Perryville Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, so let me pass it along to you. Way out in the rural reaches of Wood County, a congregation took root. The year was 1879, and thirty-eight charter members came together to organize what they called the Marvin Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church.

Thirty-eight people, gathered with enough conviction to put a name on something and make it last. The Reverend A. K.

Hughes stepped up as the first pastor, and just like that, a community of faith had a voice. Now, it would take a few more years before the land was truly theirs. In 1887, a man named J.

D. Hallonquist donated land to the church. That same year, they raised a building on it.

Then in 1915, they raised another. Two buildings, separated by years and sweat, each one a testament to a congregation that kept showin up. And that building, that physical place in the countryside, became something more than four walls and a roof.

It became the focal point of the whole area. Revival meetings rolled through. Sunday singings filled the air.

Community gatherings brought neighbors together across the miles of rural Wood County in ways that little else could. Here's the part that really lands, though. The descendants of those original thirty-eight charter members are still there.

Still serving. Still carrying that long history forward in the area of Perryville. Eighteen seventy-nine to now.

Some things, once you plant them right, just don't quit.

What the marker says

This rural congregation was organized in 1879 by 38 charter members as the Marvin Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church. The Reverend A. K. Hughes served as the first pastor. J. D. Hallonquist donated land to the church in 1887, and church buildings were erected here in 1887 and 1915. The church building became a focal point for the area and the site of many revival meetings, Sunday "singings" and community gatherings. Descendants of charter members continue a long history of service to the area of Perryville. (1997)