Brief history of the Hopewell United Methodist Church
and the Hopewell Cemetery near Beard
The history of the church dates back to 1842. Families in the area felt the need for a church and since a building could not be financed, they met in homes of the Rev. Rice and others. Later they met in a cabin schoolhouse, located south of Beard about ¾ mile.
John and Elizabeth Beard donated ground for the first Hopewell cemetery and church in February, 1849. It was a Methodist-Protestant congregation at that time. He had obtained the ground from a grant from the United States of America dated 3/20/1837 by President Martin Van Buren.
The first church building was not actually built until 1854-55, just west of the present structure. The first year it was raised, roofed and sided. Meetings were held there that first winter, even though it was unfinished. It was so cold that they called it the Barn Church. The following year it was plastered and finished. Seats were benches made of poplar lumber, with straight uncomfortable high backs. Of course in the early years circuit riders served the church. Rev. Rice and Beal were the first circuit riders.
The second building was built in 1892, where the church now stands.
Mary Jane Michael Beard Short donated money for the bell. In 1925 the church was remodeled and a basement added. In 1949 the church was again remodeled. This time an addition was added to the east and the pulpit area was changed from the north end of the sanctuary to the south eliminating the entry doors in south. The entry doors was placed on the east, under a porch roof.
In August 2002, lightning struck the steeple of the church and it burned thru the steeple causing the bell to drop and also burned thru the roof. The first members to arrive at the church moved the furniture from the front where the fire had started, to the back of the sanctuary. Others carried out some of the old pictures and things we felt were important to keep until the fireman would no longer let us go in. Even though the fire department saved most of the building, we still had major repair work to do to put it back into shape. The bell had fallen to another floor of the steeple and in the process it had cracked. It was taken to Taylor’s welding and after several attempts was able to fill the crack. He then painted it black and we placed it back in the steeple after the church had been refinished.
Most of the furniture in the sanctuary had to be refinished due to water damage. The furniture was stored in Lafayette and they also came with equipment to dry out the building before renovation could be done.
The piano and organ had been thoughtfully moved and covered by the first ones to get to the church, so they needed very little. All the plaster on the sanctuary walls had to be taken off and replaced. New rafters had to be put in and ceilings in sanctuary and basement were replaced.
We were fortunate enough to have the Masonic building nearby and they offered us the use of their building for our services which we had there until July of 2003 ( almost a year). Now we have a more beautiful church with most of the old furnishings and feel we were truly blessed to not have lost everything.
Now…..to the cemetery.-- It actually started with the Beard family that owned the farm to the west of the present church. They had lost a baby early in 1842 and had buried that baby on a hill in the open woods. For protection, brush was piled on the grave so that animals would not trample it. This was the first burial in what was later to become the Hopewell Cemetery. John and his wife Elizabeth, donated the ground in 1849 to be used for a church and cemetery.
Several plots do not have stones, but we assume there are burials in those places. Good records were not kept at that time or was destroyed/lost and the only records we have of the oldest area are the tombstones that are there.
The part of the cemetery to the east of the church was donated by the Santford Sheets family and the first burial was Ida Laughner in 1911. This has since been called the Sheets addition of the Hopewell Cemetery.
The proper way of a burial would be the head to west facing east, where the sun rises. The man should be buried to the right of the woman, same as when getting married. Occasionally you will find the opposite, because the woman will want to be buried next to her sister .
