History
Continued
On
October 21, 1949, a dedicatory service was conducted to commemorate the
completion of the ten years’ improvement program. The work having been
done during the pastorates of Rev.
J. A. Gaiser, Rev. Paul Leyde, and Rev. J. A. Croxall, these
ministers gladly accepted the invitation to come to New Virginia and
take part in the services.
For the Record: For reasons now unexplainable
the New Virginia church was without the service of a pastor during the
latter part of Rev. Paul Leyde’s
pastorate in 1944 and until September 1945. To fill this need Erie
Conference procured the service of
Mr. Milo Davison, a member of the Sharpsville Methodist
church. Mr. Davison
also filled in for four months in 1955 during the absence of Rev. Charles Wharton.
A
new electric organ was purchased in 1953. In 1954 new furniture for the
pulpit was purchased. Additional improvements taken care of in 1956 and
1957 included a modern kitchen, remodeling the vestibule, tiling the
basement floor, building new front steps, and landscaping the church
grounds.
Following
the appointment of Rev. Russell
Babcock as a full time pastor to the New Virginia Church
in 1955, the Methodist Men’s Club planned a project to provide the
first parsonage for their ministers since the founding of the church.
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A lot was donated by Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Snyder and Mr. Albert Snyder. Work was
started in the spring of 1958 and the foundation laid. On Sunday,
August 17, a brief dedicatory service was conducted by Dr. Arthur Colley, district
superintendent, assisted by Mr.
Emerson Careless, president of the board; Mr. Merle Wolfgang, president
of Methodist Men; Mr. Eden Likens,
board member and Mr. Albert Snyder,
one of the donors.
The labor for the construction
work on the new parsonage, except the brick work, was donated by the
men of the church with the ladies lending a helping hand on the inside
paint work. The building was completed for occupancy on January 30,
1959. It is a handsome buff brick, ranch type parsonage occupying a
site in the new area on Pleasant Drive at Butterfly Lane about one and
a half miles from the church.
(Source: 150
Years of Methodism, The Story of the First Methodist Church,
Sharon, PA, compiled by Roscoe C. Wilson, 1959)
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