Church to Celebrate Its 125th Birthday

The Spring Grove Church will celebrate its 125th anniversary during festivities to be held at the church on Sunday.

"It's really in October, but we've got a business meeting in June so we'll do it all at the same time," Mrs. Harold Elliott Sr., church reporter, said.

The speaker for the morning worship at 10:45 a.m. will be Maurice Roberts, superintendent of Mid-America Yearly Meeting. There will be a basket lunch in the church annex following the morning service.

The afternoon session will begin at 2 p.m. The Ding-a-Lings of Beagle United Methodist Church will present special bell numbers. There will be a time of sharing of stories or experiences.

In 1854 the Quakers began to work in the Kansas area. Spring Grove Monthly Meeting was founded in 1859 under the leadership of Richard Mendenhall.

The first meeting house was built in 1859-1860. The meeting house was also used as a school and was used for 17 years.

In 1876 the building was in dire need of repair. The old building was torn down and the present one, without additions, was built on property formerly owned by Simon Jones. Jesse Beals was pastor then. Louisa Updegraff followed him in 1892.

In June 1896, the quarterly meeting was held at Spring Grove and it met there regularly for many years. From those quarterly meetings came the present June meeting.

Additions to the church were completed in 1964 and 1973. The first parsonage was moved onto the property in the mid-1940s. It burned during an electrical storm in June 1977. A new parsonage was rebuilt and occupied by the pastor 11 months later in May 1978.

Spring Grove is the second oldest church in the Mid-America Yearly Meeting.