United Presbyterian Church, Mount Ayr
PRESSLY, BROWN, DUNLAP, MILLIKIN, SOLES, BAILEY, BARCLAY, MCCOMB
Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 8/14/2009 at 16:06:19
United Presbyterian Church, Mount Ayr
The United Presbyterians established a church shortly after Mount Ayr was founded in 1855. The Des Moines Presbytery sent David PRESSLY, a medical doctor, as the first ministeraial missionary to Mount Ayr. He served as both a pastor and a medical doctor for two years. Members of the congregation drove as far as sixteen miles to attending church services, which were conducted in private homes, school houses, and, later, in the court house.
Reverend William BROWN assumed the pulpit in June of 1869. Rev. BROWN observed, "I preached my first sermon in the home of Mr. [John] DUNLAP [8th miles north of Mount Ayr]. We then arranged to preach in the court room of the old court house each alternate Sabbath, the M.E. brethren occupying it half of the time. I looked over the field and preached three Sabbaths, finding a state of things existing that was to me a surprise, a county-seat with 5 or 6 hundred inhabitants and a county of 5 or 6 thousand inhabatants and but one minister of any denomination settled in the county, the M.E. minister of Mount Ayr. His field was the entire county and not a church building worthy of the name in the county."
Reverend BROWN rolled up his sleeves and went to work building up the United Presbyterian congregation to 140 members by 1870, the year that the M.E. congregation built the first church in Ringgold County. With lumber brught in from Afton, Joshua MILLIKIN as the contractor, the United Presbyterian congregation built their church on the southwest corner of North Polk and East Jefferson Streets at a cost of $4,000.
The United Presbyterian congregation decided to built a new church in the Spring of 1902. Finding it impractical to move the old church building, they decided to have it dismantled, which was begun on June 9th by F. B. SOLES and Howard BARCLAY. Using as much of the materials from the the old church as possible, construction began by July 17th. James BAILEY was in charge of the carpentry work, and James McCOMB was in charge of the stone and brick work. Excluding the costs of the stained glass windows, the new church was completed at a cost of approximately $10,000. The new church was dedicated on April 19, 1903.
Mount Ayr United Presbyterian Church was built in 1902 at the corner of Polk and Jefferson Streets. It was torn down in 2006.
SOURCE: TERRY, Jack R. A Centennial History of Mount Ayr, Iowa: 1875 - 1975 Pp. 107-108. Mount Ayr Record-News Mount Ayr. 1975.
Compilation by Sharon R. Becker, June of 2009; updated August of 2009
United Presbyterian Church, Mount Ayr
Ringgold Documents maintained by Tony Mercer.
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