By Ann Petersen, SBA Columnist | 8/14/25
(SBA) - Last week, I wrote about the Baccalaureate speech for the Sergeant Bluff graduating class or 1924, given by a member of the Holdcroft family. The speech essentially said that unless the class tithed or gave readily to the church, their family would fail. This seemed a bit draconian to me, but the Sergeant Bluff Methodist Church has been in dire straits financially for a long time. As membership declines, keeping the doors of the church open are increasingly challenging. Currently, I’m working on compiling the history of the church in preparation for the celebration of the church’s 170th anniversary. This is a mind-boggling process as there is not a uniform collection of documents regarding membership, births, deaths and other details of the church’s history, but I’m hoping to create a record of the city and the church’s evolution over the past 180 years.
I have gone through one pile of documents, trying to get a sense of the collection, but I found myself consulting the “Sergeant Bluff United Methodist Church Sesquicentennial Celebration 1855-2005” cookbook that is filled with much more than just twenty-year-old recipes. Recently, Mae Williams told me that she has used the cookbook so often that hers is currently in tatters. I realized, too, that this is the book that I consult most often in my own cooking. Today, (Saturday) I’m making a Corn Chowder, whose recipe was submitted by our pastor at the time, Arnette Pint. As I flipped through the section on “History and Remembrance,” in the cookbook, I found many tiny tales by church members of various ways that the church has sought to raise money over the years. Today, most of us just write a check, but in earlier times, church members had to be creative in the fundraising.
The first money raised for the church was $5.00 donated by two men who played poker underneath the counter where the itinerant preacher, Rev. William Black gave his initial sermon in 1855. I can only imagine how distracted Rev. Black was by the poker game taking place at his feet during that first sermon! The money raised by itinerant preachers that year allowed the congregation, which included members of all faiths, to build the first church/school combination building in 1856. In 1881, the church purchased two lots from Mr. and Mrs. W. P Holman for the sum of $100. Using locally-made brick, a new church was erected in the 200 block of C St. where that building still stands. After two additions were added in 1900 and 1921, a City Community Building was created. The Community Building served as the USO during World War II, a home-away-from-home for the men and women stationed at the Air Force base where the 185th still resides. The building was later sold to the Sergeant Bluff Preservation Corporation for $10,777.12.
The first church parsonage, an existing structure, was acquired in 1874 for the sum of $1.00 from W.P Holman (who owned the brickyard) and whose family was a source of church contributions for many years. In 1877, the church trustees purchased two lots south of the church for $175.00. A new parsonage was built in 1891. This building served pastors and their families for many years, requiring repairs to the point that the building could no longer be saved and the structure was razed and another parsonage built on the same spot. A third parsonage was erected on the same spot in 1971 at a cost of $27,500.00. That structure, which again was remodeled numerous times, was sold a few years ago and today a private home.
By 1975, the congregation had grown to the point that there was a need for a larger church building and in 1976, the congregation voted to purchase three acres from Mrs. Ward Baker at a cost of $7,500 per acre. There was no money available to build a new church on that land at the time, and it was farmed until 1982. In 1983, the congregation approved a plan by architect Bob Lee of RMI Architects P.C. Construction began at First and Baker Dr. in the fall of 1983, when a fund drive produced pledges for more than half the cost of construction. Additional funds included a loan for $50,000 from the Iowa Methodist Conference, $250,000.00 from the Board of Global Ministries and an additional $105,000.00 in self-financing. The cornerstone was put in place on November 11, 1984. Construction costs were $628,000.00 with an additional $58,000,00 allocated for sidewalks and site painting. Other costs included landscaping, the purchase of pews, kitchen equipment, stained glass, soil testing and architectural compensation. The total cost at the time was $784, 500.00.
The final worship service in the 130-year-old church structure was on March 24, 1985. At the conclusion of that service, the entire congregation walked from 300 C Street to the new church at First and Baker Dr. where the benediction was pronounced. Services were held in what is now the Fellowship Hall until enough money was raised to complete the building of the sanctuary. The first service there was held in June 1988. The original loans were for fifteen years, but the church was able to pay those loans off in twelve years, necessitating a good many bake sales, dinners and other creative ways to make money, but resulting in a burning of the mortgage for the building and its contents in November 1992.
It took a great deal of time, money and faith to build the Community United Methodist Church and the thriving community that surrounds it today. Although this church was the first to be built in town, two additional churches are now in our community. I will be telling you more tales of the town and churches’ evolutions in many columns to follow.
