The History of Orlando's United Brethern Church

by David Parmer

The United Brethren Church followed the tradition of the Protestant faith and emphasized holiness and evangelism. Founded around 1800, the United Brethren faith at first centered on German heritage but soon attracted a homogeneous anti-slavery congregation. With the coming of the period of prosperity and population growth in the Orlando area, the Orlando United Brethren Church came into existence in 1918.

Two Church Buildings

Most all Orlando residents are familiar with the Orlando United Brethren Church building that was consecrated in 1925. Dale Barnett advises us that there was an earlier United Brethren Church building which was located just above the location of the later constructed church building. We don't yet know the story of the church buildings. We do have the story of the Parsonage. For that story, see the April '07 entry Tales from the U. B. Church

To the right is a photo of the congregation in front of the second church building, in the late 1950s or early 1960s. Click on it to enlarge the photo.

The Pastors of the Orlando Circuit

Orlando was the base for a seven charge pastorate. The minister who lived in Orlando also served charges at Knawls Creek, Gilmer Station, Copen, Burnsville Olive Chapel, Copley, and Blackburn. This was and is the common way of handling small parishes. For example, St. Michael, Orlando's Roman Catholic parish, shared its priest with St Bridgit and St Bernard, with the priest living at the rectory located on Loveberry Hill, near the St. Bernard Church.

Reverend L. L. Westfall

Reverend Westfall was the U. B. Minister for the Orlando Charge from 1915 to 1920.

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Reverend Stead

Reverend Stead (first name not found) was the U. B. Minister for the Orlando Charge in 1921.

Reverend Stianda R. Cutright

Reverend "S. R." Cutright was the U. B. Minister for the Orlando Charge in 1922 and 1923. A native of Upshur County , he was the son of Benjamin and Virginia (Hinkle) Cutright. He died in Weston at the age of 43 in 1937.

Reverend I.O. McGrath

Reverend McGrath served in the early 1920s and left in 1923. Preacher McGrath was initially assigned to Richwood for his new church assignment in September 1924, but instead was sent to Cedarville.

Reverend Emery F. Keller

Emery Keller was born in Gilmer County in 1886. He served as minister of the United Brethren Church in Orlando from 1924 until 1928, and again from 1929 until 1933.

Preacher Keller and his wife Theodosia were the parents of ten children, six girls and four boys.

Hester, the oldest girl married Zirkle Skidmore

Lilly married Ray Fox from the Posey Run/Oil Creek area

Lucille married John Graff of Burnsville

Louise married Aaron Luzader of Glenville

Lenora married Charles Farand of Ohio

Ruth Katherine married Woodford Stout of Normantown

Lydia James, the oldest boy married Arley Marple (who died recently at age 101)

Leeman married Ailene Stout

Leeoin died in infancy

Emery Junior married June Kennedy of Troy

The Kellers retired to a place on the Oil Creek Road, above the B & O Railroad line, between Posey Run and Burnsville just east of the present residence of Carl Fox, grandson of Preacher Keller.

The Preacher was quite a handyman and was involved in construction projects around the Orlando area. Dale Barnett also reported that Preacher Keller would raise a few sheep which he butchered and sold in the Orlando area. Preacher Keller died in 1956 and was buried in the Orlando Cemetery. To the right, above, is Preacher Keller carrying ears of corn.

Reverend A. P. Zinn

Reverend A. P. Zinn pastored the Orlando Charge of the U. B. Church in 1928/1929.

Reverend C. W. Scott

Reverend C. W. Scott served the U. B. Charge at Orlando from 1934 to 1936.

Reverend John Curtis Foster

Reverend Foster served the Orlando Circuit in 1942/1943. He died in Parkersburg. His son, J. C. Foster, Jr. was also a minister in the Parkersburg area and died recently.

Reverend G. W. Stepp

Reverend G. W. Stepp was the U. B. minister at Orlando for 1942/1943.

Reverend James J. Smearman

Reverend James Smearman served the Orlando Circuit from 1943 through 1946. Reverend Smearman’s daughter Evelyn graduated from Burnsville High School with the class of 1945. A native of Maryland, Preacher Smearman died in Junior, Barbour County in 1950.

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Reverends Nestor and Ziegler

Reverend Joe Ziegler served as replacement minister in 1946 and 1947 for Reverend Nestor who had to leave his Orlando Circuit on account of asthma. Reverend Zigler married Pauline McCauley of Burnsville. He lived in West Union at his death. The Orlando circuit was his first ministry.

Rev. Zigler is at the right.

Reverend Charles Parrish

Reverend Parrish was the United Brethren church pastor from 1948 through 1952. Preacher Parrish’s son Eugene was drum major for the Burnsville High School band in 1952. He was quite adept at twirling the baton and could toss it high into the air and catch it coming down without a problem.

Reverend Brady Bland

Reverend Brady Bland served briefly in 1953.

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Reverend Albert Berl England

Reverend Albert Berl England was the pastor in Orlando from 1954 to 1956. He and his wife, Irene, had three children, Eddie, Sheila and Gwen Ann. Reverend England died in New Jersey in 1976 at age 53 and is buried in Belington. Irene died in Belington in 2000 at age 80.

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Reverend Carus Campbell

Reverend Campbell served the Orlando Charge from 1957 to 1958.

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Reverend W. H. Hoover

Reverend W. H. Hoover was a native of Mineral County and came to Orlando in 1959 from Cottageville, Mason County to serve the Orlando Circuit. During his ministry in Orlando the United Brethren church bought the former St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church building and moved there from its church building on the hill.

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Reverend Hoover being apprised of the pending merger of the United Brethren Church and the Methodist Church was not in favor of the merger, left his ministry and went into an independent ministry in the Weston area where he served many years at the Message of Light Tabernacle Church until his death in 2006. He was survived by his widow Velma, his daughter Lillie, and two sons Bob and William.

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Bishop William Weekley

The Bishop of the conference was located in Parkersburg but he was important to the life of the church in Orlando. One Bishop, William Weekley, married to the former Emma Gibson, was a frequent visitor to the Orlando Church. We know he officiated at the dedication of the United Brethren Church building in Orlando in 1925, about a year before his death at the age of 74 in Parkersburg.

Bishop Weekley began his ministry in 1870 at the age of 19 as preacher to a circuit of nine churches. He wrote several books including Twenty Years on Horseback.

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Comments

comment 1 Donna Gloff

The United Brethern Church on the hill and the Methodist Protestant Church on Oil Creek elonged to two of the numerous American denominations that followed the teachings of John Wesley. Some others were the Church of the Nazarene, the Salvation Army, the Colored Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church, the Southern and Northern Methodist Episcopal Churches and the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.

John Wesley (1703-1791) was an Anglican Priest who had a life-changing experience in a prayer meeting that set him on a ministry that resulted in a program and process that was rooted in Sunday School classes and had a focus on a personal experience of God in an individual's life. As the faithful were encouraged to have their own understandings of God's will, it is not surprising that they so often broke off into sister denominations that reflected their various understandings of God's will. Hence, numerous Wesleyan denominations.