West Branch Times, West Branch, Iowa, Thursday, August 19, 1901
Transcribed, as written, by Sharon Elijah, September 7, 2018
FIFTY YEARS OF HISTORY
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GOWER TOWNSHIP, CEDAR COUNTY, IOWA
By A. W. Jackson
Chapter VI
The distinction of opening the first blacksmith shop in the township is claimed by Isaac Hemingway for his brother, Ellasar, who set up a shop in 1850 and operated it for some years.
The first religious service of which I am able to obtain information was held in the southeastern corner in the early 50’s. It was under the auspices of the Methodist denomination, conducted by an itinerant circuit rider at intervals. The meetings were held at various private houses or in the open air according to the season. Almost forty years later a regular Methodist class was duly organized and meetings held in the Friends’ church on “Quaker Ridge” for a time. The class grew and flourished, and in due time it erected a church building of its own on the corner of Mrs. Scullys farm. It was dedicated in 1892, Rev. J. B. Albrook, presiding elder, preaching the sermon. It is incorporated in the Oasis charge, and services are held there regularly, conducted by Rev. Wade C. Barclay, the resident pastor at Oasis.
Early in the 50’s Rev. John Alderman, a colporteur for the United Brethren in Christ, arrived in the township and set about organizing a class, which he successfully did. He was quite an enthusiastic ambassador of the cross, his especial forte being the conduct of “protracted meetings.” In these he worked up much religious fervor, and old settlers yet tell of the glorious outpourings of the spirit under his ministrations. There were no fiddles employed in religious services in those days to draw and hold the crowd; no brassy cornet to imitate the ram’s horn used at the fall of Jericho; no wheezy old organ to add volume to the worship; no rag-time music, and, in fact, not much of any other kind. The minister preached of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come, with glowing word-pictures of heaven and also of hades frequently interspersed. Bibles and hymn-books were very scarce, but the people carried more Scripture and more sacred songs in their heads in those days than they do now. The minister would announce the hymn and “line it.” The congregation would sing this line and he would give them another, and so on until it was concluded. In his prayer he implored the divine blessing on everything from sod corn to the president. It usually required from a half to three-quarters of an hour for him to go over the list. Then an another hymn was sung—either in “long,” “common”, or “short” meter—and he announced his text, usually something like this, “And the wicked shall be cast into hell.” It required two hours for him to reach “in the nineteenth place, eighty-fifthly” and a half hour longer for “in conclusion”. Then another prayer and another hymn. It was a long session—very wearing on the nerves of young children. But to the pioneers it was meat and drink—a veritable shower of spiritual manna. How different from the hop-skip-and-jump style of religious worship of the present day civilization!
The United Brethren class held meetings in private homes, in groves, which were God’s first temples, and in schoolhouses for many years and had much to do with making the community better. In the winter of 1868-9 Rev. Pierce of Western College, who was on the work, conducted very successful “protracted” meeting at the schoolhouse in district No. 2, six miles north of West Branch. At its conclusion he called meeting thereat to choose a site and formulate plans for building a church. There was considerable interest manifested as to the location, but the site finally chosen was the northeast corner of section 17, five miles north and one mile east of West Branch, where the church was built in the summer of 1869. It was dedicated the following winter by Rev. E. B. Kephart, then president of Western college, now bishop of the church. The class and church flourished with varying success for many years, until the founders died or moved away. In late years the organization has become disrupted and there has been no service therein for some time. The church still stands silent and alone, a reminder to the younger generation of what to them are “old times,” but which are in reality events of comparatively recent date.
When the United Brethren located their church on the northeast corner of section 17, a few of the members and some others outside the pale of the church roll protested quite vigorously. They wanted it on the northwest corner of the section, where the church organization already owned a plot of ground and had established a cemetery. So when the building was begun this faction set about raising funds for another church. Important factors in promoting the new edifice were Thos. R. Reeves and Thos. Collins. After much solicitation the funds were raised and a new temple for divine worship erected on the corner of Timothy Gruwell’s farm, five miles north of West Branch, now owned by James Marshek. The building was completed about 1870 and was styled the “Union Church”. It was under control of no creed or sect, the object of its promoters being to give to the public a place of worship which would at all times be open to any Christian minister or denomination who desired to break therein the bread of life. It had a precarious existence for some ten years, some times occupied for the intended purpose, and then remaining unused for a considerable time. It was used for other purposes than those of a strictly religious character. The writer remembers of attending therein a performance given by traveling phrenologist. Its promoters died or moved away and the old church went into innocuous desuetude. Finally it was torn down and moved to West Branch, where it met with no better favor as a church than it did in the country, and it was finally converted into a dwelling. As such it stands today on Main street, opposite F. K. Michener’s blacksmith shop.
At this juncture an old settler drops in to tell a story. One of the old timers was Harvey Coulson, who lived in a cabin near the old stone quarry on what is now the Bell farm. He was a mighty hunter and a dead shot. One day in early winter after a light fall of snow his practiced eye discovered “deer signs,” and shouldering his rifle he took the trail. “Bob” Campbell had recently arrived in the country and was also out that morning on a tour of inspection. He observed Coulson scouting around in the brush on Nicholson creek and resolved to have some fun with him. Making a wide detour he took a position behind a big tree near the trail and waited for Coulson to appear. In due time he came along, when “Bob” suddenly planted himself in the path and in a manner noted for its suavity and blandness asked what in the blanket-blank-blank he was doing there. Without a word Coulson brought the rifle to his shoulder with the business end pointing toward Mr. Campbell’s breast and ran his steel-gray eye along the barrel. “Bob’s” hands went up, and he had some difficulty in convincing Harvey that it was all a joke. “Bob” always insisted that it was the only time his bluff had ever been promptly called.
