Written
by:
Mrs. Millard (Hazel Rose) Walton
Historian
1969
Mrs. Millard (Hazel Rose) Walton
Historian
1969
This community history has been prepared in cooperation with the historian and the people of the community. It is the privilege of the University Extension office to assist the communities in the duplication of their efforts.
The preparation of history of this community and other communities in Crawford County is part of the overall efforts of Crawford County during the Sesquicentennial year of 1969.
The Agricultural and Extension Education Committee of the Crawford County Board of Supervisors has encouraged and made this special project possible.
Virgil A. Butteris
Resource Agent
Associate Professor – Community Programs
University of Wisconsin Extension
1969
Resource Agent
Associate Professor – Community Programs
University of Wisconsin Extension
1969
The early settlers began arriving in the Town of Scott in the late thirties and early forties. Like all people starting a new life in the wilderness, their first thoughts turned to a place to worship. A few meetings were held in the homes. Sometime, prior to 1869, a little log church was built on the town line between Scott and Clayton Townships, near what is now known as the Cummings Cheese Factory. This was a little Protestant church.
As more people began arriving, another site was purchased about four miles from the previous one. This site was Mt. Zion. This land was donated by J.L. Coalburn.
A meeting was held in the old town hall to draw up plans for the new building. The men who drew up the “Article of Agreement” were the following trustees of the church: William B. Walton, J.R. Hurlbut and Jacob Graham. William VanHorn was hired as the carpenter, and was paid the sum of one hundred twenty five dollars ($125) and was to furnish and apply two coats of paint to the completed building. It seems as if the “Installment Plan” must have been in use then. Mr. VanHorn was paid in four installments as follows: ten dollars ($10) on the tenth and twenty-fifth of June, the same in July and the balance to be paid when the church was completed. One of the specifications for the inside of the building was four feet of wainscoting to be put on below the windows all around the church.
The church was built in June 1881, and dedicated September 3, 1881 by J.R. Irish, presiding elder of the Madison District, with Rev. Isaac N. Adrian as the first pastor. The church was known as the Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church. The Union Hall Band of the Mt. Zion area played for the dedication. William B. Walton named the church Mt. Zion, taken from Biblical scriptures, because the church stood on a hill
The “Article of Agreement” is in the hands of Millard Walton and is very interesting to read.
Some of the early ministers were Revs. Medd, Balch, Allison, Bradley, Bell and McCoy.
Mrs. William B. Walton was the first organist. Later organists were Hazel Hurlbut, Emily Vopalensky, Esther Phillips, Ruth Walton, Ruby Roth, June and Sharon Walton and the present one, Kristine Roth. Ruth, June and Sharon Walton were the granddaughters and great granddaughters, respectively, of the first organist, Mrs. William B. Walton. These are the only organists I have on record.
The following were some of the people who worked in the church, and gave their quarters and fifty-cent pieces to apply on the minister’s salary. These names were taken from the Quarterly Conference Records in 1885. The A.J. Hurlbuts, William B. Waltons, A.A. Arms, Joseph Turks, Bells, Churchills, C. Coalburn, Duncans, J. Abrams, and Laura Pickett. These people carried on the work faithfully until old age kept them from continuing their work.
A Sunday School was started sometime around 1884-1885 with William B Walton as its first Superintendent. A.J. Bashfield and A.L. Hurlbut were to follow later in that capacity. A.L. Hurlbut gave much of his time to the church and Sunday School until his death in 1939. He was one of the influential men of this community as he was a licensed minister, a farmer, and surveyor as well as holding town offices. He gave generously of his time, money, and talent to the Mt. Zion Church. Those of us who attended this church shall always remember him standing in the second row on the left-hand side of the church with his eyes closed, head slightly bowed, and his fine bass voice singing “In the Sweet Bye and Bye” and many other hymns of the Methodist Church. An occasional “Amen” was heard from this man as he approved of something the minister had said. Many good things could be written of this fine gentleman.
In 1890, John Abrams (Uncle John, as he was called) was Superintendent of Sunday School until around 1920. We shall always remember him with his one-horse open buggy, coming from Rolling Ground, picking up any children who needed or wanted a ride to Sunday School. I was one of the fortunate riders, as was my mother, Pearl Rose. Uncle John’s love of little children, his church and Sunday School made him loved and remembered by more than one generation. He passed away in the early twenties, and Millard Dilley was to be Superintendent for the next forty years until failing health. He no longer could assume the responsibility. Walter Roth Jr. was then elected to fill that office. Mrs. Lee Markin is the present Superintendent. The Sunday School has continued all through the years with great-grandchildren of the early settlers and new people moving in to carry on for what those pioneers stood. In later years, Claire Wilkinson donated a piece of land for the Sunday School children to play on.
The early ministers had more than one church to serve. The churches which were served were: Haney, Barnum, Seneca, Excelsior, and Mt. Zion. Many of the early ministers walked or rode horseback to these churches. The Quarterly Conferences were held in the following churches: Port Andrews, Excelsior, Marietta, Haney and Mt. Zion. I noted in one of the records that church was sometimes held at the Christ School – and they got “well paid” there. I also found that money to pay the pastor was sometimes raised by having Festivals.
An Epworth League was organized in 1902 with Emmett Haggerty as its President.
During the years from 1885-1902 the following were licensed to preach: A.J. Bashfield, Barney White, A.L. Hurlbut and Jade Hudson. (These are bits of information taken from Quarterly Conference records).
I n 1913, with trustees G.S. Daugherty and J.W. Elliott, plans were drawn up to build a parsonage. The logs were cut and sawed into lumber on the Joe Walton farm and donated by him for the new building. (This farm is now owned by Millard Walton). Ed Rogers was the carpenter. The land for the new parsonage was donated by A.L. Hurlbut and wife. The names of the members previously mentioned helped haul lumber and other material for the new building.
The Rev. R.B. Falk family was the first to occupy the parsonage. Later ones were Revs. Botton, a bachelor, (Hogan a single man did not occupy the parsonage), Bevons, Ileys, and Crowley. The Crowleys were the last of the ministers to occupy the parsonage.
The church felt it no longer could support a parsonage. We were then put in the Boscobel charge in 1924. All our ministers now come from Boscobel. However, the church is maintained by Mt. Zion. The minister’s salary and other expenses are shared by Mt. Zion.
Some of the ministers from Boscobel who served this church were Revs. Weittenhiller, Stone, Brown, Snow, Jeffrey, Agema, Sachtjen, Roberts, Witsomer, Kirtley and the present one, Rev. Paul Stevens.
The parsonage was rented for several years. The Mt. Zion Central was operated from there by Mr. and Mrs. Burley Rose until the sale of the building to Millard Dilley in 1945. The house was remodeled by Dilley’s but never occupied by them. They sold the house to Ray McCormick in 1946. It was then sold to the present owner, Francis “Pete” Carlin in 1953. The trustees of the church for this transaction were J.E. Walton and Walter E. Roth
There have been ten weddings in this church. The first one was Mary Vitek and Joe Vopalensky on February 18, 1903. (They said this was the coldest day of the winter). The following year Mertie Rose and Lee Turk were married here. (Incidentally, Mary Vopalensky made Mertie’s wedding dress).
Many years passed without weddings in this church until June 1938 when Ruth Walton (granddaughter of William B. Walton) was married to Sam W. Agema. His father was minister of the Mt. Zion Church. Other weddings were Mary and Joan Markins, Kay McCullick, Allen Roth, and Allen Curtis. These were members of the church. Two others were Charlotte Roth and Earl Mills. The Mills-Stephens wedding was the last one in 1967.
In 1942, the church was remodeled under the direction and help of our minister, the late Albert E. Weittenhiller. The old wainscoting was removed, new ceilings, siding and floor covering was put on. The old pump organ wheezed and squeaked its last “Nearer My God to Thee”. I am sure it, too, must have felt it was near the end of its journey. A piano was purchased with the help of the ones who always come to the rescue, the “Ladies Aid”. An oil burner replaced the old round oak stove and pews and a lectern was purchased from the Whig Methodist Church. These pews were much more modern than the old straight-back, hard ones we sat and wiggled around in as youngsters. The church looked good but Venetian blinds were needed. Women have a way of getting things, so they “raised cane”. –the finished product was sorghum, which was sold to purchase the blinds. Herb Copus donated the land, plowed the ground, and planted the seed. The women of the church hoed and stripped the cane. The men ground the cane and boiled the juice and we had many gallons of golden sorghum to purchase the new blinds. Rev. Weittenhiller was one of our outstanding ministers who did much work on the church remodeling. He was our pastor for seven years. During this time and M.Y.F. Group was organized by Rev. Weittenhiller. This group met in the homes until the hall was purchased in 1954. The sign on the church was purchased by the M.Y.F.
Rev. Brown is another minister to be commended for his fine work with the youth of the church.
During this time, the church became known as a Methodist Church.
Memorial Day services were always held in this church. All denominations participated. Millard Dilley was in charge of these services for many years, until failing health caused him to give up the job he had done so well. No one else was willing to accept the responsibility, so Memorial services have been discontinued.
The church was always decorated for Memorial Day services. Mrs. Jennie Hurlbut, Laura Daugherty, and Pearl Dilley did the decorating with blue bunting and white stars draped over the railing.
Another draping of the alter was for funerals. The alter railing was draped with black bunting formed into scallops and held in place by purple violets. This custom was scorned by us of a “then-younger” generation. It was a great day for many of us when the bunting became moth eaten and the violets fell apart. I am sure no other church did such draping.
There was still another custom in this church, but it was changed around 1922. The men and boys always sat on the left hand side of the church; the women and girls on the right. The question has been asked many times, “Do people of the Mt. Zion Church still continue that custom?”
Sometime in the early teens, a Ladies Aid was organized and reorganized around 1922. The first president was Mrs. Walter Roth, Sr. She served that capacity for nine years. Others to follow were Agnes Walton, Ethel Coalburn, Marie McCullick, Mary Brown, Juanita Smith, Jessie Weed, and Mary Pickett. The president now is Catherine Mills.
In 1954 with Rev. Kirtley as our minister, the old Mt. Zion store was purchased from the Nettie Haggerty Estate for six hundred dollars ($600) and was remodeled. It was used in connection with the church as a hall. Mrs. Hazel Benbrook, daughter of the late A.L. Hurlbut, gave us six hundred dollars ($600), which we used for remodeling the hall. Here, I would like to add that Mrs. Benbrook gave money for other charities. She leased her farm to the New Tribes Mission in 1953 with several families living here for a few years. She later gave her farm to the Southern Conference of the Methodist Church, which they operated until 1967. The farm was sold to John Mindham in 1968.
The project of remodeling the hall was done by members of the church. The men and women worked together with wrecking bars and hammers, tore out partitions, laid new tile in the dining room, and new linoleum in the kitchen and another room. Rev. Kirtley worked along with everyone else doing whatever needed to be done. Much of the work was done in the evenings. The ones who working in remodeling the hall were Louis Roths, Walter Roths Jr. and Sr., Paul and Millard Waltons, Otto McCullicks, Roy Curtis, Browns, Walter Smith and Herb Copus. The building was named Hurlbut Hall (2006 picture) in memory of Mrs. Benbrook’s father, Albert Hurlbut.
Sunday School is held here. The Ladies Aid (now known as the W.S.C.S.) meets once a month with a potluck dinner. Family gatherings and wedding receptions are held here. The hall is opened to those who want to use it for public meetings.
Hurlbut Hall was dedicated in the fall of 1957 by Bishop Northcott of Madison and Rev. Roberts was the minister. People who have helped with carpenter work for the church and hall and donated much of their time are Roy Curtis and Alton Fortney. Roy is no longer able to help but Alton does many odd jobs around the hall. One of the many jobs he has done and the one he certainly is to be commended for is piping water from his house to the hall. He also gave the hall a water right as long as it continued to be a church hall. The water was always carried from the town pump to be used at the hall.
The names of the members of the church are dwindling, but we have a membership of 70. Many of these have moved away, but retain a membership in this little church. The members who still carry the load of the church are sons, daughters or grandchildren of two other generations. The Roths, Walter Jr., Louis Roths, Dora Roth, the Browns, Markins, Millard Waltons, Otto McCullicks and new families, the Alton Fortneys and Harry Mills. Millard Walton is a trustee of this church (1969) as was his grandfather, Wm. B. Walton, when the church was built in 1881. Millard is the only descendant of one of the signers (Wm. B. Walton) of the “Article of Agreement” who still attends this church.
The church was first known as Methodist Episcopal, later changed to Methodist, and known now as Mt. Zion United Methodist Church. These changes have come from the conferences in the Methodist Church.
This ends the present history of the life of the Mt. Zion United Methodist Church. Beside the church is a cemetery where lie the pioneers who helped build the church and another generations who helped to make Mt. Zion a place for coming generations to worship.
We need only read the "history" written in 1969 to see that the parshisoners of their time underwent constant change in their own place of worship and this 2006 change from an out-dated building to a new modern facility is no different than any other of the numerous historical changes that have been a part of this church we call Mt Zion. The founders would be pleased.
Sharon (Walton) Briggs great grandaughter of William B. Walton (one of the original founders) was a pianist for the sing along. Sharon played a song from a Methodist hymnal which had been used by the first organist of the church, Sharon's great grandmother, Sarah Jane Walton. The hymnal was copyrighted in 1878. The "building" holds "sentimental value" for the Walton family because four generations of our family worshipped there and several of the early pastors mentioned above were relatives or a part of the Walton family in some way.
The Mt Zion spiritual experience is alive and well in the new facility located within walking distance of the original building. The combined Boscobel/Mt Zion United Methodist Church website has a pictorial of this new beginning. Archives of past sermons and other spirtual experiences can be accessed through their fine web site. The link to this experience is here. Boscobel-Mt Zion United Methodist Churches
Hazel and all others of that and other generations would be happy to know this place once dwindling in its size is renewed and thriving and history for the Mt Zion Methodist church marches forward.
Boscobel Mt Zion Methodist Church Website