"In 1893 Rev. W.W. Wisegarver, the Pastor of the Tobyhanna Methodist Episcopal Church thought it prudent to write
a history of the beginnings of Methodism in Tobyhanna. Rev. Wisegarver contacted seven Pastors who had served at the Tobyhanna
M.E. church prior to 1891. From Rev. Wisegarver and the former pastors we get a snapshot of the early church in Tobyhanna.
The first recorded Methodist
services in Tobyhanna (then called Naglesville) were held in 1853 in the local hotel. The Revs Waters and Hembold from Daleville
were the Pastors. The first assigned minister in 1853 was Rev. David from the Wyoming Valley Conference. In 1855 Rev. Francis
D. Egan was appointed to the circuit which was comprised of Paradise, Oakland, Canadensis, Henryville and Naglesville (Tobyhanna).
In 1859 Naglesville reported only three members and twenty-five Sunday School Scholars.
In 1860 when Reverend Matthias
Barnhill arrived at Naglesville. Sunday school and Church services were held
in the school building on the east side of what is now Tobyhanna Creek; this school would have been somewhere near the location
of our present Church.
In 1862 a forest fire destroyed
the school and most of the other buildings in Naglesville. The burning of the town made it necessary during the summer of
1862 for Sunday school and Church services to be held in the old railroad station. There is no mention in our Church records
as to where services were held after the summer of 1862 and the time of the construction of the first Church in 1865.
Our first Church was a one
story building located just a little east of the railroad station. In 1866 the town name was changed from Naglesville to Tobyhanna
Mills. Membership stood at 28 in 1867. Membership had risen to 50 in 1888 when Rev. Ephraim Potts, a Civil War veteran was
appointed Pastor.
In 1899 it was decided that
a new and larger Church was needed. Money was raised and the new Church was completed and dedicated before the close of 1899.
For the next sixty-five the
congregation continued to grow; slowly at times, but never the less it grew.
Disaster struck on Feb. 25th,
1965; a fire erupted and the Church was completely destroyed. After the fire Church services were held at St. Ann’s
Roman Catholic Church in Tobyhanna and the Tobyhanna Army Depot Chapel.
Groundbreaking for the present
Church was June 5th,1966. The first service in the new Church was held June 11th, 1967.
Membership has increased from
the 3 reported in 1859 to approximately 150 in 2003 who attend or otherwise support the Church; (No figures are available
for membership from 1853 to 1858.). Sixty Pastors have come and gone since 1853. Our current Pastor is the reverend Thomas
Daniel.
At the end of Reverend Wisegarver’s
Church history we find the following paragraph:
“We have found it quite
an undertaking to prepare this sketch of the Church’s history and have done it cheerfully because it is a work that
ought to be done for every society. It is often neglected until the circumstances of the organization and the facts of its
early history are buried with the original members. Ofttimes its severest struggles
and greatest triumphs can never be recorded because they perished with the demise of the original actors. Provision ought
to be made at once for the preservation of all materials within reach. May the Lord continue to own our Church as a mighty
agent in the spread of Scriptural holiness over these lands. “
W. W. Wisegarver
March
15, 1894
Note: Only a small portion
of Rev. Wisegarver’s history has been reproduced in this article.
