The roots of the Petersville United Methodist Church go far deeper than the 150th anniversary the congregation is celebrating this week.
A special celebration was held Sunday at the church, marking 15 decades of progress that have held the congregation together.
About 50 people gathered in the stone church at 2781 North 500 East in Petersville, where a warm glow of light streamed through the stained glass windows filling the simple church interior as members shared church history and personal memories.
“We are celebrating our 150th anniversary because everyone alive today thinks of us the Petersville Methodist Church. No one alive today remembers us as the Clifty Creek Church,” said Patsy Harris, a church leader.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
However, the 1888 Bartholomew County History book has a record of the original Petersville Methodist Church congregation in Bartholomew County at least 18 years earlier.
Tracing church’s start
The first Methodist Church in Bartholomew County was founded in 1821, but most of the faithful were served by Methodist ministers riding horseback throughout the county.
Called Circuit Riders, the early ministers preached to the first Hoosiers as they were building their log cabins and establishing small communities.
With few church buildings to utilize, the circuit riders preached to small gatherings along the roadside and anywhere they could find shelter.
The small village known as Petersville was established just east of Columbus by 1840.
Led by Dr. H.B. Roland, four area families united to build a small wooden church on the banks of Clifty Creek just south of Petersville.
The Clifty Creek Methodist Epispocal Church congregation flourished and soon outgrew its small building.
In 1868, the original founding families moved the congregation into a new, larger building inside the Petersville community.
Then called the Petersville Episcopal Methodist Church, the congregation continued to grow and by 1888 had more than 150 members. Several additions were made to the church, but the congregation outgrew the building by the 1950s.
Further complicating the shortage of space in the 1868 building, a swarm of bees moved into the church.
“There were so many bees, honey literally dripped down the walls. There were just bees everywhere and nothing they tried to do to get rid of them worked,” said current member Chris Kimerling, whose family had attended the church since the early 1900s.
Raising money
To raise funds to build a new church in the early 1950s, the congregation started a Venture in Faith campaign. A large part of the fund drive involved selling tomatoes.
The congregation bought three acres of land for the new church, one block away from the 1868 church.
Using the land where there new church would one day stand, members of the congregation planted a huge crop of tomatoes. They harvested their tomatoes and took them to a nearby packing company. They sold all the tomatoes for their building fund.
Several other fundraising projects involved every member of the congregation.
“Even the children were involved. Everybody helped by doing something. They didn’t just talk about their faith. They worked together to act it out,” said the Rev. Stormy Scherer-Berry, the church’s current pastor, during Sunday’s anniversary church service.
The cornerstone for the new church was laid in 1961, with members providing most of the labor and equipment for the new building.
The final service was held in old church building on Nov. 25, 1961. After that service, the congregation’s members marched in a procession to their new building a block away.
Church members continued their fundraising efforts and by 1967 built a new parsonage. In 1968, the Methodist Conference changed the name to the Petersville United Methodist Church.
Turkey dinner
In 1967, church members worked together to create a fundraising Turkey Dinner on the first weekend in November, a tradition that has continued annually for the past 50 years.
“It’s our biggest fundraiser but it is more that,” said retired school teacher Maxine Harden, who has worked on the Turkey Dinner every year since 1967.
“I used to just make noodles in my kitchen at home. But it has gotten so big, now I come in and work here with everyone else. We all kind of work together. It brings us together,” Harden said.
The Turkey Dinner has gotten so big, with more than 1,200 attending, that church members begin making the noodles in July, Kimerling said.
“We are a small church so we have to do projects to raise money just to keep the doors open. But the Turkey Dinner is a way we also reach out to our surrounding community,” Kimerling said.
Church member Kathy Bush is quick to point out that the Turkey Dinner is not the only project that brings the church together.
Bush turned on her cell phone to show digital pictures she recently received from the Church’s mission in Uganda, where the Petersville church is helping people in the African nation build a small church of their own.
“We just sent them a $1,000 check so they could start building their own church. See how fast they are working,” said Bush, proudly displayed photos sent from Uganda showing the frame of their new church.
With a membership of 117 people plus a list of 20 constituents, the Petersville United Methodist Church is also contributing to Bartholomew County community projects including work at Love Chapel, the Brighter Days Housing shelter and Clifty Creek Elementary School.
“We are a small church but we are a diverse church,” Harris said.
Embracing diversity
Petersville United Methodist Church was one of the first churches in the area to have a female pastor, and has had five women presiding over the congregation over the past 50 years, she said.
“We welcome people from all walks,” Harris said.
The church’s first female pastor, Holly Rudolph, traveled from Missouri to attend the anniversary celebration.
“I loved my time here and I thank you for inviting me to return to share this with you,” Rudolph said during the service.
As Roger Redman looked through the displays in the fellowship hall detailing the church’s long history, Redman pointed out cousins, aunts, uncles and his parents in photos of members past and present.
“So many of them are gone now. They have died. You won’t see any pictures of me here because I was gone for 40 years, said Redman, explaining that he left the area to join the military in 1967.
Forty years later, he returned to the area and rejoin the Methodist church.
“This is where I belong,” Redman said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Petersville United Methodist Church” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Address: 2781 N. County Road 500E, Columbus
Pastor: The Rev. Stormy Scherer-Berry
Service time: 9 a.m. Sundays, followed by church school at 10:15 a.m.
Information: 812-546-4438; 574-780-2379.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
