Levi Brotherton preached the first sermon in
it. Dalton was left in the circuit from 1849 till 1851. The preachers who served
this work from this time up to the war were Clayton Quillian, Louis B. Payne, W.
F. Conly, R. H. Waters, M. C. Smith, Robert F. Jones, J. D. Anthony, John
Murphy, C. A. Moore and M. A. Clontz. In 1857 Dalton was again made a station.
The pastors in order were: M, A. Clontz, J. M. Dickey, J. W. McGhee; and then
Wesley D. Pledger, who was here in 1861, and in 1862, John W. Turner. The war
having come on, there was no regular preacher when the Reverend John M.
Richardson, a local preacher living near, took charge."
The preachers in charge of the Dalton station after the war
were: first, W. C. Mallory, then John P. Duncan, D. D. Moore, Francis A.
Kimball, George W. Yarbrough, George C. Smith, Wm. P. Kramer, G. W. Hardaway,
Daniel J. Myrick, Thos. A. Searle, P. B. Ryburn, J. H. Baxter, J. T. Lowe, J. W.
Lee, Simon P. Richardson, J. B. Robbins, A. B. Quillian, B. F. Fraser, L. G.
Johnson, W. F. Quillian, H. J. Ellis, T. C. Betterton, R. A. Ed-mondson, J. A.
Timmerman, W. R. Foote, S. B. Ledbetter, J. D. Hammond, R. M. Dixon, H. C.
Emory, C. M. Lipham, G. F. Yen-able, C. P. Harris, W. G. Crawley and L. M.
Twiggs.
In 1883, the church built a parsonage at a cost of $3,000.00 and in
1886-87
the church was remodeled and beautified. Again in 1907 the church was greatly
enlarged by the addition of a Sunday school annex; and a new parsonage built in
1924-25 valued at $20,000.00.
The present membership of the church is approximately six hundred
and
seventy-five.
Presiding Elders of the Dalton District from 1870 to 1935 (list provided
by J.
R. Turner):
H. J. Adams, G. J. Pierce, R. G. Bigham, J. D. Myrick, A. M.
Thigpin, W. A.
Parks, J. F. Mixon, W. F. Quillian, J. M. Lowery, A. G. Worley, J. B. Robins, W.
C. Dunlap, H. J. Adams, A. W. Williams, B. P. Allen, Ford McRee, W. P. Lovejoy,
J. T. Christian, W. T. Ervine, S. B. Ledbetter, J. F. Yarbrough, A. S. Harris,
Frank Quillian, J. R. Turner and A. M. Pierce.
Source: History of Whitfield County, 1936
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