The little cemetery in which you are
now standing is today referred to as the German Methodist
Cemetery1. However, county land records indicate that this
piece of land was owned by Harmony Presbyterian Church of Mt.
Pleasant. Joseph F. Townsend sold this “two and a quarter acres, more
or less” for $125 to the Trustees representing this church on January
27, 1872. They in turn transferred ownership to the Presbytery of
Winona on November 26, 1909. This land, legally 4.91 acres, is today
part of the parcel owned by Charles and Doris Ryan2.
Reverend Silas Hazlett of Lake City, in January of 1857, was the first to hold religious services in Mt. Pleasant Township. They were held from time to time in private homes or under an oak tree on the prairie. They were then held in the new District 10 schoolhouse when that was built, and the Presbyterian church was organized with about six families. A frame church was erected for $2,000 in 1867, and this land was purchased from Mr. Townsend in 18722. The earliest known burial here was in 1860 on private land, and there were apparently several burials before the church was built1.
A temperance society was established in about 1868, and monthly meetings alternated between the Methodist and Presbyterian churches. The English Methodist church was built next to the site of the District 10 schoolhouse, the latter still visible to the south and slightly west in this same section on the John and Elaine Diercks farm. A combined Sabbath School was created, which was held alternately at the two churches. The Methodist church moved to Oak Center in 1871. Good Templar Lodge No. 121 was organized at the Presbyterian church in 1875, but meetings were soon moved to the grange hall3.
By 1884, membership at Harmony Presbyterian Church had grown to about thirty families as Reverend Hazlett continued to serve the congregation once every two weeks3. It was reported that a German Methodist congregation later used the church building for a number of years before it was torn down in about 19054. The church’s Trustee transferred ownership of the land to the Presbytery of Winona in 1909. Henry Meincke, owner of the surrounding land in 1914, bought it that year for $1.26 to satisfy back taxes. It has been a part of this farm ever since2.
Sources:
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