Rock Run United Methodist Church

Rock Run United Methodist Church
The church in April 2012
General information
Town or city	Level, Maryland, near Havre de Grace
Coordinates	39°36′N 76°12′W / 39.600°N 76.200°W / 39.600; -76.200
Completed	1843
Design and construction
Architect	Joshua Stephens

Rock Run United Methodist Church is a one-story building, with stone walls and a slate-covered gable roof, located on a 1.24 acre plot of land at the corner of Craig's Corner Road and Rock Run Road near Level, Maryland, USA, and approximately six miles south of Darlington, Maryland. It is a sister church to Darlington United Methodist Church, which forms the Darlington-Rock Run Methodist Charge and is a part of the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church, headquartered in Columbia, Maryland. It was listed on the Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties in 1977 by the Harford District Commission with code title HA 565. The church also includes a cemetery behind the building along Rock Run Road. An old school house used to reside on the property.

The founding of Methodism in Harford County, Maryland, can be traced to Francis Asbury during his travels in 1785, when Ms Rachel Barnes Stephenson offered her home as a place of Methodist meetings. This was located near the Rock Run along the Susquehanna River, now located within the boundaries of the Susquehanna State Park. During one of the meetings, her nineteen-year-old son, William Stephenson, was converted. Meetings continued through the following years until 1811.

In 1795, approximately ten years after William had been converted to the Methodist faith, he was ordained as a local Methodist preacher. His duties included marriage and burial and also attendung to the needs of the sick. In 1830, he and his wife traveled throughout Harford County on horseback to those who were almost secluded from other religious societies.

In 1811, 125 people were members of the Society. It became apparent that more room was needed and the first church was built on land given by Rev. William Stephenson and Mr. Thomas Nathaniel Smith, on the east side of the old Stafford Road (now in the Susquehanna State Park) near a spring. Local field stone were used in the construction of the walls. The building was completed in 1813 and served as both a church and a school house for nearly 30 years. Stephenson is considered the first minister of the Rock Run Methodist Episcopal Church.