For 50 years after the first settlers established homes on Upper Paint Creek, there was no church building in the Raleigh County section of Paint Creek. The nearest church building was a one room building constructed with logs located at what is now the Humphrey Cemetery on Willis Branch. The people who worshipped at this church were of the Baptist faith. However, the lack of church buildings did not deter the people from assembling themselves together for the worship of their Lord. There were many local preachers who would hold worship services in the homes or in the school buildings. There were also traveling evangelists who would pass through the community and hold protracted meetings. These meetings were great events in the community and were well attended.

The first church building that was built in the Raleigh County section of Paint Creek was the Cirtsville Methodist Episcopal Church. This building was erected in the year 1898: however, there had been a Methodist organization at Cirtsville for many years before the church building was built. Before the church was built, they held their worship services in the schoolhouse ~n winter. They had cleared out brush and erected seats in a pine grove just below where the church was built in which services were held during the summer. The establishing of the Methodist Church at Cirtsville came about in this manner: It seems that there was a strong Methodist Church at Kincaid on Lower Loop Creek in Fayette County. One of the leading members and a local preacher 'was Rev. Johnnie Kincaid. His son, Morris Kincaid, married a daughter of Allen Williams and acquired land and built a home in the Maple Fork area. Also, his daughter who married Reason Gilliam lived on a farm adjoining her brother, Morris Kincaid. Rev. Johnnie Kincaid came to visit his son and daughter and the people of Cirtsville invited him to preach in the Cirtsville schoolhouse which he did. Later they invited him to hold a protracted meeting for them. The meeting was a success in that there were quite a few converts. These converts organized into a Methodist congregation and became a part of the Kincaid charge. I have been told that Rev. Kincaid had a very effective way of keeping order during his services. If someone in the congregation started talking or disturbing in anyway, he would stop preaching and stand looking straight at the offender. Of course every eye in the house turned in the direction that the preacher was looking. This became very embarrassing for the offender. The preacher never rebuked or reprimanded the offender but the utter silence was all that was necessary.

For 20 years after the Methodist Church was established at Cirtsville, they continued to meet in the schoolhouse in bad weather and in the pine grove in good weather. An interesting story is told of a service that was held in the grove. This service was a quarterly conference and was conducted by Elder Hues. It was on a Sunday morning and a large congregation had assembled to hear the Elder preach. Just as the service began, a real dark storm cloud appeared over the mountain, lightning began to flash, and heavy thunder rolled. It looked like a bad storm was approaching. Some of the people started to leave and seek shelter but the Elder asked them to remain. He proceeded to talk to the Lord about the situation. He told the Lord that the people had assembled for worship and there was no building large enough to accommodate them and asked the Lord to stop the storm. Suddenly the cloud divided, one half of it passed by on the east side and the other half on the west side. Not a drop of rain fell on the grove and the service continued.

The people continued to meet for worship in the schoolhouse and the grove until 1898. They had several different preachers for their pastor during that period. In the year 1897, a young minister by the name of Ruffs Backs from Nicholas County became pastor of the Cirtsville Methodist congregation. He was a brilliant young man and he presented the idea that the Cirtsville people should have a better place to worship and started work on getting a proper building for worship. There were quite a few people of the Baptist faith in the community, they agreed to help the Methodists build a church with the understanding that the Baptists were to have the building for one revival each year. So the Baptists, Methodists, and others all joined in the effort to build a church. They cut logs from their woodlands and hauled them to Spangler's Mill. Spangler sawed them into lumber and dressed the lumber as required without charge. They were fortunate in having an expert carpenter in the congregation, Albert Lilly, who took charge of the building. All the money they needed was enough for nails, windows, and doors but at that there were quite a few delays and the building was not completed until the spring of 1900. At last it was ready for dedication. A date was set and what a gathering that was. It was an all day meeting with dinner served on the grounds. The farmers had butchered sheep, cattle, chickens, and turkeys. People from every direction and it was a great time of rejoicing.

The young ladies of the church were organized into an organization called the Epworth League and they had many projects to raise money for the church. This building served the people of Cirtsville area well as a place of worship for 60 years. Then came the West Virginia Turnpike and wiped out all of Cirtsville, including the church.