The early history of the Methodist Church is meager. However, through a search of histories and records at the Washington County and the Western Pennsylvania Historical Societies, a few facts in the early development of the Methodist Church have been found.
In 1816, Shesbazzar Bentley, Jr. laid out lots in Bentleyville. The following year, June 1817, a meeting of the citizens was held to provide a place of public worship. The decision was made to erect a building for the use of the Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist Societies. Each Society would have equal privileges in its use.
Under this agreement a church was built and occupied as a place of worship until its destruction by fire in 1828. For many years the three Societies held services in homes in the school house.
On December 28, 1852, “prominent” members of the Methodist Society purchased an acre of land from Shesbazzar Bentley, Jr. near the Joel Weir property on Washington Street (across from the Bentley Towers) and erected a brick building 40' by 50' at a cost of $1,250. Construction was completed in 1853. It was the first Methodist Church built in Bentleyville.
The Pittsburgh Conference of 1853 recognized this as a Methodist Congregation and assigned the first ordained minister, Henry Snyder, who has been followed by 55 ministers including the present minister, Sang Kong Choi.
Early in the year 1893, the trustees of the M. E. (Methodist Episcopal) Church purchased lot #42 in the town plan for the sum of $200. Upon this lot the present church was built of oak at a cost of $3,000. Much of the work was donated by church members. The new church building was dedicated on September 10, 1893.
In the spring of 1908, a lot on First Street was donated to the church. A house was built and is still in use as the United Methodist Parsonage.