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    In the "founding" days of our state, it was the custom for the founder of a town to make a benevolent gesture toward its citizens by donating a town lot for a house of worship. So did Samuel S. Graham; specifically, providing Lots #35 and #36, at the north end of Main Street, west side, to the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church without charge indefinitely. The town of Paris was laid out in 1819, the exact date of the building of the church is not known. The Methodists constructed a log meeting house at this site and trudged faithfully from wherever they lived in the town to this northwest corner every Sunday morning until 1837. Family history states that in 1837 the old log church burned.      On December 1, 1837, (D-479) the trustees (Edward Toner, Lawrence Hollenbeck, Joseph Herrington, John Gasaway, and Evan Thomas, Jr.) bought from William Dutton for $1.00 Lot #112, on the east side of Second Street, a short distance south of Main Cross Street. There, they erected a modest but suitable frame structure in which they worshiped until the late 1920s when the building was struck by lightning and burned. My great grandmother Genevea Ayers tells in her diary of this event, and how after that she went to the Coffee Creek Baptist Church regularly. Although the congregation had faithfully held services there until the destruction of their church,they then disbanded, thus ending the Methodist public worship in Paris.
    Methodist records show that Amos Bussey was a circuit preacher for Paris in 1839, the first time Paris is mentioned. He was also listed as the minister in 1840. Hayden Hays, was also a minister there in 1840. Seth Smith was minister in 1841; William McGinnis in 1842; Elisha Cadwell (Caldwell?) and William McGinnis in 1843; James Crawford, 1844; John Mellender, 1845 and 1846; Amos Bussey, 1847 and 1848; Daniel Holmes, 1849 and 1850; William Sheets and Othniel Bruner, 1851. The trustees were Isaac Rowland, Ezekiel Lewis, Lemuel Wells, Samuel Wells, Harvey S. Rawlings, John Simpson, a Mr. Shilliday, and James Harmon.     As a part of the Will of Evan Thomas (proven in 1840) states "he has left a certain lot of ground for a meeting house and burying ground contrary to the law of Indiana so now he leaves it to John Ballard, William McClellan and Abram Ridely elected Trustees of said meetinghouse and the burying ground for the use of the Methodist Protestant Church. Although they had always had to provide a dwelling for the preacher, around 1843 they seriously began to look for a parsonage site. In 1844, Evan Thomas, Jr., made available to the trustees (John Fish, Thomas Rowland, John Miller, Samuel Weir and Brannock Phillips) Lots #52, on which stood a good brick cottage, and the south half of adjoining Lot #53, "the intent of which is to hold the property to be used as a parsonage." (Deed book H-page 498). It was used as such as long as a parsonage was needed, then sold, remodelled into an attractive home and is still lived in.
    For many years, perhaps from the beginning, the Methodist preacher in Paris was "in charge of the Paris circuit." All meetings dealing with matters pertaining to the circuit were held in Paris.
    Part of the original History of the Paris Methodist Church was taken by Mrs. Rosa B. Ashton from a history of the Paris M.E. Church written by Mrs. Alvira Dixon wife of John Milton Dixon. Alvira Dixon was the daughter of Jefferson Nelson and his wife Mary Stonemetz. Jefferson Nelson was a founding member of the Neil's Creek Anti-Slavery Society in nearby Lancaster, Jefferson County. Alvira Dixon married John M. Dixon on December 31, 1868. John M. Dixon was the son of Henry S. Dixon and Jane Tobias Dixon. All were members of the Paris M. E. Church. Elvira Nelson Dixon died January 28, 1915 and both she and her husband John are buried in the Cave/Dixon cemetery also know of as the Paris cemetery, which was deeded to the town of Paris by Samuel S. Graham as "an acre of ground laid out in a square form" perched on the high south bank of Graham Creek as it flows in a southwestwardly course north of town. The northwest side of the graveyard slopes rather sharply down to Graham Creek. The graveyard lies about a quarter of a mile north of the former meeting house lots, #35 and #36. Before 1837, while the church was still standing on these lots, there would have been a lane connecting the church and graveyard to be used for funerals.
    When the church was built in 1837 on Lot #112 on South Second Street, another means of access to the public graveyard was required. The solution was by a lane turning west from North Second Street (the Vernon road) at about opposite Dr. Russell's plaster house. It may have been alluded to in the deed book entry of 1840, G-21, as being "one rod in width". A rod is 16 1/2 feet. This lane also ran along the north side of the house where Ephraim Harlan once lived and must have been the determining factor in the placement of the Harlan private graveyard, which is snuggled into the angle formed where the lane enters the town graveyard.
    Rosa Ashton wrote "I have copied this and added to it the happenings since that date. It has been almost impossible in compiling a history of the Paris M. E. Church to secure many accurate dates as records of its earliest establishments have been lost or destroyed. However it has been possible to secure approximate dates from the few remaining people of the generation of that period. The first society of Methodists in this community was organized about 1830 (which was also about the time the section of Paris that had been in Jefferson County became part of Jennings County). This society was composed of a small number of people who were devoted to the cause of Methodism and the founding of a Methodist Church. As the people had little money to contribute at that time the means employed were of the most primitive order. Much of the labor and material being contributed by the members and the brick for the walls being burned nearby. When the building was completed the problem of furnishing was solved by providing puncheon seats fastened in position by wooden pegs. Tallow candles made by the women provided lights for evening services.     Then it was decided that a bell to summon the congregation to service should be bought, so a committee was sent in a farm wagon to a bell foundry in Madison to make the purchase. The enthusiastic committee adjusted the bell on poles in the wagon so that it would ring all the time on the homeward journey. This of course attracted a great deal of attention in the rural neighborhood and people rushed out to make inquiries. Thus was heralded to adjoining communities the organization of Methodists in Paris. Among the first members who aided in this work and afterwards promoted its welfare were: Dennis Willey and wife, Freeman Thomas and wife, George Thomas and wife, George Bantz and wife, Ephraim Sampson and wife, Thomas Rowland and wife, Jerry Terrell and wife, Edmund Terrell and wife, Joseph Harrington and wife, Ellison Dixon and wife, Newton Lett and wife, George Harlan and wife, William Cave and wife, Stephen Cave and wife, Milton Hill and wife."     On January 1, 1844 the Trustees of the Paris M. E. Church purchased for use as a parsonage for the Paris Circuit from Evan Thomas and his wife Nancy, lot number 52 and the south half of lot number 53. The trustees names on the Indenture were John Fish, Thomas Rowland, John Miller, Samuel Weir and Brannock Phillips in trust for the M. E. church and their successors forever.     Some known ministers were Dennis Willey who appears to have moved to Kansas between 1850 & 1860 but was important in the early days as one of the founders of the church. Dennis Willey built the home which was later lived in by Williamson Dixon and then William Bogie. Freeman Thomas who was also a minister and involved with the church from early on. Other ministers were from 1837 thru 1860 named Jones, McGinnis, Mellender, Bussey, Homes Miller, Borroughs, Fleming, Chivington, Brockway, Spencer, and Pierce. Rev. William Maupin was among this group.
     Rev. William Maupin was born in Fleming County, Kentucky, October 11, 1819, and died in Union County, Indiana in the fifty-fifth year of his age, June 27th , 1873, at five o'clock P.M. He was converted to God in September, 1836; and was licensed to preach September 1st, 1849. He did useful work as a local preacher for two years, and was then admitted into the Indiana Conference, October 13, 1851, and appointed to the Azalia Circuit. After the organization of the South-eastern Conference, in 1852, he received the following appointments: In 1852-1853, Lexington Circuit; in 1854, New Washington; in 1855, Vienna; in 1856-1857 Paris; in 1858, Moorefield; in 1859-60 Vernon; in 1861; Milford; in 1864, Sardinia; in 1865-66, Hope; in 1867-68m Edinberg; in 1869, Milton; in 1870, Mt. Carmel; in 1871-72, Whitewater Mission, where he ended his arduous labors as minister and laborer in the Master's vineyard. He married to Miss Maletha Parish, in Fleming County, Kentucky, in the Fall of 1839. She died in the Spring of 1858, and was buried at Paris, Jennings County, in the Cave/Dixon Cemetery (Paris Cemetery). In the Fall of the same year, he was married to Miss Rhoda J. Hall, the now surviving widow. As a man, brother Maupin possessed a sterling integrity. He was of the sanguine temperament, and whatever his decisions were, they were firm; whatever principle he defended with a sterling will. He was a true man. No man ever suffered loss or betrayal by his infidelity. He was a strong advocate of every moral virtue, and especially of temperance. As a preacher, he had many excellences. In early life he had no advantage in regard to education; but after he had grown he acquired a taste for books and soon mastered many of the elements of a liberal education, which he used to a good in his ministry. The Bible was his principal study. This precious fountain of truth was his daily companion and from it he drew most largely in his sermons. He was emphatically a "Gospel preacher:" apt and precise in his Scripture quotations, doctrinal in type, logical in his deductions, his sermons were forcible and convincing. He rather delighted polemics, and defended his views of Bible doctrine with a great deal of tenacity. He possessed many natural elements of true oratory, and he was eminently gifted in prayer, He loved the office and work of the ministry. He was an indefatigable laborer in the vineyard of his Master, as the result of his labors will show, from the hard fields in which he toiled. We do not know the number he received into the Church in twenty-two years, but we presume very nearly, or quite, two thousand souls. We would probably be safe in saying that brother Maupin has held more protracted meetings, and preached more revival sermons in the same time, than any other preacher in our Conference. Truly, he was "in labors abundant," as the sudden crash with which his physical nature gave way will attest. Returning to his home from a protracted effort, he is suddenly prostrated, while medical skill, united with the kind hand of family affection, brings no relief. Nature struggles, then falters, and finally yields: the servant of God lays down his armor, and takes up his crown. His disease was bronchitis, which began to develop itself after his nervous prostration from overwork, in January last. During the first part of his illness he was restive, and anxious to be out and at work. But when informed that his end was nigh, he soon adjusted his mind and heart to the situation, calmly and deliberately arranged his temporal and domestic affairs, and, with unusual calmness met his fate. A wife and ten children remained to mourn.

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