Heritage of the Basey United Methodist Church ========================================================================= USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. If you have found this file through a source other than the MNArchives Table Of Contents you can find other Minnesota related Archives at: http://www.usgwarchives.net/mn/mnfiles.htm Please note the county and type of file at the top of this page to find the submitter information or other files for this county. FileFormat by Terri--MNArchives Made available to The USGenWeb Archives by: Alan Hartman Submitted: Mar 2003 ========================================================================= BASEY CHURCH HERITAGE Our church was first known as "The Pleasant Prairie United Brethren in Christ Church." Then, when we were united with the "Evangelical Church", the name was "Evangelical United Brethren." Now after uniting with the Methodist Church, we are called "The United Methodist Church." The more familiar name is "The Basey United Methodist Church." The first church class was organized by a circuit rider in a schoolhouse or the home of some church interested person in this area. A Mr. Leonard Huffman organized and superintended the first Sunday School which was held in the home of a Mr. Colton who lived on the Don Gilreath farm formerly owned by L. R Hemingway. Later the services were held on the southwest corner of the Lyle Terhune farm. This, by the way, was in a log cabin. In the spring of 1864 the place of worship was moved to a log-school-house on the southeast corner of the Andrew Robinson farm now owned by Frank Hemingway. This building was destroyed by a cyclone. From these services the first United Brethren Church group was organized in a schoolhouse about 1868 or 69 on Darwin Halls' west farm and this church group has continued to the present time. At first we were served with Vernon Center by a Rev. M. L. Tibbets and by others until about 1898 when the first parsonage was built across the road from Mrs. Floyd Hartman. The land for a church site and cemetery was given by a man named Edmond Basey who lived where Harry Madsen now lives. It was deeded to the trustees of the Pleasant Prairie United Brethren in Christ Church who were A. Robinson, J. Robinson, James Bottomley, Westley Hazelton and J. W. Chesrown and to their successors in office. The church building was erected during very difficult times with much of the material and labor to be paid by October 1870. The Minnesota United Brethren Conference was held at this charge in 1872 which at that time was one of the strongest in the Conference. In about 1899 or 1900 an addition was needed and built on the west side of the main and original building, A new parsonage was built by the church in 1916 and Rev. C. B. Canow and family were the first to occupy it. In 1922-23 during the pastorate of Rev. Charles Harris the Church was raised and put on a new foundation with a complete new basement consisting of dining room, kitchen and furnace room. In 1946 the church basement was remodeled with a newly equipped kitchen, restrooms and oil burning furnace. In 1950 during the pastorate of Rev. D. D. Clupper the church sanctuary was remodeled and redecorated. The new pulpit furniture was a memorial gift and was installed at that time. Most of the money for the improvements was raised through "The Lord's Acre" which was organized by Rev. Clupper. The first Ladies organization was known as Ladies' Sabbath School Library Club and organized in 1885. It was formed with Mrs. Wm. Phipps as Pres. and Mrs. Ann Brown as Sec. Its purpose was to find means to obtain books for the Sunday School Library. This group was later reorganized and called "The Ladies Aid." The first church organ and pulpit was purchased by the Ladies Aid. About this time a Women's Missionary Society was organized but a little later the two were united and called the U.M.A. (Women's Missionary Association) In 1951 when our church united with the Evangelicals the U. M. A. changed to W.S.C.S. (Women's Society of Christian Service). Again when our church joined with the Methodists in 1968 we became the U.M.W. (United Methodist Women). The other organizations that have been active and strong in the church are W.C.T.U. (a temperance organization for the ladies) and L.T.I. for the for the children, "The Christian Endeavor" for the youth and "The Girls Guild." Pastors who have served this church are: C. Clow 1863-64 J. Moan 1869-70 D. Reed 1870-71 D. Reed and J. Stiner 1871-72 Records lost 1872-91 E. M. Lund 1891-92 I.N. English 1892-93 E. J. Reed 1893-95 U. A..Cook 1895-96 G. H. Varce 1896-97 J. Bly 1897-99 N. S. Hankins 1899-1901 A.B. and Edith Wolf 1902-03 H. Deal 1904-08 S. B. Andrus 1909-10 J. B. Oxreider(Supply) 1911 Eugene Ackley 1912-14 C. B. Canon 1915-20 C. W. Harris 1921-23 P. W. Barker 1923-26 Roy E. Carpenter(supply) 1926 H. H. King 1927-42 M. L. Hendricks 1942-44 H. H. King(Supply) 1944 E. Powtius 1945 Darwin D. Clupper 1946-50 Marvin Hudson 1950 -52 Gaius Thede 1952-57 Paul Wiener 1957-60 Lawrence Zimmerman 1960-66 Gary Lueck 1966-69 David Head 1969-1973 Curtis Wilbur 1973-76 Paul Dunn 1976 Gordon Johnson 1977-84 Donald Bird 1984-90 Neil Westby 1990-97 Jack Smith 1997-2002 Note from Submitter: I just recently received a copy of the Heritage of the Basey United Methodist Church (it's a few miles west of Amboy on Co Rd 14). I think that this church and its cemetery may legally be in a corner that is actually Martin Co but it holds many of my Faribault Co ancestors and relatives.