Simpson & Mount Gregory United Methodist Churches
Creating a Unified Community of Strength
Methodist churches were a source and inspiration for the budding African-American community as people moved
westward along the Baltimore and Frederick-Town Turnpike, part of the National Road system. Both enslaved and free African-Americans worshipped, at
first, in white churches in the early 1800s. Forced into balconies away from the white congregations, they ultimately sought to create a unifying community of strength by building their own churches. Simpson Poplar Springs, the “Mother Church,” as it was called, served a widespread community. The church was developed on a farm donated to black sharecroppers in 1893. The one room church served a dozen or so parishioners, most of whom lived in Shaffersville, a
small black neighborhood now part of nearby Mt. Airy.
Mount Gregory United Methodist Church began its services in 1898, in the lower level of the Warfield Academy. The old stone building was deeded for the sole purpose of educating black children in nearby Cooksville, on the National Road, and grew out of a movement to educate African-American children after the
Civil War. The congregation stayed at this location while waiting for a new church to be built.
The current structure was built in 1927 after the original church burned in 1922. Outreach and leadership efforts continued to grow as many became leaders of African-American Associations and Clubs. The United Methodist Women, once called the Ladies Aid Society, and the United Methodist Men, who provided funds for labor and upkeep of the church, filled a critical void in post Civil War black society by providing reading programs, aid to the disabled, and meals to those in need.
(Sidebar)
Reverend Robert H. Robinson
Reverend Robinson was the pastor of 19 Methodist Churches, many of them along the National Road from Baltimore to Cumberland. His life and service demonstrated the role Methodist itinerant pastors played in meeting the needs of their dispersed flock. The creation of African-American United Methodist Churches as separate from their white brethren was
largely due to his dedication and leadership at the first United Methodist Colored Convention held in 1861, in Washington, D. C. At last, African-Americans could build their own churches and support their newly
developing communities.
Marker is on Hardy Road, on the left when traveling west.
Courtesy hmdb.org
