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Old Waubonsie Church
is Saved for Community
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Tabor, Ia. --- Historic Old Waubonsie church five
miles northwest of here will be saved for the
descendants of the Pioneers who built it.
Assurance that these traditions will not die came
recently when A. J. Buckingham acquired the old building
from the Methodist conference. Mr. Buckingham
acted for residence of the community. The
church is on the site of one of the first camp meetings
in southwest Iowa.
The
original congregation was the first religious group in
Mills county. At the time the town of Glenwood was
known as Coonsville. In
1849, religious meetings were held in a log cabin on the
Abe Thomas farm.
In
1850, William Simpson cousin of Bishop Matthew Simpson,
conducted services every two weeks in a log house on the
farm now owned by the Manford Linville family.
A few
summers later, Elder Simpson conducted the first camp on
the Linville farm and camp meetings continued each
summer for several years.
The
history of Waubonsie church may be divided into four
parts -- the log house days, the log schoolhouse days,
the first church edifice and the church that stands
today.
Site Was
Donated
Site
for the church was given by W. M. Wolf, known as "Uncle
Billy". The first church was erected in 1854, but
for some reason was never dedicated. Lumber for
the building was sawed at the Wolf sawmill. The first
pastor was Rev. Isaac Kelly. The first funeral
held in the church was that of "Uncle Billy".
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