METHODIST ROOTS OF DELAWARE IN LEWES.

METHODIST ROOTS ARE DEEP IN LEWES

GROOME CHURCH

1968

There is no place in Delaware where Methodist roots go deeper than in Lewes.

Reverend George Whitefield came ashore at Lewes Capes in 1739 from a wrecked ship and is said to be the first to preach a Methodist sermon at Lewes from the porch of a Kings Highway house that in 1968 was still standing although it has no marker. So, Lewes, claims the first

Methodist society as the result of Whitefield's appearance.

Whitefield was a English Anglican cleric and was one of the founders of Methodism and the

evangelical movement. He was born December 27, 1714, at The Bell Inn, Southgate Street,

Gloucester, England, a son of Thomas and Elizabeth Edwards Whitefield who were the

inn keepers there in Gloucester. He was educated at the Pembroke college and the Oxford

University. After his arrival in North America, he preached revivals that became known as

'The Great Awakening”. He died in 1770, age 55, in Newburyport on the shores of the

Massachusetts Bay.

At Lewes, both Bethel and Groome churches trace back to Whitefield. Together, they are a

single charge of the Peninsula Methodist Conference and are assigned one minister. Bethel

has about 540 members and Groome has about 75.

Bethel, has a big city church atmosphere, a large stone building, church school and fellowship

hall. Groome, a small frame building, with steeple or 'bell tower', at Savannah Road and

Dewey Avenue, has the country church atmosphere.

Now, remember Ebenezer Church. In 1790, Francis Asbury noted in a journal of his on

October 30, “ we have a chapel at Lewistown”. That was Ebenezer, the predeceser of Bethel

and Groome. Records show that Ebenezer was built on the N.W. Side of South Street in

Lewistown, near the S.W.end thereof wherethe main branch of Canary Creek crosses South

Street. An old cemetery remains at this location today. Ebenezer was relocated south and west

of Lewes on a country road, now Cedar Grove Road. The first Ebenezer built in 1788 burned .

The first Bethel Church sat at Third and Market, built about 1790 and was abandoned when

a larger structure was built at Mulberry and Church Streets and remained in service until 1911

when the present Bethel, with it's Gotic tower, was ready. The Mulberry Street building was

sold to the Graves family for use as a garment factory and is today an apartment building.

Groome Church took it's name from the donor of the lot the church now sits upon,

Mts Ann E. Groome. The frame building dates back to 1907

Behel Church shares fellowship with the community, allowing a skateing rink at the fellowship

hall three nights a week. It is also home to a 60 member Boy Scout Troop and a 40 member Girl Scout Troop.

 Source: Wilmington News Journal, 5 October 1968: Eileen C. Spraker Article.