History of Oakland County Michigan a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, its principal interests / compiled from the official records of the county, the newspapers and data of personal interviews, under the editorial supervision of Thaddeus D. Seeley.

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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY

ORION CHURCHES
The pioneer missionary made his first appearance among the settlers
of Orion as early as I825. Elder Warren, a Baptist, Elder Warren, a
Methodist, and Elder Earl, of the Protestant Methodist faith, are
remembered as being among the first to proclaim the gospel among these
sparsely-settled regions of the country, their meetings being held in the
houses of the most prominent settlers in different localities.
In 1831-32, Reverend Frazer, a Methodist minister of the Ohio conference, preached regularly in Orion: He was followed by Rev. L. Hill
of the same conference, who, in I833, organized the first,Methodist
class in Orion, at the home of Hiram Barnes. The class comprised fourteen members, they being: Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Barnes, Mr. and Mrs.
Job Sherman and their daughter Ellen, Thomas J. and Juliette Carpenter, Samuel Eaton, Mr. and Mrs. Joel Eaton and their daughter
Jane, William Merchant and wife and Elizabeth Wyckoff. The class
was regularly supplied from the time of organization, and services held
in the schoolhouse in the east part of the town.
In 1872, while the church was in charge of Rev. A. Laing, steps were
taken to build a Methodist church at Orion, and the corner-stone was
laid in June that year. On the I th day of January, 1873, while Rev. J. R.
Cordon was in charge, the lecture room was dedicated, and on June 14,
I874, the entire house was formally dedicated by the Rev. Dr. Ives of
New York. It is worthy structure, built of wood, thirty-eight by sixty
feet and thirty feet high, surmounted by a spire of one hundred
and four feet. It has three rooms below and a handsomely finished audience room above. The complete cost of the building was about seven
thousand dollars. In I877 the church had eighty-five members.
In 1870 the Methodists organized a Sunday-school, which met in a
hall until the completion of their church. Vincent Brown was the superintendent and the membership of the school at that time was one hundred.
The names of the pastors who have served in the church since its
organization in 1832 are as follows: Reverends T. Shaw, Ezra Brown,
William Sprague, Frazer E. Hill, Earl Britton, John Cogart, William,Mothersill, Hiram Lane, T. B. Granger, Solomon Steel, John Gray, C.
C. Woodward, F. C. Britton, Andrew Bell, B. F. Pritchard, L. T. Lee,
John Gray, Thomas Seeley, William McKibbon, J. G. Whitcomb, J. R.
Noble, A. Minnis, Samuel Bessey, C. T. Higgins, Samuel Bird, B. H.
Hedger, A. R. Laing, J. R. Cordon, D. Whitely, F. Wilkinson, Seyman
Barnes, Francis Berry, J. G. Whitcomb, L. N. Moon, W. M. Gifford,
G. H. Kennedy, R. N. Mullholland, E. Sedweek, Franklin Bradley, William H. Lloyd, A. J. Rice, C. E. Stedman and George E. Durr-the
last named being the present incumbent of the pastorate.
About 1833 the Congregationalists formed a society at the house of
N. Hemingway, then living in Oakland township. It was styled the
"Congregational Church of Paint Creek," and Rev. J. W. Ruggles was
its first pastor. This was the germ of the society organized at Orion
village in January, I853, by Mr. Ruggles, D. L. Eaton, P. R. Hurd, and
H. A. Reed. A church edifice was built in 1854 and the society, at times,
has greatly prospered. At present (October, 1912) it is without a
pastor.