In the year 1835 a United States land office was established in Ionia and settlers began to rush into the Grand River valley by scores and hundreds for the purpose of taking up land. Along with the throngs of land seekers and adventurer came that same year the first Methodist missionary commissioned by the Ohio Conference to preach the Gospel to the settlers scattered along the river valley from Lyons to Lake Michigan. His name was Osband Monnett. Young, earnest, enthusiastic, he appeared among the settlers mounted on a fine Ohio horse with saddle bags containing all his earthly possessions—a Bible, hymn book, two or three other books and a change of clothing.

That fine horse was deemed too good an animal for a preacher to own and shortly disappeared never to be recovered. Monnett was obliged to travel on foot, searched out the few settlers and doing whatever he could to gather those scattered sheep into the Great Shepherd’s fold.

The Michigan Conference was organized in 1836, the next year Michigan was admitted into the Union, and in 1838 the first Methodist sermon of which we have any record was preached in Lowell by Rev. James H. Frees. The Grand River Valley Circuit was divided into two parts with the Flat River as the dividing line, one circuit centering in Grand Rapids and the other Lyons. In 1836 there were 27 members reported from both circuits. In 1838 the numbers had increased to 68, and in 1840 to 388 with four preachers and many preaching points. These vast circuits were included in the Marshall District with Elijah H. Pilcher as presiding elder.  Pilcher was a man of ability and tireless energy who wrote a book entitled the History of Protestantism in Michigan, from which the above stated facts have been gleaned.

In the course of time the Flat River Circuit was organized, including Lowell, Fallasburg and other points. The first Methodist church in the village of Lowell was organized in 1855 by Rev. Isaac Bennett, who was then pastor of the Flat River Circuit. The first Board of Trustees was composed of John Alman, Joh Hubbard, Charles Board, George Post, John Martin, John Hart and William Pearsall.

It was the custom in those early days to keep Methodist minister moving from charge to charge at short intervals. A man must do his work quickly and hurry on to the next place. This policy stirred up the minds of both preachers and laymen. Things were kept out of ruts and there was constant movement and growth. But it was not always lovely and bright. Years of famine and difficulty came. After its organization, in 1855, the Lowell church soon grew to 40 members, but at the conference of 1860 only seven members remained—two men and their wives, two widows and one boy. Soon some Methodist families came from New York, a more capable minister was sent to the church and the work revived. The meetings were held during this period in the old red schoolhouse which stood on the site of the present church building.

In 1862 the old schoolhouse with the lots on which it stood was offered for sale, and the Methodists bought it for $400. The building was reseated, papered and painted and became the first Methodist church building in Lowell. A Sunday School was organized with C. Lyon as superintendent. Rev. D. S. Haviland was the pastor during this flourishing period.

The Lowell church was separated from the Flat River circuit and became a station with a pastor all its own in 1868. The pastor, James Fuller, was a man of great personal attractiveness and an orator of ability. Soon the little church could not hold the crowds allured by his eloquence. A subscription was taken, the people responded liberally with pledges, the little schoolhouse was moved to the rear and the present brick edifice was built. It was thought that the subscriptions so the church could be dedicated free from debt. Alas for the frailty of human estimates. They possessed a newer and larger temple, which the eloquent Fuller could still fill with enraptured hearers, but a double mortgage was clapped on the church to torment his successors and the good people of the church for many a year.

The Methodists today smile when they hear some old-time recall the day, when, in 1873, their new brick was sold under the sheriff’s hammer. But it was no laughing matter for the Methodists of ’73. They were locked out of their church and were obliged to hold their services in the west room of the Amphilet block. However, all was not lost. Rev. D. F. Barnes, the presiding elder, managed to obtain a gift of $500 from the Church Extension society, Lowell people raised as much as they could, the preachers of the Conference were solicited to give $10, and thus Dr. Barnes was enable to buy the church in and deed it to the trustees free from debt.

The first parsonage was purchased during the pastorate of Rev. A. T. Luther in 1887. The present beautiful parsonage was built during the pastorate of Rev. Russell H. Bready.

Mr. Bready’s ministry in Lowell, 1905-1909, was one of the outstanding pastorates in the history of the church. He was a young man of great personal attractiveness and of unusual pulpit ability. Besides the new parsonage the church was much improved within, new pews were put into the auditorium, the pipe organ, a gift from Andrew Carnegie, was installed, a Methodist Brotherhood was organized and a number of prominent citizens united with the church. The beautiful art window at the north end of the auditorium was the gift of Mr. Bready to the church. The new Church House as added to the church during the pastorate of Rev. H. H. Harris, who served the church from 1921 to 1924. It was a fine achievement and has added greatly to the efficiency of the church, especially in Sunday school work and social activities.

At the present time the church has a member of the 270 with a Sunday school enrollment of about 250. The present Official Board is composed of the following men and women: A. T. Cartland, H. W. Smith, H. L. Weeks, F. F. Coons, Earl Thomas, Wm. Ross, Arthur Schneider, D. A. Wingeier, M.D. Hoyt, P.C. Freeman, Howard Rittenger, W. P. Laux, Carl Freyermuth, Sherman Avery, Lewis Yeiter, J. M. Swartz, Miss Myrtie A. Taylor, Mrs. C. O. Lawrence, Mrs. W. H. Cholerton, Miss Anna Maynard, Mrs. Emma S. Greene, Mrs. O. J. Yeiter, Mrs. Emma Gunn, Mrs. Ida Young, Mrs. B. F. Green, Mrs. W. S. Winegar.

It is impossible for a sketch like this to tell the real history of a church organization. (For the real history of a Christian church is only in secondary sense to be found in buildings and organizations.) The real story of the church lies in the human lives that have been changed and inspired to loftier living, in the quiet influence of the men and women who compose its membership in the life of the community, in the children and young people who have been taught principles of Christian living, in the stream of wholesome life that constantly flows out of the church and to all parts of the world as its members move to other places, and in that still larger number whose pathway through the long past years has led them upward to the City of God. Only the eye of God can read the real history of the Lowell Methodist church during the past one hundred ears since Osband Monnett and James Frees preached the everlasting Gospel to the first settlers at the mouth of the Flat River.