ALTHA METHODIST CHURCH

The Richards family had a long history of building churches in Northwest Florida. Daniel Thomas Richards (1825-1879), survivor of an Indian attack on Fort Richards/Fort Place, and son of Rev. John G. Richards of Wewahitchka, built Moss Hill Methodist Church in Vernon (1857), Chipola Primitive Baptist (1873), and organized the Chipola Methodist Church (1874) in his log home. In 1876 Daniel and his sons built a log church near this site. In 1899 Daniel’s son, Martin L. Richards, purchased land and platted the town. Martin Lafayette Richards (1866-1947) and wife Lula Mozelle Cannon Richards (1875-1956), who named Altha and served as its first postmistress, granted this church site on August 23, 1907 to J.F. Richards, B. M. Stanfill and I. H. King as Trustees of the Blountstown Circuit Methodist Episcopal Church South, of the Marianna District Alabama Conference, and their successors in office, in order that the premises be used, kept, maintained as a place of divine worship for the use of the ministry and membership. A white wood frame church was built here in 1908 where the congregation met until a new church was built in 1974. Martin L. Richards served as the first Sunday School Superintendent until 1945.