The building which is now used by the Methodist society was first erected on the south side of the road two and a half miles west of Onslow on the Onslow and Center Junction road about the year 1868. The history of the church while at this place has been obliterated, and not until 1872, do we have any record.
On February 24, 1872, a petition was presented to the Second Quarterly Conference, asking for the removal of the church building from its location in North Madison to the new village of Onslow, but the Conference refused to grant the petition.
The beginning of the work at Onslow was made during the pastorate of Rev. S. Y. Harmer, who was on the Center Junction Circuit from 1872 to 1874. In the Quarterly Conference of November 24, 1874, a motion was passed to drop the work at Onslow for a time, but the reports of salary receipts continue on the record without interruption, and from this fact, it has been concluded, the work was maintained.
In the year 1877, the class at North Madison was disbanded and the work there discontinued. Permission was given the class at Onslow to move the church building to the village, and in that year the building was placed in its present location.
The first record of the membership of the Onslow class was made by W. N. Chaffee, and when he left the charge in 1876, the class numbered twenty-one.
The first record of officers is in connection with the moving of the church from North Madison to Onslow, the officers being elected August 25, 1877, as follows: Trustees—A. Clark, J. M. Paul, S. L. Gilbert, J. Paul, D. Walters; steward, L. G. Ransom; class leader, S. L. Gilbert.
The present membership of the church number forty-five with the following officers: Trustees: J. O. Hutton, A. A. Garnett, N. B. Noyes, J. Z. Mackrill and H. H. Roberts; steward, Mrs. Helen Lamey; class leader, N. B. Noyes; Sunday school superintendent, Geo. Dunham; president of the Ladies Aid Society, Mrs. Mae Overly.
The list of pastors who have served this church are the same as the list as found in the History of the Methodist Episcopal church at Center Junction.
The church keeps its property in good repair. Regular services are maintained on every alternate Sunday morning and evening. The church is in the Center Junction circuit, and the pastor at Center Junction is also the Onslow pastor. The members are devoted to their church and its auxiliary societies and are loyal in the support of the church benevolences and in the maintenance of the moral standard of the community.
