Sunday, September 8, 2013

Rural Churches

In two entries I posted a couple of years ago I listed the names of rural schools that showed up on topographical maps from the early 1940s of Greene County and Laclede County respectively that were put out by the U.S. Geological Survey. I thought some readers might find it interesting if I were also to list the rural churches that are shown on the maps.
The Greene County map includes only the northeast part of the county and also includes small sections of Polk, Dallas, and Webster counties. The churches in the southeast corner of Polk county are Rock Prairie and Union Grove. (There were also nearby schools bearing the same names.) The churches on the map in southern Dallas County are High Prairie, Union Mount, Olive Church, and Free Will Chapel. The western Webster County churches are Mission Chapel, Pleasant View Church, Timber Ridge Church, Epworth Church, Fellowship Church, and Mt. Pisgah Church. The northeast Greene County churches are Sunnyvale Church, Fruitland Church, Pleasant Ridge Church, Peace Chapel, Elm Spring Church, Mount Comfort Church, Liberty Church, Pleasant Home Church, and Potter Church. There were also at least a couple of churches each in Fair Grove and Strafford and one church in Bassville that were marked by crosses but not identified. Having grown up in Fair Grove, I know that the two churches in Fair Grove were the Fair Grove Baptist and the Fair Grove Methodist. I don't know the names of the Strafford Churches. I think the Bassville Church was known as Bass Chapel. Seemingly absent from the map is Cedar Bluff Church, which was, and still is as far as I know, located a few miles east of Fair Grove on Highway E.
I know that many of these churches were still active in the 1950s and early 1960s when I was growing up in Fair Grove, but, with a few exceptions, I'm not sure which ones are still active today. One of the exceptions is Mount Comfort, which I know is still going strong today. Both of the Fair Grove churches are still active, and I think Cedar Bluff is, too. Olive Church was still going the last I knew. Beyond these few, I'm not sure. I'd be happy to hear from anybody who has knowledge about the current state of any of these churches.

2 comments:

Tom said...

I believe that High Prairie, Mt Pisgah, Fruitland Church, Peace Chapel, and Pleasant View are still going, maybe others also. Where was Potter Church?

Larry Wood said...

Potter Church was fairly close to Strafford. Slightly northwest of it toward Fair Grove but west of Highway 125.

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