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Churches sprang up quickly in early McCook
Prior to the 1870s life was pretty bleak and lonely on the prairie. About the only residents in this part of the state were roving Indians, and a few hunters, and cattlemen. In the '80s, homesteading attracted settlers, and most of those lived in sod houses, or in wooden shacks along the streams. Along with family, these early settlers missed their church the most.
There are reports of itinerant ministers and priests coming into the country from time to time. At these times, neighbors would gather at someone's soddy or in a grove to hear a sermon or mass. The denomination of these preachers didn't make much difference. They settlers just longed to hear the Word. But these events occurred at most once or twice a year.
After serving with the Union Army in the Civil War, W.S. Fitch came to this part of the country, temporarily, in 1869, on an ox-cart expedition. Two years later, he returned with a group of settlers, most who took up residence in and around Indianola. Mr. Fitch continued on to a spot three miles south and west of present day McCook and established a trading post. For the next two years he conducted a courtship of Stella Nettleton, the daughter of one of the leaders of the Indianola Congregational Church. When the Fitches were married in 1874, they became the first couple to be married in Red Willow County.
After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Fitch regularly attended the Indianola church on Sundays. This was no small feat, as they made the 1 5-mile trip via ox-cart, a five-hour journey.
The first lots in McCook went up for sale on June 8, 1882. Less than a month later, an organizational meeting for a Congregational Church was held, with the help of The Rev. Dresser, the pastor of the Indianola Church. Both the Nettletons and the Fitches attended that meeting. Construction of the church was begun on Sept. 1st of that year, even before there was a school in McCook. Indeed, until a school-building was built, in 1884, classes were held in the Congregational Church, on the location of the present First Congregational Church at East Second and E Street.
W.S. Fitch continued to be active in the McCook Congregational Church, and later held the position of a sort of regional Superinten-dent. Wendell Cheney said that in that position Mr. Fitch would regularly walk to the churches in his jurisdiction, which ranged from Stockville to McCook and Indianola. Presumably walking alone was quicker than walking beside an ox-cart.
Music has always been very important in the Congregational Church, to the present day. The Nettletons had brought a melodeon with them when they migrated from eastern Nebraska. They regularly brought that instrument in the back of their spring wagon when they came to services, to accompany the singing. And, proving just how important music was -- at an 1887 meeting the congregation voted to pay the organist 50 cents per Sunday. For a number of years through the '20s, the Congregational Church was quite renowned for its presentation of "the Messiah," under the direction of H.C. Clapp, the proprietor of Clapp's Store for Women.
In 1885, the Congrega-tional Church came up with a novel idea to augment its budget. It was decided to rent a certain number of pews to the parishioners. These pews would be auctioned off to the highest bidder. It was further stated that the rented pews were to be regarded as "open" 15 minutes after the start of the service -- to induce a more prompt arrival of late comers.
The first Catholic Mass was said in McCook by the Rev. John Fanning, on Nov. 5, 1882, in a railroad section house, which was also the home of J.R. Phelan, the section foreman. At that time there were 12 Catholic families in McCook.
Father Fanning was assigned to serve McCook and seven other communities, covering an area of almost 2,500 square miles, from Oxford, Nebraska to Akron, Colo. He traveled this area by any means available, including train, handcar, horseback, and lumber wagon, celebrating Mass wherever a place and people were available.
The first St. Patrick's Catholic Church and Rectory were built in 1886. They were small frame buildings, undistinguished save for the large, 1,000 pound bell, which had been ordered from a firm in Troy, N.Y. At the time, it was said to be the largest bell in the state of Nebraska. This bell now rests on the front lawn of St. Patrick's on East Fourth Street.
The first Catholic Church was in regular use for seven years. Then, in March 1903, while Father Loughran was celebrating a Mass, the church caught fire. Father Loughran finished the Mass. Then the congregation picked up all the furnishings from the altar and quickly left the church. Despite heroic efforts to save it, the church burned to the ground. Plans were made immediately to rebuild on that same site. The new church, brick this time, was completed by Christmas of 1903. That building was later used as a gymnasium when the present St. Patrick' s Church was built in 1952-53.
In 1892 the First Baptist Church was organized, with 35 members. For six years services were held in the Menard Opera House, just north of B Street and later at the Masonic Temple. In 1898, the Baptists purchased the church building belonging to the Lutherans. This building is the oldest surviving church building in McCook. It was used by the Baptists until their new Church was built in the 1000 block of East 6th St. in the 1960s. That original church building is located just north of the Gazette, and is now known as Canterbury House, and is used for offices and meeting rooms and the Pantry by St. Alban's Church.
The Methodist Church in McCook began in 1884 when five families formed a group for the purpose of study and worship. They rented space, in Menard Opera House, for their meeting place and secured the services of a circuit-riding preacher by the name of Hall. He arranged to meet with the group once a month. The other three weeks of the month were covered various lay members of the group of 18, who took turns in leading the service.
It was not long before other families joined in the services. It was an optimistic group. Even though they did not have a minister they began construction on a building for their own church in the summer of 1885. As soon as the walls and roof were finished they began to hold services in the building. There was no floor and they used a dry goods box for a pulpit. They lacked funds to finish the church, but that lack failed to discourage the congregation and somehow they managed to contract the services of a full time minister--a man by the name of Wheeler. For some time after that Rev. Wheeler preached to the McCook Methodists seated on pews made of planks resting on nail kegs.
By 1907 the Methodists had outgrown their first building and sold that church to the Seventh Day Adventists. By that time the congregation had grown to 240 members, and with the aid of $2,000 from the Ladies Aid Society, a second Methodist Church was built. In 1927 membership had grown to over seven hundred and plans were offered for another new church. This time Mr. A. Barnett, Mc-Cook's builder, came forward with an offer.
Mr. Barnett was not perceived to be a religious man, nor was he a member of any church, yet he proposed that he would like to build the Methodist Congregation a new church, as a memorial to his mother. He would put up money for a beautiful new building and a pipe organ, if the congregation would agree to supply the other furnishings for the new church, the pews, lighting fixtures and all other equipment. He only asked that they permit him to place this inscription on the cornerstone: "Erected in 1927 in memory of my mother, whose memory to me is a prayer. (signed), A. Barnett".
Over the years, McCook's United Methodist Church has been enlarged and upgraded a number of times, but the general sentiment is that the structure has served its people well, and also the people of McCook, as it has readily opened its doors to the community for countless musical and civic activities over the years. God works in marvelous, mysterious ways.
We appreciate those pioneers who came to this prairie 1880s, to build a town, with churches. The legacy they left has enriched our lives in countless ways.
Sources: Times Democrat, 1893; Gazette 50th year edition, 1932; Gazette Centennial Edition, 1982