Our History

The original congregation of the Pipe Creek United Methodist Church organized in Janurary 1829 by Daniel Reese was known as the "Hepzibah Society".

Pipe Creek Methodist Protestant Church was founded and built in 1829 the year before the formal founding of the Methodist Protestant Church and the Forming of the Maryland Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church.

Agitation against the power of the Bishops and a desire for lay representation caused a split in 1830, resulting in the formation of the Methodist Protestant Church.

The Pipe Creek Circuit of the Methodist Protestant Church was organized 1n 1829.

The following Pastors have successively ministered to the various congregations (1829 – Present)

From “Representative Men” by J. Thomas Scharf, A.M. Pub. Louis H. Everts (1882)

From “October 16, 1983 Homecoming Bullitin”

1829: D.E. Ross, Daniel, Reese

1830: Frederick Stier, James Hanson

1831: Frederick Stier, John Ehertson

1832: Issac Webster, C.W. Jacobs

1833: Isacc Webster, W. Sexsmith

1834: Josiah Varden, H. Doyle

1835: H. Doyle, J.W. Everest, A.A.Lipscomb

1836- 1837: J.S. Reese, J.W. Everest

1838: Eli Henkle, J.W. Porter

1839: G.D. Hamilton, E. Henkle

1840: G.D. Hamilton, B. Appleby

1841: J.R. Reese, J.T. Ward

1842: L.R. Reese, P.L. Wilson, J. Elderdise

1843:J.S. Reese, S.L. Raleigh, W.T. Eva

1844: W. Collier, T. L. McLean, J.D. Brooks

1845: W. Collier, P.L. Wilson, J.K. Nicholas

1846: W. Collier, J.K. Nicholas

1847: John Morgan, T.D. Valiant

1848: J. Morgan, W. Roby

1849: David E. Reese, T.L. McLean

1851: H.P. Jordan, J. Roberts

1852: H.P. Jordan, H.J. Day

1853: T.M. Wilson, H.J. Day

1854: J.A. McFadden

1855: J.A. McFadden, Frederick Swentzel

1856: N.S. Greenaway, F. Swentzel

1857- 1860: J.T. Ward, J.T. Murray

1860: J.E. Reese, J.B. Jones

1861: D.E. Reese

1862 – 1865: Peter Light Wilson

1865 – 1868: R.S. Norris

1868 – 1871: David Wilson

1871: J.R. Nichols

1872 – 1874: H.C. Annsling

1874 – 1877: J.W. Charlton

1877 – 1880: C.H. Littleton

1882 – C.T. Cochell

1884 – S. Reese Murray

1886 – T.D. Valient

1889 – J.T. Murray

1890 – J.W. Charlton

1893 – J.T. Lassell

1896 – R.W. Kindley

1902 – C.E. McCollough

1907 – G.J. Hill

1917 – T.M. Wright, R.K. Lewis

1920 – C.H. Dobson

1921 – B.P. Crowson

1922 – J. Earl Commings

1925 – K.H. Warehime

1928 – F.M. Volk

1931 – A.H. Green

1933 –Walter H. Stone

1936 – William Schmaiser

1937 – H.G. Hager

1941 - Paul F. Warner

1944 – H. Howard Miller

1947 – M.F. Wright

1949 – R.C. Nimon

1952 – William W. Ehlers

1955 – Robert Bavender

1956 – Charles H. Minsch

1960 – John O. Price

1963 – O.F. Kibbe

1968 – Daniel A. Stinson

1969 – E. David Slater

1971 – Ronald Runkles

1974 – Robert Bartlett

1977 – L. Katherine Moore

1980 – Paul A Papp

1983 – Jane Cain

1988 – Clifford McCormick

1993 – David Bulpit

1997 – William Warehime, Vicky Curry

Present – Charles & Holly Slaugh

ANDREW LIPSCOMB : When at eighteen years of age Andrew Lipscomb began his ministry in Alexandria, Virginia, he became known, inevitably, as the "boy preacher." After a year, in 1835, he was appointed to the Maryland Conference's Pipe Creek Circuit, and, in 1836-37, to the Anne Arundel Circuit. His talents led him to an assignment to the pulpit of St. John's Church, Baltimore, where he preached 1838-39. He then spent part of 1840 back in Alexandria before being assigned to the Ninth Street Church, Washington, for 1841-42, but illness prevented him from finishing this appointment and sent him southward instead. He left Alabama in September 1860 to become the University of Georgia's first chancellor and stayed in that position for fourteen tumultuous years, through the Civil War and most of Reconstruction. He then retired in 1874, sick and grieving over the death of a son, but by 1875 had accepted a less stressful position as a professor in the School of Philosophy and Criticism at the newly opened Vanderbilt University. After retiring in 1884 he returned to Athens for his quiet final six years.

After much effort, three of the major Methodist bodies in the U.S., namely,

the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Protestant Church, and the Methodist Episcopal Church South, united in 1939 to form the Methodist Church.

In 1946 two small denominations of German ethnic origin that were unaffiliated with Methodism but greatly influenced by it, the Evangelical Church and the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, united to form the Evangelical Brethren Church.

In 1968 this church joined with the Methodist Church to become the United Methodist Church, bringing more than half of world Methodism into one denomination.

CARROLL COUNTY was created by an Act of the General Assembly passed at the session of 1835-36, and again at the succeeding session 1836-37, and it was organized early in 1837. The county was named in affectionate honor of the then venerable and yet venerated Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last survivor of the Signers of the Declaration of American Independence. It was formed from the eastern portion of Frederick and western portion of Baltimore Counties. The soil of a large part of the county is of singular fertility, and especially in the regions known as Pipe Creek Valley, Sam’s Creek Valley, and Bachman’s Valley, is unsurpassed as to productiveness, probably by an equal area in the world.

The Western Maryland College, under the general patronage of the Methodist Protestant Church, is located at Westminster, and is a vigorous institution of most respectable standing, with an able, careful and laboring faculty.

Shortly after the Civil War, Fayette R. Buell, a Westminster teacher, embarked on his dream of founding a small private college. He purchased a tract of land – a hill, overlooking the town – and issued a prospectus in search of support for his dream. Although financing was slow to materialize, he did receive generous support from two of the community leaders : the Reverend J. T. Ward, formerly of the Pipe Creek Methodist Protestant Church, who would become the College’s first president, and John Smith, president of the thriving Western Maryland Railroad and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Pipe Creek Methodist Protestant Church and a resident of nearby Wakefield Valley. Mr. Smith, who became the first president of the College’s board of trustees, suggested that the College be named after the railroad, which maintained an important terminal in Westminster. On the day in 1866 that the cornerstone was laid for Western Maryland College’s first building, free rail passage was granted for eberyone who attended.

Property name: Western Maryland College Historic District
Date Listed: 3/26/1976
Inventory No.: CARR-21
Location: W. Main Street & Uniontown Road, Westminster, Carroll County

Description: The Western Maryland College Historic District, Westminster, is situated within the confines of the present 100-plus acre college campus and comprises an area of about three acres at its southeast corner. The district is bounded on the south side by Uniontown Road and West Main Street, on the southwest by Union Street, on the northeast by a line running northwest to southeast paralleling the President's House and Little Baker Chapel, and on the northeast by a line running northwest to southwest and about 100 feet northwest of the rear of the President's House to West Main Street. Within this area stand six of the college's earliest surviving buildings and structures: Alumni Hall, Carroll Hall, Levine Hall, The President's House, Little Baker Chapel, and the Ward Memorial Arch. Only the President's House, Ward Memorial Arch, and Carroll Hall have their own semi-private settings. Alumni Hall, Baker Chapel, and Levine Hall occupy sites close to frequently traveled streets. All buildings, however, have tree shaded grounds and are a short walking distance from one another.

Significance: Western Maryland College was established under the auspices of the Maryland Annual Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church and chartered by an act of the Maryland Legislature in 1864. Consideration was first given to a site in the Baltimore City area but this was later changed to its present site in Westminster. The original 8-acre campus was acquired by the college's state-appointed Board of Directors in 1864 utilizing private monies. The site, although privately owned, was one that for many years was used by the citizens of Westminster as a meeting and picnicing area. Commonly referred to at that time as the "Old Commons," it was the scene of annual Fourth-of-July celebrations, political rallies, and during the Civil War was utilized by the Army of the Potomac to bivouac troops and for the placement of guns to protect the daily arrival of artillery on the nearby Western Maryland Railroad. The first building to be constructed, combining classrooms and dormitories, was known as the Main Building. Combining brick and stone, a regionally common building material, it was initially constructed in 1866, added to in 1871, 1887, and 1890, and demolished in 1956. About 14 other buildings were constructed on the 8-acre site between 1866 and 1900; but with the exception of those included in this nomination, all have been razed and other buildings erected on their sites. The structures nominated as an historic district are the oldest surviving architectural links with the 19th century beginnings of the college.

On January 11, 2002, the trustees announced their unanimous decision to change the name of the College. The decision came after decades of discussion and surveys that confirmed the confusion surrounding the name. The College often was not perceived as what and where it is: a private institution within an hour's drive of Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

On July 1, 2002, WMC officially became McDaniel College. The new name honors William Roberts McDaniel, whose 65-year association with the College helped shape its destiny and today personifies its mission.