Belinda Christian Church

Chapter XXXIV

  

      It was the year of the California gold rush.  Twenty-one pious souls had come from Indiana to make their homes in Iowa, which, just three years before, had come into statehood.  Hiram Moon was the leader of this little band and they had settled in Marion county just across the line from Lucas county.

      There Moon built his log cabin.  Others in the party were Moon’s wife and three brothers, Larkin, George W. and Simon F. and their families.

      There was also another man and his son and their families but their names have been lost.  All twenty-one lived through that first winter in the Moon cabin.  Moon was a minister and his first sermon was preached in his own log cabin.  He continued to be their spiritual leader.

His Little Flock

      In June of 1849, while thousands of others were rushing to pan gold in California, Moon was endeavoring to lead his little flock in the pursuit of treasures “that moth and rust do not corrupt and that thieves do not break through and steal.”

      He organized the church with 13 members - himself, his wife, Martha, Larkin, George and Simon F. and Louisa Moon; Jesse and Elizabeth Atkinson and the Asher family consisting of Tabitha, Elizabeth, Matilda, John and Isabel; Leonard Feagins and Mary Cleary.  Few as they were, they set about carefully organizing their church, choosing “Brother” Moon as elder, Leonard Feagins as clerk and John Asher with Larkin Moon as deacons until they could be ordained.

      “We, as a body of baptized believers have agreed to have our names enrolled together as a congregation of the Church of Christ, upon the Bible and the Bible alone, as our rule of faith and practice, believing the scriptures of the Old Bible and the New Testament to be the word of God and the only unfailing rule of faith and practice.  We will try to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace, whereunto we subscribe our names.  On the 23^rd day of June in the year of our Lord 1849.”

Large Family Bible

      Worship services continued in the log cabin for several years, then Mr. Moon built a new house and gave the cabin for church use.  There is a tradition that during his pastorate he used a very large family Bible but having no table to lay it on, one of his brothers obligingly sat before him in a recumbent position and let the ponderous tome rest on his back while his brother preached.

      Membership grew to 110 under the leadership of this devout churchman, this hardy pioneer, this servant of the Most High.  But “All that live must die, passing through nature to eternity” - Shakespeare.  Said the Greek dramatist, Euripides:  “When good men die, their goodness does not perish, but lives on tho they are gone.”

      Sometime during the 1850’s the government established a post office about two miles south of where the Belinda church now stands and named it Belinda.  Thereupon the entire community took on the same name and when the present church was built it was call “The Belinda Christian Church.”

      Came 1861 and the Civil war with its call for men.  The men of Belinda responded - some never to return.  With the shepherd gone and the sheep scattered, the church lay dormant for the next five years with only an occasional worship service when an itinerant preacher came along - as was not uncommon in that day.

      Yet the leaven of the Spirit was kept alive and growing.  Came the year 1866.  On December 31, sixteen of the faithful met and drew up the following document written in the most beautiful script by A. R. Byers:

Byers Writes Document

      “Dec. 31, 1866.  Be it remembered that on the 31^st day of December in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, the undersigned brethren and sisters in Christ, being scattered abroad in the northern part of the county of Lucas and the southern part of the county of Marion in the state of Iowa, being desirous of forming a closer union and organization into the one body and to more perfectly keep the ordinances as delivered to us in the Divine record, have unanimously resolved to congregate together for the purpose of discharging our duties and to honor and glorify God, agree to take the Bible and the Bible alone for our rule of faith and practice believing it to be given by Divine inspiration and containing all things necessary to salvation.”

      And are to be known as the Columbia Congregation.  Signed: A. R. Byers, J. P. Foster, Mitchell and Sarah Stotts, Larkin Moon, Josiah Witt, Job Clevenger, David Crawley, John Sinclair, Charlotte Byers, Elizabeth Witt.

A New Life

      From this time the church began to take on new life.  Services were held in the home of Byers.  People from long distances would come on Saturday afternoon and stay until Monday morning.  Worship services would be held Saturday afternoon,  Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon.  This too, was not uncommon in that day.  Interest and desire for a new church began running high.

      From the pen of Ella Wheeler Wilcox came this:

      “There is no chance, no destiny, no fate

      Can circumvent, hinder or control

      The firm resolve of a determined soul.”

      The determined souls of the Belinda congregation were ready to start on a new church, this time across the line in Lucas county.  In June of 1871, Josiah Witt acting for the trustees, purchased from William and Margaret Irons the land where the church now stands.  The deed shows the price to be $10.  The building was started immediately but was not finished until autumn of the next year.  It cost $1,800.  In 1915 the church was remodeled and Roy Edwards’ father, Frank Edwards, offered to furnish a bell if a belfry were added.  It was.

Membership pledges

      The church records show the first membership pledges being made for hiring a minister and for other expenses.  Two bushels of coal cost 50 cents, kerosene 40 cents a gallon, lamp flues 10 cents and wicks five cents each.

      Wine was one of the larger items of expense since the “Disciples” celebrate the Sacrament of the Last Supper each “Lord’s Day” - and in that day it was considered inappropriate to use common grape juice as is widely done today.  Holy Communion being the most sacred rite, it was done in strict accord with the mandate of Him who took the cup and said: “Do this in remembrance of me.”

      The minister was paid $5 a Sunday.  Most pledges came at the rate of 25 cents a month, some higher.  On member pledged (and paid) one cent per month.  Apparently this was a child whose parents were teaching the wholesome habit of giving regularly to the church.  Her name appears years later with larger sums.  “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it” - Proverbs 22:6

      There was great pride in penmanship in that day.  Why have we lost it?  The writing in most of these ledgers is beautiful, the spelling amusing and the notations following some of the names provocative.

‘Trivial Invention’

      In 1886 one member’s name was followed by the notation, Alive, but don’t go.”  Several girls’ were “dismissed for dancing.”  The year 1874 saw a trivial invention that changed the face of the prairie.  An Illinois farmer by the name of Glidden invented barbed wire.

      It ended the free open range and also the splitting of rails.  Things were coming along a little easier for our pioneers, labor wise but not aesthetically for while it saved labor it brought fence wars and bitter feuds among neighbors.

      Church records mirror the tone of the community.  Came the autumn of 1907.  All was apparently well in Lucas County - then WHAM!  Came the bomb blast of Frank Crocker’s suicide!  Then the cry, “The Bank!  The Bank!”  One kindly, devout member of Belinda had given his check for a generous sum a few days before.

      This was recorded in the church ledger and a week later the entry “check returned.”  The stricken member paid 50 cents per month to the end of the year.  The following year he managed to pay in small sums the same amount for which he had given his check the year before.  Great Soul!

      In the Book of books, there is a mandate that all people who have heard its message “Go into all the world and carry its gospel.”  By 1909 the little congregation of Belinda had risen above its vicissitudes and sent its first foreign mission gift amounting to $45.30 and its home mission gift of $5.40.

Missionary Effort

      By now it was also paying its minister $12.50 every two weeks.  Missionary efforts abroad have often been criticized but when Walter Pickerell (later Lt. Col Pickerell) son of Mr. and Mrs. “Stormy” Pickerell of Chariton was in China “Behind the line” in World War II, he wrote to his parents expressing his deep gratitude for what had been accomplished by our missions and urging continued and even greater support for the mission movement.

      He and his comrades had received treatment and food such as they could not possibly have enjoyed had it not been for the great work previously done by our devoted missionaries.

      In 1920 the Women’s Missionary Society of Belinda was organized with 10 charter members under the leadership of Mrs. Minnie Shultz.

      They were: Mrs. John Brownfield, mother of Mrs. Francis Carson; Mrs. Cynthia Vannoy, Mrs. W. A. Whitlatch, Mrs. Emma Taylor, mother of Mrs. Jack Kunch; Mrs. Rose Witt, Mrs. John Carter, Mrs. Minnie Smith, mother of Glenn and Howard (Tossie) Smith; Mrs. Ida Kenney, mother of Mrs. Boyd Coffman; Mrs. Ida Miller, mother of Mrs. Madelin Clothier and Lucile Anderson.

Society Met Goal

      The Society has been vigorous and has carried the mission banner high.  It has met its goal every year, sometimes as high as $150 and in more recent years as high as $750.  Belinda can boast of one missionary in the foreign field - Dr. C. A. Vannoy, son of Mr. and Mrs. George Vannoy, longtime members of Belinda.

      For many years Mr. Vannoy Sr. walked to the church every Sunday morning to build the fires, carrying kindling under one arm and the communion basket with the other.

      His son Dr. C. A., graduated from Drake University in 1910, taught for five years at Colver-Stockton College at Canton, Mo., and for five years taught in a missionary school in Buenos Aires.  He later became professor of languages at Florida Southern College at Lakeland, Fla.

      “Time has no flight - ‘tis we who speed along,

      The days and nights are but the same as when,

      The earth awoke with the first rush of song,

      And felt the swiftly passing feet of men”

                                                                        - Thomas Collier

      The feet of those early builders did pass swiftly but their footprints were indelibly engraved on the shores of time.  From those early days came the descendants of the Byers, the Moons, the Stottses, the Ganses, the Smiths and they were joined later by those equally devout and capable of carrying on.

      There was A. R. Byers and his son Nathan, who, at age 95 helped celebrate the church Centennial in 1949.  Even in his advanced years and having lost his hearing, he nevertheless came every Sunday morning to the church he had joined in 1873 just to sit again in the house of God where he felt the lifting power of the Spirit.

Descendants

      The Stotts, Wood, Carson, Witt families and many other stalwarts of the church carried on in the persons of their children.  Josiah and Elizabeth Witt had a son, Cecil, who, in turn, gave to the church, Harlan Witt, Mrs. Merle Witt Jordan, both of Columbia, Mrs. Hazel Witt Foote, Mrs. Gladys Edwards and Mrs. Vera Witt Carney, all of the Chariton community and Mrs. Theo Witt Kidwell of California.

      The Asher family, whose daughter married into the Stotts family and whose descendants in the church today are Mrs. Ruth Stotts Noftsger of Columbia, Raymond Stotts of Knoxville and Mrs. Edith Stotts Edwards of Chariton.

      There were the Kenneys, Lester and Mrs. Bessie Kenney Spaur and many others who have done their share in the progress of the Belinda Church but regrettably many names are not available.  Some who live far away still support the church.

      Mr. and Mrs. Nessley Wood were the parents of Alva and Blair Wood who grew up in the Belinda church and have been consistently faithful, having held through the years at different times all the offices of the church particularly the offices of Elders and Deacons for more than 40 years.

      Present elders are William Edwards, Henry Pierschbacher and Alva Wood.  Deacons are Roy Edwards, Ernest Ratcliff, Stephen DeVore and Blair Wood.  Alva Wood has been treasurer for 45 years.  Mrs. Alva (Helen) Wood has been pianist for some 25 years.

Church Clerk

            Mrs. Blair (Hazel) Wood has been church clerk for more than 40 years and has long been president of the missionary society.

      They hold special offerings five times a year - Thanksgiving, Christmas, the week of Compassion, Easter and Children’s day.  There is a Ladies’ Aid Society which meets every week at the home of Mrs. Alva Wood and they do custom quilting.

      The Sunday School treasurer is Mrs. Henry Pierschbacher.

      The teachers are: Merle Jordan, Gladys Witt Edwards, Ruth Edwards, Della Storm and Hazel Wood who has taught a class for 50 years.  Her rewards in human values have been beyond calculation.

      Letters and return visits from many members of her class have related to her how their lives have been influenced and inspired by the precepts taught in her classes.

      One young man, Harry Owens, now of Texas, became a minister.  Scattered though they are, many of them remember her on occasion and ascribe to her the “set of the sail” that has guided their lives.

      “Tis the set of the sail and not the gale

      That determines the way we go.”

Student Ministers

      Blair Wood said to this writer: “Probably one of the greatest contributions to the world that Belinda has made is the employment of student ministers from Drake University during their study courses in seminary there.  Many student pastors have preached their first sermon there and some have served regularly for several years.  This has been a kinship that has worked beneficially both ways and has been a rich experience for our church.”

      The Rev. Robert McDonald of Knoxville serves the church each Sunday at the present time.  During Belinda’s 121 years her membership rolls have recorded some 950 persons.  Like all churches, she has had her “pillars” and her “pillar shams”.

      Students of church history know that the church is always just one generation away from extinction but the hand of God is in it and always has been.

      Without this buttress it would never have gotten off the ground in the first place.  Thus it has endured for 20 centuries and it will endure to the end of time.  The dying words of Julian the Apostate, Roman emperor three centuries A.D. were these:

      “You have won, Galillean”.

pages 147-154