The first Methodist Sunday School and congregation were called together and organized in Valley City by one John McPherson, who arrived in 1878. Church records, however, indicate that meetings were held by persons of the Methodist faith as early as 1876 on an infrequent basis.
A local preacher in England, McPherson held meetings in the McFadgen log cabin located near what is now the Mercy Hospital.
Early in 1881 steps were taken to build a church and a large lot located in Block One of original Valley City was purchased from the Northern Pacific Railroad. Money was borrowed from the Board of Extension and the building was built in the summer of 1882, under the Rev. C. S. Snyder. The church building, the first in Valley City, was located in the southeast corner of the block east of the Smith Lumber Company.
Apparently at this time there was a harmonious split in the congregation and a group of German Methodists living northeast of the city decided to build their own church under the Northwestern German Methodist Conference and they organized the Salem Methodist Church. Others of the congregation left and joined the Norwegian Lutheran Church, now the First Lutheran Church.
Nine pastors served in the newly built church until 1892 when a new church was built on the location of the Grace Free Lutheran Church. The first church building was sold to a Mr. M. E. Walks. He moved the building to a lot directly across the street from the present Fire Station and here it remained, used as a wood working shop and various other uses until it was razed in 1970.
The rapid growth of the congregation and especially the Sunday School dictated the building of a new church in ten years and in 1905 a new brick structure, complete with a pipe organ was built on the old site at a cost of $15,000.00.
Under the leadership of the Rev. Henry Gernhardt, the Wesley Methodist Church, formerly the Danish-Norwegian Church, voted to merge with the Epworth Methodist Church, transferring their property and membership to the Epworth Church. The proceeds of the sale of the church property was then used to erect a new and modern pastorage on the lot immediately north of the Methodist Church building.
The present Epworth United Methodist Church building was completed and dedicated in 1965.
Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 298