A hundred years ago, when Onalaska was a brand new company town being carved out of the wilderness, its founding family made sure their new community had a church.
Much has changed in this timber town, but the Onalaska Presbyterian Church is a constant. The church, which just marked the centennial of its April 23, 1915, formation, continues to provide a home for folks seeking and serving God in the heart of their small town.
For a century, the church has provided a home for neighbors to support each other as they devote their lives to God in service to one another and their community.
I have been a beneficiary of those blessings.
It’s the first place I remember as a church home. The impressions are still strong: my place on the pew between my parents, listening to them harmonize to hymns each Sunday morning. Falling asleep during the late-night Christmas Eve service. The delicate staircase to the loft and the bell tower.
I’ll never forget the exhilarating feeling of putting all my weight into the down pull on the bell rope, only to have the weight of the big swinging bell far, somewhere far above, lift me off my feet as its peals cascaded over my hometown.
I remember comfortably dozing on blankets spread out on the church basement floor while my parents sat next to me during childbirth classes for a soon-to-come sibling.
I learned to whistle at that church on a sunny day, walking up and down the sidewalk and alley around its neatly painted white plank exterior.
My first Bible was a gift from the church to mark my third-grade graduation. It was a farewell of sorts, as I moved away from my hometown that summer. I missed the people and community of Onalaska when I moved to an island near Seattle. The pull of Lewis County was strong, and returning to my home (if not Onalaska) was a consolation to my teenaged self.
When I was married a decade later, my wife and I invited our guests to sing the hymn “Blest Be the Tie That Binds” at our wedding. I didn’t realize this at the time, but it’s the same song Onalaska Christians sang to dedicate their brand new church a century ago.
“The fellowship of kindred minds,” they sang on that day so many years ago, “is like to that above.”
We know that’s true. This little church reminds us of the kinship believers share across the miles and the ages.
The folks who remain in Onalaska have drawn strength from their enduring community of faith.
Lifetime Onalaska resident Darrell Dow, 89, told The Chronicle that his mom attended Onalaska Presbyterian while she was pregnant with him, meaning that he has been attending the church for longer than he has been alive.
“That church is my life, it’s really important to me,” he said. “I’ve been sick and they’ve always stuck by me and they’ve prayed for me and I’ve come out of it. It’s a very important part of my life.”
I know the feeling, Mr. Dow.
I pray for many blessings to your church family as you enter your second century together. Our shared hometown is a stronger, more godly place thanks to the community of faith nourished inside your walls to do good work outside of them.
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Brian Mittge lives in rural Chehalis, but Onalaska will always be his hometown. Drop him a line at brianmittge@hotmail.com.
