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Center Ridge United Presbyterian Church, so named because
it stands on the division of the watersheds of the Easy and
West Nishnabotna Rivers, was built in 1882 on one acre of
land donated by S. A. Aiken.
The church had been formally organized a few months earlier
following a two year period of services in the Center Ridge
Schoolhouse. Rev. W. R. Cox, pastor of the United
Presbyterian church was instrumental in the organization of
three sister churches at about the same time, those of
Elliott, Pleasant Lawn, and Indian Creek.
The early roll shows such names as Aiken, Woods, Marsden,
Beard, Cooper, Griffith, Waldron. These families and those
that followed through the years gave Center Ridge a rich
heritage of Mission giving. There have been years when the
benevolences were equal to the pastor's salary and local
expenses -- which amounts to 100%. At the time of giving,
the church at large was asking for only 25%.
All of the other churches organized by Rev. Cox in about
1882 have long been closed, "but Center Ridge, like
Tombstone, Arizona, has refused to die. By all the factors
that are used to determine a fertile field by three
telephone exchanges, three mail routes, no school center
and no business center. The dwindling rural population, the
automobile and good roads have caused the extinction of
thousands of rural congregations. Center Ridge has held on
for 40 or 50 years during this period, but the same
influences that closed so many rural churches are
still here". *1
Will Center Ridge last another 100 years?
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Marilyn Jackson, Clerk 1979 |
