Ames Methodist Episcopal Church

Ames Methodist Episcopal Church. . , The oldest Methodist Church building west of the Allegheny Mountains is Rehoboth, built in 1786, just three miles east of Union. In 1804 its membership included 15 Blacks and 290 Whites. By 1831, there were five Methodist Episcopal Churches in the county, and in 1857 this one was built by the Union congregation., On January 29, 1891, this church building was purchased for $1000 by the African American congregation. The Trustees who signed the deed were Chris Chambers, Chris Whitlock, Samuel Rodgers, Porter Callender, and Lewis Walker., Church history records the "Joppy Congregation, received as Full Members Nov. 24, 1898, J.H.E. Carter, Pastor" [Joppa was the name of the first African American Methodist Episcopal church building in Union], John Black . Anna Chapman, Clifford Chapman, Nannie Chapman . J.B. Clair . Emma French, Charles French . George Gravily . Hattie Haynes, Pitt Haynes, Charles Haynes . Lillie Belle Johnson, Julia Johnson . Charles Miller, Sr., Charles Earl Miller . Bub Nickle . Fernanda Patterson . Sam Rodgers, W.F. Rodgers . Jeanette Simpson, Julia Simpson . Beauregard Smalls, Wm. Smalls . Margaret Spurlock . Rose Turner . Lewis Walker . Allen Whitlock, Mary Clair Whitlock, "Recorded by J.B. Clair, Secretary of the Stewards and Trustees Board". , The newly founded Joppa Congregation named it Ames Methodist Episcopal Church, in Ames Methodist Episcopal Church, in honor of a pioneer bishop of the Methodist Conference, Bishop Edward R. Ames. It grew to have 75 - 80 members, and a large Sunday School. For 100 years Ames M.E. Church served generations of people., In 1992, the building was deeded to the Monroe County Historical Society, which renamed it Ames Clair Hall to honor the Bishop Matthew W. Clair., Bishop Matthew W. Clair. , Born in Union in 1865, Matthew was the son of Ollie Green and Anthony Clair. His grandfather, James Clair, Sr. was a founding member of the First Baptist Church of Union in 1870., Matthew began reading the Bible at an early age and was eager to learn. As a teenager he moved to Charleston WV, where his father lived, and worked his way through high school. Encouraged by his family and friends, Matthew enrolled in the Centenary Bible Institute of Baltimore MD. Licensed to preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1884, he continued his studies in theology, the classics, and languages., Upon graduating in 1889, he married Fannie Meade Walker, and was assigned his first pastorate in Harper's Ferry WV. The couple had five sons. On family visits to Union, the Pastor Clair would preach to large crowds who came out to hear him, at this church and at the First Baptist Church., When Matthew Clair was elected a Bishop at the 1920 General Conference in Iowa, he and R.E. Jones were the first two African American Bishops in the Methodist Church., His first assignment was in Liberia, Africa. In 1924 he was assigned to the Covington KY area, which covered 14 states, and Liberia. He died in 1943.