History
The congregation of the Vail's Gate United Methodist Church (originally the New Windsor Methodist Church) began with class meetings held at the home of John Ellison. The Ellison house is now a New York State Historic Site known as Knox's Headquarters located on the corner of Route 94 and Old Forge Road in the Town of New Windsor. The sanctuary was built on land donated by Mr. Ellison in 1807, and incorporated as the Union Methodist Church that same year. It was the first Methodist church building in Orange County. In 2014, the sanctuary was placed on the United Methodist Historic Registry.
The Vail's Gate United Methodist Church is fortunate to have two original leather bound volumes which contain class membership lists from the years 1837-1884 and Quarterly Conference minutes from 1831-1883. Also recorded are births and marriages from that period.
Unfortunately, original documentation of the church's cemetery records have been lost. Over the years, the church has relied upon a list compiled by Mrs. W. H. Bradford of the Quassic Chapter of the D.A.R. in 1927, and a survey of headstones taken in 1930, by Gertrude A. Barber. During the spring of 2006, an extensive cemetery restoration project began and complete cemetery records have been assembled with the assistance of the Town of New Windsor Historian.
For information regarding class membership rolls, marriages, baptisms and cemetery information, you can contact the church.
