Grovenburg United Methodist Church is celebrating its 125th
Anniversary during the 11:00 a.m. worship service on Sunday,
August 7, 2011. The church’s official anniversary date is
Monday, August 8, which marks the time the first service was held
in the newly constructed church building.
A church history compiled by Jane Bryce, a descendent of the
pioneer North family (the family credited with naming Lansing),
includes the following:
“The Board of Trustees of the Grovenburg Class voted in 1885 to
build a church on the northwest corner of Wallace Fisher s farm
on Ω acre, 10 rods east and west, 8 rods north and south. The
Fisher s leased the land to the church body for a term of 50
years for the sum of $1.00. The wooden structure was 24′ by 36′
with 16′ posts, built on a good stone wall by Steven Pratt and
his son Henry in 1886. A committee was then formed to provide a
rostrum, one foot from the floor with wainscoting and a rail on
top, wide enough for a 4 Ω octave organ and a row of chairs
against the wall for a choir, with a step at either end. The
committee then made arrangements for an entrance and a set of
double door. A 6′ by 8′ tower was constructed over then entrance.
All of the men gave themselves to the task of building.
Before the inside of the church was finished, the funeral for the
year-and-a-half old son of Mr. and Mrs. Clark was held in it.
Planks served as seats and the men kept working until the
procession was in sight.
Jerome Grovenburg made the seats and the Stand (pulpit) from a
cupboard that his sister-in-law gave for this purpose, as there
was no suitable lumber available. The low-backed seats were
uncomfortable. The carving on the stand was irregular and
bothered some people, but it was a labor of love and suggestions
over the years to replace it were never acted upon.
In 1890, Rev. Ellis was asked to see about buying a bell from a
Lansing church. Two sheds were built, 24 feet wide with 9 foot
stalls, on the south and north sides of the church. There was a
special stall for the minister at the east end of the south shed.
A bee was held in 1899 to set posts with rails on the top where
horses could be tied. Not everyone had a shed.
Andrew Higelmire and Minnie North were the first couple married
in the new church, on February 4th, 1890.”
Other high points in the church’s history are included in the
Timeline shown in the sidebar story adjacent to this article.
Over the years, Grovenburg UMC has been known in the community as a family-friendly, mission-oriented congregation.
It hosted annual ham suppers for decades, still hosts an annual holiday
craft bazaar, has monthly family potluck dinners, an annual St.
Patrick’s Day Corned Beef dinner, and other time honored and
traditional events. For many years, it was known as the church
which had the “stinky dinners” (the Phew Dinners), which featured
a buffet of smelly foods such as limburger cheese and kimchee.
Easter Egg hunts and Halloween events free and open to the public
are hosted as a service to the larger community.
Missions supported through the years have been many and varied,
including raising money to donate a water buffalo, llama, heifer
and other animals through Heifer International; to donate over a dozen hand-powered mobility carts through the P.E.T. Project, and
sponsoring of missionaries in various locales throughout the
world. For three years now, the church has grown a large garden
and donated the produce to the Holt Community Food Bank. This
year the garden was named the Ted Johnson Memorial Garden in
tribute to Ted Johnson, who rode his riding lawn mower towing a
garden tiller behind him from his home several miles away to the
church multiple times so he could till up the garden.
As Grovenburg UMC marks this special time in its life as a
congregation, it is also looking forward to seeing how it will
best serve the needs of the community and the will of God into
the future.
This 125th Anniversary Celebration Worship Service is part of a
summer of activities to celebrate the church’s history and mark
its anniversary. Other events were a picnic in June and an Old
Fashioned Ice Cream Social in July; the celebrations will
conclude with a Homecoming Dinner and Program on Sunday, Sept. 18.
Grovenburg UMC is a fully handicap-accessible facility located at
1368 Grovenburg Rd. in Holt, just 1.25 miles south of Holt Rd.
For further information contact Loretta S. Stanaway at
517-648-5730.
