18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, January 4, 1914: Our minister is going to leave soon. He preached his farewell sermon today. I am so sorry to see him go. There were some misty eyes in church this afternoon.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Why was the minister leaving? It sounds like church members really liked him.
Maybe the McEwensville Baptist Church wasn’t able to pay the minister very much and he found a better position. I think that the church was disbanded sometime during the 1920s—and it may have already been struggling when Grandma wrote the diary.
Agnes Beard wrote in 1939 in her History of McEwensville:
The Baptist Church, a brick edifice, has fallen into ruins, there being no members in or near the place to keep it in repair.
Agnes Beard (1939)
You may also enjoy a previous post:
A Hundred Years Ago 
Obviously church played a big role in the community.
In days past church provided the activities which young people needed. In the 1930 onwards my church had tennis courts, cricket pitch and put on its own Pantomime, these were things much needed when entertainment wad expensive and a bus anywhere infrequent to say the least.
It’s always sad when a well-loved minister leaves a church. Hopefully they’ll get a replacement that they like just as well!
That comment from Agnes Beard kinda made me sad …
The Wesleyan Methodist church I went to had what seemed to be a policy that ministers didn’t stay too long in one church. I remember the explanation being that parishioners shouldn’t become too attached to one minster (or vice versa).
I wonder if the new incumbent made an impression on Helena. We’ll have to wait and see…
She sounds less blase (no accent mark at hand) here than usual.
How sad — that empty lot where the church had been, a church no doubt dedicated with great hope and enthusiasm when it was built. Such is life. The old moves on to make room for the new. But is seems like there is no “new” in this case.
It’s sad to hear the church fell into disrepair.
It always amazes me how things change. My husband and I have been in Deadwood for 25 years and we are continually in disbelief at how much has changed. It is sad how things come and go.
It’s very sweet that the minister was so well loved.