Sampit Methodist Church

This church, formally organized in 1839, had its origins in a slave mission begun in 1786 on Gov. Thomas Boone’s plantation, 3 miles SE. Rev. P.A.M. Williams became its first minister in 1840. The first church, a frame building built the same year, stood 1.5 miles S. The present sanctuary was built on a 5-acre plot donated to the church in 1887 by Benjamin D. Bourne, a member and trustee. (Reverse) The present sanctuary, built by the time the congregation acquired this site in 1887, was originally a frame church. It was extensively renovated in 1959-60 and completely covered in brick in 1975-76. Three members of the church later became Methodist ministers: Revs. C.D. Huggins, Jack D. Watts, and John Paul Watts, Sr. Sampit is also the mother church of Oak Grove Methodist Church, founded in 1890.