Reflecting on 160 Years – How Did We Get Her

One Sunday morning, I arrived at church early for Choir practice.   While I sat waiting in the sanctuary, I was feeling the warmth of the sun filtering through the stained glass windows on the east side and those 4 stained glass windows were all warm and welcoming.  The 2 stained glass windows at the front of our sanctuary are of Jesus with the children and Jesus with Mary and Martha.

It is easy to sit in the morning quiet of the sanctuary, with no lights but the filtered sunlight, and reflect on Jesus holding little ones on his lap, telling his Disciples to ‘let the little children come to me’, or to recall the day when Mary and Martha were preparing food for Jesus and the Disciples that Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen.   I can feel the anxiety of Martha in trying to prepare the meal for so many, alone, while her sister was in with Jesus, listening to his teaching.  Can you imagine sitting at Jesus’ feet or in the corner of the room, listening to him teach the Disciples, and as a woman, even being included?

The windows on the west side of the Sanctuary are still in the shadows, are beautiful, and maybe streaming in the afternoon sunlight.  The stained-glass windows were donated by 10 families to the church in 1944, when the sanctuary was being updated.  When looking at the beautiful windows, donated by the dedicated families, I read the names and wonder… What was it like, almost 70 years ago, when those families were attending and serving the Pacific Presbyterian Church?   

After appreciating the beauty of the windows my gaze settled on the beautifully, quilted Cross banner that one of our devoted church members had made. Nellie made many banners over the years for our church for different holidays and special events.  The Cross banner that Nellie had put together, so lovingly, with fabrics, light and dark, to give the illusion of light shining behind the cross.  The light of God, of Christ, of the Holy Spirit?    Nellie is no longer with us, she’s in Heaven, sitting at the feet of Jesus, with Mary and Martha.  Nellie’s banners are with us, and we remember her with love. 

As I was feeling the warmth of the filtered sunlight, smiling at the beautiful banner that Nellie had created, I was sitting on an oak pew.  The pews in our church had been hand-crafted by Joseph Ottmann almost 100 years ago.  I wonder if the wood might have been milled around the town of Pacific, as in earlier times.  The pews have been stained and have held up very nicely.  We did add cushions to them 25 years or so, ago.   When I think of all the wood it took, the milling, and sanding.  It was a huge job and a wonderful gift to the church.  I wonder what it was like in 1924… were the families mostly farmers?   Did they bring their wagons into the church when they met for Sunday services to sit upon those pews with their families?   

Sitting in the pew I started to remember many of the special events that took place in the sanctuary over the past 40 years with my family and our 3 sons.  I think back on all the baptisms, the Sunday School or VBS programs, the Christmas and Easter programs, talent shows, visiting mission workers, ordinations, and more.  All the Communions, the anthems, the weddings and even the funeral celebrations of life.  I wonder about all the sermons given from the pulpit over 160 years – that is a lot of sermons, prepared to feed the body of this church.

In a couple of weeks, we are getting ready to celebrate the 160^th Anniversary of Pacific Presbyterian Church.  Where did 160 years go?  I smile with my memories of these wonderful, sacred events.  This is truly a holy and sacred sanctuary and I feel blessed to have had a few minutes to be there in such a sacred space. 

How did we get here? Let’s look back at the history of our nation, state, and region with the forming of the Pacific Presbyterian Church 

In 1853 the railroad came west from St. Louis, into the small village of Franklin.  In 1859, the Franklin was renamed as Pacific City, later to become simply Pacific. The folks that settled in this area were mostly of German and Irish descent.   In the spring of 1864, a group of 10 or so families were working together to form a new church in the small town, and on July 17, 1864, The Presbyterian Church of Pacific City was founded, by the Presbytery of St. Louis. 

 When I think about our church being founded, I think back to the history of the United States.  Our country claimed its independence on July 4, 1776, 88 years prior.  I also think about when the state of Missouri was founded, which was August 10, 1821, 43 years prior.  Missouri was the first state in the unfamiliar territory west of the Mississippi River, which had been a part of the Louisiana Purchase.

Between our state’s founding, and the founding of the town of Pacific, Elijah Parish Lovejoy, a white Presbyterian minister, was the editor of the St. Louis Observer – an abolitionist newspaper, in the 1830’s.  After being destroyed three times, he moved his 4^th printing press to Alton, IL, where he had a little more support for his abolitionist views.  His work in Alton did not last long, as a mob murdered him on November 7, 1837.  Elijah Parish Lovejoy, for whom our Presbytery was named, was just 34 years old.  When I read about all that Lovejoy did to fight slavery with his newspaper, at such a young age, I was amazed. 

A little over 40 years after its founding, in 1864, the Civil War reached Missouri, and even the Counties of Franklin and many little towns therein, including Pacific, Union, Washington, and others. There was a 5-day battle at the end of September through early October running from one end of the county to the other, less than 3 months after the founding of this new church.  In this battle or skirmish, Confederate Rebels and their small army were moving through much of Franklin County, taking all they could from the farmers, looting all the country stores of food and goods, taking all fresh horses they could find, burning many buildings, and destroying the newly laid railroad track on each end of the towns they went through.   

The Presbyterian Church of Pacific City was originally meeting in homes, a library, and the masonic hall in the area, during the 1864 skirmish in Franklin County.  Since the church had not yet been built, it could not be destroyed.  The first minister of the church was The Reverend J. F. Fenton.  I can’t imagine the conversation between Reverend Fenton and the folks of the church, when they were contemplating the arrival of the Confederate Army and during the time of the skirmish.  About 6 months later, on April 9, 1865, the Civil War would come to an end.  President Lincoln was alive for this event, however, five days later on April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was assassinated.   

In 1867, the old stone Union Church building was purchased, and that became the home of Pacific Presbyterian Church.   By this time, the town had been rebuilt, the railroad tracks relayed, and the farmers’ fields replanted.  They were a fairly new church body and 13 more states had been admitted since Missouri was admitted.  Wagon trains had been passing through Missouri for over 40 years, taking settlers to Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nevada, California, and other states.  This was such a vibrant time in our country’s history.   

Our ancestors were frontier Protestants who founded the Pacific Presbyterian Church, and were a part of that history.  The committee that has been planning our 160^th Anniversary has been remembering the families that formed our church, the ministers that served our church, all the women’s groups that were formed over the years, and all the Sunday School classes.   We’ve been looking at old pictures of weddings, baptisms, children’s programs, confirmation classes, Easter Egg Hunts, and more.  Some of us on the committee have been there for over 50 years, one has sung with the choir for 40 years, and one had perfect attendance in Sunday School for 13 years.  We are looking forward to sharing our memories with our church family and others on July 14^th. (See the ad for it in this week’s newsletter)

Blog by Cheryl Rainey,
Ruling Elder Member of Pacific Presbyterian and Presbytery Commissioner to the Synod of Mid-American
History of Pacific Presbyterian Church provided by Sue Reed