Vol. 36 No.1 January. 2010 HELP!! index.php Flashbacks wilL be listed un- The current recession has had im- der the category NEWSLETTERS plications of many areas of the Wisconsin Conference. It is also affecting some of The cost of Flashbacks has been the cost the areas sponsored by the Conference of mailing the newsletter. As editor, I don’t Commission on Archives and History. receive a salary nor do we pay contribut- One of these is the distribution of Flash- ers when they donate their materials. backs. Thanks for your assistance. THIS MAY BE TH E LAST PRINTED Lois C. Olsen, editor COPY OF FLASHBACKS YOU MAY RECEIVE! Currently, there are two ways to ENDLESS LINES OF receive Flashbacks. SPLENDOR 1. You can subscribe. The current cost is $12.00 a year. The new exhibit, ENDLESS LINES 2. Flashbacks have been sent, OF SPLENDOR, at the Wisconsin Con- free of charge, to each historian in a local ference Museum was opened on Satur- church which is a member of the Wis- day, September 19, 2009. The theme of consin Conference, the exhibit is the celebration of the many The decision has been made to missionaries from Wisconsin that have discontinue sending free printed copies served the church. The museum was of Flashbacks to local church historians. opened at 9:00 and the opening service However, the newsletter will be posted started at 10:30. on the Wisconsin Conference website so About thirty people attended the that you can download it on your com- opening ceremony. Welcome was ex- puter. tended by the Rev. Tim Berlew, pastor of To continue receiving Flashbacks Memorial UMC, and Ken Gelhaus of the 1. Renew your subscription by Museum Committee. The Scripture was sending the #12.00 to the treasurer, John 15:16 and Matthew 28: 19-20. Sandy (Doug) Kintner, 2737 Hwy T,Sun Three historical statements were read Prairie, WI 53590. coming from liturgies used in the Com- 2. Contact the Wisconsin Confer- missioning of missionaries and deacon- ence esses published in 1964, 1944, and 1992. website:www,wisconsinumc.org/content/ Several witnesses gave testimony: Flor- ence Norton who served in FLorida, Lois 2 Olsen who served in Sierra Leone, Libe- ria and Kenya, and Andy Oren who rep- There are just several of the fifty resented the Volunteers in Missions Pro- missionaries whose biographies and pic- gram. A lunch was served at Memorial tures are on display at the Museum Church. From this display has come an The exhibit includes pictures and interest in preserving the history of information for about fifty missionaries. In United Methodist missionaries from addition there are artifacts from several Wisconsin. Currently about 350 mission- areas. aries have been identified. they served in Included is Marie Finger Bale, 46 countries was well as in nineteen who was an ordained Local Elder and states in the UnIted States We are cur- was granted Full Clergy Membership in rently working on a printed edition of the United Methodist Church. She served these biographies. If one of the members in India from 1946 to 1956, then in Japan of your church served on the mission from 1960-70 and Korea from 1967 to field, please pass the information on to 1970. Lois Olsen, 1840 N. Prospect Ave. Mil- Gertrude Bloede, a nurse-midwife, waukee, 53202 or by e-mail to first served the Italian Mission in Ke- [email protected]. nosha. In 1951 she started work in Sierra The United Methodist Museum is Leone. After her return to the United located in Greenfield, at the Junction of States she worked at Red Bird Mission in Forest Home Road and South 52nd ST. It Beverly, Kentucky. is just behind Memorial UMC. The Mu- Fred Brancel first served with his seum is only opened by appointment. To wife Margaret, in Angola. Here Fred was visit the Museum contact one of the fol- imprisoned for three months. In 1964, lowing they worked in Zimbabwe. In 1968, Fred Russ Mathers 414-543-5177 and his second wife, Joyce served in Za- Lois Olsen 414 347 1745 ire. Ann Towell 414-527 0043 John and Peggy Hooper served in what was the Belgian Congo, later, Zaire. BYRON UPDATE John worked in agriculture while Peggy Loras Whipple Smithback is my did work with the women name and I was a camper at Camp By- The Rev. David Markay and his ron from 1944-1949, except 1946 and wife, the Rev. Kristin Markay, have from 1997-2009. I have a degree in his- served iin Lithuania and are currently tory from the University of Wisconsin/ serving as pastors of an international Stevens Point and am my church’s histo- congregation of the Methodist Church in rian. I couldn’t let the history of Camp Milan, Italy. Byron, as told in Flashbacks , received on The Rev. Ernest Sells and his wife 9/09/09, go uncorrected. Olga Eberle started their service in Rho- In 1944, our pastor, John Walker, desia, now Zimbabwe. From 1929, he of the Sun Prairie Methodist Church, took served as conference secretary, District our MYF to Camp Byron without Superintendent and Administrative to the pre=registering us. Consequently, the Bishop until 1964. girls were housed above the dining room 3 which had double bed bunks (Probably Prime Timers Retreat from Saint Paul’s the hotel/dining room mentioned in the United Methodist Church in Stevens article) It was about 50 feet in front of the Point. I believe that PTR in 2009 was the “tank” which was very convenient for last scheduled United Methodist weekly swimming (still used today). In 1945, we camp ever to be held at Byron. I am sad girls were pre-registered so we stayed in at its closing as I have very fond memo- Ingraham Hall. The boys stayed in a long ries of it. cottage type building behind what is now the office. Every year after 1945, I stayed ALONG THE CHIPPEWA in the same hall. The tabernacle was still RIVER in use with its large wooden walls that The 2009 Heritage Tour of the swung up on braces on three sides. It United Methodist Wisconsin Conference had the most uncomfortable “pews” I ever took place on Saturday, October 3. Seven sat on. The fourth wall was where the sites in western Wisconsin were visited. altar was and behind it was a fairly large Originally titled Historical Pilgrim- room where the daily newspaper was age and renamed Heritage Tour, organ- printed. ized by the Commission on Archives and I believe that Ingraham Hall was History, these travels have been a tradi- built in 1926 as there used to be a corner tion in the Wisconsin Conference since stone. It had screen porches on both long 1974. The first such tour was made to sides that were probably used for sleep- the Willerup UMC in Cambridge in Octo- ing when it was built. The rooms were ber of that year. small and dark with two beds and chairs This years Heritage Tour visited in it. There were outside stairways on tent meeting sites, churches and heritage either end. It had a two story room in the sites just east of the Mississippi River. middle with field stone fireplace and full The tour was organized by Bruce Gar- chimney that extended through the roof. dow, pastor of the Durand UMC. This was probably the chimney men- Members of the tour met at the tioned in the article as being built with Durand UMC for breakfast. The Durand stones from each church. On the second congregation dates its origins to 1855 floor a balcony ran around three sides of when the first settlers arrived in Maxville. the two story room. cross from the fire- Circuit riders of the Methodist Episcopal place end. The advisors had the few pri- church served not only this congregation vate rooms in the back of the fire place but groups in Alma. Bear Creek. Tuttles, on both floors. There was no kitchen. Tyrone, Durand and Lima. There was one toilet in the whole build- The first quarterly conference in ing. Everyone was supposed to use the Maxville was held in 1858. The con- outdoor boys or girls privies built on the struction of the first church building in Du- escarpment near the cottages. rand was in 1866 and was completed in I was a Byron in 1948 for the cen- 1868. The construction was delayed due tennial celebration and again in 1998 for to the Civil War. the 150 years celebration. Outside of In 1914, both the location of the Bob Firary, I was probably the only church and the parsonage were moved. camper who attended both sessions. I In 1956, a campaign for a new building attended Byron Center(1997-2009) at 4 was begun and the building was com- sturdy pews are of butternut wood. Sup- pleted in 1966. port of the maintenance of the building is The first place visited on the pil- done with a charcoal chicken dinner held grimage was east of the Chippewa River once a year. The congregation dis- at the site of the Bear Creek Tent Meet- banded in 1924. ings. The tent meetings were held for a A brief stop was made at the birth- week at a time and were located on the place of Laura Ingalls Wilder who was top of a hill There was also a Methodist born in Pepin, Wisconsin in 1867. Within Episcopal church building at Bear Creek. two years of her birth the family had Although the building is no longer there, moved and lived in numerous villages in the foundation of the building is still rec- the midwest.