Church celebrates 150 years of service

The First Presbyterian Church, located at 308 S. Crawford St., will be celebrating 150 years in the Fort Scott community Sunday with a special service at 10:30 a.m. (Submitted photo) [Click to enlarge]

After 150 year in the Fort Scott Community, the First Presbyterian Church is still going strong.

First Presbyterian Church will be celebrating 150 years of service to Fort Scott, the surrounding community and the world by inviting the public to join their 10:30 a.m. worship service as well as a the dinner to follow.

Helping to make the service special will be Dr. Mary Newbern-Williams, General Presbyter of John Calvin Presbytery.

Letters of congratulations will also be read from former pastors and others during the dinner. In addition, special music is planned.

The church began in 1859 with only three members. Reverend Alexander Ranking served as pastor, and the three members were Mrs. Alex McDonald, Mrs. William Smith and J.S. Caukins, who was elected Ruling Elder, according to information provided by the church. The church moved to it's current site, 308 S. Crawford St., in 1865 and the building was dismantled in 1923. The current building was then erected in 1925.

In 2008, the congregation's hard work in research paid off when the church was included on the National Register of Historic Places.

The church has performed many services for the community. It was the site of the memorial service for Gordon Parks and was also the first home of the Head Start program. In addition, the building was used as the first home for the Children's After School Alternative and is presently being used by the Southeast Kansas Mental Health Department for SEKA, an after school program. Under the leadership of the Reverend Peter Vail, First Presbyterian was one of the churches that met to form The Beacon.

The church requests that anyone wishing to attend the dinner following the service please contact the church at (620) 223-3180 to make a reservation and purchase a ticket.