History

January 2025Anna Louise Bates, Church Historian Long-time parishioner Selden J. Spencer, remembered as one of the most active members of our church community and a bit of a character, was born in 1923 and grew up on a small farm in Bradford County, PA. He taught secondary school at several places during his graduate studies […]

November 2024Anna Louise Bates, Church Historian Reading reports of how New Paltz Methodists celebrated Christmas in past decades reminds us how times have changed. Methodism was, at one time, a thriving Protestant denomination in the United States. Local churches boasted a large attendance every Sunday. According to the December 15, 1950, New Paltz Methodist News,planned

September 2024Anna Louise Bates, Church Historian This is clearly an election year. As we navigate the bombardment of aggressive campaigns for the upcoming presidential election in November, we should acknowledge members of our community who worked hard every year to make sure we had free and fair elections. Long-time parishioner Carol Roper was such a

June 2024Kate Hymes At the end of the Civil War, Fulton Cox, formerly enslaved in Virginia, arrived in New Paltz. He came to New Paltz in the company of Captain Peter Eltinge, son of Edmund and Magdalene Eltinge. Cox and Eltinge likely met in Virginia where Eltinge’s regiment,156th New York, fought in several battles. Eltinge

March 2024Rev. L. Grace Harmon Recently, I had the privilege of taking a group of clergy people in the ordination process to Philadelphia for a Methodist history tour. I had so much fun seeing the city I love through the fresh eyes of these new friends. And I realized how blessed I have been to

June 2024Anna Louise Bates, Church Historian The Willing Workers of the New Paltz M.E. Church was organized on November 18, 1887. In the years prior to its disappearance from the church minutes during the 1960s, the Willing Workers served as a valuable fundraising and community support club. Over the years, the Workers devised many clever

March 2024Anna Louise Bates, Church Historian I am writing this piece on International Women’s Day, and I decided to honor the efforts of a remarkable group of senior women in our congregation. The Seekers was organized in 1922 from an Adult Women’s Sunday School class, while the church was in its former location on Church

January 2024Anna Louise Bates, Church Historian One of the most significant and exciting things the New Paltz Methodist church did during the 1960s was to open a youth-oriented coffee shop called The Cave Inn.  It was located on the Church’s property at 143 Main Street, adjacent to the bus station. The Cave Inn, managed by

November 2023Anna Louise Bates, Church Historian The New Paltz Methodist Episcopal Church celebrated Christmas “as only the Methodists know how” during the 1870s. The editors of the New Paltz Times reported on the annual celebration of December 24, 1875. The detailed description of the event noted that “on either side of the pulpit was a

September 2023Kate Hymes Not long after becoming a member of the New Paltz United Methodist Church, I was introduced to the great NPUMC mystery: why is there a tombstone in the attic? Those who frequent NPUMC’s upper room testified that engraved on the stone were the names of, along dates of death, Fulton and Jane