Dr. Milton Loyer, Conference Archivist
September – 100 years ago.
September 11, 1921, marked the dedication of the newly constructed Methodist Protestant church building at Cooks Mills on the Cassville charge. This small block and brick edifice was the recently-organized congregation’s first and only church building. The congregation was never large and for the last few years of its existence had been part of a rural charge that rotated its Sunday services between Cooks, Woodvale and Broad Top. The congregation eventually voted to merge into Woodvale UMC, and a deconsecration service was held December 18, 2016.
Cooks was the only church on the five-point Methodist Protestant Cassville charge to participate in the 1939 denominational union that formed the Methodist Church. The other four churches went in different directions as follows:
- Cassville – joined the Bible Protestant denomination
- Coles Valley (met in the schoolhouse near the Coles Valley cemetery) – disbanded
- Harmony Chapel – became a Church of God congregation
- Meadow Green – disbanded, building sold to the Mennonites
October – 50 years ago
On October 24, 1971, cornerstone was laid for the new Mt. Zion church complex on the Wertzville Road west of Enola, in Cumberland County. The congregation’s first building had been erected across the road, in the present cemetery, in 1856 – a square frame building with two front entrances, two aisles, and a middle partition to separate the men and women. In 1887, this was replaced by a new building which was significantly remodeled and modernized in 1930 and enlarged with an educational unit in 1949.
The sanctuary and classrooms at the present site were dedicated in 1972. Since then Wertzville Road has been rerouted and the site now stands on Mount Zion Drive. In 1981, the fellowship wing and expanded educational facilities were dedicated. The sanctuary was enlarged and the entrance canopy added in 2002. Mt. Zion had always been on various circuits with Young’s Church, further west on Wertzville Road, until becoming a station appointment in 1976 and now has a membership of 350.
