Prairie Home United Methodist Church - Prairie Home, MO - This Old Church on Waymarking.com

County of church: Cooper County
Location of church: High St. & Hwy Drive (MO-87), Prairie Home
Phone: (660) 841-5127
Pastor: Tom Fair

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Two women, Mrs. Sarah Robertson Thompkins & Mrs. Eleanor Huff, were Methodist by conviction, and while there were churches within a radius of a few miles roundabout, an Evangelical (founded 1848) and a Lutheran (1855) at Pleasant Grove on the north, a Baptist church at Pisgah (1823) on the south, a Presbyterian at New Salem (1821) and a Christian Church at Walnut Grove (1862) both on the northwest, there was not Methodist, and their hearts yearned for a church of their belief. The "wish was father to the thought" so they called the Rev. Louis Vandiver, a Methodist pastor at Jamestown for his advice and council.

The good pastor encouraged the idea, and with help, what was original just a thought now became reality. In 1880, the church was formed. They met at first in homes, and borrowed rooms, and knew a church building would soon be needed.

In August 1881 a building was built. But as the congregation grew a newer and larger facility would surly be needed.

Inevitably this church outgrew the quarters of it's humble beginnings, and rumblings for a new building began at the turn of the century and grew louder until in 1914 the congregation caved in and plans were made.

The new church was huge by their standards, and held seating for 500 people. It had a full basement, and which was used for Sunday school and held the furnace and the kitchen, and the whole building was electrically lit and equipped. The first service held in the new building was a funeral in 1916

[Above information paraphrased from text on MOGenWeb, Cooper County History and State Historical Society of Missouri.]

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