The date of the organization of the Methodist Episcopal church in Somerset cannot be accurately ascertained. Its first members were Mrs. Armstrong, Mrs. Elder, Mrs. Phythian and Mrs. McCarty, who held their meetings in private houses for several years. Their first preachers were Revs. Tudor and Little. Their immediate successors were Revs. Coleman and Keismiller.
The first quarterly meeting ever held in Somerset was about the year 1823. Rev. Monroe was the presiding elder on that occasion. Revs. Tudor and Little were then the preachers in charge. This quarterly meeting was followed by a revival, during which a considerable number of persons were added to the society. This meeting was held in the old stone church which was owned jointly by the German Reformed and Presbyterian churches. The mode of conducting the revival not suiting these churches, the Methodists were excluded, and moved their meeting to the court-house. Subsequently they worshiped in the Masonic Hall for some years. After the fire of 1833, when the great part of the town was destroyed, the first Methodist Episcopal church edifice was erected, in which they continued to worship until 1876, when a new building was erected, the old one having been sold to the Evangelical association. Rev. Thorne was the preacher at the time of the fire.
The society, before the fire of 1833, had attained a degree of prosperity which it has never had since. It was then a station, now a part of what is called Somerset circuit. The records of the church having been destroyed by the fire of 1872, and all the older members deceased, it is impossible at this late day to obtain anything like an accurate history of the church, or the regular succession of its ministers.
(Source: extracted from “History of Bedford, Somerset & Fulton Counties, PA; 1884)
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