Snapshots of History
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Mt. Zion Church in Riley Township around 1905.
By Mike Avitt
In my research, I often come across historical information and artifacts from areas outside Ringgold County.
I have made contact with several historians in neighboring counties and I share items of interest with those neighboring museums or societies.
Sometimes, I am the recipient. That is the case with this week’s photo. It comes courtesy of Bob Bixby and the Decatur County Historical Society.
I wrote an article about this church a couple of years ago, but, having obtained this incredible photograph, we will again visit Mount Zion Methodist Episcopal Church in Riley Township.
This particular picture is glued to a rigid cardstock frame with the words, “Chas. Brackenbury – Lamoni, Iowa,” embossed at the bottom of the frame. And indeed, an August 27, 1896 Lamoni Independent Patriot newspaper gives Charles Brankenbury’s vocation as “photographer.”
Mount Zion Church was closer to Lamoni than Mount Ayr, so it makes sense that folks there did business in Lamoni.
Mt. Zion was located in the southeast corner of section 16 in Riley Twp. There is a cemetery in connection and the earliest burial I found was William Richardson in 1885.
The Richardson family were early settlers in Riley Township. The church was built in 1886 and dedicated in mid-February 1887 with Reverend P. J. Vollmar, of Mount Ayr, officiating.
Before the church was built, I find in the Ringgold Record newspapers that the Methodist folks were meeting in the Modoc Schoolhouse about one-fourth of a mile south of the cemetery. The Modoc School burned about 1906 and was replaced the next year.
Riley Township was a township without an incorporated town, railroad, or highway. Probably the closest village to Mt. Zion was Pawnee, Missouri which was about halfway between Hatfield and Eagleville. Kellerton was about ten miles north.
Now, here’s a tip for you future historians: I have learned that churches like to celebrate anniversaries, so when I research a church, I look in the newspapers for a fifty-year anniversary. And I found it. The reason this is important is because there is always a historical program. The Lamoni Chronicle newspaper of June 24, 1937 has some coverage.
A “home-coming” and basket dinner was held at Mt. Zion on June 19, 1937 with 108 people in attendance. Some of the folks in attendance were there in 1886-87. Madames Teale, Weir, Gorsuch, Jameson, and McElroy were there to share their memories from fifty years earlier.
Mrs. Teale gave a history of the church but it was not recorded in the newspaper. There was singing, music, and a short talk by Reverend Woods of Mount Ayr. It was decided to have a home-coming annually.
The June 11, 1959 Record-News says at a quarterly meeting, it was voted to close the church. Mt. Zion was on the circuit with Mount Ayr and Caledonia, so Reverend John Lippincott was the last pastor.
Trustees for the building were named as follows: Darrell Wilcoxson, Ben Barnes, Richard Barnes, and Frank Gilliland. The Methodist pastor from Kellerton was to have “pastoral oversight” of the congregation.
The church building was still standing in 1967 as a farm sale advertisement used the old building as a landmark.
The Modoc School closed in 1952. With no school and no church, there is no longer a community “center.” But, we can still read about, and write about, the way things used to be.
