Bob Piper's Corner - May 11, 1986

May 11, 1986 

Some more thoughts about the First United Presbyterian Church in Chariton before the union. Some humorous, some not. On the last Sunday of church in the old building, they had almost perfect attendance. All moved out into the street carrying the Bibles and communion service. People stood
out on Grand Street, many shedding tears. Colonel Dungan, who lived across the street, came out and talked to the people. His kind words helped a lot. The people then moved over to the Presbyterian Church where we are now.

The communion set was given to the old Otterbein Church. As it disbanded, the set fell into the hands of Fannie Redlingshafer Kincaid. Years later after Fannie’s death, her brother George located it in her basement. Sometime later it was given to the historical society and is lodged in the Otterbein Church.

Colonel Dungan was a former Lt. Governor of Iowa. The big chair in Sara’s study was given to the church by Myra Dungan and Edna Culbertson, his daughters.

I have heard my mother say it was quite a change from the Psalter to the hymnal. The people in both churches knew each other well so that was no problem to fit right in. The choir was good size, around twenty. Mr. Lon Mickle was the leader. Remember there were no musical instruments, no pitch pipe, no tuning fork. Most of the time they had a person with perfect pitch and that was a big help.

One Sunday Mr. Mickle couldn’t locate his wife in the congregation. He slipped out and came in the back door to ask his son Bob where she was. He thought she might be ill. Bob informed his dad that he had forgotten to bring her. Fortunately, Mrs. Mickle saw the humor in the whole thing. Mr. Mickle was a lucky man, I say. My father said the same thing.

Another humorous incident at the old church. My father seldom missed church. One Sunday he came at Sunday school time. I never knew him to do this before. I think he had heard something. He found my brother Joe and me sitting on bicycles right in the Sunday School room. We had done it before and nothing was said. My father put an end to this right there with his hand and it lasted for years. We even borrowed the bicycles because we had Model T Ford trucks to drive at the age of ten years. The trucks were used in our business and we didn’t need bicycles of our own.

Last Sunday when I picked up Louise Strohman to come to Sunday school and church she was not wearing her glasses. I called her attention to this and she said she really didn’t need them all the time, that she could read without them at ninety-three years of age. However, I have persuaded her to wear them because they make her look younger.

A little about Louis Strohman, Louise’s husband. He could be called the father of Red Haw Park. In the early years of Red Haw one of his supervisors from Des Moines ordered him to cut the Red Haw trees around the entrance and up the hill. He didn’t like them. Strohman could see this and refused to cut them as they were part of the park. He said if they insisted they could get someone else to do it. He never heard it mentioned again.

George Dunshee, Charles Prior and myself rode Sunday p.m. We went down to the Colyn area. Couldn’t see any geese at first but discovered they were squatted down in the grass. Cock pheasants in plain view along the roads as the females are nesting. Found seas of Sweet William, the largest thicket I have ever seen. Found wild larkspur. George argued with me on this one. This is a good part of the game. Be curious. We found swamp buttercup and yellow violets, and many others, too.