Morgan Chapel United Methodist Church will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2021.

After meeting in homes for several years following the end of the Civil War, the trustees of what would be called Morgan Chapel Church met in 1870 at J. T. Ways Store to discuss building a new church.

In May of 1871, a group of laymen under the leadership of Captain James Morgan, a respected Civil Ware veteran, established the Chapel as a community church to serve as a place for the Christians in the Woodbine area to have worship service and serve the community at large. Captain Morgan and his wife deeded the property for the Morgan Chapel in 1871. The cemetery was founded at the same time and the first interments were 4-year-old George Ways, who died on Feb 14, 1853, and 5 year old Deborah A. Ways, who died on Oct 20, 1864. Most likely the two children were removed from a family burial plot to the new Cemetery at Morgan Chapel.

This land on the west side of Woodbine Road at its intersection with and Hoods Mill Road was transferred to trustees of the Congregation of Morgan Chapel Inc. “for the purpose of erecting…a house in which to hold Divine worship” by James Morgan and his wife, Mahala, on Aug 9, 1873, so presumably another structure or continued service in members home was used until the church was completed in 1875. Soon after its founding, Morgan Chapel became associated with the Methodist Episcopal Church and in the early days, the Chapel was one of many stops on the circuit of horse-back Methodist preachers.

From that time until 1905, Morgan Chapel existed as a small, one-room frame building. The foundation of the original structure is still visible on occasion during wet weather. In 1905 the present sanctuary was erected a short distance north of the old site. In 1945 an Education Hall was built. A Memorial Hall addition was completed 10 years later.

In the early 1960s, following a car accident that damaged the front of the Chapel, a narthex and concrete steps were added to the front of the building.