A Historical Real Event for the Community

Written in the History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania edited by Franklin Ellis it stated, "The only house of public worship in Washington Towship is the Little Redstone Methodist Episcopal Church, located at the forks of the road just west of Jehu Steven's residence. The neat and substantial brick edifice rears it modest front within a small but well-kept churchyard, where many of Washington's pioneers have slept for many years.

The Baptist built a long church at the point forty years or more ago, and maintained an organization and periodical worship for sometime. The Methodists held occasional meetings in the Baptist meeting-house, as well as neighboring schoolhouse and house of members. 

The frist Methodist meeting were held at the houses of Nathaniel Stephens, Robert Stephens, and Hugh Ford. The brick church was built in 1857, were Reves Wakefield, Mansell, Johnson, Kendall and Stewart.. The present pastor is Reve Josiah Mansell, who preaches at the Little Redstone every Sunday. 

The membership now (May 1881) is sixy-five. The class leader is Albert Gaddis. The trustees are David Stephens, Jehu Luce, John Smith, and John Taggart. The superintendent of the Sunday School is Jehu Luce."

How it all began

By 1787 Methodism had become a part of Western Pennsylvania and Western Virginia. 

Robert Ayres was an itinerant Methodist and Episcopalian minister and educator throughout Western Pennsylvania during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Ayres was the oldest son of a large family and was born on March 17, 1761. Little is known of his early life except that he studied to become a teacher, an assumption made from his ability to read Latin. In 1785, he became an itinerant Methodist preacher in the Chesapeake region. Between 1786 and 1787 he travelled on the Redstone Circuit in Western Pennsylvania and surrounding states.

The Redstone was one of only two pioneer circuits of Methodism in the great central valley of America and the mother circuit of the Pittsburgh Conference of the Methodist Church. The name Redstone comes from "The Redstone Country," an early name given to the western region of the United States for settlements near the small creek rising near Uniontown (Fayette County), Pennsylvania and flowing into the Monongahela at Brownsville (Fayette County). Ayres conducted much of his preaching in the Morgantown, West Virginia area. Between 1787 and 1788, Ayres preached in the area around the upper Potomac and spent his last year as a Methodist minister in the circuit in Winchester, Virginia (1788-1789).

In the early days Robert Ayre  made eight trips around the circuit starting from the Widow Ann Murphy's in Union-town PA. Robert Ayre tried to keep a daily journal, and carefully recording the places where he visited and preached. His journal passages tell us of the locations he preached, like the home of Peter Maston in Washington Township, Fayette County, near Fayette City. Peter's home was nestled in the beautiful lush rowing hills, along with other farms and homesteads.

It was in this area, that it was decided that a church should be built. So finally there were meetings and a location was decided upon. Trustees drew up Articles of Agreement on 14 January 1857, building plans were drawn up. The property was surveyed by Samuel Griffth 30 August 1858 and George Seacrist, a contractor built the small brick building for $1,350.

This was a wonderful and exciting event for the people of the community, now they would have a place of worship, and a beautiful cemetery, where they could bury their departed loved ones.