Assembly of God Church
Grand River, Iowa
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| The first Assembly of God meeting held in Grand River was held in a
tent, in the southeast part of town, in September of 1915. The
evangelists were: Rev. Mr. & Mrs. Harrison Hamilton and Rev. & Mrs.
Walter Howell. Rev. & Mrs. Howell were from Princeton, Missouri. Mrs.
Howell was a very good musician. She played the piano and sang. The
first convert was Mrs. Addie Cooper, in October, 1915. When it got too
cold to have meetings in the tent, they moved into the Grand River
Baptist church. They were not using the church at that time. Soon afterward, in the winter of 1916, there was a revival held in a country church in the Tennessee community. The evangelist was the Rev. Joe Barnett. Later in the winter, there was a revival in the church at Hopeville. By this time, there was quite a number of converts in the community. As they saw the need of a church building in town, they bought an old store building, to remodel into a church. They bought the old Lloyd Hardware building, that was located on the corner where the Harger Oil Station now stands facing west. They moved it to the east part of town, where the Boles Fertilizer plant now stands. It was remodeled into a church and three rooms were built on the back for a parsonage. When Rev. Roy Mendenhall was pastor of the church, from 1939 to 1942, they did a lot of work on the building, improving it. Then, when Rev. M. H. Mooberry came as pastor it was decided that they would like a better location for the church. Orval Foland had moved back to Iowa and bought some property of the Fowler Estate. The lots where the church now stands were part of it. Orval donated the lots to the church. This was an ideal location for it. The old Livery Stable stood on it at one time, owned by J. M. Spray and Albert Spray, who sold it to Mr. Fowler. The church was moved to these lots, in 1956, and located in the position where it now stands. The Sunday School rooms were moved and an extension was built between, making them larger. A new entry was built on the front which contains a small office and nursery. It was all a great improvement. The work on the church was all done by the pastor and the men of the church. The women helped where they could. All bills were paid while they were working, so there was no indebtedness. |
| Transcribed from "Reflections of Grand River, Iowa 1881-1981," Clark Publishing Co., 1981, out of print |
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