Wesley United Methodist Church

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The name first suggested for the new edifice was the Seventh Street Methodist Episcopal Church, but 1866 being the centennial of Methodism in America, they decided to call it Centenary.

Building of the church begin in the spring of 1867. The large well-furnished stone church, costing $42,000 to build, was the first costly church built in Minneapolis. The church had a long balcony built across the end, and an immense basement built for the Sunday School. The Sunday School was held in the afternoon, bringing out everyone in town, even from other denominations.

When Centenary was dedicated in 1868, it was the only Methodist Episcopal Church in Minneapolis. With the new building and fittings, the day of dedication brought in over $16,000 in donations. During the first year of service, the Centenary church had brought in over 200 new members, and the next year, over 100 were converted to Methodism. During this time period, all persons had to be converted to join the church.

The Mother Church

Centenary became the Mother Church. The first daughter church was in 1870, called the Seventh Street Methodist Episcopal Church with 39 members. The second daughter church, the Washington Avenue M.E. Church on North Washington Avenue, was organized on February 25, 1872. In the fall of 1881, it moved to 6th Street North and Eleventh Avenue and the name was changed to Foss M. E. Church. Neither of these churches remain today.

In 1875, controversy hit Centenary, which dramatically changed the Methodist Episcopal church in Minneapolis, when ninety members of Centenary withdrew to form the Hennepin Avenue Church.  In the History of Hennepin Avenue, the story is told of C. M. Pond's recollections of the dramatic moment that brought about the split.

John Horton was plain, but honest in his Christianity—unflinching in the performance of duty.  His brave and manly act of felling one Brother Stanton to the floor of the old Centenary Church, at a session of the Sabbath School, brought him close friends.  His provocation amounted to a moral justification, and made his harsh act a Christian duty.

The people who were dissatisfied with the way the church was being run, met the next evening and organized a new church, which later became the Hennepin Avenue Church.   Before this "fight" was over, there were church trials, and nearly all of the conference was split, taking one side or the other. 

Hennepin Avenue Church was the third daughter church and almost immediately after that, in 1876, the Franklin Avenue M. E. Church was established as the fourth daughter church.   The Franklin Church was an outgrowth of the Hobart Chapel mission that was established in 1872.  When the Franklin Church burned about 1903, a new church was built and became Hobart Church.

Simpson M. E. Church, the fifth daughter church was organized and held its first meeting, May 7, 1882, at 26th Street and First Avenue South, where they remain today.

Read more detail including second and third generation chruches in the Wesley Genealogy.

Music

Centenary members boasted that many of Minneapolis' best musicians began there. Olive Fremstad once sang in the choir, as did Maude Ulmer Jones, and Maude Lambert.  Prof. Johannot was the director of the choir.  Mrs. J. D. Rich played the pipe organ (the first pipe organ in the City)  and later Mrs. Ada Chick was organist.  Charles Johnson led the Sunday School singing, and his daughter, Alma Johnson Porteous, one of the city's great singers, began her first singing in Centenary.

The first Sunday School orchestra, said to be the first one in Minneapolis, was at Centenary.

The Ladies Aid Society

The exact history is unclear, but the sisters of the church formed the Ladies Aid Society, probably out of the effort to collect the money to buy the lots for Centenary.  The Ladies Aid Society led the way for the formation of the statewide Women Society of Christian Service (WSCS), which held its first meeting at Wesley Church in 1940.  Today this organization is known as the United Methodist Women and is a national organization within the Methodist church.

The New Church

The membership of Centenary continued to grow and in 1888 the first news of a new church was published by the Ladies Aid Society in their newspaper. 

The members of Centenary M. E. Church not only rejoice over largely increasing congregations and the constant increase by letter probation, but in the bright and cheerful prospect of soon having one of the most elegant and beautiful church edifices in the great Northwest.

The laying of the cornerstone of Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church was on March 2, 1891—100 years to the day after the death of John Wesley.  The service started at Centenary Church where Mrs. Chick played the organ, the choir sang, followed by prayer, scripture reading, and the usual church service, including an address by Rev. J. W. Bashford.  Then after a hymn, the people were invited to form a procession and march to the new church for the laying of the cornerstone.  The Official Board led the procession, followed by Methodist ministers of Minneapolis and vicinity, and the rest of the congregation brought up the end.  Mrs. A. Y. Merrill told of this event at one of the homecoming dinners:

We looked like a rag-tagged army, like Cox's Army, when we marched up the street from Seventh Street to Wesley.

The second part of the service was held at Wesley with people gathered closely as the cornerstone was put in place.  Rev. H. H. French, Pastor, H. F. Lillibridge, President of the Trustees, and W. H. Hayes, architect, had parts in the service.

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