Retelling history: Records help First UMC celebrate 100 years in building

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What do a doctor, a circuit rider and an inventor of barbed wire have in common?

The answer may not be found in any physical evidence of the building that has served members of First United Methodist Church in DeKalb for the past century, but each played an integral role in starting, spreading and building its foundations.

The Methodist and Congregational churches were co-founded in 1854, when the population of DeKalb, unincorporated at the time, was about 700. Members first met in the home of a doctor named Basil Ruby, who “opened his doors to people who wanted to worship,” said Mary Bell, the church’s historian. Out of that home-based service, two groups grew – the Methodists and Congregationalists, she said.

Bell has found and organized extensive records of one of the oldest established churches in DeKalb. Those records were revisited when First UMC celebrated its 100th birthday in the building on Fourth and Oak streets on Sept. 27.

Around that time when the Methodist church was founded in DeKalb, a man named William Browne was preaching Methodism by horseback. Circuit riders, as they were called, made their rounds around a region, completing a full circuit in about a month’s time.

“The life of a circuit rider was terrible; they didn’t have a home,” Bell said. “But it’s one reason Methodism spread so much.”

Today, First UMC has direct descendants of William Browne.

The UMC’s first church was located on the northeast corner of Fourth and Grove streets from 1856 to 1880. The second church was built a few blocks north, and was a definite upgrade over the last building – it was brick, two levels and had running water, a kitchen and a basement. It also was built without any debt.

However, that church was short-lived. A barbed-wire plant across the street proved to be a headache so great that by 1904, church leaders decided it was time to relocate. Wide-open windows and manufacturers’ shifts that stretched late into the night were enough to disrupt evening activities at the church, like choir practices and meetings.

In 1908, an all-church meeting convened to discuss a new location. That night, the church body “overwhelmingly” chose the site at Fourth and Oak streets out of five possible sites, Bell said.

Construction commenced, and the new church was dedicated Sept. 26, 1909. Jacob Haish, one of the inventors of the barbed wire, invited the bishop, who was an honored guest that day, to his house for dinner following the dedication.

The story goes that the bishop asked him to donate $5,000 – the remaining amount needed to pay for the church. So Haish did so, thus leaving another church building debt free, which had been a goal of the church as their former building also was without a mortgage.

His friends in the barbed-wire business, Joseph Glidden and Isaac Ellwood, also made financial contributions, even though they weren’t church members.

The only pieces to be carried from the old church to the new church were a memorial plaque and three stained-glass windows.

Three windows were chosen because the three co-chairs of the building committee couldn’t agree on much, let alone which window to take with, Bell said. So they each picked a different one, which were placed on three different walls of the sanctuary.

Unknowingly at the time, one window’s panels, on the back wall of the sanctuary, were put up in the wrong order, so that a common Bible verse is read in reverse.

The history of the church, 100 years and beyond, has been kept intact through Bell’s work and that of other archivists. Bell turned a second-floor bedroom of the old parsonage into an archive room, filling a glass case with trophies from the YMCA church league, an antiquated hearing aid, documents listing donors – Haish and his wife are first on the list – and more.

In the church basement, black-and-white framed photos stretch wall to wall, a project Bell undertook to honor each pastor that has served the church in the past 150 years.

“These are the people that have led us,” Bell said, looking toward the wall. “Laypeople can give the church direction, but the pastors really lead us.”

Heritage Sunday was held Sept. 27 to celebrate the 100th birthday of the church in its current building. The church also celebrated by establishing a scholarship in the name of longtime member Charlie Bradt.

Bradt is the last descendant of the Bradt-Glidden family that helped establish the church edifice. The oldest member, he was 5 years old when the new building was dedicated and 100 years later, he sang “The Lord’s Prayer” during the Heritage Sunday service.

“It’s kind of mind-boggling to me,” said the Rev. Jane Eesley, senior pastor, “thinking about all that he and his family gave to the church.”

The scholarship is for the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, which helped to prepare many pastors over the years, including both current appointed pastors, Eesley and Laura Crites.

“We have long ties to the seminary and long ties to the Bradt family, and wanted to recognize that connection between seminary and the congregation,” Eesley said.