Every organization is a product of the environment in which they are formed and evolve. In order to survive, the organization must remain relevant to its participants. A church is as much of an organization as any other venture be it non-profit as a church is or for profit as businesses are.
While one of our trustees around 2007 was working in our building that housed a nursery school and some offices, he discovered a cabinet with old books and records. They were in a metal cabinet which was receiving full sun. A call was made for a volunteer to work on the history of the church.
One of my first tasks was to move the books into a better environment. Over time they were moved several times. Some of the old family bibles, religious books and a huge three volume commentary are stored in a glass cabinet or on top of it in the current library.
Most of the record books are in long hand some of it quite beautiful although hard to read. Some of the ink had faded making reading near to if not impossible to decipher. Since the books start our history in the 1830’s there were also issues with spelling or heritage. One example is the Germanic use of “f” for “ss” in words. I was able to decode that when I got to the word “association”.
I have included a chapter on Trenton which includes a section on how Methodism came to Trenton. I have included some tables that indicate what was going on in the United States or the world during the span of time which are recorded history covers. It is interesting to note that there is only one or two references to major events such as a war and no reference to the stock market crash even though the churches were going through tough times in the books.
Letty Wooley
Trinity United Methodist Church Historian – 2021
