|
|
|
Photo by Cleon Rickel/The Ottawa Herald
The Christian Church at Princeton, 514 Grove St., will celebrate its 125th anniversary Sunday. A program of music and church history will be at 11 a.m. and a potluck dinner will be at noon.
|
Princeton church celebrates 125 years
By Donna Magee, Special to the Herald
|
|
The Christian Church at Princeton will celebrate its 125th anniversary Sunday.
Sunday school will be at 10 a.m. followed by a program of music and church history at 11 a.m. An old fashioned potluck dinner will be at noon in the church parsonage, 514 Grove St. Table service will be provided. Everyone is welcome to attend.
The Princeton Christian Church was an outgrowth of a series of evangelistic meetings by S.G. Brown of Emporia beginning Dec. 18,1882. The Princeton Church was the 54th Christian Church founded in Kansas.
In the beginning, elder Philip Fredericks over saw the operation of the church with the election of a church board that came later. For a while, all of the church services were in the school house. Since there were several denominations in Princeton at the time preaching for the Christian Church was on Saturday evening, Sunday morning and evening once a month — first by Brown and then by F.M. Rains.
Eventually the church couldn’t meet at the school, so it rented a dwelling for $4 a month. Trustees were elected and they were authorized to buy land for a church building. The trustees were Fred Garst, William Allison and J.R. Thombury. The men purchased four lots from Silas Allison for $45. The original church building was erected in 1886 at the cost of $600.
As the congregation outgrew the original building, the present building was started Nov. 28, 1895. It was completed and dedicated June 14, 1896.
The parsonage was built in 1913 on the site of the first church building so the ministers would have some place to live, it is now used for Sunday school classes, church and funeral dinners and such. The minister at the time was identified as a brother Martin.
In 1917, J.H. Anderson became the pastor after a short time that the church went without one. In 1924, brother Franklin was named pastor; in 1925, A. W. Wright; 1929, Brother McCormick.
During the 1930s, a succession of student ministers from Mahattan Bible College held the services. The Rev. Wesley Keltcher, Lawrence, was minister for 27 years. Duane Pedrow became the present minister Oct. 18, 1987.
In the intervening years, remodeling and improvements have been made to both the church and parsonage.
Donna Magee is the mayor of Princeton.
|
|
