Peniel United Methodist Church

Tradition states that a young Irish immigrant moved to the local area in 1786 and sought out a Methodist minister from Wilmington to preach in Newport. By the early nineteenth century, a permanent Methodist Society had been established in the area. In 1809, a small frame meeting house was built on land conveyed by Thomas Latimer to the Board of Trustees consisting of Joseph Lynam, John Miller, Dennis Dougherty, Benjamin Hersey and Samuel Wood. The church was formally incorporated in 1810. On November 7, 1842, Sabilla Stone donated a house for a parsonage along with two lots of land for the support of the church. The original church building was replaced on the same site by a brick church in 1864. As noted in a late nineteenth-century historical resource “The Church has a large membership, numbering about two hundred in 1887, and also maintains a flourishing Sabbath-school.” The church building was remodeled in 1890 and an addition was built in 1937. A new section, used as the sanctuary, was completed and dedicated in 1954. Today, Peniel United Methodist Church continues to provide for the spiritual needs of the community it serves.