Biography

Pelican United Methodist Church was located at 144 College Street, Pelican, Louisiana.

The church was organized with twelve members in 1890 by Rev. H.J. Boltz. At first, they met in a schoolhouse. By the time Rev. Boltz left four years later, they had 100 members and had acquired a church and a parsonage.

In 1892, Mr. A.F. Jackson donated a lot on the corner of Washington Street and Jackson Avenue to the church. The first church was built soon thereafter. It had two entrances at the front and was lit by kerosene lamps. The original bell in that church is still in use today. The current church sits on that same site.

The first parsonage was later replaced by the Buckley house when Rev. Cargill served as pastor. It was later replaced by a third parsonage. That parsonage was eventually torn down and replaced with the present structure.

The original church was dismantled in 1916 and a new church was completed by the following year. The pulpit is homemade, but the pulpit chairs were purchased with money raised by the Women’s Missionary Society. A wing was added to the north side of the church in 1939. The pulpit and pews were rotated 90 degrees so that the pews faced north instead of east. The addition included one large room and two smaller classrooms. The former pulpit area of the sanctuary was then used as a classroom. When the steeple developed leaks, it was removed in 1966 and the roof was reshaped.

Pelican United Methodist Church closed in June 2024.

Source: Timothy Hebert, “The Historical Register of the Louisiana Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church,” (Louisiana: Louisiana Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, 2004), page SH-62.

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