The Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune from Chillicothe, Missouri • Page 1

KIWAN1S TOPIC "The Chamber's Place in the Community" will be the topic on Monday evening's Kiwanis club program to be given by Wayne McLennan, executive vice-president of the Chllicothe Chamber of Commerce. EAGLE AUXILIARY Eagles Auxiliary 2428 will hold its regular meeting at the Aerie Home, Monday night at 8 o'clock. All members are urged to attend. Cancer Rural Chairmen The township chairman who will head the rural drive in the upcoming Cancer Fund drive met Wednesday afternoon with Fred Simmer, Livingston County Cancer Crusade chairman, in the Community Room of the Chillicothe State Bank. A film was viewed and other matters discussed during the organizational meeting.

Township chairmen are, front row, left to Raymond Radcliff, Chillicothe west; Mrs. Roy M. Shields, Monroe; Mrs. Howard Miller, Chillicothe east; Mrs. Gene Carlton, rural chairman.

Back row, left to right, Dennis Bryant, Jackson; Mrs. Marion Albertson, Wheeling; Mrs. Donald Kissick, Fairview; Mrs. Ora Morris, Jr. and daughter Lisa, Sampsel; Mrs.

Grace Mammen, Rich Hill; and Mrs. Martin Brookshier, Green. Township chairmen not George F. Roberts, Mooresville; Mrs. David Pyrtle, Cream Ridge; Mrs.

Wendell Kerns and Mrs. David March, co-chairmen of Grand River; Mrs. Bill Hoyt, Blue Mound; and Mrs. Voyle Grother, Photo. HOSPITAL NOTES Admitted to the Hedrick Medical Center have been Richard Davis, 635 Missouri Edward Neptune, 209 Bridge and Tina Whitt, daughter of Mr.

and Mrs. Richard Whitt, Hamilton. Dismissed were Mrs. David Klein and daughter, Hamilton; Mrs. James Hawkins, Hamilton, Bill Hill, Gallatin, Mrs.

Raymond Regan, 1022 Webster, Mrs. Maden Smith, Tina; Mrs. Carl Tapscott, Brookfield and Mrs. Floyd Thomas, Avalon. Chillicothe Constitution Critmne VANDALISM A 9x12 glass in a candy machine in the E-Z Do laundry at 103 south Washington was reported damaged.

Police said the vending machine, owned by Vinson Amusement was broken sometime between 10 p.m. April 3, and 11 a.m. April 4. on VOL. LXVI CHILLICOTHE, SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 1975 EIGHT PAGES NO.

81 'The Paper" of the people in this part of Missouri DONALD L. MORSE Donald L. Morse, son of Clyde and Evelyn Morse, New Boston, has completed basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Tex. He has been assigned to 1 Aerospace Control, ADC, Ent AFB, Colorado Springs, in computer operations. Don is a 1970 graduate of Bucklin High School and a 1973 graduate of Automation Training Institute, St.

Louis, in computer programming. NOW STANDING IDLE, its paint weathering away, the old Springhill Methodist Church is a house of many memories for a congregation now scattered. The rural church closed in to din an existence of than 120 years. The first church was built in 18411 and burned during the Civil War when soldiers were quartered there. The present building was constructed on the same Photo.

Once-active rural church holds only memories now Airlift of orphans continues By TERRY RYAN Associated Press Writer Hundreds of Viettiamiese waf orphans were on their way to new homes in the United States today as government and private agencies accelerated ef- forts to airlift more of them fronj their war-battered homeland. While that effort continued, the first arrivals were being introduced to coloring books, dolls and bellbottom jeans by Cowart told charter cajnnot be amended Fr. John Cowart has advised The Constitution-Tribune of his conversation this week with Speaker of the House Richard Rabbitt in connection with the special city charter of the city of Chillicothe. Cowart, who is vice- chairman of the Citizens for Home Rule, said that he telephoned the Speaker of the House following comments made on a radio talk show this week by David Rupp, a member of the Citizens to Retain the Present Charter committee. of an Air Force C5A transport ferrying Vietnamese children did not slow down the airlift.

"This tragedy must not deter us from offering new hope for the living," President Ford when I was speaking with Mr. said. "Our mission of mercy Rupp." He continued, I told their new American families. 400 orphans under "I'll probably hold her in my the care of the Holt Children's arms all day," said Lily WhhV Service were due to arrive-at comb of Lauderdale Lakes, Seattle Sunday on a chartered Fla. Her new daughter Ngoc jumbo jet.

An official of the Diep, two and a half years old Oregon-based agency said all of slept in her arms in an air- them already have American port families waiting for them The crash near Saigon Friday 450 in" eluding 100 survivors of the C5A crash are on their way to San Francisco under the care of Friends For All Children, an organization based in Boulder, Colo. A New Caanan, businessman, Robert C. Macauley, put up $251,000 of his HANNAH CIRCLE The Hannah Circle of the United Methodist Church will meet Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the social Hall. YOUNG FARM WIVES Chillicothe Young Farm Wives will meet Tuesday, April 8 at 8 p.m.

at the Vocational Technical School. Members are to bring a guest and a craft item. As population has dwindled in rural northern Missouri so have the number of its rural churches. One of those lost to declining population, changing times and the automobile is the Springhill Methodist Church. The church operated for well over a century.

Here is the history of that church as recorded in 1953, and later by Mrs. Harry (Ola Stewart) Young of Springhill as it was told to her by elderly people of the community and nearby. GUESTS OF ELLIOTTS Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Zahoriek and children of Waukegan, 111.

have left for their home after visiting with her father, Floyd Elliott and Mrs. Elliott. will continue." The Pentagon said later that wn money underwrite the underwrite the wn Mr. Rupp at the time I thought four Air Force C141 Starlifters flight SKATING PARTY Rev. Billy Strine of Shelburne Church of Trenton a group of 76 members at a skating party at Don's Roller Rink, March 27.

local and on passage of this to ds today 100 infants have been out of Saigon on com- during the last mont, the state adoption agency Some 55 of them opened a special telephone center Friday to assist people there. arrive in San Fran- if a statement made by Rupp that Rabbitt had said that the special charter could be amended by the General Assembly was correct. According to Cowart, Rabbitt said he had spoken to Rupp and at the time he was relying on information he knew about on special charters and he did not realize the Constitution prohibited amending of special charters. Rabbitt was quoted as saying to Cowart, "I had not researched the question about amending special charters or checked any legal authority cloudy and warmer tonight. Low mid 30s.

Increasing cloudiness and continued warm Sunday with a chance of showers. High mostly in the 60s. Official Temperatures Yesterday's Maximum Yesterday's Minimum Today's Minimum Precipitation River Stage, Rising Year Ago Today Maximum Minimum 55 26 33 None 8.30 50 31 Five-Day Forecast MISSOURI-Extended outlook Monday through Wednesday- Chance of rain and mild Monday through Wednesday. Highs mostly in 60s, lows in 40s. A few degrees cooler Wednesday.

The Constitution-Tribune had reported on a meeting held by the Citizens to Retain the Present Charter, and at the meeting Rupp reported that he had been in touch with Rabbit and that Rabbitt had said that Chillicothe could have its special charter amended by the General Assembly. Patrol checks two accidents The Highway Patrol investigated two non-injury accidents early yesterday evening. The first accident, reported at 4:15 p.m. occurred at the intersection of Highway 36 and 65 on the exit ramp. Trooper Harold Stanfield said that a 1973 Oldsmobile driven by Donald Ireland, Bosworth, and a 1974 Ford Coach driven by Dorothy Booth, Chillicothe, were on the exit ramp, from Highway 36 to 65 when the Ireland vehicle struck the rear of the Booth vehicle, after the Ireland vehicle started and then stopped.

The Ireland vehicle had no reported damage and the Booth vehicle sustained damage to the rear. A 1966 Plymouth Sedan driven by Stanley Boyd, Chula, sustained moderate damage to the left front and a 1973 Chevrolet pickup driven by Lloyd Thomas, Chillicothe, received minor damage to the left rear in an accident yesterday at 5:50 p.m. on Continued on Page 5 Continued on Page 5 Death Notices Bertls Williams Mrs. Corda Anderson Gus W. Sherman (Pages) Along about 1840, Methodist people of the village of Springhill wished to erect a Methodist church in Springhill.

Trustees and stewards were chosen at a camp meeting. A camp meeting was an open air meeting around a campfire and could be real inspirational. The first trustees and stewards were John Doss, A. B. D.

Martin, John Leeper, James Leeper, Samuel Pepper and Alexander Ware. These men proceeded to bargain with James and Lucy Nave to buy a plot of ground whereon to build "a church house. They paid the sum of $25 for the plot where the church house now stands. The deed to this plot of ground was made to the above-named men and to their successors in office forever in trust. The trustees were to build or cause to be built on this plot of land, a house for the members of the Methodist-Episcopal Church South to assemble to worship God, and to be instructed in the rules and discipline which from time to time to be agreed upon and adopted by the ministers of the Methodist church.

First Building The first building, built in 1841, was built of logs and roofed with slab-board shingles. There was a big door in the center of the front and a fireplace opposite the door at the back. A wide aisle was left, so that a log could be dragged down to the fireplace. There were only two windows, one on each side of the building. The floor was made of clapboarded (split halves of logs laid together rounded side down.

The seats were hewn logs held up at the end by cross pieces, the tdp ends smoothed down. Someone gave an old oil painting of the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child in her arms. This painting hung over the mantle. The cost of the first church house in Springhill was very little because people donated labor and material. People met regularly through the week for prayer and instruction.

This was called a class meeting. There was preachin' on Saturday night, Sunday morning and Sunday night. Old ladies came to church wearing black bonnets and black dresses with long and full skirts. Men removed their hats as they entered the door and everyone burned. No one knew the origin of the fire but the flame was put on to the bushwhackers who lived around the country.

Then for 15 years services were held in the school house, which had been built on a corner of the Marsh Moss place. The congregation grew until the people began to feel the need of a larger building. Simpson, great-grandfather of the late Dr. A. J.

Simpson, loaned the money to the trustees to buy lumber arid other building Moss, a non-member, had quarried the rock to build a foundation for his new barn. Instead of using it for his barn, he gave the rock for laying the church foundation. Marion Hughes was the main carpenter and architect. Others who helped to build the new church house were Charley Wilburn, Alec Ramsey, Elias Gutheride, James Moseley, W. F.

Mi)' Silas Harvey, John Waddle, James Stith, John Stewart, Robert and John Peniston, Sherman Baxter, George W. Wingo, Tom Cravens, Harve Williams and John Ware. Most of these men now lie buried in the Springhill cemetery. Note is Forgiven Old Uncle Johnny Simpson was rated as the wealthiest man in Springhill. When the note the trustees of the church had given him came due, the stewards went to him and asked him if he wanted his money.

He replied, "Well, if you haven't i i IL nuveii i got the money I sat very quiet for they were in want it but have the house of the Lord. The don want it Ju Bt ke and sermon an hour. No use lt where it is needed." preacher was a good preacher Another story goes One who couldn't preaclv more than Unc i Johnny Simpson asked an hour. Dr John Vincil of Albert Meservey how much he St. Louis became the first was going to give to the church, pastor, in 1848.

A Rev. Carn.e Meservey told Simpson that he was another of the first would give as mu( as he did pastors. A layman, Henry Coy, according to what he was could pray the longest prayer, worth Simpson gave $50. always remembering to pray Meservey gave $5 for this worthless sons. Two The Springhill Methodist women Mrs.

Mary Turner and church was first put on circuit Mrs. Tabitha Wilburn were with Mt olive Central Ch known to be the best and most and Bethe i. Tne four churc hes frequent shouters. paid tneir pastor $500 a year Burned in Civil War The pastor rode his circuit, During the Civil War, union horseback, in all kinds of soldiers were quartered in the weather, the same as the old church house. Feeling ran high and one night the house was Continued on Page 5 FFA boys to assist in Red Cross drive Picnic Time Nears Ready for the summer season even though winter has made sporadic resistance, the cjty park system's 128 picnic those stacked double behind the out of storage and now in place throughout Simpson Park and at the Clay street park.

Also hauled to strategic locations in the parks were 53 freshly repainted trash barrels. Trash barrels for the two ball fields, at Simpson Park and in Gravesville, were donated by the Hoover Oil Company. The park board recently authorized Supt. Clayton Askins and Buel Mitchell, the two park employees, to remove a walnut tree ap- proximately 68 feet tall from the parking area near the Rotary shelter house as it had been judged unsafe because of interior decay. Askins said there are five young trees in this same area that were planted two or three years ago.

All in all, 38 new trees have been set out at the ball park and at the Clay street and Simpson porks. Askins said 26 trees have had to be removed in the last three years because of old age, decay, windstorm damage and elm diease. "We need a lot more trees planted, hopefully this fall or said Photo. Robert (Bob) Popple, fund drive chairman for the Red Cross fund drive announced that members of the Chillicothe FFA chapter under the direction of chapter president Dwight Jones will solicit the rural area starting Monday. The boys can be identified by the blue FFA jackets they will be wearing.

This is the third year that the Future Farmers of America of to the Red Cross fund drive. Sometimes the question arose from people in the rural area as to validity of the young men in collecting for the drive, because they were not wearing their FFA jackets. The president of the FFA chapter has asked all volunteers from the chapter to be sur'e to wear their FFA jackets when taking part in the rural drive. Popple and Jones said that the Chillicothe chapter have between 50 and 60 FFA boys nccicfaH in tha in mill i assisted in the rural area in the annual Red Cross fund drive. Popple said the spirit and cooperation of the fine young will be involved in the Red Cross fund drive.

The fund drive chairmen asked for the cooperation of all iT VT (III people has been a great boost in the rural effort in this drive..