The roots of the church began in the homes of two former Randolph slaves shortly after their settlement in the area in 1846; with the Roger Lee home on Hardin Pike and the Frank Brown residence located in the area of what is today the Shelby County Fairgrounds on Fair Road, alternating each Sunday as places of worship. Through the assistance of a circuit rider minister by the name of Samuel Jones, and the organizational skills of its founding members: Roger Lee, Frank Brown, Hannah Shelby, Sarah Shelby, and Carter Lee, the new church was born.

Paul Cumberland was the first clerk and Mrs. Paul Cumberland and Mrs. Charles Dickerson were the first candidates for baptism. The first official building was built on a site that was set aside in Charles Starrett’s original plat of Sidney for the purpose of religion, and was located on the corner of South and West Avenues on the current site of the Monarch Community Center.

Starrett’s plat set aside two such sites with one for the Presbyterians, and the second lot (location of former Armory) not designated. This second piece of land originally contained a cooper’s shop (in apparent contravention of the original town plat) that was remodeled to serve as a small Catholic church.  This house of worship was destroyed by a gunpowder blast that provoked a strong response from the City of Sidney in the form of a poster, printed by the Sidney Journal job office, that offered a $300 reward for information about the perpetrators. Hitchcock’s "History of Shelby County" records, "In 1855 this (church) was blown up with gunpowder and stone during the know-nothing excitement."