History
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
C3
CHURCHES OF GRANT COUNTY
Contributed photo/Grant County Historical Museum
Long Creek church, circa 1972.
Contributed photo/Grant County Historical Museum
St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Canyon City, 1905.
Eagle file photo
From Aug. 1, 1985: Prairie City’s United
Methodist Church is one hundred years
old. In honor of the centennial there was
a special celebration. The church building
is now the Prairie City Community Center.
Contributed photo/Grant County Historical Museum
Fox church, circa 1972.
Prairie City Community Center
began as Methodist Church
Blue Mountain Eagle
Circuit riders from The Dalles provid-
ed the fi rst Methodist ministry in Prairie
City during the 1870s, and the Methodist
Church at the south end of the commu-
nity park was constructed in 1885. The
building is now the Prairie City Commu-
nity Center.
Alice Goodrum, who helped plan a
centennial celebration for the church in
1985, said in looking over the history of
Methodist services in Prairie City, W.H.
Goddard, a traveling Methodist preacher,
held the fi rst services and made it possi-
ble for circuit riders to come from The
Dalles. The Hall family in 1879 was in-
strumental in starting Sunday School ser-
vices in Prairie City.
Goodrum said G.W. Grannis, identi-
fi ed as a district builder, was responsible
for construction of the original Prairie
City Methodist Church in 1885. That
original structure still makes up part of
the present Methodist Church, but it
was moved to its present location in the
1920s, and the west wing was added to
the building.
Some of the ministers who have
served the Prairie City congregation in-
cluded Mark White in 1929, who “left
a lot of newspaper articles to prove it.”
W.D. and Josie Bach served the church
starting in 1937. He left in 1941, but she
stayed on and was responsible for bring-
ing church pews in from Island City, near
La Grande.
Fred Waller came to serve as minis-
ter in 1953, Glen Walthum in 1963 and
Dwight Wilcher in 1965. It was also
in 1965 that the John Day and Prairie
City churches were merged into one
parish with one minister serving both
churches.
Darwin Secord was minister of the
combined parish starting in 1967, fol-
lowed in 1973 by Carl Evand, in 1977 by
John Page and in 1982 by Robert New-
berg.
One story from the old days of the
church, Goodrum said, concerned a
cleaning project to get the church ready
for Easter service. The fl oor at that time
was made of rough lumber. To clean the
fl oor of tracked in dirt, Gladys McKro-
la and Opal Willey opened the door and
fl ooded the church with water.
AN INSIDE LOOK
Contributed photo/Grant County
Historical Museum
E.L. Knox store interior,
date unknown.
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