Our History

Early members of Centenary UMC in Smithfield pose for a portrait in front of the building.
People gathered outside a brick church entrance with columns, stained glass windows, and a white door.
Three men dressed in beige choir robes, one holding a book, engaged in conversation inside a room with white walls.
A classroom scene with a woman standing in front of a blackboard, holding papers, and addressing a seated group of adults and teenagers, some holding papers. There is a yellow poster titled 'Newspaper Pad' on the wall.
People gathered at a daytime outdoor buffet with tables of food, some seated on chairs, and others serving themselves. Vintage cars are parked behind the gathering.

Our History:
A Brief Timeline

1839. A Methodist revival on the banks of the Neuse river rocks Smithfield to its core. Fundraising begins for a Methodist Episcopal Church to be built. The name “Centenary” is chosen in honor of the 100th anniversary of Methodism arriving in the United States.

1840. Land is purchased at Centenary’s first location on N. 2nd St. in Smithfield. The construction of the first building occurs at an unknown date in the several years following this land purchase.

1845. The denomination then-called “The Methodist Episcopal Church” splits along regional lines due to tensions over slavery. Centenary becomes part of “The Methodist Episcopal Church, South.”

1895. First building demolished; new building constructed on same location.

1914. Current building at 140 E. Market St. completed.

1933 & 1943. The sanctuary survives two building fires.

1939. Multiple Christian denominations merge into a new denomination called The United Methodist Church, of which Centenary becomes a part.

1950. Extensive renovations to the church, including the chapel and 12 stained glass windows in the sanctuary, completed and dedicated.

1972. Our fellowship hall, named “Wesley Hall” after Methodism’s founder Charles Wesley, is completed.

Revival by the River

The history of this church begins in 1839.

For once, America was between wars. The War of 1812, with the burning of the U.S. Capitol, was fading into history, and the Civil War was almost a quarter of a century in the future. Smithfield in 1839 was a sleepy village on the banks of the Neuse. Johnston County had fewer than 11,000 inhabitants. In fact, the population had actually declined between 1830 and 1839.

In the 1830s one of Smithfield's leading citizens was a man named David Thomson. He was a planter-merchant-preacher with his head full of progressive ideas, especially about education. He was one of the founders of Wake Forest College, which was then located in the town of Wake Forest in eastern Wake County. As a member of the NC General Assembly, David Thomson in 1831 submitted a bill that would "permit" but would not force Johnston County to "establish a fund for free public schools." The bill died a quick death.

Johnston County in the 1830s was Rip Van Winkle, sleeping through some changes and resisting changes when awake. Tom Lassiter in his history of Smithfield's First Baptist Church wrote that Primitive Baptists, which were very strong in this state, "held that revivals, missionary societies, Bible societies and secular schools were blasphemous." Such beliefs, combined with the county's unstable agricultural economy and the stubbornly independent (and sometimes downright ornery) mindset that has long been Johnston County's hallmark, made the area fall behind the New England states and the rest of the Atlantic Seaboard, in public education and other areas as well.

I think it is safe to say that Smithfield in 1839 was both boring and bored. There wasn't much to look forward to in the way of entertainment or diversion. Women bore a child every 18 months to 2 years when they were young, and most families lived on isolated farms with sun-to-sun labor .. The tedium was broken only by an occasional quilting bee or a ritualistic and bloody November hog-killing.

Then along came a Methodist revival, held down by the river. People camped out in lean-to huts and cooked over campfires. As night fell, a mystical atmosphere fell over the campground. There was fiery preaching of the "Sinners in the hands of an angry God" variety, and full-throated hymn-singing that filled the humid air with vocal music that the Methodists were famous for. It was a powerful, dramatic, soul-wrenching experience. We do not know who preached, but we know that many local folks had never seen anything like it before. Methodism was passionate and loud. It demanded inward and outward changes and it offered excitement and enthusiasm. Many were stirred to fever-pitch zeal. Some of the zeal would, last, some would not. But Smithfield would never be the same again.