Cherokee County Churches |
Cherokee County Churches |
| Pilot Township | ||
Mount Olive Baptist Church |
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(Photo
source: Aurelia Sentinel Aurelia, IA, Sep 18, 2013, pg. 1)
History of the Mount Olive Baptist Church Mount Olive Baptist Church Reaches 125th Anniversary Mt. Olive Baptist Church is an open country church located about ten miles southeast of Cherokee and nine miles southwest of Aurelia. It has been a thriving country church for the past one hundred years. Fortunately, the interest of most of the people in the community has been centered in their church through all of these years. The members today look back with reverence as they contemplate the events which led to the organization of the church, and are reminded how far reaching has been the blessings through the years. The first Mt. Olive Church was founded in 1888 as the outgrowth of the missionary efforts of Reverend W H Breach, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Cherokee. In the summer of 1887, Pastor Breach drove a team of horses out from Cherokee to hold preaching services in District No. 3, Diamond township school house on Sunday afternoons and it was this beginning that later led to the establishment of the church. On February 5, 1888, Rev. Breach met with Mr. Elias Dubes, his wife, Hannah and daughter Maggie; Mr. James P McDowell, his wife, Lucinda, daughter Ida, and son Philetus, Mr. John Dowding and daughter Edna; Mrs. Keziah Shell, and miss M. Louisa Faulkner. Sixteen new members were received the same day. By the month of June, a committee composed of Elias Dubes, Theron Shell and John C Dowding began working on the construction plans. The first church was erected in 1888 on land donated by Elias Dubes, with much of the work being donated by members of the congregation. The church was dedicated Sunday, December 8, 1888, with Dr. A. Cleghorn of Meriden delivering the sermon. The first pastor was Rev J B Miller of Storm Lake, who drove a team of horses from Storm Lake to Mount Olive each week. Sometimes he would make the trip on Saturday and stay with members of the congregation. His salary was $4.00 a Sunday. The construction of a parsonage began in January, 1898 soon after Rev J U R Wolf became pastor. The original parsonage was a one story four room building. The original church was destroyed by fire February 18, 1934. On February 21, 1934, just 46 years since its organization the members voted to rebuild the edifice. The second Mt. Olive burnt on January 29, 1950. Following this fire the congregation conducted services in the homes of members. The corner stone for the new church was laid on December 3, 1950. The committee that led the building of the current church building were Lincoln Hahn, Reuben Ohlson, Jess Weatherman, L C Bengston, Floyd Johansen and Paul Anderson. The present church was dedicated on October 7, 1951. The country church is located in Pilot Township, 2 ½ miles east of Hwy 59 on C 63 and ¼ mile north on the west side of the road. The address is 6080 S Avenue, Cherokee, IA. The current pastor is Jeff Harris along with his wife Jennifer. (Source: Aurelia Star, Aurelia, IA, Article titled "History of the Mount Olive Baptist Church", with information provided by Betty Ohlson; Wed., Sep. 18, 2013, pg. 1) |
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