Part 83 (1/2)

Their church was built in 1889 and is valued at $5,000.00.

The Calvary Baptist church was organized on September 5, 1890, and its first pastor was the Rev. E. F. Perry. It has been served by four pastors, and has a members.h.i.+p now of 165. The present church was erected in 1891 and is valued at $5,000.00.

The John Hus Methodist Episcopal church was organized May 15, 1892, and its first pastor was the Rev. John Tauchen. The church has had three pastors and has now seventy members. They have property valued at $7,000.00 and their present church was built in 1897.

The Bethany Congregation church came into being in 1893 and its first pastor was the Rev. E. M. Vittum. They now enroll 106 members and have had six pastors. Their present church is valued at $3,000.00.

The Central Park Presbyterian church was organized May 4, 1893. Its first pastor was the Rev. R. A. Van der Las. They have now 205 members and have had three ministers. Their present church was built in 1904 and is valued at $20,000.00.

The Danish Lutheran church was organized in 1893. They have forty-eight members, have had six pastors and have property valued at $4,000.00.

The Danish Baptist church was organized April 1, 1895, and its first pastor was the Rev. A. Charlsen. They have had six pastors and have now 17 members. Their church was built in 1899 and is valued at $700.00.

The first church organized in the last decade was the Second Christian church which grew out of a Bible school organized in 1901 and has a members.h.i.+p of 125 and has been served by three pastors. They have property valued at $5,000.00.

The Olivet Presbyterian church came into existence on May 15, 1904. Its first and only pastor is the Rev. C. F. Ensign. They have today 160 members, a church property erected in 1904, and valued at $8,000.00.

The Dunker church has been in existence for several years, but was not formerly organized until 1905 under the present pastor, Dr. S. B.

Miller. They have been served by five pastors, have a church property valued at $4,000.00 and have thirty members.

The Reformed church came into formal existence March 29, 1906. The pastor is the Rev. Frank S. Bromer. Services were held for about a year before this organization by the Rev. Rohrbach. They have now twenty-nine members and are building a new church. The present value of their property is estimated to be $2,900.00. At the completion of this new church their property will be worth $6,300.00.

Fifty years ago this town had about 1,500 people. Of these 386 were members of the six churches, one in four. Today, with a population of 30,000, the thirty-three churches report 10,286 members. With five and one-half times as many churches and five times as many ministers we have twenty-seven times as many members.

The city has twenty times its former population, and the churches have twenty-seven times their former members.h.i.+p.

The total value of the church property today, exclusive of schools and outside property, is above $750,000.

All of this goes to show that the churches are very much alive and are among the most progressive inst.i.tutions in the city.

Two hundred and forty ministers have served these churches since the beginning of their history.

RECAPITULATION

Members

The Catholics report today 3,700 Presbyterians 1,814 Methodists 1,315 Lutherans 820 Baptists 547 Episcopalians 505 Christians 475 Congregationalists 466 United Brethren 260 United Presbyterian 225 Universalist 100 Dunkers 30 Reformed 29 ------ Total 10,286

[Ill.u.s.tration: FATHER LOWRY]

CHAPTER x.x.xVIII

_Catholicism in Linn County_

BY REV. P. J. FLYNN

All honor to those pioneer clerics and laity for the work they accomplished under trying and difficult circ.u.mstances. In the pioneer days no musical sound of silvery bell, from lofty steeple or tall minaret called them on the Sabbath morn, no swelling peal of organ or trained choir entertained or invited the wors.h.i.+pers in those early days, there were no G.o.dly ministers to bury the old and instruct the young, no books, or papers to read and to gather wisdom from their pages, to strengthen the weak and enlighten the dull. No need to be scandalized if in some instances, we find men grow weak under such trying circ.u.mstances. No wonder that pioneer conditions among miners and others, were such as to indicate little fear of G.o.d or little regard for men. Little do we know, in this age of ease and facility, of the difficulties and dangers, offered in those days to priest and people.

The effort of the writer of the following pages will be to chronicle facts, well established and authentic, relative to the church in Linn county, rather than to draw on imagination or to give color to his a.s.sertions from a rhetorical viewpoint. It is the scope of history to chronicle events relating to the past, for present and future use.

There is no a.s.sertion made in these pages that has not been investigated and truthfully established, in most cases by those who were eye and ear witnesses to the events referred to.