Bartholomew United Methodist Church (Morehouse Parish, La.)
Biography
Bartholomew United Methodist Church (Morehouse Parish, La.) is located at 14974 Old Bonita Road, Bastrop, Louisiana.
Local settler William Skanes wanted to start a Masonic lodge and Jay Philip Stiles wanted to start a Methodist Society. A crude meeting place was set up in 1796. A building was constructed in 1807 to hold both groups, though Stiles died that same year. In the early 1 800s, circuit riders were assigned to the Ouachita Circuit and are said to have held services at Bartholomew. [Although this information was found by Dr. Houston Roberts in Masonic records, it cannot be verified.]
The first recorded pastor to preach in the Bartholomew area was Rev. John G. Jones in 1826.
According to a paper found in Mrs. Matilda Johnson’s Bible, the first frame church building was dedicated on June 25, 1835.
The current building was constructed in 1853 by the Methodists and the Masons. There were two doors in the front and one behind the pulpit. The Masons would access the upper floor by an exterior stairway. The Masons later surrendered their charter in 1899. In 1859 the church acquired the deed to the 13 acres of land occupied by the church and cemetery.
In the 1940s, an inside staircase was built to the second floor, which was converted to a fellowship hall and Sunday School rooms.
The church was renovated (which included new pews) in the mid 1950s. A major change was the larger vestibule added in 1957 (replacing a smaller one added in 1950), which had a classroom on one side and restrooms on the other. In 1960, the second floor was remodeled and the sanctuary floor covered with new oak flooring. Two years later, the youth bought a lighted cross for the sanctuary and the Pings donated a new organ.
In 1986, the church was listed as a National Methodist Historical Site. In 1989, a new fellowship hall was built near the church and dedicated the following year by Bishop William Oden.
Bartholomew United Methodist Church disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church in 2023.
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 MO-5.