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Beginnings
“In May 1869, (Rev. C. R. Rice), the presiding elder (of the Emporia District of the Kansas Conference) found his way to the new-laid town of Independence. It was almost impossible to find a lodging place, but late Saturday afternoon, a man who had taken a claim below the townsite and had built a large hay house, offered him a resting place and invited him to preach that evening and the next in his hay house. The invitation was thankfully received, and services were held Saturday evening, Sunday morning and afternoon. It was said that ‘everybody in the county’ was out Sunday. The hay house would not hold the people Sunday morning and afternoon. So the men stood out in front of the hay stacks. Sunday afternoon a class was organized, a leader appointed and a preacher promised as soon as one could be obtained. Thus the beginning of Methodism for Independence and lower Verdigris River was inaugurated.”
Another article gives a different account: In the summer of 1869, Rev. Rice “found Independence to be ‘a city of stakes and a name.’ But he returned in the autumn and preached in the unfinished log hotel that was afterward known as the Judson House. On invitation of Mr. Sam VanGundy, Rev. Mr. Rice met with a group of earnest people the next morning in a house built by Mr. VanGundy. The house consisted of two haystacks with poles laid across covered with hay and stood on the west bank of the Verdigris river near a ford just east of the town site. A class was organized that morning and made part of the Timber Hill Mission with Rev. Sheldon Parker, a superannuate, living on a claim in this county, as pastor in charge. The next spring, March 1879, the Oswego district was created and Charles E. Lewis was appointed presiding elder. Montgomery county was included in the Oswego district and W. P. Leard was sent to organize and travel what was known as the Independence circuit. He organized and traveled the circuit nine months and was removed and another, Boyd Lowe, took his place at once, but quit almost as suddenly. It remained for Enos J. King, a local preacher living in Independence, to take Boyd Lowe’s place and travel the circuit till the meeting of the conference in March, 1871.”
The first regular appointed pastor, Rev. J. B. Lee, reached Independence April 7, 1871. He used the old school house as a preaching place until the Trustees rented, for $200 a year, Gray’s Hall, 46 by 74 feet, which stood on the site of the Ruby Flats at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Maple Street, across the street from the existing church. A home was secured for the pastor on Myrtle Street for $12 a month.
By early 1872, the population of Independence had grown to 2,500 and the society, which had begun with 40 members, had grown to 105 members. The Sunday School had grown from 50 to 140 members. In November, 1871, the society began construction of a parsonage on the corner of Ninth and Main Streets, which was completed in February 1872. The society was chartered as a congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church on February 16, 1872.
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Prayer changes things!