New Salem United Methodist Church had its beginnings in 1815, when the Society of Friends founded a meeting house in the village of New Salem. The first building was a log structure near the northeast corner of the cemetery. The oldest readable gravestone in the cemetery is that of Joseph Julian, who died in 1813, suggesting that the church, or the site, may be older than records indicate.
The Friends congregation had two buildings on this site. By 1889, the Friends disbanded their Meeting and either gave or sold (historical tradition says for $1) the property to a group of Methodist Protestants to found a congregation on that site. The Friends’ only requirement was that the cemetery be maintained. Some of the charter members of the Methodist Protestant Church were Frank Bischer, David Fogleman, E. L. Hayes and Robert Talley. (Picture above New Salem Adult Sunday School Class 1916)
The Methodist congregation had two buildings on this site. The older church building was turned around and reworked to form the area immediately behind the current sanctuary. The present sanctuary was completed in 1952 with the Educational Building completed about 1957. The Fellowship Hall was added in 1979 and then doubled in size in 1995. The latest addition to the church was a playground added in 1998 and upgraded in 2016.
The 1989, the church celebrated its centennial and is now embarking on the second hundred years of serving God in this location.
