At the time, that community was known as "Sprowls' Corner", "Sprowls Store", or just "Sprowls", named after an early settler. When the U. S. Postal Service continued to confuse "Sprowls" with "Sowers", another Dallas County community, the  name became "Wheatland".  The  land for the church building, as  well as for a school, cemetery, and for the town of Wheatland itself, was donated by Tom  Branson  and H. K. Brotherton,  partners  in the real estate business.

The construction of the original Wheatland Methodist Church building was begun in 1856, by Jackson Bell, a pioneer builder, who was Sam Penn's maternal grand-father. The foundation stones were hand-quarried limestone blocks from local rock quarries. The lumber was hauled from Louisiana in ox-drawn  wagons. This original lumber still supports the present structure.

In 1912, the need for expansion caused the congregation concern because of its policy to remain debt-free. However, Albert A. Rowe, a local builder, was asked to estimate the cost of a new  structure.  The $3000 required was contributed by ten members of the congregation, who gave $300 each. To the best of anyone's knowledge, those ten were Charles Brotherton, T. B. Brixie, W. C. Davis, Charles S. Uhl, Lynn Brotherton, John Penn, Eph Bell, Will Rowe, Frank Tufts and Jess Spillers. (In  later years, Eph Wilmut  and  William Bullock each contributed $300 towards reroofing this same structure.) With the entire cost of the new church building in hand, the construction began and was completed in the same year. As part payment for his services, Mr. Rowe stipulated that the  new  structure  would have pictured glass windows like Dutch churches in his native state of Pennsylvania.  The congregation  agreed to this, and  theirs was to be the first "country" church in this area  to have these pictured glass windows.  In  the midst of  the country's depression, funds to support a church were hard to raise.  Several times the church's insurance lapsed.