Our History
The Story of St. Paul's United Methodist Church of Ocean Grove is one of wandering, building, growing, and moving up and into the next century and challenge. The church began when Rev. William B. Osborn a Methodist preacher held a charge at Farmingdale in 1860 and helped to found the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, 300 acres of lake-locked land. In 1869, Osborn was appointed by Bishop Simpson to the charge known as Greenville (now Hamilton U.M.C.) and Ocean Grove to build a Christian resort.
In 1871, Bishop Janes approved creation of Ocean Grove as a separate charge and made Rev. H.B. Beegle the pastor. Rev. Beegle was superintendent of the camp grounds and Asbury Park was just founded. The church began with four members (William A. Harvey and his wife, Catherine, William Laird, and Abigail White) that Beegle recruited and they met over a blacksmith shop and had preaching missions in cottages and tents. They also met in James A. Bradley's new Park Hall in Asbury Park and also met in New Branch (which is now Neptune City) and Logantown (which was Whitesville).
By 1874 the first major building program had begun and the pastor was Rev. Levi Larew. The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association offered a prime location on the Turnpike which is Main Street (Route 71 today) and south of the Main Avenue gates (where we now find the parking lot of the old Neptune High School) with a pledge of $1,000. The first structure cost $8,000. Today the old high school & middle school building has been renovated by a special Arts Council. St. Paul's had 136 members at this time, and 247 Sabbath School pupils.
November 11, 1874 - Incorporated "The St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church of Ocean Grove and Asbury Park.
On May 28, 1876, the first service in the new building took place when Dr. Ellwood H. Stokes, president of the Camp Meeting Association, preached from Exodus 15:27. On August 1st, Bishop Edmund S. Janes came to dedicate St. Paul's Church. His theme was "For He loveth our nation and hath built us a synagogue." (It was the last church dedication by the popular Bishop, who died shortly afterward. The Tabernacle on the camp grounds was dedicated in his name and memory several years later.)
In 1882 the church sold the Main Street site to the school district and moved into the Association Hall over the Post Office, renting the space for $125/year. There were 365 church members and 387 Sunday School members. During this time the association donated Park Square, a block of land sitting between Webb, Embury, Pennsylvania, and New York Avenues, for the church to erect a permanent abode.