Our Story

The village of Benton began as a center for lead and zinc mining. High mineral prices in the 1840s brought a rush of miners and farmers to the area, including several Methodist families. These families began organizing the church that would eventually become Benton Christian Community Church in 1844. The first donation for a church building came in 1848, when William Calvert gave funds to Joe Ayer to remodel a former Baptist meeting house for Methodist use. Dennis Murphy later donated land for the church.

After moving among several local Methodist circuits, Benton received its own pastor, Enoch Tasker, in 1859. The congregation met in a frame building on the current church site until 1883, when prosperity from a new railroad enabled them to construct the present building, then known as the Methodist Episcopal Church. Attendance grew, with more than one hundred people regularly participating in Sunday School. The congregation continued improving the building, adding the bell in 1883, a new addition in 1906, and the current pipe organ in 1916. The church was formally rededicated in 1947.

Throughout these years, the church remained active in serving both its community and the nation. The Ladies Aid, founded in 1883, grew to about seventy members by 1927 and raised funds through quilting and hosting suppers. Cradle Roll, Sunday School, Youth Fellowship, and the Men’s Club ensured that every age group had a place to belong. The church supported temperance efforts, maintained a cemetery, and sent its men to serve in World War II.

In 1961, the congregation voted to sell the old parsonage and build a new one. In 1968, Benton began sharing a pastor with Hazel Green United Methodist Church and officially adopted the name United Methodist Church. The church celebrated its 125th anniversary in 1973 and published a history booklet that listed, among other details, the forty-nine pastors and fifteen organists who served from 1859 to 1972.

In 1992, a major renovation was funded by a generous donation from former Benton resident Peter Allen. This project created much of the church’s current layout, adding the kitchen, restrooms, pastor’s office, and classrooms, while also restoring the sanctuary. In 2006, new front doors were installed, a gift in honor of Ilene Cherry.

In 2023, Benton United Methodist Church joined forty-two other Wisconsin congregations in voting to leave the United Methodist Church. After completing the disaffiliation process under Pastor Ed Santiago, the church chose to remain independent as a non-denominational Bible-based, Jesus-focused church.

In the fall of 2025, Wesley Cone began serving as interim pastor, helping the church prepare for its next season.

​

Sources:

Church history booklet The United Methodist Church: Benton, Wisconsin, 1848-1973

Churches (published by the Village of Benton, Churches | Village of Benton) 

43 Wisconsin churches ask to disaffiliate from United Methodist Church