The below document is in the Crawford County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society Church Records Collection.
The first religious services for which there is any record in Galion were held in the cabin of Benjamin Leveridge, on Sunday, Sept. 20, 1820. The Leveridge home was the largest one and was the stopping place for all travelers. Benjamin Sharrock, a Methodist, but not ordained, conducted the first service.
About 1827, upon the arrival of more settlers, a good many of whom were Germans, Galion was placed on the Methodist Circuit. Services were held in various homes, barns, as well as outdoors, until the settlement was large enough to erect churches. In 1836, Dr. Christian Nast visited the home of John Schneider, Sr., three miles west of Galion; prayer services were held; and the seed of the German Methodist Episcopal Church was sown. Meetings in Galion were then held in the old log school house and other churches until 1859 when the congregation bought the old frame building from the English Methodist Church. Later in 1873 the congregation purchased land to build a fine brick edifice on the southwest corner of South Market and West Atwood Streets. On June 16, 1918, during World War I, the name of German Methodist Episcopal was changed to Market St. Methodist Episcopal, and ultimately the name was changed in 1957 to St. Mark Methodist. Church services were held in both German and English, translating from one to the other. Later, English services were held in the morning, with German services in the evening. Due to the lack of German speaking people future years gave way to English services only.
In June, 1956, plans were to add an educational building, but when the southwest corner of the main church collapsed, the 83-year old church was declared unsafe. Land was then purchased on Rt. 598. Plans for a new building were accepted and later the education unit began with a ground-breaking ceremony April 25, 1965. With the 1968 merger between the E.U.B.’s and the Methodists, the church name became St. Mark United Methodist Church. In 1978 the mortgage indebtedness was cancelled.
Today the beautiful modern brick two-story St. Mark United Methodist Church stands on an 8-acre site. The church has a beautiful sanctuary, fellowship hall, Christian education wing, office space, ample parking, a shelter house, and a park. To date the church is open to the divine guidance of the Holy Spirit, in sharing a ministry to the Galion community and surrounding area.
