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Show Presbyterian Church Commemorates 75th Year of Its Establishment Here M H I M M ft school. He sunt to Corinne, Utah, R.ev. Melancthon Hughes. When he arrived there on June 11, 1869, the Presbyterians officially started start-ed their work in Utah, which continued con-tinued until they had a chain of missions from the north to the south of the territory. The period of early beginnings of Presbyterian missions ended in December 1874 and on December 7, 1874, the Western Presbytery was divided and the division which lay within the boundries of Utah became the Presbytery of Utah. IScginniiiH In I'tah County In September, 1876, R.ev. George Bird and his wife entered American Ameri-can Fork to undertake mission work. He began Sunday School work and preached in a dance hall and by November was ready to organize a Presbyterian Church. In June, 1877, Rev. George W. Leonard and wife arrived in the city of Springville. He held services in one of the small rooms of his living quarters but within two months had a congregation of 80, which compelled him to seek larger larg-er quarters. Hen then secured an JOditor's Note:- - The Springville Presbyterian Community church recently celebrated cel-ebrated tho 7fit.h anniversary of its establishment in the state and in Springville with a family style dinner, cooked in Hobble Creek canyon, following regular Sunday School services. Commemorating the anniversary of the establishment of the church the following history is submitted, taken from H. W. Reheid's "Utah, A Centennial History": The American Presbyterian church has always been missionary minded. Therefore, whim the tides of travol tinned toward the far west in the late sixties, the Board of National Missions commissioned the Rev. Sheldon Jackson as Sup-erinfendente Sup-erinfendente of Missions for Iowa, Nebraska, Dakota, Montana, Wyoming Wyo-ming and Utah. Sheldon Jackson was a man of tireless energy. He traveled far and wide over this vast territory. It was said of him that whenever his pony kicked up the dust on leaving a town Jackson left behind be-hind either a church or a mission adobe building in which to preach. He organized a Sunday School of 50 children and with the aid of Miss Anna Noble, opened a day school in the same building with an enrollment of 38. He later built a chapel and the day school was expanded in 1885 into Hunger-ford Hunger-ford Academy, which ' rendered gbod service until it was combined with Wasatch Academy in 1913. Rev. Leonard extended his labors to Payson in 1877 and secured a large hall and opened it for preaching, preach-ing, for a Sunday School, and for a day school under the care of Mrs.. J. A. Fraser. In March, 1880, Presbytery met at Springville with ministers, led-ers, led-ers, and, mission school teachers in attendance. The church was crowded even at the business sessions. ses-sions. There was a good attendance attend-ance at the Sunday morning Sunday Sun-day School and preaching sessions but at the Communion service at 1 night the building was crowded. Its seating capacity was about 200 but 384 were present inside and out, while many were turned away. The church in Springville today has a membership of approximately approximate-ly 60 active members, Some of the church attenders continue their membership in other churches bringing the attendance to above sixty at the present time. The membership has fluctuated with the residence here of out-of-state people. The Rev. Frank G. Mar is pastor of the church and conducts weekly week-ly sermons. The Missionary-Ladies Aid Society is an active women's organization of' the church and there are also a Christian Endeavor En-deavor and Scout Patrol organized by church members. |