GREENFIELD — Years ago, Jill Lyon collected signatures from fellow parishioners. They were stitched onto a quilt celebrating a milestone anniversary of First Presbyterian Church.
Over the years that followed, she would look at the quilt from time to time and notice that yet another signer had died.
“I kept looking at it over the years and thinking, ‘That person’s gone, that person’s gone,’” said Lyon, a church elder.
When Lyon was a child, the congregation filled the pews in the sanctuary and spilled into the adjoining room. Recently, typical attendance has been in the teens.
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Sunday, the remaining members of the church will gather to worship at 116 W. South St. for the last time. The service at 10:30 a.m. is a closing chapter in a church history that spans from 1855 to the present. Like the stitched names and interlocking circles on the anniversary quilt, pieces of stories from the past linger with the remaining members, each adding richness to a larger story — a long heritage of shared faith and service.
Many current members are longtime members; they can rattle off names of people who were a big part of that story but have since died or moved away.
Salli Williams recalls how nice Pat Lewis and June Caldwell were to be around, and what interesting insights they shared in Sunday School as the class discussed Scriptures that would be part of the morning’s service. Susan Hensley remembers how good Elaine Holloway was at leading the choir and picking great music for cantatas at Easter or Christmas.
Lyon remembers how in the late 1960s, Wayne Smith would take his Sunday School class over to Greenfield Ice Cream Co. on South Pennsylvania Street, down the block from the church. He would buy ice cream for about a half-dozen middle-schoolers and, as they sat on the curb eating it, he would tell them a Bible story.
Dennis Whitson remembers working with Ralph Scroggins in the bell tower, which houses the bell of a previous Hancock County courthouse. He also recalls helping Roby Hott tune up the exhaust fan for the season, back before the church had air conditioning.
There were a lot of tasks to do through the years. The church served chicken and noodle dinners during the Riley Festival in October. Lyon remembers visiting festival vendors in a chicken outfit on Friday to gather orders for delivered chicken noodle dinners on Saturday. Whitson remembers working to complete the deliveries north of U.S. 40 before the parade started; otherwise, he had to look for a gap in the parade and dart across.
During the winter, the church sponsored monthly Chili Days, accepting donations from those who gave them but filling bowls anyway for those who didn’t or couldn’t. Then in June, it was time to slice strawberries, bake shortcake and scoop ice cream at the annual Strawberry Festival.
It was a lot of work, Williams said, “but it was also a lot of fun.”
It also raised a lot of money. The Strawberry Festival alone had brought in $50,000 to $75,000 from its inception in 1984 through the 2018 event, organizers estimated before last year’s festival. It turned out to be the last presented by First Presbyterian.
(The church has passed its recipe and its strawberry-adorned tablecloths to Bradley United Methodist Church, its neighbor from a block away. The coronavirus pandemic led to the cancellation of this year’s event, but Bradley intends to continue the festival.)
Williams said she was glad to see the church continue to give away the money it raised, offering it to local charities.
“Much as I hated to lose the church, I was always very proud of the church for keeping that mission going,” she said.
The Rev. Ann Noland embraced that mission, members say. The church’s last minister, Noland died unexpectedly in November 2019.
“Ann believed in our church so much,” Williams said. “She never gave up hope. Losing her kind of took some of the wind out of our sails.”
“I’m kind of glad she didn’t have to see us close the doors,” said another member, Rita Trinkle.
Closing those doors sets several next steps in motion. The Whitewater Valley Presbytery in Indianapolis will look for a buyer for the 5,500-square-foot building. The piano and choir robes will go to Christ Presbyterian Church in McCordsville.
So will a couple of members.
The First Presbyterian congregation has been invited, both as a group by Christ Presbyterian and other churches, and as individuals by their friends, to worship elsewhere. Some will look to stick with the denomination; some will look to keep worshiping in Greenfield.
“Most of the people that are left are people that have gone to church on a regular basis,” Whitson said. “They’ll probably stay churched somewhere.”
But before finding that somewhere, there is one last service together Sunday — one with music but not singing, one without handshakes or hugs, thanks to the pandemic.
“I’m sure the tears will be there,” Trinkle said.
“We were a very close family,” Lyon said, “and we had a big heart for the community.
“And it’s still there. We just don’t have the people.”
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The following ministers have filled the pulpit, either as pastors or supply. They are listed by the year they started.
1855 David Monfort
1859 William Sickles
1860 O.T. Giddings
1862 M.H. Shockley
1865 Abbott
1866 Isaac Monfort
1871 Eben Muse
1872 John Dixon
1873 John B. Logan
1874 Charles T. White
1877 Joseph B. Lawery
1878 Lewis Lorramer
1880 S.A. Jamison
1880 James H. Hawk
1883 J.A. Brown
1884 David R. Love
1889 J.P. Hutchinson
1892 S.S. Aikman
1894 E.W. Souder
1896 W.H. Sands
1899 J. Clare Leach
1903 George C. Nolting
1907 J. Gilmore Smith
1908 Joseph B. Williamson
1914 John F. Charlton
1915 Wilfred Lindsay
1920 William E. Todd
1922 John W. Armstrong
1928 John Fredrick Slagle
1938 Stewart W. Hartfelter
1940 William Marcus Kendall
1943 Grant O. Jennings Jr.
1949 Carl R. Hatfield
1952 Thomas C. Arthur
1965 Latham Wright
1970 Millard Sivley
1981 Dean Chapman
1987 David Eikenberry
1993 Ann Pitman Runnion
2000 Larry Langer
2001 John Paulson
2014 Pat Reid
2016 Ann Noland
Source: Church history
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“In 1855 Dr. B. F. Duncan and John Wilson kept vigil by the bedside of a sick friend. Near the hour of midnight the men came to a momentous decision: They must form a Presbyterian Church in Greenfield, and so they did.
The first stalwart Presbyterians, 18 in number, met at the Old Masonic Hall on the corner of Main and Pennsylvania streets. In 12 years, and now numbering 140 members, they were able to construct their first church on the northeast corner of South and Pennsylvania streets. The building was completed in the winter of 1868 at a cost of $10,500. The first convert received after taking possession of the new building was Miss Hattie B. Stitt.
Our present church building was erected on the same site in 1906. The cornerstone was laid on September 21st of that year and in it a copper box was placed containing copies of church records and other valuable papers. The cost of that project was $24,000.
The bell which now hangs in the belfry was presented to the church in 1906 by attorney Montgomery Marsh, who bought the bell at a public auction when the old courthouse was torn down in 1896. The bell had been purchased by the county in 1855 and rang to convene court, to mark funeral processions, and as a fire alarm. Today it still rings to welcome us to Sunday worship.
A notable feature of the church is the large stained glass window in the rear of the sanctuary. It was paid for by past and then present members of Miss Snow’s class and was designated as a memorial to Miss Sue Wilson. Miss Wilson was a charter member of the church and taught the Beginners Class for more than 60 years. She was also Greenfield’s assistant postmaster.
In 1971, two lots north of the church were purchased for $7,400 providing a site for the present parking lot.
In June 1984 there was a fire caused by a power line falling on the church roof. There was little fire damage in the attic, but extensive water damage throughout the building. The congregation met at the Seventh Day Adventists Church while the building was being restored.
In 1998 many improvements were made to the building, including the addition of an elevator, a new South Street entrance, and a new nursery and restroom off the Selman Room. Air conditioning was added in the fall of 2000. The church has undergone remodeling of the kitchen in the basement in 2001 and the kitchenette off the Selman Room in 2002. In 2004, the Selman Room was painted and had new carpet installed.
Now 2019 finds us on the same corner with the 164 year old bell still calling us to worship. We are thankful for all of our past history and are looking forward to a bright future of worshiping together as God’s people.”
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