Frankford church will host Bicentennial Birthday Bash

Dedication of a new park bench for the Frankford City Park took place on May 17, 2025. The bench was made with recyclable plastics. Front row, from left: Judy Marshall, Ethan Colbert, Nancy Travis, Neta Elder, Rev. M. Faye Vaughn and Chris McMillen; second row, from left: Julie Colbert, Lee Ann Kelly, Brenda Cook, and Jan Krehbiel; third row, from left: Harry Cleve Elder, Brad McMillen, Toni Doggett and Roger Colbert. The park bench is located in Frankford City Park near the location of the Frankford First Christian Church's former church building, which was demolished in 1893 as the congregation moved into its current location at 111 North Main Cross. Contributed photo

The Frankford First Christian Church celebrated the 130th anniversary of the church building’s dedication on Feb. 18, 2024. The certificate recognizes the Frankford First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) congregation's historic ties as the second oldest Disciples congregation west of the Mississippi River. Dr. Joel Brown, President of the Disciples Historical Society in Bethany, West Virginia, presented the certificate to Rev. M. Faye Vaughn and Nancy Travis, board chair. Brown was the keynote speaker for the special anniversary service. Contributed photo

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

FRANKFORD, MO - Frankford’s First Christian Church is planning a “Bicentennial Birthday Bash” for Saturday and Sunday, June 7 and 8, 2025.

“We are celebrating our church heritage,” said Ethan Colbert, church board secretary and life-long church member. “We have a lot of different activities planned.”

Events will be from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 7, then resume with the 10 a.m. church service on Sunday, June 8. The service will be followed by an afternoon full of events. Most importantly, all events - and food - are free.

There will be a quilt show in the church sanctuary from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday.

The church has records from the early 1900s, when church women took quilt orders from women across the United States. “I have the receipts from women in Washington State, one from South Dakota, and one from Nevada. Our heritage of quilting runs deep,” he said.

A vintage car and tractor show also begins at noon. There are no registration fees. "We will welcome vehicles of all models; we’re hoping for a full variety. The display will be on the north end of Main Cross, directly in front of the church.” The street will be closed to traffic during the show.

Within the city park, directly across from the church, there will be a community carnival. There will be old fashioned carnival games, bounce houses, and bingo under the park pavilion.

There will be a bubble bus, “which literally shoots bubbles out of the windows from the sides. It is a fun space for kids to enjoy.”

At 2 p.m. there will be nachos and cheese and free bottles of water.

At 3 p.m. there will be a bluegrass gospel concert. “Historically, all sorts of country western singers have come through Frankford and performed. We are celebrating that legacy with the ‘Good Turn Daily Bluegrass Band,’ from Central Missouri, which will perform from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. When the band takes intermission at 3:30, we will provide ice cream as well,” Colbert said.

The birthday bash ends for the day at 5 p.m. 

On Sunday, there will be a church service at 10 a.m. The guest speaker will be the Rev. Terri Hord-Owens, “general minister and president of our denomination, headquartered out of Indianapolis,” Colbert said. 

The Rev. Faye Vaughn is the Frankford congregation’s minister.

A carry in lunch will be served at noon. Anyone who is attending is asked to bring a side dish or salad to share.

On display will be historical photos, exhibited in a timeline “so folks can walk the history of the church, learn about our past, remind them about stories they have heard. That will be available on Sunday.”

Deep roots

The rural church’s roots run deep in Pike County, Mo.

Two hundred years ago, Colbert said, “Frankford was a small, growing farming community that had really only existed for about six years. The original story of our congregation,” he said, “there was a man named Stephen Ruddell. He was a roaming missionary. Folklore is that he was a man who had been taken by a Native American tribe as a child, and experienced living with them. Then he came back to the frontier settlements, and,” as a missionary, “laid the ground work for our congregation.”

“The first meeting was at the home of Isaac Hostetter; he lived in a cabin east of town.

“Between the two of them, primarily Ruddle, they formed the ‘Christian Body,’ which was the name of the church in 1825. In years following, settlers from Kentucky came into the area, and these settlers had heard the preaching of Barton Stone.”

Stone’s followers “mixed in with the ‘Christian Body’. The church continued to meet at Hostetters’ house for six years, then moved to town in 1831, when Solomon Fisher, the recognized founder of Frankford, wanted a church building to be shared by all faith groups, located on Water Street.

“More settlers came from Kentucky,” Colbert said, “this time followers of Alexander Campbell.”

Stone and Campbell are considered to be the founders of the Disciples of Christ Denomination.

The church received its charter as a Disciples of Christ Church on Nov. 5, 1836.

“This is our pride point,” Colbert said. “We are the second oldest Disciples of Christ congregation to continuously hold worship services west of Mississippi River.”

Colbert shared the names of the 20 charter members:

Isaac and Mary Hostetter, Ammon Hostetter, Cynthia Hostetter, Ann Hostetter, William and Eliza Fisher, Joseph and Margaret Pitt, William and Martha Pitt, Thomas Pitt, Jasper and Sally Shotwell, William and Nancy Pickett, John O’Rear, Robert Beshears, Thomas Cash and John Steele.

The land on which the first community church stood was on Water Street. The second building  was located on ground that is now the Frankford City Park. The Disciples of Christ congregation left that building to construct a new church building, completed in 1894.  Modeled after the Mount Zion Christian Church in Marion County, this is the building that still serves the congregation.

Knowles Shaw

A feather in Frankford’s cap exists with the legend that Knowles Shaw, (1834-1878) known as the Singing Evangelist, had early ties to the Frankford Christian Church.

Mrs. Thomas Garland wrote a history of Frankford in 1910, which was published in the Hannibal Evening Courier-Post on July 20.

“At an early date Knowles Shaw came here from Indiana. He taught school in the Martin district, and made shoes at night and on Saturday but he finally became an evangelist and wrote many of our good old songs, as ‘Bringing in the Sheaves,’ ‘Hand Writing on the Wall,’ and many others.”

(The Martin district was located in Peno Township, in the northern part of Pike County, Mo., bounded on the north by the Salt River.)

Historic visit

While both Alexander Campbell and Stone have ties to Hannibal and other parts of Northeast Missouri, there is no evidence suggesting that they visited Frankford.

Therefore, the congregation believes that Terri Hord-Owens’ visit will be historic. This will be the first time that the top leadership of the Disciples of Christ congregation will be in Frankford.

Family story

Colbert’s family moved to the Frankford area in the 1930s, and his family members have been church members ever since. His great-grandparents were John and Ofeleita Dietle.

“Our (family) story is not unique; I look back and there are people who can trace their lineage to those church founders; we’re still the new kids on the block.”

Mission minded

On Wednesdays during the school year, “we have an after-school bible school program where one third of Frankford elementary school students are enrolled, about 40 kids. The kids are bused in a partnership with the school district.

Volunteers greet the children.

“They get an after-school snack, we teach old church camp songs, do crafts, present a Bible Adventures lesson, and then serve the kids and their families an evening meal. That whole program is completely free.

“Recently we were humbled and excited; we had 10 young people come forward to make their confession of faith and were baptized.

 “We feel very much called to be an active mission-minded church,” he said. “Each month we have different mission outreaches, a variety of charities and worthwhile causes.

He cited as an example, the church members collected 44 pounds of tabs, which financially benefit the Ronald McDonald house in St. Louis. That equals pull tabs from 53,000 aluminum cans.

“We just celebrated 'We Love Frankford Day,’ which is a day for serving our neighbors. Members went out into the community, doing a variety of projects, including cleaning headstones, picking up trash in the city park, painting curbs on Main Street, writing post cards to neighbors, and baking and delivering cookies to folks all over town.

Each year the church asks the city for a list of projects, including cleaning out ditches, blocked culverts, or assembling street signs.

“There were a lot of smiles that day,” he said.

The church has also been collecting and recycling plastic grocery bags, which were made into a park bench for the city park. They have processed more than 1,300 pounds of bags in the last year and five months.

“On Saturday (May 24) the church is hosting a fish fry fundraiser for victims of the St. Louis tornado.

A project that Colbert said has been a blessing has been its partnership with “Undue Medical Debts.” Over the past two years, the church has donated more than $2,300 to the organization that uses donations from churches, individuals, businesses and other groups to buy portfolios of medical debt on the market for pennies on the dollar. Frankford’s donations have helped to purchase more than $229,000 in medical debt of low-income Missourians.

“Each week we pray that God forgives our debts as we forgive … during Lent we see that in action. We’re using pennies and coins and dollars to help forgive the debts of others.”

Colbert describes the church as a “thriving congregation,” with 151 members on the roll. the longest member, who lives locally, is Calvin “Cuff” Brown, a 73-year member of the church. The youngest member is Mila Hickerson, who just finished kindergarten. Mila’s great-grandmother is Linda Rose Ellis, a member of the church, who worked at HNB’s downtown branch for many years.

Chalice initiative

Colbert points out the familiar red chalice that is on the building, which symbolizes the central place of communion in worship for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ.)

The Frankford church has also earned the Green Chalice status.

Green represents being better stewards of God’s creation, such as improving recycling, and helping the environment in general. They participate in fresh produce distribution, through FACT, and participate in recycling tabs and plastic bags.

Now, the church members have been asked to participate in a pilot program across the state, for the Silver Chalice initiative.

It is an initiative aimed at engaging older adults in the life of the church.

“A lot of folks think of evangelism, getting young people and families in the church. We forget about the older adults who need that connection to the church just as much.

“It challenges us to look at 'how do we engage older adults and bring them into the circle?’”

Over the past year and a half, the church has made a concerted effort to fulfill this unitive by:

Making restrooms more ADA compliant, adding a ramp into the fellowship hall, implementing a blood pressure screening program, assistance with the recycling program and launching a nursing home ministry.