|
ALLENDALE WESLEYAN CHURCH
OBSERVES 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF CHURCH FOUNDING
(Coopersville Observer, 26 October 1934)
Great plans are
being made by members of the Allendale Wesleyan Methodist church for the
celebration attendant upon the 80th anniversary of the founding of the society.
The date of the celebration has been set for Saturday, October 27th, as was
announced in the Observer last week, and will be in the nature of a Homecoming
as well as an anniversary celebration.
There will be morning, afternoon and evening meetings, with dinner and supper
being served in the Allendale Farmers club hall by the ladies of the church. The
morning session will begin at 10:30 and will be opened by the present pastor,
Rev. Wm. Gearhart, who will welcome the many guests who are expected. This will
be followed by an old fashion class meeting conducted by the class leader, T. E.
Hubbell. Throughout the morning program the old time hymns of the church will be
sung.
Rev. C. S. Rennells of Brighton, the oldest living former pastor of the church,
will deliver the afternoon address. Mrs. Frank Sheridan has prepared a very
interesting history of the church which will be read. The old choir will sing a
special number and there will be other musical selections. The afternoon program
will be brought to a close with a missionary address by Mrs. George Laug, who is
the only missionary ever sent out by the church. Mrs. Laug who was formerly Miss
Mildred Hubbell, has served for five years in Chile, South America, and also
five years in Japan.
The evening address will be given by the Rev. Fred Vander Weide, also a former
pastor of the church, now located in Grand Rapids.
The public is invited to attend this Home-Coming, but it is especially urged
that any one who has ever attended this church make a special effort to attend.
The church has been newly decorated for the occasion, and all will be in
readiness by Saturday to welcome visitors.
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHURCH
Rev. Albert Maxfield, father of the late Gregg
Maxfield of Coopersville, and grandfather of Mrs. Gertie Comstock, organized the
First Wesleyan Methodist Society in Allendale about the year 1854. This was only
five years after the township had been organized, and was twelve years after the
first settlers, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Roberts, had arrived in the locality. Prior
to this time the Methodist society was organized with nine members, but later
upon the organization of the new society, the two groups merged.
The first meeting were held in the Red schoolhouse in the year 1854, and in the
fall of the next year the annual conference appointed G. A. Olmstead preacher in
charge. In the next twenty years there were a number of pastors including Levi
J. Francisco, Father Darling, D. A. Gray, L. C. Hudson, B. H. Brundige, A. S.
Worden, Ira Jones, G. W. Townsend, A. N. Hudson, R. H. Ross, and Joel Selleck.
J. D. Pierson, who formerly resided in Allendale, can recall some of these men
who received as little as $50.00 a year, and preached in Allendale every other
Sunday, walking to and from their other appointments at Bauer and Olive.
During the pastorate of Rev. Brundige about the year 1865, a parsonage was
erected but it was not until 1875 when Rev. Wm Wing became pastor, that efforts
were made to build a house of worship, all previous services having been held in
the schoolhouse. Several hundred dollars were subscribed, and at the dedicatory
service at which Rev. D. S. Hinney preached the sermon, about $300, the balance
of the debt, was raised. Two years later, a barn was erected on the property,
along with the church and parsonage, as were several sheds to house the teams.
In the fall of 1878 Allendale was host to the Michigan Conference of the Church,
and the following spring a new bell purchased in Cincinnati at a cost of $182,
and which weighed 492 pounds, was bought for the use of the church. From time to
time improvements were made on both the parsonage and church, but the buildings
are basically the same as originally constructed.
The first camp meeting in Allendale was held during the ministry of Rev. Ross,
and since that time revival services and camp meetings have been the means of
adding many new members to the congregation.
Following the pastorate of Rev. Wing, those who served the Allendale circuit
were: V. M. Thompson, Harvey Johnson, David E. Wade, John L. Bush, Isaiah
Martin, E. T. Gray, Julias N. King, Albert A. Alberson, Sylvester J. Young, J.
K. McCreery, Charles S. Rennells, George D. Kellogg, Arthur J. Karker, Milo H.
Kingsbury, Louis Clark, Roy J. Ives, Fred Vander Weide, F. J. Wilson, Rev.
Smith.
E. E. Smead also holds unique record in the officiary of the church, in that he
was clerk for over thirty years.
The church has served the community well, and is to be congratulated on having
reached its 80th birthday. We trust that at some future time we shall be able to
give a more detailed history of the church and its struggles for existence.
|