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Photo by Elliot J. Sutherland/The Ottawa Herald
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Congregation to sound the song of celebration
By CLEON RICKEL, Herald Senior Writer
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CENTROPOLIS — During some of the darkest days in Bleeding Kansas 150 years ago, a small band of Free State settlers decided to create a little bit of light by forming a church.
Now, in a little more than a month, a church bell will ring out in celebration of the congregation’s beginning in 1858.
The Centropolis Christian Church will celebrate its 150th anniversary by ringing its new church bell Oct. 26.
Although the church’s present building was built in 1927 with a bell steeple, there has never been a bell in it, Becky Myers O’Connor, chair of the church’s 150th anniversary committee, said.
O’Connor said that had always bothered her, and she wanted to have a bell in the steeple for the anniversary.
O’Connor conducted a long search on Internet auction sites for bells.
“Every bell was so expensive,” she said. “They were from $11,000 to $12,000.
“We’re a small congregation and we couldn’t afford that.”
She spotted a bell on eBay and bid on it. She used her credit card to pay $1,800 for the bell.
Jim Cain, the church’s pastor, and his wife hopped into their pickup, drove to Iowa and loaded the 300-pound bell.
Congregation member Larry Briggs and his sons repaired, painted and mounted the bell in the church steeple.
However, if the bell had of been one-half-inch wider, it wouldn’t have fit through the openings in the steeple, she said.
“Someone up there was really looking out for us on that one,” O’Connor said.
Another congregation member, Fred Akers, wired the steeple so that the bell and steeple interior are lit at night.
Although the bell won’t be rung until Oct. 26, the bell was tested with a couple of light taps, she said.
“It sounded really loud,” O’Connor said.
The bell is part of a month-long celebration beginning Oct. 5, she said.
Each Sunday in October will feature former pastors, gospel singers or other activities, she said. The public is invited to any or all of the Sunday celebrations, which will begin at 10:30 a.m.
The church’s annual chicken noodle supper and bazaar will also be Oct. 25 as part of the celebration.
One of the church’s founders, Reuben Hackett, was one of the first Franklin County settlers, O’Connor said.
Hackett was involved in the Free State cause and served in Free State militias. He was also the county’s first justice of the peace.
The Centropolis church was one of the first organized in the county and was established even before Kansas became a state, Deborah Barker, Franklin County Historical Society executive director, said.
“The fact that it’s still going is amazing,” Barker said.
However, at one point, the church’s survival wasn’t a sure thing. The church faced its darkest hour more than 40 years ago.
The size of the congregation had dwindled and voted to disband, Cain, who is a retired educator and now owner of an Ottawa trucking firm, said.
However, the small number of members who voted against disbanding refused to quit, he said.
“There were a very, very few number of people who were hard-headed enough they weren’t going to give up,” Cain said.
The handful kept going year after year, with little money, no permanent minister and a building that was fast deteriorating, he said.
When the Cains moved into the area in 1984, many people in Centropolis didn’t know if the church was still open, he said.
“We walked into church one August Sunday morning and immediately felt at home,” he said.
When the Cain family of five joined the church, it had eight members.
“We nearly doubled the size of the congregation,” Cain said.
Over the years, Cain pinch-hit as a minister whenever temporary preachers couldn’t make it.
Then, when Cain was discussing potential candidates for a permanent minister, O’Connor said her mother Lois Myers stood up and told Cain they wanted him.
“I was surprised,” Cain recalled. “I didn’t know the congregation had even been discussing it.”
Cain, who said he hadn’t been trained as a minister, was skeptical until he talked to one of his own former ministers.
“He asked me ‘Do you know how to teach?’” Cain said.
“‘I sure can,’ I told him.
“He said, ‘If you can teach, you can preach. You’re teaching from the pulpit.’
“After that, I didn’t have any doubts.”
Since then, the congregation has steadily made repairs in the building and the congregation has grown to an average of more than 50 each Sunday.
“It’s not me,” Cain said. “It’s been the congregation.”
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