OUR HISTORY

The church began as a sturdy frame building in the Ox Creek community, which was used during the week as a schoolhouse and on Sundays as a meeting place for church members. The schoolhouse-church was a direct descendant of an earlier, one room, log house with a fireplace. The log church was torn down and replaced by the larger frame building. The church moved back into its own quarters about 1903. The church wasn't quite finished and before the church got far along, a windstorm struck the valley, de-roofing houses, barns, and the half-completed Methodist Church. It was already floored, roofed, and the windows framed. The men had to knock it apart and re-rafter it. Many men of the valley worked on the building that was to become known as the South Fork Methodist Church.

In 1968 the building burned when a new oil furnace, the last payment just made, apparently went out of control and the fire resulted. Except for the outside's being charred, it appears serviceable. But the firemen were unable to prevent the interior from being damaged beyond repair. After the fire, the Methodist Conference did not want South Fork to rebuild. They refused to give the congregation the insurance money, for the loss of the church building and encouraged the congregation to join the Methodist Church in Weaverville. The congregation declined. They bought the land from the conference and set out to rebuild. For the next two years they met in the Ox Creek community center. In 1970 they dedicated the new building, and the congregation became known as the South Fork Independent Methodist Church. In 2013, the church once again reorganized to become known as South Fork Church. God has been very good to us and brought the church through many storms only to bless us greater still. We have been able to replace the carpet, exchange the pews for padded chairs, cut back some of the overgrown trees and have plans to expand even more as God continues to add to our congregation.