By Dean Vaglia
Leader Stafff Writer
The Oxford Free Methodist Church turned 100 years old on Saturday, Oct. 24. The church celebrated its centennial with a Fall Festival over the weekend.
“Originally it was a part of three smaller churches,” Sandi Gillett, a lifelong congregant, said.
According to a history of the church provided by Gillett, Oxford Free Methodist has roots in a Hadley church formed in the 1870s, a Brandon church formed in the 1880s and a group of former Brandon congregants who held meetings in Oxford throughout the 1900s.
The three churches merged over the summer of 1918 and became the First Free Methodist Church of Oxford, officially incorporating under that name on Oct. 24, 1921. The congregation lacked a permanent home in the early days, holding meetings in congregant homes, storefronts and a Seventh Day Adventist church. The church purchased a lot on Mechanic St. in 1922 and Claude McCallum became its first full-time preacher.
A parsonage was bought at 82 S. Washington St. on Sept. 11, 1924, and the now-unused Hadley church was cut into four segments and towed by horses into Oxford.
The church expanded in the late 1950s, starting with the purchase of its current lot on M-24 in March 1957 and a bus in January 1959. A new church was built on the site in 1959, holding its first service on Dec. 30 that year. Another parsonage was built in 1965 on the site and the church was expanded with the construction of the “Harold Ryckman Memorial Building” in 1971. The expansion featured classrooms, a gym, a kitchen and office spaces.
Aside from the Fall Festival, the church has celebrated its centennial throughout the year.
“We had a men’s breakfast [and] a ladies’ brunch,” Gillett said. “COVID has put a definite crimp in things, and we only had an interim pastor from the first of the year until [last weekend.] We’ve done some internal celebrations.”
The church has been broadcasting their services over Facebook during the pandemic.