One of the first churches to be built in Muskogee was affectionately called the Rock Church because it was built from native sandstone. It was constructed at the southeast corner of Cherokee Street (then called the Texas Road) and Okmulgee Avenue. These would have been two of only a few streets in existence in Muskogee at the time it was built in 1878.

Creek Chief Samuel Checote, who was also a minister, was one of the driving forces behind getting this Methodist church started. He worked with other Muskogee leaders such as Joshua Ross and John Foreman, men who had also organized the Indian International Fair in 1873.

Checote applied for a $500 gift from the Methodist Mission Board in Nashville and then raised an additional $500 from Muskogeeans in cash and donated labor. The Rock Church opened in September 1878, and its first pastor was the Rev. Theo Brewer. To satisfy requirements by the Creek Nation, the board of the church was made up of Creek citizens.

Quickly, the Rock Church joined Muskogee’s other church, First Presbyterian, at Second Street and West Okmulgee Avenue, in becoming a center for education and community spirit. Over its 25-year history, the Rock Church probably saw most of Muskogee pass through its doors for one occasion or another.

When other congregations needed a place to meet while building a sanctuary of their own or because their church had burned, the Rock Church welcomed them. Alice Robertson once stated that “No one had married so many people, officiated at so many funerals or christened so many little ones,” as Rev. Brewer at the Rock Church.

With his sister, Mary Locke, Brewer started a school which met at the Rock Church. Again they sought permission from the Creek Nation to operate the school and offer education to children who could not attend the Creek national schools. This school at the Rock Church steadily grew, and a high school named Harrell International Institute was built near the church in 1881.

Many Muskogee children gathered for Sunday school at the Rock Church where Mrs. G.B. Hester was one of the first teachers. She was the mother-in-law of Oklahoma’s first senator, Robert L. Owen. Early Muskogee resident Nannie Lawrence Moore remembered seeing her very first Christmas tree as a child at the Rock Church.

The Rock Church was later expanded and was called Bethel Chapel. Its history as a focal point of the community ended in 1903 when it was destroyed by fire. The Methodists replaced the Rock Church with two churches — First Methodist at F Street and East Okmulgee and St. Paul Methodist, then at Third Street and West Okmulgee.

Reach Jonita Mullins at jonita@netscape.com.