Whatcoat History

More Than 200 Years of Worship

Whatcoat Church traces its beginning to the origins of Methodism here in America. Richard Whatcoat, for whom this church was named, was appointed by John Wesley in 1784 to come to this country to assist Francis Asbury in the formation of new churches. Whatcoat was later elected presiding elder for the territory of the Eastern Shore and was appointed bishop in 1800. He preached his last sermon in Milford, De. in 1806.

According to our church’s history revealed in, “Whatcoat United Methodist Church – Roots and Wings”, people who had embraced Methodism in the Camden, Delaware area organized in 1791. The history was compiled by Kay Powell, Whatcoat’s Church Historian in 1976.

The History of Delaware 1609-1888 by J. Thomas Scharf, A.M., LL.D. which was published in Philadelphia by the L.J. Richards & Co. in 1888 states,

"The first Methodist Episcopal Church at Camden was built in 1796. On July 27th of that year, Daniel Lowber deeded one-half acre of land to Elijah Barratt, Wm. Bostick, Thos. Purnell, Peter Lowber and Benjamin Brady, trustees, for the people called Methodists in and about the village of Camden, on the road from Dover to Canterbury. On April 24, 1813, Benjamin Brady, Thos. Paine, and George Temple deeded to the trustees of Whatcoat Chapel, Camden, adjoining their lot, on which a preaching-house is erected, one-half acre more. The land on which the church stood was also used for a burial-place, where many people are still interred.

"The church edifice, about eighteen by thirty feet, was used for a place of worship down to 1857, when it was abandoned and pulled down, and the congregation took posesssion of their new and more commodious brick structure farther up town, which had been built at a cost of seven thousand dollars, and was dedicated July 26, 1857."

To read a Dover Post article dated December 10, 2003, and view pictures of the 1857 church, click on the numbers. They link to a graphic of the article and pictures. Used with permission from The Dover Post. The graphics are large, so you'll need to give them time to load. [1] [2] [3]

[BJ Peters’ note in 2003: The land granted by Daniel Lawber is included in the old graveyard which you can see standing across the street from Carl King’s Goodyear business (now the “Mr. Tire” business in 2019) on Main St. on the southern end of town, one or two houses north of South Street. A new structure, dedicated in 1857 is still located just a couple buildings west of the intersection of Main Street and Route 10 (called Camden-Wyoming Avenue), and was used by our congregation until the first service was held in the present location on 3 June 1967. An educational annex and paved parking area were added in 1980.]

"The Camden church was supplied with ministers from the Dover Circuit until 1835, when it was formed into a separate circuit. The ministers who served the circuit in 1835-36 were John Henry, Thomas J. Quigley, John Henry and W.C. Thomas.

"In 1857 the circuit comprised Camden, Bethbrier, Canterbury, Magnolia, St. Jones, Gum Swamp and Leipsic. It has now been [at books pub. year of 1888] reduced to but two charges.

 

Our Third Church Building

Submitted by Historian & Member, Pat Dyer

On Easter Sunday, 1957, a fire occurred in the back of the church building on Camden-Wyoming Avenue. This caused enough damage to make it necessary to hold church services at Caesar Rodney High School until repairs could be made.

By 1960, the Sunday School attendance had reached around 150 students. Sunday School classes were held in the Odd Fellows Hall across the Street on Camden-Wyoming Avenue. Members began talking about expanding the church or building a new one. Under Rev. Frank Lucia, a planning committee was formed to study the space needs of the church. It was decided that there was no space around the existing church for expansion, therefore it was decided to build a new church on another site.

Land was purchased in 1961 from Mr. and Mrs. Feister to be used for parking. Additional land was purchased from Mr. and Mrs. George Howell that gave the church an exit on Camden-Wyoming Avenue. The first choice for a new site was on the north side of Old North Road, but the final decision was made in 1962 to purchase the Speal property on on Main Street. This property was also purchased from the Feisters for a sum of $15,000 with $1000 being paid at the time of purchase. The agreement with the Feisters was for the church to pay the interest ($840 a year) for the lifetime of the Feisters.

This land, known as the Speal property, contained a house, which had to be torn down or moved. It was finally sold to the VFW for $1, who moved the house across Center Street and behind the homes on Main Street to its present location adjacent to Brecknock Park.

____________________________To read bio-bits for some of our past ministers, click on “Our Early Pastors” on the menu.

Our present church is located at 16 North Main St. in Camden, just up the street and around the corner from the 1857 church. Its sanctuary features an altar inscription that was suggested by Dr. E. Stanley Jones from Matt. 12:6 which states, “Greater than the temple is here.” A Moller pipe organ was added in 1982 in memory of Isaac and Georgia Jackson and Mildred R. Spencer, the Whatcoat organist for forty, faithful years.

In the early 1990’s, Don Tyndall began a Video Ministry during the summer months, taping the traditional service each Sunday morning. He then made the tapes available to members who were homebound.

A new sound system was installed in 1991, in memory of Donald Knouse and Olive Clinton, for their many years of dedicated service to our church. In September of 1991 is when Whatcoat began its ministry of providing a Christian education to Preschool aged children in the area. Carol VanDerWall was its first Director, and Nancy Caswell its first Teacher.

In 1993, Jean Prettyman headed up the project in which the congregation funded the purchase of a Yong Chang grand piano.

An elevator and handicap accessibility were added in 1996 to better welcome all from our community who may want to join us for worship.

During the summer months of 1999, we began to offer a contemporary praise service before the traditional service. The Whatcoat Praise Band was born. The early time was set to enable those that wanted to head to the beach or for a day’s outing, to be able to go to church service too. Dress was, and still remains, more informal than for the traditional service.

In January of 2002, B.J. Peters was given the Administrative Board’s approval for bringing up a website for Whatcoat under the domain name of whatcoat.com. This is not only an informative service for our church members, but an outreach to the community.

In ____ an over-head projector was used to project the words to hymns & contemporary Christian worship songs onto the wall in the altar area of the sanctuary during the more contemporary early service.

In ____ Pastor Jim Walz & Praise Band Leader, Kris Shonewolf were instrumental in the purchase and utilization of a computerized system which projected lyrics, background images, and Scripture passages being read onto the wall in the altar area. As late as 2007 the more traditional service continued to use the pew hymnals and Bibles.

In ____ with the help of many of Whatcoat’s members, a wireless sound system was installed with a much larger sound board.

2006 marked the retirement of Chancel Choir director, Jean Prettyman. She held that position for 20 years. Sarah Cox was then hired to lead our Chancel Choir in song. This was also the year that Pastor Jim Walz entered his retirement from full time ministry with the UMC.