African Methodist Church Soon To Be Destroyed

CAMPBELL, HOUGH, MOORE

Posted By: JCGS Volunteer
Date: 1/18/2019 at 15:43:26

African Methodist Church, One of Newton’s Oldest Landmarks, Will Soon Be Removed by Jim Stern
One of Newton’s oldest landmarks will soon be gone. This particular historic building sits in northeast Newton practically unnoticed by the citizens of the city.
The building looks more like the haunted houses you read about in ghost stories. The windows of the structure are without glass; the timbers are rotting and the roof is gradually falling apart.
You would never know that eleven years ago this weather beaten building was a church.
It was called the Newton African Methodist Church. Some of the local old-timers in the city say that it has stood for close to a century.
Little is known about the history of the building. Back in the good old days, a fairly large congregation attended services every Sunday. Roy Hough, 1001 S. 5th Avenue W., a life long resident of Newton, recalls that when he was a child, there were around twenty-five negro families living in the city. He said that he had attended school with many of their children. The parents of these children had all been slaves and had moved to Newton from the south land.
One incident which stood out in Hough’s mind was the time when he and some of the other neighborhood kids watched a funeral service through the window. Hough said that the service was for a Negro man who had been shot to death by another Negro.
The Negro families who had made their exodus from the south were highly respected citizens in the town. Hough recalled that a couple of them ran barber shops on the square. He said that most of the families that attended the church lived in the immediate vicinity. Hough said that the area was then known as Woolville.
Probably the most well-known man who has ever been associated with the African Methodist Church was the late Rev. R. C. Campbell. Today’s citizens in Newton still remember the old man who would come around and ask for money to sponsor and preserve his church. Rev. Campbell was pastor of the church for better than twenty years, although it was rather inactive in the mid and late 50’s.
Fred Moore, 510 E. 8th Street S., recalls Rev. Campbell. He said that in the winter time, he would go out and help the pastor push his car to get it started. “When Christmas came around, Rev. Campbell would bring sacks of candy over to the house,” Moore said. He said that the Rev. Campbell’s hat is still in the church building.
The Rev. Campbell was born in 1865 in the Oklahoma Territory on June 10. He died December 21, 1959 at the Jasper County Home.
In the church’s latter days it was used for various meetings. Sunday worship services were not held regularly. Very few attended the church in the 50’s; however, many people would come to the church to help in any way they could. Eventually, it was classified as inactive. Today it is just a landmark of the good old days of the 1920’s and 30’s.
On February 1, Fred Moon will receive the title for the church and property. Moon said that the old building will be destroyed mainly because of the condition that it is now in.
(A photo of the church accompanied the article with the following caption: Old Church Will Soon Be Destroyed – The old African Methodist Church will soon be destroyed because of the condition of the structure. The church, located in northeast Newton, has stood for nearly a century and is one of Newton’s oldest landmarks. It was sold by the city for taxes.)
Source: Newton Daily News; Saturday, January 26, 1963, page 1