| About SPUMC |
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| Written by Kaycee Young |
| Wednesday, 23 December 2009 22:05 |
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In 1819 in Alabama, a boy was born to a man and wife who were full blood Creek Indians. His name was Sam Checote and at an early age he came under the influence of a pioneer of Methodism in Indian Territory, “Uncle” John Harrell. Sam Checote preached, until forbidden by the Creek Council under a law carrying a penalty of 50 lashes on the bare back. Checote fled the territory and sent appeals to Chief McIntosh until the law was revoked. In 1852 he joined the Indian Mission Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South and preached until the time of the Civil War. After the war, he was a preacher, circuit rider and presiding elder in the Indian Mission. In 1872 he was elected Chief of the Creek Nation, where he served 12 years. He was elected as a delegate to the Ecumenical Conference of Methodism, held in London in 1881, but he could not attend due to illness. He died in 1884, and was buried near Okmulgee. His people called him their Great Chief, describing him as “gentle as a child, as courageous as a lion.”
Sam Checote, was the presiding elder of the Muskogee District in 1877 when our town was a village of less than 500 people, Checote, together with Joshua Ross, John Cinningham and Major John Foreman got the idea of building a Methodist Church in Muskogee, The Presbyterians had just completed a small church on 2nd and West Okmulgee. Chief Checote got $500 from the Mission Board at Nashville, and $500 in cash and labor from Muskogee citizens. With this money he put in the walls, roof and floor of what was called the “Old Rock Church” located on the corner of Cherokee and East Okmulgee. In September 1878, Rev. Theo Brewer was appointed pastor of what was known as “Eufaula and Muskogee Station.” Beginning with three members, Reverend Brewer began an eight year pastorate. During that time the church was finished, a parsonage built, and the membership increased to 162. Muskogee Methodists were self-supporting this year. During the next eighteen years there were nine different pastors. In 1903 the “Old Rock Church” burned to the ground and the congregation worshiped the rest of that year in the Spaulding College Chapel, where the old General Hospital was located for many years, in the 100 block of Spaulding street. At the end of this year the congregation divided giving all the members on the east side of the Missouri Kansas and Texas Railroad track to the First Methodist Church, and all the members on the west side of the tracks to Saint Paul Methodist Church. Saint Paul Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was authorized at the Annual Conference of 1903. First Church continued to worship in the Spaulding Chapel. Reverend Sweet was appointed the first pastor of our church. |