Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church of Forest City was established in 1838, 100 years after John Wesley’s heart-warming experience on Aldersgate Street in London.  From Wesley’s experience came Methodism.  From Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church, Methodism spread throughout Rutherford Country and Western North Carolina.  Our church may well be called the Mother of Methodism in this area, just as Wesley was the Father of Methodism worldwide.

Little is known of the actual founding of Pleasant Grove Church.  What is known is Dr. Philip Grose, a native of Germany, settled about 1790 in Lincoln County, North Carolina, coming to that area with other German immigrants from around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  He resided in Lincolnton for several years before marrying Miss Priscilla Roberson on January 9, 1811.  A few years after the marriage, he moved his family to Rutherford County where he selected a site and built a home about one mile from the present site of Pleasant Grove Church.  Dr. Grose was a practicing physician and had amassed a great wealth.  His wife was a Methodist and noted the great  need for a place to worship in the area.  After her urging, Dr. Grose bought a plot of land from John Rogers, and with his workers, they built our first church building.  It was  a large one room log structure.  The logs were hewn from the large pine trees growing on the property.  The church was completed in 1838.  Some of the charter member families were Grose, Moore, Bostic, Eaves, Hill, Griffin, Harmon, and Padgett.  It  was indeed a pleasure to go to Pleasant Grove Church and see the men seated on an old chestnut log that lay in the front of the church.  These men would come early and sit and warm themselves by the wood fire built outside before services.  There was no way of heating the log churches of long ago.

The second church built on the site was a wood-framed building, built in 1875.  In 1876, Mr. Mote Carpenter bought a one-half acre of land adjacent to the Church and gave it to the church for a cemetery.  Mrs. Carpenter was the first one to be buried in the cemetery.

The third and present church was built on the same site in 1911.  The pastor at this time was Reverend J.F. Moser.

The first memorial service ever held in the United States was held at Pleasant Grove Church.  It was held on a Saturday, and was publicized in the Chicago Daily News, and the custom spread all over the United States.