First meetings of what was later to be the Salem United Methodist Church were held in 1878, under the leadership of M. D. De Huff, a circuit rider pastor from Wadena, Minnesota.
Three years later, on October 10, 1881, the small congregation of thirty souls officially organized the Salem Methodist Church of the Northwestern German Conference. Charter members included Caroline Baumann, Jacob Baumetz, Louise Baumetz, Caroline Etzell, Louis Etzell, Anna Ihme, Augusta Ihme, Herman Ihme, Marie Ihme, Oswald Ihme, Engehart Marshall, Emma McPherson, Emma Rutzheimer, Carl and Louise Sawatzki, Christian and Rose Schilling, C. W. Schroeder, Levi Stuewig, Eke, William and Cornelia Weiss, Heske Stuewig, Dena Weiss Schroeder, Joel S. Weiser, Louise Weiser, and Ida Wilson.
Two lots in Weisers Addition were donated for a church building but it was fifteen years before a building was erected. Meantime, meetings were held in the McFadgen log cabin near the Mercy Hospital.
Nine pastors served the congregation before 1896, when the present church was erected on ten acres northeast of Valley City. August Noeske donated the church property.
Sixteen pastors have served the congregation since the church was built; the present pastor is The Reverend Grant Carlson, who came to the parish in 1972.
An educational unit was added in 1973 at a cost of $20,000, with much of the labor furnished by the members of the congregation.
Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 302