Our History:

When the United States first gained its independence, Anglican preachers who used the writings and ideas of John Wesley met in Baltimore in 1784. They formally adopted Wesley's methods and books and established the Methodist Episcopal Church.

"The people called Methodists" have been in the Haw River area since the early 1800's. On the hill here the river beside Trollinger's cemetery was a brush arbor where people gathered to hear the first circuit riders. By the late 1800's mill owner Thomas Holt had built a community building on the hill. Four Haw River Churches (two Methodist, the Baptist and the Christian) were first organized and met in that meeting house. The Methodist Protestant Church was established in 1883 and the Methodist Episcopal Church by 1894. In the 1890's all four churches built their own places of worship. The MP Church took a spot on the hill near the old community building approximately where Haw River United Methodist Church stands today. The ME congregation built Holt's Chapel which still stands on the other side of the cemetery.

Many remember the once a month "preaching" in each church while they were still part of circuits. People would go to their own church for Sunday School and then attend which ever church had a preacher that Sunday. Occasionally there would be a combined churches hymn sing in the new community building (now the Haw River Museum).

In 1939 the former Methodist Episcopal Church South, the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Protestant Church voted to merge and become The Methodist Church. By 1942 the local merger was complete, the Haw River Methodist Church was born. Holt's Chapel was used for Sunday School Classes and the newer 1922 sanctuary on the hill was used for Sunday morning worship. In the 1960s an education building was added and a separate gym/activity building erected.

When the Evangelical United Bretheren merged with the Methodist Church across the nation in 1968, we became the Haw River United Methodist Church.