 From its earliest settlement, most villages and towns on the Eastern Shore of Virginia were located near the coasts at navigable ports where crops or livestock could be transported by boat.The coming of the New York, Pennsylvania, and Norfolk Railroad in the 1880s initiated a shift in population and commerce to the center of the shore and created the need for new towns, including the town of Painter.The Painter-Garrisons United Methodist Church was established in nearby Mappsburg, Virginia in 1784 when Bishop Francis Asbury made his first of six visits to the home of Jonathan Garrison.