From staff reports
Fern Trinity Evangelical Congregational Church will celebrate its 125th anniversary Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 25-26, with several events at the church, located along Golf Course Road in Kossuth.
A community hymn sing will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 25.
On Sunday, Sept. 26, the 10 a.m. worship service will feature Bishop Bruce Hill. A special 125th-year celebration service with Bishop Hill will start at 2 p.m.
A Philadelphia Inquirer reporter wrote in a 1885 article that in July, Fern had only a schoolhouse, a hardware store, and a tent. But by August, Fern was “a thriving community, with a weekly newspaper and other evidences of civilization.” This increase in population happened after oil was struck in Fern. A month later, the Oil City Derrick reported in a front-page article on the fighting, lawlessness, and general debauchery that was occurring in Fern.
Probably not coincidentally, the first preaching happened in Fern City on Oct. 4, 1885, when the Rev. J.H. Keeley gave his sermon, according to The National, a local newspaper at the time. It would be another 10 years, though, in 1895, until a building, the Fern Trinity E.C. Church, would stand on the grounds of the oil boom area.
In 1873, in the village bordering Fern, Ashland Church was built. This was a year after oil was struck in Fern in 1872.
Fern’s congregation and Ashland’s joined forces for a time but, in 1891, the United Evangelical arm became a separate church, which met at Maccabeen Hall in Fern.
One of the first problems of this new congregation was the selection of a church site. Mr. and Mrs. William L. Hess provided a gift of an acre of land. The new church was dedicated debt-free in 1895 by the Rev. J.J. Carmany.
The charter members were Mr. and Mrs. John Cotherman, Mr. and Mrs. John Stumpner, Mr. and Mrs. John Kenemuth, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Shreffler, Mr. and Mrs. Christian Stumpner, Mr. and Mrs. Conrad Kenemuth, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Webber, Mr. and Mrs. J.N. Buzza, Luella Kenemuth, and Grandfather Stumpner.