Mayo Memorial United Methodist Church
The date of October 10, 1809, is generally recognized as the date the
Methodist Church was officially organized in the Big Sandy Valley.
The Western Annual Conference of the Methodist
Church, with Bishop Francis Asbury presiding, was meeting in Cincinnati when Cornelius
McGuire of Floyd County introduced a petition asking the Conference to send a preacher to
the region. McGuire's petition was approved, a new circuit was created and the Reverend
Benjamin Edge was named the first Presiding Elder for the Circuit.100 years later, had
Asbury and McGuire been present in Paintsville on Sunday, September 19, 1909, they would
have been astounded to see the Western Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, conduct the first worship services ever held in the newly constructed
gothic church known today as Mayo Memorial United Methodist Church.
Methodism in the Big Sandy Valley had come a long way since 1809. Thanks
to the devoted efforts of such men as McGuire, Henry Stratton, Lewis Mayo, Electious Howes
and Daniel Hager, the Paintsville Methodist Society was organized in 1812 and met
regularly in the homes of John Auxier and Moses "Cobe" Preston. In 1844, under
the stress of deep schisms caused by issues such as slavery and abolition, Methodism in
the United States split under a Plan of Separation, creating a Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, as a separate entity from the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The issues which divided the church nationally were, likewise, reflected
in the strongly held sentiments of Methodists in Paintsville and Johnson County.
Consequently, between 1860 and 1867, there arose two separate Methodist congregations.
The members of the M. E. Church, South, began construction in 1860 of a
church building at the northeast corner of East Street and Main Street in Paintsville.
Before its completion, however, it was destroyed by fire...allegedly the work of northern
sympathizers.
Following the Civil war and a diminution of tempers, the M. E. Church,
South, building was eventually completed about 1872. By this time the First Methodist
Church (the northern branch) had erected its own church building at Main and Church
Streets. Paintsville's two Methodist congregations now had their own churches. The brick
structure at East and Main was approximately 75 by 30 feet and served its congregation
well for 37 years.
By 1907 John C. C. Mayo, a loyal member of the M. E. Church, South,
congregation, had begun construction on his mansion on Paintsville's Third Street with a
small army of Italian stonemasons, artisans and laborers. On Sunday November 1, 1908, at
Mayo's urging, the congregation approved the construction of a new church building.
Mayo agreed to donate $5000 toward the $10,000 which was the original
estimate of cost. Meanwhile, Mayo had also donated a site for the church at the northwest
corner of Church and Third Streets. Soon thereafter, however, Mayo purchased a lot at the
northeast corner of Third and Court Streets from C. B. Wheeler which he exchanged with the
church trustees for the original site.
Built of native sandstone quarried on the Mayo
farm across Paint Creek and transported to the construction site by an aerial tramway, the
large stones were sculptured and fitted for use. Roof trusses were of wood of various
sizes up to 12 inches square bolted together. The roof is fashioned of 12,000 glazed green
tile, each weighing almost six pounds for a total weight of almost 36 tons. The church's
magnificent pipe organ is said to have been donated, at least in part, by Andrew Carnegie.
Among the most striking features of the sanctuary are its stained glass
windows, designed by Italian craftsmen and imported from Italy and depicting the Birth,
Death and Resurrection and Ascension of Christ. In 1961 the value of the windows was set
at $300,000, a figure at which they are insured. The church structure which originally
cost an estimated $30,000 to $50,000 is insured today for $1 million.
Still, the most remarkable thing about this beautiful church is the length
of time of its construction. From the date of the approval of the church trustees for its
construction until its first services on September 19, 1909, actual construction took less
than 11 months.
As with all church congregations which trace their history over a century
or more, the names of those who kept the church alive are far too numerous to recount. The
Auxier family, the LaViers, Preston, Wheeler, Mayo, Meek, Wells, Turner, Conley, Hager and
Archer families are a few which come to mind, along with the Mason, Kirk, Hazelrigg,
Hamilton and Goggans families. Among the women of the church whose faithful and loyal
service have been of immeasurable value are Ruth Meek, Mrs. Ernest Thomas, Juanita Irvin,
Irene Kazee, Sarah Redd, Martha Wells, Zella Wells, Barbara Conley, Terri Wells, Tommy
Jean Hazelrigg, Carol Thomas, Glenda Goggans and Patsy Knight.
Pastors of the Mayo Memorial United
Methodist Church since 1908
(Information for this article came, in part, from Mayo's church
historian Robert M. Conley, The Paintsville Herald, The Big Sandy News and oral history
interviews.)
