Members of the Mount Carmel Methodist Church will celebrate their 140th anniversary June 25 - and then say goodbye.
Membership has dropped, and now it's time to turn the church over to the Mount Carmel Cemetery Association.
"It's hard," said Freida Hamilton, and added she and husband Leroy find attendance difficult due to health. "I started out here when I was 15. We were married at the Baptist Church, and then I joined here (in 1953)."
However, Freida, 72, had visited Mount Carmel much earlier in her life.
"I was about five when Grandma first drove me out here," she said.
Pat Gibbs, who is the secretary/treasurer of the cemetery association, is one of the church's longest-attending members.
"I was married and baptized here, and I'll be buried here," she said. "My husband (Donald) is buried out there."
Mount Carmel Methodist Church is on Silver Drive, southwest of Fulton. It now overlooks U.S. 54, but it emotes a quiet, peaceful feeling, according to Steve Mallinckrodt, the congregation's final preacher.
"You don't need a microphone, and you can see right out the (clear glass) windows," he said. "It's very serene and very spiritual. It's a neat little church and just has that open feel. It's just simple."
Mount Carmel Church members organized in 1876 and built their small country church the following year, according to Dean Powell, Sunday School teacher and lay leader.
"It's always been a Methodist church, a circuit-riding church," he said.
The circuit included Methodist churches in New Bloomfield, Cedar City and Wainwright.
There used to be a neighbor - Ebenezer Presbyterian Church - on the other side of the cemetery. People in the area referred to them as the Twin Churches. The Presbyterian church was destroyed by a fire Jan. 30, 1927, when a spark fell on the roof during an afternoon service. It was never rebuilt.
Original members of the Mount Carmel church included Joseph Fisher and his wife, and Thomas Fisher and his wife (Martha Ann, according to Find A Grave). Her obituary (May 22, 1885, Callaway Weekly Gazette) said her funeral was attended by Rev. George W. Penn, "under whose ministry she had joined the church."
Other members included Clarence and Viola Norfleet Renoe, who labored in service of the church and provided a home for a number of orphaned children, according to a church document.
The original 3 acres for the church were donated on New Year's Eve in 1876 by Mary Fisher, who is buried in the graveyard. Another notable grave is that of James Criswell, said by Gibbs to have been a drummer boy for the Confederacy.
"We had three Confederates buried here," she said, adding graves of Union soldiers also can be found nearby.
One of those Union soldiers is John Law Erwin, 1840-1925. His gravestone is inscribed: "He went about doing good."
"He owned a dairy here in Fulton," Gibbs said.
The cost to build Mount Carmel was $1,600. It was dedicated by the Rev. Dr. John D. Vincil, of St. Louis, on April 5, 1877.
Every year, the two community churches hosted a two-day picnic. Social engagements continued into recent history.
"Mutton barbecues," Frieda Hamilton said, "every year, we had a big barbecue and then things people made were auctioned off."
Mallinckrodt said he remembers church dinners.
"I used to play tag in the cemetery," he added.
Other events were popular, too.
"Remember the ice cream socials we had?" Gibbs asked Hamilton. "We'd set up tables out front."
The painted pews may be original - and are undeniably uncomfortable, as expected. Some families sewed and brought in cushions to ease their pain.
"I remember these pews from the time I first started here," Gibbs said. "In the summertime when it was hot, you'd stick to them."
From 1959 into the next year, the church underwent a physical revival. Mallinckrodt said his father, Ted, was the preacher from 1959-65.
"They jacked the church up and built a basement," said Cindy Atkinson, a life-long member and daughter of the Hamiltons. "The congregation all pledged money. It didn't take that much money back then; maybe $100 or $150."
The new basement housed a kitchen and Sunday School classroom. The old coal stoves and flues, one on each side of the sanctuary, were removed and gas space heaters installed. The plastered ceiling was covered with paneling and the walls covered with sheet rock in 1963.
In 1970, new windows were installed from a memorial fund created on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hillgartner, long-time members. An indoor bathroom was installed in 1987 to the relief of congregational members, they said.
A furnace was installed in 1990 and more improvements were made over the years.
Mallinckrodt said he came to preach in 2001. He's spent 16 years at the pulpit.
Staring down the aisle, he must have gazed at the only stained glass feature - a tiny window over the front door - hundreds of times.
"It's the only stained glass in the church," he said. "I'm not even certain how long it's been there."
The wide wooden threshold that leads into the church must have seen hundreds, if not thousands, of people passing over it in the last 140 years - and that won't change. While ownership of the church will now pass to the cemetery association, which separated legally in Sept. 1975, the church will continue in a different form. It's being leased to members of New Hope Revival Church out of New Bloomfield, Powell said.
"They've been praying for a long time for a place to meet," he added. "They said, 'You guys have been the answer to our prayers.'"
The name will remain Mount Carmel, however.
The final event will be the anniversary celebration, 2-4 p.m. June 25. Everyone is welcome to join in the informal gathering.
"My two daughters grew up here, and they're going to sing," church member Steve Swaim said.
A special song, "Clear Glass Windows All Around," was written by Donald Weiss in 2002 for the church's 125th anniversary.
"We have a video of him singing that song and playing guitar that we will play at the June 25 celebration," Swaim said.
Besides Leroy Hamilton, Atkinson also performed at Mount Carmel.
"I grew up in the church and I played the piano," she said, then laughed. "I was their piano player, sad as it was."
She said she will miss Mount Carmel.
"All the emotions tied to it and sentimental feelings ," she said.
Mallinckrodt echoed that.
"It's a simple church, built with a lot of love," he said. "There's been so many people through those doors who shared memories and grew as a church family. There is sadness in thinking about it, but as Ecclesiastes 3 says, 'There's a time for everything, and every purpose under Heaven.'"