Ronan church celebrates 100 years
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RONAN — They started out as a few pioneering farmers who gathered in rotating venues, speaking in a foreign tongue, bound together by a resilient faith. The St. Paul Lutheran Church in Ronan will celebrate its centennial at the end of July.
“We are very proud of our church,” member Margaret Moon said. “You don’t want to have your funeral anywhere else.”
Moon has been at the church since 2008, when her family became enamored with the kind people there. But many of the church’s 107 members can trace their involvement back to when they were children and now, enjoy counting their grandchildren.
Sue Heppner can remember the church being moved from its Pablo home to its present location on Terrace Lake Road in Ronan in 1967.
“They had to move the power lines,” she remembered.
The church has a long storied history. In 1910, when the Flathead Reservation was opened to homesteading, the congregation gathered in members’ homes and in various schools in the greater Polson-Pablo area.
Church notes detail an account from the congregation’s early years made by Alfred Butt, in which Butt remembered when services were held at Reservoir Valley Church. Bison from the historic Pablo-Allard herd could be seen dotting the hills at that time and on one memorable rainy Sunday, a buggy decked out with several umbrellas caused the animals to stampede.
In 1915 the church, which was made up mostly of German-speaking immigrants, made the switch from German-only services to include more English, because German meetings were suspect during the World War I era. Church notes say when the first English songbooks were issued, the minister ended up singing almost solo because the members had a difficult time avoiding German words. The pastor had to put his hand on his face to keep from laughing, the record claims.
German-language services continued until 1945, when the outbreak of World War II, plus passage of time and additional exposure to English rendered them unnecessary. The pastor at the time wrote:
“There may be some agitation to revive the German Services after the war, but I do not personally believe that German Services will again be asked for. It is only the older people who come. The young never came to German Services. I would not like to see this brought back.”
German-language services did not make a comeback, but the church grew. In 1925, the Farmer’s State Bank building in Pablo was purchased and converted into the church’s first permanent home. The original pews were made from the Old Klondike boat, which once floated the waters between Demersville, Somers and Polson. An organ was donated from Schaefer Music House of Missoula. The church was dedicated on Dec. 13, 1925, with one German service and one English service commemorating the event.
In 1949, when a new church building was dedicated in Pablo, it also marked the end of another old-fashioned custom: separate-sex pews. Until that time the men sat separately in the church from women and children.
Until the 1980s, the church shared its pastors with affiliated churches in St. Ignatius and Polson, but the alliance dissolved around that time.
According to Kaye Bowman, who has been a member of the church for her entire life, the church was the backbone of family life when she was growing up. The church’s youth group was where the cool kids went.
“When I was a teenager that was the place to be,” Bowman said. “Church was what your life circled around. It was then, what school is now.”
Bowman teaches at the church’s Little Lamb Preschool, which has been in existence since 1982.
“We had a church full of children at the time,” Bowman said. “So we originally thought we would start a school.”
Attendance wasn’t quite enough to start a school, but it was high enough to teach preschoolers. Every year the school takes care of five to 28 students.
The church also enjoys hosting a number of teaching events, including Vacation Bible School.
One of the most enjoyable community events the church used to do hold was a live nativity scene at Christmastime.
“One night it got down to below zero,” Heppner recalled. “Our fingers wouldn’t move when we were putting up decorations. It was cold. But we had fun.”
The kind-hearted church community is what Moon said has kept her at the church.
“Everyone is so nice,” she said.
The church invites the community to celebrate with them by listening to a special sermon on July 31 from an Ethiopia-bound missionary at 7 p.m. The group will have a special float in the Pioneer Days Parade, and will have special guests in attendance at services on August 2 at 9 a.m.
“It’s just a little celebration,” Heppner said.
