St Paul Ame Church

St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church Has The Second Oldest Black Congregation In St. Louis And Is "The Oldest African Methodist Episcopal Church West Of The Mississippi River." The Date On The Cornerstone From The Lawton-Leffingwell Building Places The Formal Organization Of St. Paul A.M.E. Church At 1841. 

Older Documents And Records Of The Church Indicate, There Were Several Earlier Beginnings. Bishop Charles Spencer Smith, In His Book "The History Of The African Methodist Episcopal Church" Has Tied The Beginnings Of The Local Congregation To The Work Of Rev. Jordan Winston Early, A Member Of The Methodist Church South, Who Left That Group In 1832 To Associate Himself With The A.M.E. Church Movement In St. Louis. Prayer Meetings Or Societies Had Been Organized Much Earlier And Met In Private Homes, Due To The Growing Power Of Slavery, And The Nat Turner Insurrection Of 1831; They Also Were Obligated To Proceed With Caution. One Of The Several Meeting Homes Was That Of Priscilla Baltimore, A Slave And Nurse Who Purchased Her Own Freedom And That Of Her Husband. The Society Came To Be Known As "Little Bethel Chapel." Mrs. Baltimore Was A Moving Force During These Early Years, Until Her Death In 1882.

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