The Gospel Messenger May 30, 1903 page 348

Prowers. – I moved on a farm belonging to the Mission Board of Southwestern Kansas, Northwestern Oklahoma and Southeastern Colorado, in Bent county, Colorado, last February. We found two resident members when we arrived. Since then twelve more settled here. We have three ministers and two deacons. We asked permission of Rockyford congregation and the elders of the District to organize a church at this place, which was granted. We will have a week’s meeting just before our love feast, which will be June 27 and 28. We will organize on Saturday before feast. We have preaching at Prowers every two weeks at 11 A. M. and 8 P. M. attendance and interest very good. I hold services seven miles northwest of Granada every two weeks at 11 A. M. and 3 P. M. we expect to open some new points. We have a call for doctrinal preaching near Lamar, Colo. We have a feast at one our appointments at Granada shortly after the one at Prowers. – C. A. Shank, Prowers, Colo., May 18

The Gospel Messenger July 11, 1903 page 444

Prowers. – June 27 the members met to organize a church. there are sixteen members at this place and eight at Granada, a mission point thirty miles east, making twenty-four members in the organization. Our ministers are brethren C. A. Shank, Homer Ullom and W. S. Ellenberger. We will be known as the Prowers church. We elected officers for the following year: Bro. G. E. Studebaker as elder, Bro. I.. H. Cline clerk, Bro. C. A. Shank treasurer and the undersigned correspondent. After the organization three young sisters came out on the Lord’s side and were baptized. In the evening we held our love feast, which was enjoyed by all present. Thirty-four members communed. Eld. G. E. Studebaker officiating. Bro. W. E. Harris was present. The services were all held in the mission tent. The prospects for building up a church at this place are very encouraging. – Mary Norris, Prowers, Colo., July 1.

The Gospel Messenger July 27, 1912 page 475 Vol. 61 No. 30

CHURCH DEDICATION.

It was the privilege of the writer to conduct the dedicatory services of the splendid new brick church building for the Brethren at Wiley. Colo., June 9, 1912. This building cost the builders $7,000. It is neat, modern, ample in size, and is a credit to the builders and the community in which it is erected.

In 1902 the District Mission Board of Southwestern Kansas and Southern Colorado sent Bro. G, E. Studebaker to preach at several points, occasionally, up the Arkansas Valley in Colorado. In the spring of 1903 the Board

BRETHREN CHURCH AT WLLEY. COLO.

Dedicated June 9, 1912,

located Bro. C. A. Shank on a farm, about four miles from where now the new house is built. That spring other members moved into the settlement and the work began to grow under Bro. Shank's direction and care.

June 17, that same year, a little group of thirteen members met a few hundred feet west of Bro. W. Ellenberger's, then a two-roomed cabin, out in the open, on the buffalo sod. and organized what was then named the " Prowers " church.

These few members had just come from eastern churches, poor in money, but rich in zeal for the Master and in loyalty for his church.

The country was then new and mostly uncultivated prairie, but in these nine years a transformation has taken place. By applying proper proportions of brain, brawn. water and seed to this rich Colorado soil, great crops of alfalfa, wheat and sugar beets have succeeded buffalo grass, and these early settlers and their neighbors have been enabled to supplant shanties and cabins with good, comfortable houses equipped with modern fixtures and furniture.

The Brethren have, in their church work kept pace with the growing country. Nine years ago the thirteen charter members mentioned were the only members in the valley north of the river for more than seventy miles west of the east Colorado line, with no churchhouse. Since then seventy-five have been baptized into the church, three churchhouse have been erected and the territory has been divided into two congregations.

The building just dedicated is in Wiley, a small town of five hundred people, location on a branch of the Atchison. Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., northwest of Lamar. The town is new, thrifty, and has one other church,—a Methodist. In this valley, purple-crowned alfalfa is king, with wheat and sugar beets competing for second place. It is watered by the Fort Lyon ditch, one of the most dependable water supplies in the Valley, we are told. Land is valued at $100 to $150 per acre, which, if one enjoys the irrigating method of farming, is apparently well worth the money.

The membership at Wiley numbers only about forty-five but ail are alive, loving each other as Brethren, and holding the confidence and support of their neighbors and fellow-businessmen. Bro. Homer Ullom is elder in charge. W. S. Ellenberger and Albert Ellenberger are fellow ministers in the work.

I also visited the adjoining congregation, which was earlier a part of the Prowers church, six miles west of Wiley, at McClane. Here Bro. W. D. Harris is elder in charge. They have a neat and convenient churchhouse,— the only one in the village. The surrounding country is similar to that at Wiley, having the same water rights. The third house, built in this valley since 1903, by the Brethren, is farther east of Hartman, Colo. We met some of the Brethren from there, but did not take time to stop and visit the church. J. J. Yoder.

McPherson, Kans.