History of the Sandy Mount United Methodist Church

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Ten years prior to the establishment of Carroll County, plans were being made for the organization of Sandy Mount Church. The first written record of the church was a deed dated September 18, 1827. On this date, Allen Baker and his wife, Susannah, conveyed one acre of land to a board of five trustees for the sum of one dollar.

In 1849 John H. Chew and his brother-in-law, William Crusey, and their families moved into the Sandyville area from Uniontown. Their religious tradition was the Church of God. Services were conducted in Sandy Mount’s meeting house. In 1858 Sunday School records began with a partial list of members of Sandy Mount Union Sabbath School.

A split in the congregations of Sandy Mount occurred in 1855 due to the social and political upheaval that later resulted in the Civil War. One of these groups, a parent congregation, built the Pleasant Grove Methodist Episcopal Church a short distance down the road. In 1866, one year before Pleasant Grove’s stone church was completed, the Finksburg Circuit of eight churches of the Methodist Protestant Church was formed. They consisted of Sandy Mount, Finksburg, Woodensburg, Providence, Zion, Bradenburg, Harmony Grove and Deer Park.

The years between 1875 and 1910 were growing years for Sandy Mount. The records show that the dedicated service of six men, and their ladies of the Mite Society, carried the church through the latter part of the 19th century. Records also indicate that by 1914 Sandy Mount Sunday School membership had grown to 200. However, during the early 1900’s, the Sandy Mount Methodist Protestant Church was marked by lack of funds and considerable turmoil.

In 1938 the three divided churches, Methodist Protestant, Methodist Episcopal, and Methodist Episcopal Church South were united in Methodism. On May 9, 1943 the merger of Sandy Mount and Pleasant Grove Churches was complete.

The first addition to our present stone church occurred in 1949. The addition housed a large kitchen, utility room, and restrooms. On October 27, 1957 there was a ground breaking for an educational building. A stone parsonage was built in 1960.
The Finksburg Circuit of the Methodist Church was divided in June 1959 putting Sandy Mount and Patapsco on a circuit. In 1963 Sandy Mount finally received “its own full-time” pastor. Then in 1968, with the merger of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, our name officially became Sandy Mount United Methodist Church.

By 1970 worship services overflowed making a second service necessary. In January 1972 a building committee was formed, and a Building Fund Crusade was conducted to raise funds for the new sanctuary. On Palm Sunday, April 7, 1974, the first services were held in the new sanctuary.

In 1998 an Easter Sunrise Service was added that has grown in popularity over the years. The Contemporary Service was created in January 1998 giving another worship option to the congregation.

A building committee was formed on July 18, 1999 to address the issue of our expanding Sunday School. It was decided to add a new Educational Building as well a improve the existing facilities.

On June 6, 2004 the new Educational Building war consecrated, yet another jewel in the crown that is Sandy Mount United Methodist Church.