So many people read that newspaper headline in the mid-1880's when Sebastian United Methodist Church had its beginnings -- before the days of railroads and highways, when local transportation was mainly by sailboat. It was at this time that Mr. Hickock, an earnest Methodist layman, came by sailboat once a month from Micco to hold worship services in Sebastian. He would spend the night and then return to his pineapple farm the next day.

        In 1886, Rev. James Bolton was appointed to the Indian River Mission and instructed to establish a permanent church in Sebastian. Rev. Bolton began holding services in the homes of interested people in 1887. According to various sources, that was the year the church was chartered. However, other sources give the date as 1889. The charter members were James A. Groves, Joy E. Groves and Emma Howard.

The people of the church continued to meet in homes until a sanctuary was built in 1893 under the leadership of Rev. C. F. Blackburn. Mr. H. B. Howard gave some of his homestead land for the church site. Some of the ladies of the church helped raise money for the materials to build the church by serving meals to the crews of steamships that stopped at Kitching's Dock - the only stop between Titusville and Fort Pierce. Rev. Blackburn then solicited subscriptions and purchased timber that was being brought down the Indian River by sailboat and hauled up Main Street by a team of mules. The work of building the church was done by the members of the church and other interested people of the community.