Biography

Waldheim United Methodist Church was located at 77068 Louisiana Highway, Covington, Louisiana.

Services might have begun at Waldheim as early as 1860 in an old log church, though records are lacking. It is known that a new church was built and dedicated in 1875. The church was 41 by 25 feet and had a steeple with a bell. J. B. A. Ahrens wrote that he had "opened a new field" and had a society of 22 members. The congregation was a part of the German Mission Conference. It was called Boniface Church, after the apostle of the Germans. Through the years, it has also been called St. Tammany Mission, Camp Ground, Talisheek, German Settlement, and now, Waldheim.

On August 29, 1884, John J. Ryan sold 40 acres (which encompassed the church property) to the Methodist Episcopal Church South, German Mission Conference of Texas and Louisiana. In 1887, a "tabernacle" (shed) of 40 by 60 feet was built for the Camp Ground. It had a dirt floor covered with pine needles. Fires were lit on several stands around the shed to provide light at night.

In the early 1930s, an addition was built onto the back of the church. A Fellowship Hall was added in the mid-1950s. Various improvements have been made over the years, such as a new organ (1952 and 1967), air conditioning (1971, though the units were stolen the following year), and furnaces (1974). It is thought that a parsonage was built about the same time as Boniface Church.

Waldheim United Methodist Church disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church in November 2022.

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 NO-75.

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