Smith Chapel Methodist Church

Smith Chapel Methodist Church. . Organized in 1824 as "the Jonesboro Methodist Congregation," this is the oldest Methodist Church in Saline County. Early preachers were Jesse Green and Justinian Williams who were also cabinet-makers. George Caleb Bingham (later famous genre painter) apprenticed under these craftsmen and tried preaching. It is probable this early congregation heard Bingham preach. Some of the first members were Wyatt Bingham, Adam Steel, Walker Adkinson, their wives, and Benjamin Brown. , In 1857 Crawford Early Smith donated $300 and five acres upon which Gervas S. Smith supervised the building of the first church. J.T. Stouffer and E.A. Stouffer got off a steamboat in Arrow Rock looking for work and found it in building the church. Cost was $2,000, and it was paid for when completed. The current church was dedicated May 5, 1895, and used hewn timbers form the first church. It, too, was paid for when completed at a cost of $2,600. , During the dark days of the Civil War no regular services were held. Oral tradition tells of frantic efforts by a group of men to put out a roof fire because they knew Confederate gunpowder was stored in the attic.