From the Kearney Hub, June 12, 1954
Headline: Old Majors Church Building Once Served Thriving CongregationThe old Majors Church, at one time a center of community life in Cedar township, has been sold by the Majors Cemetery Association and is expected to be moved or dismantled.
The building, unused for church services for at least 30 years, was sold at auction to Lee Standage of Kearney for $675. Mr. Standage has not announced what disposition he plans to make of the old building.
COST $1,700
Built in 1887 at a cost of $1,700, the Majors Church housed a United Presbyterian congregation for about 30 years. It is located three and one-half miles south and one mile west of Poole facing east toward Cedar Creek near the center of the township.
At one time the Majors community boasted not only the church but also a post office which formed the centers for an active community life. Since the discontinuation of regular services, the church has been used occasionally in more recent years for funeral services and township meetings. The post office was closed in 1907.
Despite the fact that the church has not been active for more than 30 years, there are still a number of Central Nebraska families and individuals who recall the days when the building served a flourishing congregation.
A nearly complete record of the founding of the United Presbyterian congregation and its activities during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s has been preserved in the Sessions records of the congregation by Harry Crawford of Kearney, formerly a resident of the Majors community.COLLECTS MATERIAL
Mr. Crawford is himself an amateur historian and has collected a variety of material in addition to the Sessions records relating to the early years of the church and Cedar township.
According to Mr Crawford, the first settlement in the Majors community was in the early 1870’s. Among the earliest settlers were the James E. Miller family who came to Nebraska from Iowa in 1873. J.C. Miller, now 80, is still a Buffalo County resident .... in Kearney.
The Millers were United Presbyterians and it was largely at their instigation that the church of that denomination grew up in the Majors community.
The organization of a congregation came on Dec. 20, 1882, when the Rev. David Inches, of North Bend, organized the church with six members - Mr. and Mrs. Miller, Mr. and Mrs. John McCool, Rose A. McCool and George W. Duncan, and brother of Mrs. Miller.
- MET IN SOD SCHOOL
The small congregation first met in homes and in a sod school house which was located a quarter mile south and across the road from the present site of the church building. The school was later transferred to a new frame building - the Cedar Creek school of District 20 - which has since been moved in to Schneider township.
For several years the congregation had no regular pastor but was supplied by itinerant exhorters who visited the community for a few weeks at a time. One of these men, the Rev. Isaac A. Wilson supplied the church during the winter of 1884 and 1885 and on March 22, 1885, was called by the congregation as its first permanently settled minister. He was installed as pastor on June 18, 1885.
For two more years the congregation continued to meet in the school building but by 1887 with about 50 members on the church roll, the parishioners began thinking of constructing a building of their own.On Sept. 27, 1887, Johnathan A. Houston and his wife Martha deeded to the congregation the tract of land where the building now sits. Construction of the building was begun in the fall of that year and it was dedicated early the following year.
DONATED WORK
Much of the work in raising the new church was donated by members of the congregation. Mr. Miller recalls that his father spent many days hauling materials for the building from Gibbon and Kearney and in helping with actual work on the structure. Carpenters for the building were George Stark, R.K. Young and James Kinsman. J.E. Miller himself put down the concrete foundation for the building which was a comparative rarity for building at that time.
During the winter it was also necessary to keep the building heated all night to prevent the plaster from freezing. T.J. McConnell was one of the men who sat up nights to keep the building heated. Mrs. McConnell is another of the former members of the congregation living now .... in Kearney.
The Rev. Wilson remained with the congregation for two years after the new building was completed but resigned the pastorate in 1889. He was followed as the Majors minister by the Rev. C.C. Kyle who served the church from 1890 to 1894.PARSONAGE BUILT
It was when the Rev. Kyle was called to serve the church that the congregation decided to build a parsonage to go along with the church. The Wilson family had lived on a farm of their own on a section southeast of the church.
Money for construction of both buildings was supplied partially by the national organization of the United Presbyterian body.
The construction of the new home for the pastor came at a particularly propitious time for the second minister. The Kyles were newly-weds who were married in the church June 18, 1890. The Sessions record makes no mention of the marriage, but a diary kept by Mrs. E.W. Carpenter duly recorded the event. The diary is among the items of material which Mr. Crawford has collected on the history of the community.
The parsonage, constructed on the north side of the church, was used until about 1917 but has since been sold. Membership in the church reached a high point of about 70 in 1907 with about 100 enrolled in the Sunday School. As the center of the community the church activities included Demarest speaking contests sponsored by the WCTU in which young orators delivered temperance orations with medals awarded to the winners.REVIVALS
Revival meetings included one in 1896 in which the Rev. L.E. Hawk, a 300 - pound evangelist, aroused considerable interest.
Ministers following the Rev. Kyle included the Rev. Frank W. Crosbie from 1899 to 1902. During his ministry the Majors Church started a Sunday School as a missionary effort at Poole (then called Poole Siding) and the movement there grew into another United Presbyterian Church. The Majors pastor served both congregations.
The Revs. N.A. Whitehill, J.S Tussey and E.C. Coleman in that order served the church from 1906 until about 1916. Following the Rev. Coleman’s tenure at Majors no regular pastor is listed by the Sessions record, but services continued to be held for several years. The book lists a new member admitted to the church as late as Sept. 16, 1917. Altogether about 175 names were interred on the church roll over the 35 years.
The exact date of the last service in the church is not known, but on July 1, 1922, a resolution was passed by the trustees of the church to convey deed to the church property to the Majors Cemetery Association for the sum of $1. The deed was dated May 5, 1923.
A letter in answer to an inquiry by Mr. Crawford to the national authorities of the church provides the information that on Oct. 15, 1923, the synodical superintendent of Nebraska forwarded to the national body $500 “from a sale of Majors, Neb., property.”REPAYMENT
The records do not show whether that amount was for repayment of funds borrowed for building the church, the parsonage or both, but it is believed likely that the amount came from the sale of the parsonage.
Since its last use for worship services the building has gradually fallen into disrepair, although the cemetery beside the church has been well cared for by the cemetery association.
An effort was made in recent years to have the church kept up so that it could be used for funerals and township meetings, but the plan failed to receive sufficient support to save the old building.
At the present time the church is bare except for the pews and one of the two coal and wood stoves which heated it. Broken windows have allowed birds and weather to enter and the worn roof no longer keeps out the rain. The raised platform at the front of the church is still covered by nearly-threadbare brown and green carpeting.
NO INSTRUMENTS
The church never had a piano or organ since the United Presbyterian belief permitted no musical instrument to accompany the singing. Singing by members of the denomination is limited only to Psalms, but Mr. Miller recalls that the Majors congregation was noted for its excellent vocal music.
One of the prized treasures of the building was its walnut pulpit which was made by Mr. McConnell’s father from trees on his own farm in Iowa and brought to Nebraska for the Majors church. The pulpit was salvaged from the old church several years ago by Mrs. McConnell. She also has the pulpit Bible. Unhappily it contains no inscription as to its donor or ther facts about church history.
The cemetery which flanks the church building includes the graves of many of the pioneer settlers of the Majors community. Deaths recorded by the grave markers are dated as early as 1885, Its well- trimmed grounds are green cedars, lilacs, spirea, iris and other plantings.
In spite of the sale of the church building, the cemetery will continue to be used and will mark the site of one of Buffalo County’s pioneer church movements...end of Hub article...
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