The history of the Alachua First United Methodist Church spans back to 1739 in London when John Wesley convened the first annual conference of people who called themselves Methodists.
 
Soon after the 1773 founding of the Georgia colony, John Wesley and his brother Charles traveled there from London, hoping to convert the Indians to Methodism and to further the gospel among the colonists. Later, many other missionaries arrived in America.
 
Florida was under Spanish rule until February 22, 1819, when Spain and the United States signed a treaty that ceded Florida to the United States. On February 21, 1821, the treaty was ratified and the American flag was raised at the Forts in Pensacola and St. Augustine. Florida was then under the military control of the United States Congress, and on March 3, 1822, the Florida Territorial Government was formed.
 
Methodism in Florida emerged at about the same time. It began in Florida as an offshoot of the missionary work in Georgia where the Wesley brothers, George Whitfield, and others had been working earlier trying to serve the colonists and convert the Indians.

In 1821 John J. Triggs was sent as a missionary to a new mission called Alapaha. This mission extended from South Georgia into Florida and embraced parts of northern Florida and the southeast area of Alabama. By the year 1822, the gospel was preached by Methodist Circuit Riders in Florida over a large area-extending east and west of the Suwannee River.
 
In 1823, John Slade was sent as a junior preacher to serve at Mr. Triggs’ mission. He was among the first preachers to bring the gospel to the Florida territory. Because of his great success as a missionary and pioneer, Mr. Slade has been called the Father of Methodism in Florida. In 1823 or 24, John Jerry was sent to the St. Augustine area, and the bounds of his preaching extended west to Newnansville and Micanopy.

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Four missions were established in this Northeast section of Florida and one of those was known as Dell, named after Maxey Dell, one of the early settlers in the area. Dell is accepted as having been the oldest of the four missions established in this section of Florida.

Because there was no Church in the settlement, Maxey Dell offered his home as a meeting place when the Circuit Riders came to the community. For that reason, his home became known as Dell’s Meeting House. Early mail and post office records show that settlers were actually living in the area long before 1820, when it was known as Dell’s Courthouse. For many years before Florida became a state, this settlement was the only town of importance in this area of Florida.
 
From the diary of Isaac Boring in 1828, we offer this quote:
“On September 7, 1828, the Conference was closed, and the appointments were read. I was appointed to St. Augustine and Alachua Missions. I was much astonished and hurt at the appointment. I hope it will be for the Glory of God. I am informed that I am to receive fifty dollars from the missionary society for my support. On the 13th of September, I rode to Dell’s Meeting House and found two persons. We prayed together, and I went home with Brother Dell and his wife, who were the only two persons present”
 
On February 28, 1824, an Act of Congress declared that a road was to be built 25 feet wide from St. Augustine to Pensacola—the two most important towns in Florida. John Bellamy was commissioned to build this road—the Bellamy Road—and he did so using his own slaves and mules. One branch road leading off Bellamy Road was Alligator Road, which connected to Lake City and then headed east to Cow Ford, later known as Jacksonville. The Bellamy Road followed an old Indian trail known as Ray’s Trail. Soon after Florida became a territory, the Bellamy Road was constructed alongside the log church that settlers had built earlier. With the assurance of protection from the United States Government, scattered settlers—many from neighboring states—converged on the Newnansville area. They were lured, doubtlessly, by the advantages and beauties of the rolling, wooded countryside. After this influx, Newnansville—said to be Florida’s oldest inland town—was definitively established.
 
On November 15, 1828, the Territorial Legislature of Florida changed the community's name from Dell to Newnansville and established Newnansville as the county seat of Alachua County. It was named after Colonel Daniel Newnan of the Georgia Militia, who had led Federal troops to fight the Seminole Indians in this area. Newnan’s Lake, located east of Gainesville, also was named after this Colonel. Court was held in a small log house until the year 1852. Alachua County originally embraced what is now known as Marion, Levy, Sumter, Hernando, Gilchrist, and Hillsborough counties.
The United States Government erected Fort Gilleland at Newnansville in 1835. Scattered settlers banded together and took refuge within the fort walls at the outbreak of the Great Indian War.
 
From the Diary of Reverend R. H. Howren:
“On one occasion, while holding a meeting near Newnansville, we were surrounded by 75 Indian warriors who withdrew without interfering with us at all. We learned afterward that they intended to attack us, but seeing such an unusual stir among the people, they became alarmed and fled. During one of our night services, they climbed into the pines around the house intending to fire upon us, not being able to do so from the ground owing to the stockade. Fortunately, we heard the signal given for firing and ran into the body of the house and escaped. Later, with the old flint-and-steel guns at their side, the men of the households would, safety permitting, venture out into the open fields again.”
 
Methodism had grown sturdy enough by 1825 that a new district was formed and named the Tallahassee District after the new capital of the territory. Population rapidly flowed into the Territory, and the fertility of the soil and the good climate were two of the assets of the growing population. People usually settled in neighborhoods for mutual protection and for educational and religious purposes. Indians were scattered all over the region and were very hostile to the white settlers for encroaching on their land, but the settlers had no intention of giving up the fertile land to the Indians to use as hunting grounds.
 
The best available record telling us about early Methodists’ work in Florida comes from John C. Ley. Ley visited Newnansville about every two weeks to get mail. He points out that the Methodist Church was always the center of activity in the community and was served by regular circuit riders and the occasional local preacher up through 1845.
 
From the diary of Isaac Boring in 1829:
“In a state of Revival, Methodism began to take on a new look and life, and the people were no longer satisfied with the old log church, and they began to complain and call for a new and more modem church building. Fortunately, the local pioneer preacher, Maxey Dell, owned a sawmill, and he generously furnished the trees and sawed them into boards and framing that was used in the construction of the Newnansville Church. The new church was divided in half by a railing that ran down through the center of the church, separating the men from the women. An outside stairway led up to a balcony where there was seating for the Negro attendants, and they had to enter and leave the building by way of the outside stairs”
 
Few churches were erected in Florida before 1840, and the itinerant clergymen continued to hold worship services in homes, barn stables, brush arbors, and courthouses. Indian difficulties and a financial panic in 1837 resulted in a slowing of Florida’s population growth at this time.
 
The Territorial Legislature called for a Constitutional Convention in the small Gulf coast town of St. Joseph, and delegates at the convention eagerly argued for Florida’s statehood. Meanwhile, Methodists argued that if Florida was to become a state, they should break away from the Georgia Conference and form its own conference. On February 6, 1845, the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church was born in Tallahassee and divided into four districts—Newnansville, Quincy, Tallahassee, and St. Mary’s. After considering the issue in 1843, the United States Congress admitted Florida into the Union on March 3, 1845, as the 27th state.
 
In the year 1865, the new Newnansville Church was completed, and service began. In this same year, a decision was made to move the Courthouse from Newnansville to Gainesville. The church moved ahead, but another event triggered the old settlement's demise—the railroad's coming to the area. The Santa Fe and Western Railroad came through the present city limits of Alachua in 1882, missing Newnansville village by one and one-half miles. A railroad station was erected, originally called Newnansville but later changed to Alachua, which the Postmaster had begun using. Alachua is believed to have come from an old Indian word meaning the big jug without a bottom.
 
During the years 1887-1888, Reverend T. J. Phillips came as the new pastor of the Newnansville Church. The old, wood-frame church badly needed repairs and was valued at only $250. In 1897 Charles Inman was assigned to the Newnansville Church district, which included the churches at Spring Hill, Lacrosse, and St. Johns. Reverend Inman found a nucleus of the Newnansville members now living in Alachua. These members were insistent on organizing an Alachua mission. The question of building a new church at Alachua and abandoning the Newnansville church became an issue. Those members who had moved to Alachua supported building a facility in Alachua, while those who remained in Newnansville opposed the idea.
 
Charles Inman, a preacher of great stature and personality, settled the issue at a Revival where a building committee of 3 men was selected, and plans were begun for a new church building in Alachua. The building was completed in 1897 at the cost of $1800. While the new church was under construction, a Sunday School was established with Mr. L. N. Pierce serving as Superintendent.