Cash wraps up series on prairie churches

Hannah Gross
NLJ Correspondent 
With Leonard Cash
 
Historian Leonard Cash started a short series on the church in Boyd last week, and he finishes it in this week’s installment of “History on Main.” After trying for several years to build a new church after the first one burned down, the church’s board of the trustees was finally going to accept bids to choose a contractor for the project, according to newspaper records from Aug. 6, 1909. 
The plans for the church could be seen at the town’s post office. The walls of the church were to be covered with steel siding and steel roofing, and the interior was to be constructed with plaster board and a steel ceiling. A different article from the same issue said ground for the building had been broken. 
“It will not be long until work will begin, so those who know tell us,” the article says. 
A month later, it is reported in the Sept. 10, 1909, issue that Rob Pettingell was laying the foundation. 
On Oct. 1, 1909, the paper announced that the contract for the Boyd church was awarded to G.W. Ackley, and work was to progress soon because “Mr. Ackley is one of the men who pushed for his work and makes every day count.” 
The Rev. E.T. Partridge was preaching on April 30, 1911, at 3 p.m. in the new church, according to an article from April 28, 1911. 
To pay off the “church indebtedness,” the church ladies were organizing a “box social” for July 29, as reported the July 21, 1911, paper. According to Cash and his wife, Linda, a box social is an event where women create picnic lunches to auction off. Whoever won the bid for a lunch would have to eat lunch with its maker. 
“All are cordially invited to attend and make it a success. Bring a box, an oyster can or a five pound pail full of good things, and it will be appreciated,” the article says. 
The follow-up report was favorable, because the social went well and was a “most enjoyable time,” according to the Aug. 4, 1911, issue. The box lunch that sold for the highest price was made by Bert Ackley’s wife, which auctioned off for $105. 
“The boxes sold well under the skillful management and persuasive power of Auctioneer Bud Zook,” the article says. “The only regrets attending the box supper are the regrets of those who were not there.”
“The report is that George DeVall was the only one who seemed to be in trouble and on the source of his trouble was finding his partner for supper. There was no serious result either to George or his appetite,” the article says. 
The fundraiser was a success, and $1,200 was raised to tackle the debt, and “entertainment will be given by the church committee” sometime again. 
According to the Feb. 22, 1917, paper, a chimney was being added to the church because a shipment of five wagonloads worth of bricks was being sent to Boyd. 
“The bricks were shipped in a short time ago by the A.M. Nichols Supply Co., and is of the finest quality, and the farmers are taking advantage of this shipment,” the article says. 
According to some notes and interviews in Cash’s records, the the Rev. Rice, a Methodist minister, wanted to sell the church of Boyd Cemetery around the 1950s. However, the members were not happy with this because they did not believe Rice had the rights to sell it since it wasn’t a Methodist church. So, the building was moved to the Four Corners Store property, where it stands today. 
It was converted into a Farmer’s Union meeting hall, where local farmers would meet to ship out their products to Seattle “as they got a better price when they combined them.” The building was also used for dances and socials.
For several years, it sat empty, Cash said, until Charles Dutcher and Bill Haley remodeled it and made it a church once again – the Four Corners Country Church, which it still is today. 
Another church that was located “on the prairie” was the Inyan Kara Methodist Episcopal church, but there are very few records on it. 
According to the Historical Marker Database, a historical marker was erected in 1952 in Crook County near 1820 Wyoming Highway 585, Sundance, Wyoming, and inscribed with the words “Inyan Kara Methodist Episcopal Church: One of the first country churches in Wyoming was built by Rev. O.B. Chassell, pastor of Sundance Circuit, and member of Inyan Kara Community in 1891. Site one mile west.”
According to ancestry.com, Chassel was born in New York around 1862, and he died in New York. He was a “circuit preacher,” according to Cash’s records, which is someone who officiates many churches in one area (called a “circuit”) due to a shortage of ministers. 
And that wraps up Cash’s series of churches on the prairie, and next week, he will head back to downtown to dive into the history of the telephone office.