Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1909-12-16
EARLY HISTORY
Connected WIT H
N. {. CHURCH
interesting Letter From Edwin
R. 0strander, Former Mem
Der of This Church.

Church of Grand Rapids
Greeting:
AS l cannot be with you ON the fiji
tieth anniversary or your church, |
gladly comply with the request of Mr.
t. j. Cooper to send you some rem
church
/ shall have to depend almost en-
tnely on my memory and may not
get the incidents correct as seven
tyfive years of age and thirty-four
years of absence do not conduce to.
clear thinking
I came to Centralia about July l.,
1861. Capt. John Compton's company
left for the front soon after we ar
rived. The ladies gave them a din
ner ON the Centra1ia side. The ia
bles were spread under the trees ON
the bank of the river just i'm front
of Mr.. JacksOm's residence. When
they got into the wagons which were
to take them to New Lisbon the
scenes of parting were very sad as
it might be final, and alasi many of
the brave boys never returned.
There was no way of crossing the
river except ON the ferry or by pri-
vate boat. We built a boat but fre
quently when we would come down
to the river on Sunday morning our
boat was not there, as some belat-
ed travellers or reVelers had broken
the lock and appropriated it to their
own needs. We would usually find
it drawn up ON the bank ON the
Grand Rapids side. Before the ice
formed or during the breakup in the
spring there was no crossing at ALL
and it frequently was a problem how
to get the mail across.
The church services were held over
a vacant store and some person
bought the building for saloon pur-
poses. The trustees had a long term
lease of the hall and as the purchas-
er said, his business and ours did
not agree very we'll, SO he proposed
to- buy out the lease, which the trus-
tees sold to- him at good figure.
I cannot recall whether this was
the building directly opposite George
Nieve's store, or whether We Occu-
pied another ONE before we moved
there There was an outside stair
case to. this building and Mr.. Sampson
hauled load of wood and piled it UP
under the stairs, enough to last all
winter. In about two weeks it was
all stolen, and until we could make
other arrangements, hauled on Satur
day nights across the ice on a hand
sled and carried up into the hall
enough wood to last over Sunday and
then went early Sunday morning and
built the fire. The pastor when [
came was the Rev Slater, and the
choir was few of US getting near
together and singing the best we
could The congregation was from
ten to twenty-five people The pas
tors salary was met by the members
as well as they could, but large
part was raised by the annual do
nation party and supper. These were
frequently held i'm a large hall
and crowds would attend and donate
literally Sometimes the young peo-
pie, and the old ones as we'll, would
go to the minister and suggest that
it was rather late for him and his
wife to be out and as soon as they
were gene they would organize a par
ty. get some music and dance to the
GLORY of God" until the wee small
hours The people although some
times rough wished to sustain the
church i'm order to have some one to
marry the young people, bapuze
their children and bury their dead.
I recall one time when both Prot
estant ministers were absent, friends
came for me when l was at work
to go and hold services over a child
in the Rablin boarding house. l tried
to- send them to some one else, but
as they could find no one, went i'm
my working clothes and did the best
[ could to comfort the hearts of the
parents and friends and present some
Christian consolation to sustain them
in their great affliction.
For some reason we had to leave
the hall when we were worshiping
and as we could get no place on the
Grand Rapids side, we engaged the
Centralia schOolhouse and worshiped
there some time. About this time
the building of a church was agita-