Site founded Sept. 1, 2000. We passed 1.5 million page views on March 3, 2007
These home pages remain free of any charge. We need donations or subscriptions to continue.
Please pass on this website link to your family, relatives, friends and clients.

Skagit River Journal

of History & Folklore
Free Home Page Stories & Photos
The most in-depth, comprehensive site about the Skagit
Covers from British Columbia to Puget Sound. Counties covered: Skagit, Whatcom, Island, San Juan, Snohomish & BC. An evolving history dedicated to committing random acts of historical kindness

Noel V. Bourasaw, editor

810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284
Home of the Tarheel Stomp

Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug

First Baptist Church celebrates
centennial in Sedro-Woolley

Present Church dates from 1907; earlier meetings in 1891

Architect's drawing of the new 1948-49 Baptist Church, still standing

Dale and Marilyn Thompson asked us to research the history of the Sedro-Woolley Baptist Church for the centennial series they are planning for 2007. In reviewing the history we were surprised to find that the congregation here actually dates back to 1891, but earlier on an informal basis. Those oldtimers who were girl scouts in the late 1940s through 1970s may recall that their meeting hall was actually the original Baptist Church, built in 1907 and moved two times before landing on Pacific Street where the Community Center stands today. We hope that a reader will have other stories and photos about the church during the years and will share copies or scans with us. We do not ask for your originals.

First Baptist Church history goes back to 1907 Sedro-Woolley Courier-Times, Sept. 24, 1953 The history of the First Baptist Church of Sedro-Woolley goes back to 1907, when approximately a dozen families gathered in a rented building for Christian Worship. A year later a church building was erected on the corner of Northern and Puget streets.
The present church property, which consists of five lots facing State Street, was purchased in 1910 and the church building [from Puget Street] was moved onto it. Shortly thereafter an addition was built on the rear of the structure for Sunday School classrooms.
The church was incorporated as the First Baptist Church of Sedro-Woolley on Oct. 16, 1910, with the following names on the incorporation papers: Frank Kirby, F.L. Wheller [Wheeler?], Mrs. Phoebe Miller, C.C. Gowen, E.W. Eller, Henry Sinclair and D.W. Myers. The parsonage, which is located next to the church (511) State Street) was built in 1926.
After 40 years of service the use of the old [woodframe] church building was discontinued on Oct. 31, 1948, and was moved by the Girl Scouts who bought it [and moved it] to the City Park on Ball and Pacific streets. Ground for the 40 by 70 foot brick church building was broken on July 18, 1948. It was formally dedicated June 26, 1949. A Hammond Organ was installed November 1951.
[Journal ed. note: the article does not address where services were conducted in the interim between the old church being moved and the opening of the new church, which still stands at the corner of Fifth Street. Perhaps an oldtimer will remember. In 1949, the old tracks of the Fairhaven & Southern Railroad ran on a diagonal from the southeast (Mortimer Cook's old Sedro townsite by the Skagit River and then the site of the city dump) to the northwest on the east side of the new church and parsonage across what is now the parking lot. A motor court stood further east at the corner of Sixth Street and those cabins have now been converted into apartments. The Girl Scouts used the old church building on Pacific Street for their own meetings and rented it out to other civic groups until 1975, when it was razed and the present Community Center was built in 1976.]
The church today has a membership of 146 and has been pastured by: Rev. D.W. Myers, 1908-13; Rev. A. Baker, 1913-17; Rev. Perrington, 1918; Rev. J. Bovee, 1919; Rev. N. Barnes, 1919-22; Rev. W. Gierke, 1922; Rev. C. Morris, 1922-23; Rev. C. Luther, 1924; Rev. G. Jones, 1925-27; Rev. W. Zander 1928; Rev. W. Pettibone, 1929-37; Rev. Arthur Sanford, 1937-41; Rev. J. Herr, 1941-46; and Rev. A. Eisenhart, 1946-present. The cost of the new building was $35,000 and is paid for.
The present Board of Deacons consists of Calvin Hoskins, chairman; Louie Talley, Leslie Jackson, E. Griffin Ellison, Rembert Fessenden, Wim Raby and Fred Price. The present Board of Trustees consists of Chester Norbeck, chairman; Harold Dahlheim, Sam Andrews, Robert Long and Oscar Daves
Many of the membership of this church have heard and heeded the Call of Christ to full time Christian Service. These have gone forth in recent years: Rev. and Mrs. Claude Leavitt, missionaries to the Wai Wai Indians in British Guiana, South America; Rev. and Mrs. John Lunsford, pastor and assistant in Quincy, Washington; Rev. and Mrs. Orman Mason, missionaries under the Bancroft Gospel Ministry near Kingsport, Tennessee, Rev. and Mrs. Kenneth Mason, taking advanced training for future work with the Missionary Aviation Fellowship; Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Henlinee, pastor and assistant in Marblemount, Washington; Mr. and Mrs. William Roth, Youth Directors in Los Angeles, California; Miss Gloria Julyan , teacher appointee to the staff of religious education in the public schools of Elmira, New York; Mrs. David Gilbert, pastor's assistant in Wysox, Pennsylvania.
Members attending the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and the Practical Bible Training school of Binghamton, N.Y., are Mrs. Gene Peden, Donald Dahlheim, Gwen Widman, Talmadge Daves, Mr. and Mrs. Eldred Ankney and James Dods.
Members whose applications have been made for entrance to Bible Institutes in the fall are: Miss Jean Moody and Miss Jean Hollingsworth. The church ordained to the Gospel Ministry one of its pastors, Rev. Arthur Sanford, on March 8, 1940. The church ordained to the Gospel Ministry the following members: Rev. Claude Leavitt, April 11, 1950; Rev. John Lunsford and Rev. Kenneth Mason, Aug. 29, 1950; and Rev. Orman Mason, May 15, 1953. Mr. Stuart Henline was granted a license to preach on Feb. 25, 1953.
Mrs. Sarah Raby (Wim's mother) of 619 Puget, a charter member of the church, is a regular attendant and active worker in the Church [she died in 1956].
The present pastor, Rev. Albert Eisenhart, is a graduate of the Practical Bible Training school of Binghamton, New York, and has served pastorates in Indiana and New York. He began his ministry in Sedro-Woolley, March 24, 1946, after having served two years in Europe with the Armed Forces.

New First Baptist Church Sedro-Woolley Courier-Times, Aug. 5, 1948 Almost overnight the corner of State Street and Fourth Street has become a spot of intensive building activity as work on the new First Baptist Church moved ahead. Last Thursday, July 29, excavation work began and has been progressing rapidly each day since.
When the project is finally completed, the new church will look like the architect's drawing pictured above. The building is the largest church construction project undertaken in this city in several decades.
The structure, estimated to cost about $30,000, will face State Street. The sanctuary will have a capacity of about 200 persons, at the rear will be a sizeable nursery room, complete with large glass windows, so parents may bring their children and see and hear the service. The room will be separated from the rest of the congregation. The nursery will be provided with a loudspeaker.
The basement will have 12 individual classrooms, which will be separated by folding doors which can be moved when the basement is needed for a large meeting or dinner. A large automatic oil heater and air conditioner will be installed in the basement. The building will have a brick exterior. The stained glass windows all will have steel sashes.
This week the men were laying forms for pouring the concrete. All effort is being made to complete the basement as soon as possible. When it is finished the congregation will hold services there. The old church building, moved to the State street site about 38 years ago, and the smaller building added on later, will both be sold and moved from the property. The space they now occupy will probably be blacktopped or cemented to make a large parking area off the highway.
The work will proceed, so that each phase is paid for, the Rev. Albert Eisenhart said this week. Much of the actual labor is being done by members of the congregation.
John Lund and son of Mt. Vernon are supervising the construction and helped draw the plans. Fred Price is building committee chairman, and is being assisted by L.E. McCain, E.G. Ellison, Thomas Ellison, C.W. Borbeck and James Price, other committee members. Henry Stiles, building fund committee chairman, also is holding a vital position in connection with the project.
The church has raised $8,200 already and hopes to increase its building fund to $12,000 by the time the basement and the outside of the building are completed.

Earlier mentions from 1891 on Skagit River Journal research Unknown to many in the present Baptist congregation is the fact that Baptists originally organized in old Woolley 16 years before the first congregation was officially chartered in 1907. According to the 1906 book, Illustrated History of Skagit & Snohomish Counties, "The Baptists were organized in 1891 with twelve or fifteen members by Rev. F. G. Wheeler, the traveling evangelist, and services were held for a long time in an old store, bought for the purpose. The first resident pastor was Rev. Rouse." That means that the Baptists were meeting here in the very early days before both towns were merged, one of four denominations along with the Catholics, Methodist-Episcopalians and the Presbyterians. We know from researching the Philip A. Woolley family that Mrs. Katherine Woolley hosted many early religious gatherings in her home and what is vaguely described as the "Woolley Store" at an unknown location. We also know that the original Woolley Graded School was located at or near the corner of Puget and Northern. We are unsure which respective corners the Woolley School and the original Baptist Church originally occupied. Students from that school joined the Sedro students near the turn of the turn of the 20th Century at the original woodframe school at Talcott and Sixth Streets, which was located roughly where Central School stands today.
Ethel Van Fleet Harris wrote another history of the various Sedro-Woolley churches for the March 11, 1937, Courier-Times. Some of her information was repeated in the 1953 article except for these notes. "Free of debt, the church has more than 100 members and is very active in the community. A visiting minister conducts two services on Sundays and three primary classes in Sunday school are taught in the annex." That traveling minister could have served in the interim between Rev. W. Pettibone and Rev. Arthur Sanford. Keep in mind that this was when the country and this area were just recovering from the nationwide Depression, and several churches during that time were unable to pay for a full-time pastor.

Links, background reading and sources

Methodists of Sedro-Woolley and Skagit county, a history of the church since the days of the "Little White Church" in Seattle in the 1950s through the organization in Skagit County in the late 1800s.
Itinerant ministers of Sedro. The beginning of our series on churches. We plan to cover each early town's churches. Please help us with stories and photos.
Ku Klux Klan in Sedro-Woolley 1920s, their activities with a local church, and an overview of the KKK in Washington state and nationwide.
Over the next year or so, we plan to profile all the Sedro-Woolley area churches. We are now preparing stories about the Catholics and the Free Methodists. We also plan to profile churches in other communities. We are now researching the Lutherans of LaConner and Fir. Can you help with copies or scans of stories and photos and family memories for these churches or any others?
xx

Story posted on June 1, 2007 . . . Please report any broken links so we can update them

Return to the new-domain home page

Links for portals to subjects and towns

Newest photo features

Search entire site

See this Journal website for a timeline of local, state, national, international events for years of the pioneer period.

Did you enjoy this story? Remember, as with all our features, this story is a draft and will evolve as we discover more information and photos. This process continues until we eventually compile a book about Northwest history. Can you help?

Remember; we welcome correction & criticism.

Please report any broken links or files that do not open and we will send you the correct link. With more than 550 features, we depend on your report. Thank you.

Read about how you can order CDs that include our photo features from the first five years of our Subscribers Edition. Perfect for gifts.

You can click the donation button to contribute to the rising costs of this site. You can also subscribe to our optional Subscribers-Paid Journal magazine online, which has entered its seventh year with exclusive stories, in-depth research and photos that are shared with our subscribers first. You can go here to read the preview edition to see examples of our in-depth research or read how and why to subscribe.

You can read the history websites about our prime sponsors
Would you like information about how to join them?

Jones and Solveig Atterberry, NorthWest Properties Aiken & Associates: . . . See our website
Please let us show you residential and commercial property in Sedro-Woolley and Skagit County 2204 Riverside Drive, Mount Vernon, Washington . . . 360 708-8935 . . . 360 708-1729

Schooner Tavern/Cocktails at 621 Metcalf Street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, across from Hammer Square: www.schoonerwoolley.com web page . . . History of bar and building

Oliver Hammer Clothes Shop at 817 Metcalf Street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, 82 years.

Joy's Sedro-Woolley Bakery-Cafe at 823 Metcalf Street in downtown Sedro-Woolley, 82 years.

Check out Sedro-Woolley First section for links to all stories and reasons to shop here first
or make this your destination on your visit or vacation.

Are you looking to buy or sell a historic property, business or residence?
We may be able to assist. Email us for details.

Peace and quiet at the Alpine RV Park, just north of Marblemount on Hwy 20
Park your RV or pitch a tent by the Skagit River, just a short drive from Winthrop or Sedro-Woolley

Did you find what you were seeking? We have helped many people find individual names or places, so email if you have any difficulty.

Tip: Put quotation marks around a specific name or item of two words or more, and then experiment with different combinations of the words without quote marks. We are currently researching some of the names most recently searched for — check the list here. Maybe you have searched for one of them?

Please sign our guestbook so our readers will know where you found out about us, or share something you know about the Skagit River or your memories or those of your family. Share your reactions or suggestions or comment on our Journal. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to visit our site.

View My Guestbook
Sign My Guestbook

Email us at: journal@stumpranchonline.com

Mail copies/documents to Street address: Skagit River Journal, 810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, WA, 98284.

Skagit River Journal

First Baptist Church celebrates centennial in Sedro-Woolley

First Baptist Church celebrates
centennial in Sedro-Woolley