Dalton First United Methodist Church: Sounds of the past trumpet the future

Submitted by Dalton First United Methodist Church

Editor’s note: First in a series of articles on Dalton First United Methodist Church.

On Sunday, Aug. 5, Dalton First United Methodist Church will celebrate 165 years of its existence in Dalton. An anniversary service will be held at 10 am. in a large tent on the Dalton Green. Pastor Robin Lindsey will be wearing period clothing similar to that worn in 1847 by the church's first pastor, Levi Brotherton, and other ministers of the time. The public is invited to join in this observance.

Outreach Pastor Kenny Ott was quick to mention that “God never intended for us to be a part of a certain denomination nor of a certain church located in a building somewhere. God desires for us to be in relationship with him, with others and with the created order.”

Dalton FUMC is looking forward to a future where members go outside the four walls of a building and live out and follow Christ’s example of feeding the hungry, visiting the sick or the elderly, serving the poor, ministering to the homeless, etc. It is this return to the future that the church is also celebrating on Aug. 5.

A small group of Methodists had been worshiping in the Whitfield/Murray County area since 1836. The history of Dalton Methodists confirms that originally they worshiped together with Dalton’s Baptists and Presbyterians in a church built in 1847 by Dalton’s founder Edward White.

The Sunday, July 22, edition of The Daily Citizen featured a story on Brotherton. The article took quotes from “A Condensed Sketch of the Methodist Church in North Georgia and Lower East Tennessee” that Brotherton wrote in 1887 at the age of 77. The following excerpt from that same publication is related in the words of Brotherton, exactly as written in 1887. It relates a story about a preacher’s encounter with a wild animal.

“In the year 1835, Rev. D.T. Fulton ... was sent as one of the two first missionaries of the Methodist Church to the Indians then occupying the country as well as to the few scattering whites then settled in the Indian Nation. One incident in the work of Brother Fulton is worth reading, both in honor of this faithful soldier of the cross, and to give the preachers of the present day who think their work arduous an idea of the great privations and unflinching faith and courage of those who marked out the way in which they now follow.

“On one occasion Brother Fulton got lost in what was called the Conasauga Mountains, some spur of the Cohultah Range. Night overtook him far from human habitations, but surrounded by the fierce denizens of the forest. It was too dark to see any thing; but being on such occasion unusually alert, he was soon convinced of the horrible truth that he was being pursued by a hungry panther. The screaming of the beast came nearer. Fearing to move in the darkness lest he might be hurled with his horse down a precipice, he concluded to remain where he was. His only weapon was the Word of God, which he carried with him and the sword of the Spirit. With this and his faith in his Master, he waited, and while he waited he prayed. The animal finally came close up to where he was; so close, indeed, that, while he could not see, he could hear the movement of the brute’s tail as it moved from side to side as he sat on the ground in position to spring. But He who shut the mouths of the lions was with his faithful servant, and no harm was allowed to come upon him, and there in the darkness and loneliness, with no human being near, this truthful man was filled with peace and confidence, and could say from his heart, ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.’

“When daylight came the panther was standing some 20 feet away, with his forefeet on a log, looking quietly at the preacher, safe under the care of Him whom he served.”

Another early minister written about by Brotherton was presiding elder “Rev. David Cummings, whose district, covering the whole territory occupied by the Indians, extended from the Hiwassee River on the north to the Chattahoochee on the south, and from the line of South Carolina on the east to the Tennessee River on the west. He remained on the district until the year 1838 when the Indians were removed to the West.

“Filled with love for these dusky children for whom Christ had died, and with the need to do them good, he went with them, and remained as a missionary among these people up to his death ... spending and being spent in the service of his Master for these much wronged people, when he heard the welcome message from the Master, ‘It is enough. Come up higher.’ He lived and died a noble, grand man, illustrating by his unselfish and unsullied life the religion of peace and good-will.”

Come be a part of this community celebration of local history under the big tent on Dalton Green at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 5. Dress coolly. For further information, call the church office at (706) 278-8494.

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Dalton First United Methodist Church: Sounds of the past trumpet the future

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