History of Hartford

In the autumn of 1912, Mr. A. B. Castle moved to Hartford from Covert to practice his trade as a carpenter.  Almost at once he began to hold cottage meetings in his home, and before long he had several – perhaps a half-dozen – members.

Two years later, on January 13, 1914, he bought with his own funds, the Free Methodist Church on South Haver Street that was for sale.  Now that the congregation had a church home they expanded their efforts to win new members.   In the spring of 1915 Elder R. U. Garrett and Elder Anderson held an evangelistic series of meetings at the church.  About the same time a series of meetings were held at the Rush Lake School House.  These two efforts resulted in a dozen more members.  There were twenty members in 1915!  Not bad for three years in the tiny village.

The Lloyd Brackets moved to Hartford from Allegan in 1915.  Besides their children, Mrs. Brackets mother, Mrs. Kellogg who was closely related to Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, moved with them.  Mr. Bracket started a business on Main Street and closed its doors on Saturday to bear silent witness to the Sabbath truth.

Mr. & Mrs. Castle deeded the church building to the Michigan Conference of SDA in 1916.

Many more individual stories could be told of the early members, but time and space do not allow.  The little church has had its ups and downs over the years.  It closed for four years and fell into disrepair as members moved away.  But it was reopened again and flourished.  As time passed, many new members joined until the group grew too large for the little building.  That’s when the miracle started.

After years of planning, sacrificing and saving the congregation of approximately 80 members began a massive building project.  With a contractor’s help, they built the building that now serves as our church.  Everyone was involved:  men, women, children, young, old, doctors, dentists, housewives.  The new facility opened in 1969 and has been a blessing in the ensuing years.