East White Lick United Methodist Church (Morgan County, Ind.) records

Soon after Methodism came to Indiana in 1808, Benjamin Larkin, a circuit rider from Kentucky, made arrangements for regular preaching places in the Morgan County area. In 1809 the Indiana district, which covered Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, was formed under Samuel Parker, Presiding Elder.

The first sermon in what is now Morgan County was preached by Reuben Claypool in the cabin of Mrs. Ruhama Whetzel; later Reuben preached for a time in the shanty of John Martin. The congregation grew and the home of W. A. Rooker was the new meeting place of the budding church. Soon, however, the Rooker house was too small to accommodate the increasing numbers of worshipers. In 1820 a meeting house was built west of the Rooker homestead. Finally a more permanent structure was built in 1837.

1829 marked the formation of the White Lick circuit with Joseph Tarkington as the appointed head. In 1831 a school house was built on the site west of the church and in 1832 the society became part of White Lick circuit. The conference was struck from Illinois and J. Havens was appointed presiding elder. Meanwhile, White Lick circuit disappeared from the minutes as Mooresville gained size and importance. However, White Lick was not gone forever. Despite a brief loss of identity during the Civil War, the station was reinstated in 1867 or 1868, and the foundations for the present church (as of the early 1900s) were laid in the fall of 1881. It was dedicated by Bishop J. S. Woods on February 5, 1883.