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Denominational Records

Centenary United Methodist Church records, 1871-1969

Centenary Methodist Church (St Louis, MO)

There has been a Methodist presence in the St. Louis area since as early as 1808, with the first meeting taking place at Cold Water Creek some twelve miles north of St. Louis City. Centenary Methodist Church was founded in 1839 as a mission congregation of Fourth Street Methodist Episcopal Church (later known as First Methodist Episcopal Church South). The early mission was on Broadway and Pine before it rented a chapel on Fourth street between Myrtle and Elm called the Fourth Street Church.  In 1842, Centenary completed construction of its first official church, established at the Northwest corner of Fifth and Pine Streets. In 1869 it made its final move to the present location at 55 Plaza Square (Sixteenth & Pine or 16th & Olive).  The 1869 church was granted landmark status in 1971. 

When the Methodist Episcopal Church divided over the issue of slavery in 1844, the congregation became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The northern and southern branches of Methodism reunited and merged with the Methodist Protest Church in 1939 to become the Methodist Church. A merger with the Church of the United Brethren in 1968 led to the formation of the present-day United Methodist Church (UMC). Centenary is a member of the UMC Missouri Conference.

Indexed source

Williams, Francis Emmett and Mrs. Williams. Centenary Methodist Church of St. Louis: The First Hundred Years, 1839–1939. St. Louis: Mound City Press, 1939. R 977.866 W723C

Centenary’s history of inclusion of the Black community

“Colored Persons” were members of the Centenary Methodist Church of St. Louis from its early beginnings in the 1820s. When Centenary’s church building was located on Fourth Street, called the Fourth Street Church, the African M. E. Church was built soon after on a nearby street and was considered a part of the Fourth Street Society. The Negroes worshipped separately but were ministered to by the regular Fourth Street pastor in the afternoon until there were two pastors appointed to the Fourth Street Church. Then one of them, usually the younger, served the colored congregation. Indeed, one third to almost one half of the church members were Negroes. This lead Dr. J. E. Godbey to write in his Condensed History of First Church (first printed in 1879): “This shows that while the Negroes were in slavery the church did not neglect them…they stood united in the same faith…communed at the altar…and were often united in bonds of truest Christian sympathy.”1

Wesleyan Cemetery record keeping

It is probably with this same philosophy that the church buried and re-interred their colored members. They were listed in the Wesleyan Cemetery ledger books separately under “List of Colored Persons.” This database consists of all those people so entered starting from the very first entry in July 1847, shortly after the first Wesleyan Cemetery opened and extending to 1868.

Cemetery locations

The Centenary Methodist Church of St. Louis had three locations for the burial of its dead.

  1. Franklin Ave. & 23rd (Franklin and Pratte) (Unknown name & dates; No records available)2
  2. 1847 - Southwest and Southeast corners of Grand and Laclede Avenues; extending to Market Street, on the East side of what is now Grand Avenue. Called Wesleyan Cemetery.
  3. 1878 - Southeast corner of what is now Olive Street Road and Hanley Avenue. Also called Wesleyan Cemetery.

In 1952 the Cemetery Association was dissolved and those interred at the Olive & Hanley Avenue location were removed and re-interred in Memorial Park Cemetery and various other local cemeteries.

Aspects of the ledger books and the index

The Wesleyan Cemetery ledger books recorded burials of white people and “Colored Persons” separately. The microfilming of these records is probably not complete and was not done chronologically. However, the listing is presented both chronologically and alphabetically here for the researchers’ benefit. While many individuals are listed only as the “Negro Slave of” so and so and some by their first names only, there are also many listed by their first and last names.

Many first names were abbreviated in the records. These names were written in their long form for this listing for the benefit of researchers. The spelling of names varies greatly and is indicative of the time period where phonetic spelling was used. Therefore, a family name might be spelled three different ways but refer to the same family. The use of brackets [ ] indicates additional comments by the author for clarity.

The fee for burials differed depending on whether the person was a child or an adult. If there was no age listed but the amount charged for the burial clearly indicated the person’s age, “child” or “adult” was listed as the person’s age.

Not all of the pages have every column filled in completely so there are many blanks in the database.

Notes

  1. Mr. & Mrs. Francis Emmett Williams, Centenary Methodist Church of St. Louis: The First Hundred Years 1839 – 1939, (St. Louis, Missouri; Mound City Press, Inc., 1939), 6.
  2. Williams, Centenary Methodist Church of St. Louis, 8.

Centenary United Methodist Church records, 1871-1969

 

The pdfs below provide an index and guide to the records of Centenary Methodist Church in St. Louis, Missouri.

The Centenary Methodist Church Record Project was begun in 2008 when Julius K. Hunter suggested that the History and Genealogy Department offer to preserve Wesleyan Cemetery records held by Centenary Church and containing the records of many African American burials. The project was expanded to include all of the congregation’s original records. The Rev. Kathleen Wilder, Centenary Church’s pastor, was contacted, and the project proceeded with the approval of the congregation's board of trustees. The records were brought to St. Louis County Library, where the History and Genealogy Department Staff and volunteers began indexing and digitizing the records of this historic congregation.

The History and Genealogy Department would like to thank the Rev. Kathleen Wilder and the members of Centenary Methodist Church for providing access to the congregation’s records. The Department would also like to thank the following individuals:

  • Julius K. Hunter, who first proposed the project and facilitated contact with Centenary United Methodist Church.
  • Volunteers Linda Bauby, Kathleen Buescher-Milligan, and Rose Sartori, who assisted with indexing the records.
  • Maryville University students Mark Dragoni, Shannon Kibbee, and Matt Renaud, who helped evaluate and organize the records as an history internship project.

Marriages

Burials

Baptisms

Centenary Methodist Church records are available on St. Louis County Library microfilm nos. CMC-1, CMC-2, and CMC-3, locatedin the History and Genealogy Department.. The equivalent Family History Library (FHL) film no. is given in the guide where applicable.

Roll CMC-1 (FHL 1405557)

ITEM 11

Book 1:

Membership records, 1871 –

ITEM 12

Book 2: 

Membership records, 1884 –  (A to Williamson)
(continued on CMC-2)

Roll CMC-2 (FHL 1405558)

ITEM 1

Book 2, continued (Wilson to Z)
Deaths and disposals
Baptisms, 1884 – 1886
Marriages, 1885

ITEM 2

Book 3:

Membership records, 1889 –  
Deaths, 1889 – 1896
Adult baptisms, 1889 – 1896
Infant baptisms, 1889 – 1896
Marriages, 1889 – 1896

ITEM 3

Book 4:

Membership records, 1896 – (pp. 1 – 286)
Infant baptisms, 1896 – 1902 (pp. 287 – 307)
Adult baptisms, 1896 – 1902 (pp. 315 – 334)
Marriages, 1896 – 1902 (pp. 335 – 364)
Deaths, 1896 – 1901 (pp. 379 – 403)

ITEM 4

Book 5:

Membership records, 1902 –  
Infant baptisms, 1902 – 1909 
Adult baptisms, 1902 – 1909
Marriages, 1902 – 1909
Deaths, 1902 – 1909

Book 6:

Membership records, 1909 –  
Infant baptisms, 1909 – 1918 
Adult baptisms, 1909 – 1914
Marriages, 1909 – 1918
Deaths, 1909 – 1915

CMC-3

This roll is another filming of Centenary Methodist Church records. It includes the items listed above and the following additions:

Book 7:

Membership records, 1917 –  
Marriages, 1917 – 1926
Infant baptisms, 1917 – 1927 

Book 8:

Membership records, 1927 –  
Marriages, 1927 – 1942
Infant baptisms, 1927 – 1954 

Book 8A:

Marriages, 1942 – 1969

Ministers

1839 George C. Light & William M. Daily (from Fourth Street Church)
1840 Wesley Browning
1841 William Patton
1842 – 1844 John H. Linn
1844 – 1846 Joseph Boyle
1846 – 1848 Thomas H. Capers
1848 – 1850 William H. Lewis
1850 – 1851 William M. Prottsman
1851 – 1852 Jerome C. Berryman
1852 – 1853 David R. McAnally & J.P. Nolan
1853 – 1854 James F. Truslow
1854 – 1855 Enoch M. Marvin
1855 James Sewell (served one month)
1855 – 1857 Enoch M. Marvin
1857 – 1858 Charles B. Parsons
1859 Evan Stevenson (served two months)
1859 – 1862 Enoch M. marvin
1862 – 1864 Joseph Boyle
1864 – 1866 Francis A. Morris
1866 – 1868 William A. Smith
1868 – 1870 C.D.N. Campbell
1870 – 1874 John H. Linn
1874 – 1878 William V. tudor
1886 – 1890 John Mathews
1890 – 1891 B. Carradine
1891 – 1893 S.H. Werlein
1893 – 1898 John Mathews
1897 – 1898 A.E. Nelson
1898 – 1902 J.H. Young
1902 – 1906 William F. Andrews
1909 – 1913 Luther E. Todd
1913 – 1917 Charles W. Tadlock
1917 – 1919 Alfred F. Smith
1937 – 1938 Dawson c. Bryan
1938 – 1946 Charles M. Crowe
1946 – 1954 Frank C. Tucker
1954 – 1957 Forrest L. Standard
1957 – 1964 John H. Crowe
1964 – 1976 J. Lester McGee
1976 – 1978 Nicholas K. Kiriakos
1978 – 1988 James Raber

Cemeteries

Centenary Methodist Church established Wesleyan Cemetery at the southwest and southeast corners of Grand and Laclede Avenues in 1847. The grounds comprised 12-3/4 acres and extended to Market Street on the east side of what is now Grand Avenue. The cemetery included more than 2400 African American burials. The Wesleyan Cemetery Association was formed in 1851.

Encroachment of the city led the Association to establish New Wesleyan Cemetery at the southeast corner of Olive Street Rd. and Hanley Ave. in 1874. Most graves were moved to this new location, although some were transferred to other burial grounds. New Wesleyan cemetery closed in 1952, and graves were moved to Memorial Park Cemetery and other locations.

Cemetery records are available for Wesleyan and New Wesleyan Cemeteries from 1847 through 1952 and include removal records from Wesleyan Cemetery to New Wesleyan Cemetery and from New Wesleyan Cemetery to Memorial Park Cemetery. Microfilm copies are available on film no. CMC-1 (FHL film no. 1405557) in the History and Genealogy Department.

Wesleyan Cemetery burials are included on Vol. 4 of "St. Louis Burials," a CD-ROM publication that can be used in the History and Genealogy Department. Indexes to Wesleyan Cemetery burials are available on the Cemetery Guide.

 

 

SOURCES


Gooch, John O. Circuit Riders to Crusades: Essays in Missouri Methodist History. Franklin, Tenn.: Providence House Publishers, c2000. Call no. 977.8 G645C

Hyde, William, 1836-1898. Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis: A Compendium of History and Biography for Ready Reference. 4 volumes. New York : Southern History Company, 1899.  4:1462. Call no. R 977.866 H995E

Seaton, Richard A., ed. History of the United Methodist Churches of Missouri. St. Louis: Missouri Methodist Historical Society, 1984. Call no. R 287.6 H673

Tucker, Frank C. The Methodist Church in Missouri, 1798-1939: A Brief History. Missouri: Historical Societies, 1966. R 977.8 T891M.

Williams, Francis Emmett. Centenary Methodist Church of St. Louis: The First Hundred Years, 1839-1939. St. Louis: Mound City Press, 1939. Call no. R 287 W723C.

Winter, Anna. Across the wide Missouri: A Citation History of Missouri Methodism. S.L.: s.n., 1976. Call no. R 977.8 W784A