Portage Prairie United Methodist Church/Portage Prairie United Methodist Church

In 1887 the Reverend J. A. Frye sparked a religious revival that inspired the construction of this Gothic Revival church. Embellished with oak details, the church cost seventy-two hundred dollars and was debt free upon its dedication. Its one hundred foot steeple was removed in 1919 due to severe electrical storms. Evangelical pioneers had worshipped in a log schoolhouse until 1859, when they built a yellow brick church. That structure was replaced by the present church. Persuaded by reports of good land from the Reverend John Seybert, Bishop of the Ohio conference, the Jacob and David Rough families came to Portage Prairie from Pennsylvania in the spring of 1849. In 1851 they organized the Zion Evangelical Church. The denomination merged with the United Evangelical Church in 1922 and with the United Brethren Church in 1946. This church was renamed the Portage Prairie United Methodist Church in 1968.