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North
Yakima Church
(Name later change just to
the Yakima Church)
The work in North Yakima was started in October 1899. At that time there were no members
living there.
The district
Mission Board decided to open up the work there, and send Elder J. U. G.
Stiverson and wife to take charge of the work, and with his family arrived in
North Yakima, Oct. 23, 1899.
Having no house for worship and not being able to secure a suitable
building, the work was first started in the country, at the Nob Hill, Wide
Hollow and Ahtanum School houses, and later in the Natchez
Valley.
March 18, 1900,
Elder Geo. E. Wise and family arrived from Kansas, and was an active helper in
the work.
In December
1900, they rented the Seventh Day Adventist church, and held the first service
there on December 30, 1900, and for eight months they held their Sunday School
and preaching services there, at the end of which time. For economy’s sake, the
church was given up, and the meetings held in the home of Elder Geo. E.
Wise.
Jan. 1, 1902, the
North Yakima Church was organized at the home of J. U. G. Stiverson, Elders D.
B. Eby and S. H. Miller of Sunnyside, Wash. being present to assist in the
organization.
The church
was organized with ten members present and seven represented by letter. Elder Geo. E. Wise was chosen as Elder
in charge, and Elder J. U. G. Stiverson and wife were continued in the field by
the Mission Board as Missionary workers.
On Dec. 20th, they contracted
for a church house and lot for $600.00, formerly owned by the Congregational
church, which was repaired, and new seats put in.
The first service was held in the church
March 7, 1902, and on the following Sunday, March 9th, the church was
dedicated. Elder D. B. Eby preached
the dedicatory sermon, and the first communion service was held that
evening. Thirty members surrounded
the Lord’s table.
The
securing of our house of worship gave new life to the work, by baptism and
emigration the church increased, till in the summer of 1903 there were forty
three members enrolled.
In September of that year the Mission Board moved the Missionaries to
Weiser, Idaho, and the work at North Yakima since then has been carried on by
the minister living there.
In
1902, Elder Enoch Faw and J. M. Plank moved in, and later P. H. Hertzog and J.
Hollinger came as helpers in the work.
In July 1907, the old church and lot were sold, and a new lot purchased
and a new church house built at a cost of $2,000. The new house has three rooms, two of
which can be thrown together when needed for the audience room, the house is
nearly all paid for.
We now have a membership of thirty four. North Yakima, is a wealthy and
progressive city of about 12,000, and will become a center for Missionary work
throughout the adjacent valleys, which are all under cultivation and thickly
settled.
Information
give by Geo. Wise 1909
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