Mt. Olive Church

Years ago, when the country around here was mostly covered with woods, two men named George Casner (in 1852) and John Hawkins Jr. (in 1854) decided to settle in this territory. Mr. Casner cleared some land, built some fences, and entered the land in the records at Shawneetown in his own name. The of the United States signed the patent giving George Casner the title to the land. Mr. Casner and his wife had a son named Ramsey and after Mr. Casner was killed in an accident, this young man sold the farm to a trader on May 1, 1868, just six years and a month after his father had purchased it. Six months later, the trader, Joel Scrivner sold it to William Palmer, who kept it several years, and then it passed from hand to hand until on February 10, 1865, John Gentle purchased it and planned to make his home there.

Others settled in the community also, and the need for a cemetery and church arose. The first burial occurred about 1860 when William Palmer owned the land. The church was started in 1866 or 1867 (the records are incomplete). The land was deeded from John Gentle and his wife, Frances, to the Trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which had been organized in the community. The land which was deeded was not the land where the church was built, due to an error in the land description, and on November 10, 1873, the mistake was rectified by properly describing this two-acre tract on which the cemetery and the little log church are located.

Several of the men of the community volunteered their services to build the little log church. The trees were cut on the place, were drug to the site of the church by a team, then adzed, squared off and placed in position by man power, quite different from the building of today.

Prior to the turn of the century, many of the older settlers had passed away and were buried in the cemetery. Some of their graves were marked with sand rock which soon became illegible. Many of the younger people had left home to work elsewhere, and at last there were only three members of the church left. They signed over the church and cemetery property to the community to take care of and preserve. After this there was no Sunday School or church held regularly, though prayer meetings were held on Thursday night, with some of the young people driving many miles to attend. There were double doors with a double button to fasten them, and more than once the young people would come to attend prayer meeting only to have to return home because no one knew how to open the double button.

About the turn of the century a Brother Mitchell of the Salvation Army was here. He conducted the services and his daughter played the tambourines. While he was here he started Sunday School and was superintendent during his stay.

A few years passed and in 1904 some repair work was done. One log, the second from the bottom on the north side, was practically destroyed and had to be replaced. We tell of this occasion in the words of C.C. Jenkins: “I was just twelve years old and had come with Pa to get some logs from Mr. Mateer to help build Long Prairie Church. Mr. Mateer was cleaning out some woods and we came over to haul the logs. Down the road was this log church and some men outside. They told Pa about their trouble – they had come to replace a big log, but the man who was to haul it couldn’t come – so Pa said we’d take time to help ‘em out, and I drove the team that drug the log over to the church! Made me feel pretty grown up and good to get to help. I’ll never forget it!!” This was what was told at one of Mt. Olive’s homecomings by Mr. Jenkins.

Bill & Jim Lathrop on the steps of Mt. Olive Log Church ca. 1945

After the church was repaired, there were often revival meetings held here. Once a brush arbor was built for a special meeting. Cal Richardson, one of the best known country preachers of Jefferson County, and Blythe Reece, who had a peg leg, were holding this meeting in very warm weather. Wes Bundy, who lived a quarter of a mile away, always carried water to the meeting in a cedar bucket. A gourd was used to drink from, but on this particular occasion he forgot to bring the gourd. Reece, as they called him, wanted a drink and asked where the gourd was. The reply was that it had been forgotten and he would have to drink out of the bucket. The bail that had been on the bucket had been lost and replaced with a wire bail. When Mr. Reece tipped up the bucket to drink the wire bail fell over the back of his head and a practically full bucket of water was emptied in his face. Everybody had a good laugh, including “Reece,” who had to have help getting the bucket off his head.

Many years elapsed during which revival meetings were held at the church but no regular services. By 1932 the church was really in a bad condition. The doors were gone, the roof had fallen in, the floor had rotted through and two of the sills needed replacing. The neighbors who met to repair the church were: Jim Green, Charley Moore, B. Davis, George Baldridge, Rosier Green, Jerry Williams, Roy Green, Henry Culp, Cal Gentles, Oscar Gentles, Ben Woodworth and Wiley Green. They also put in a new ceiling, filled in between the logs with chinking, put in new windows, whitewashed the walls and replaced the sills under the floor. The neighbor women brought dinner, and everybody had a good time. Mr. B. Davis made a good talk at noon. As the group was talking, one of the men, Rosier Green, said “I wonder which of us here today will be the first one planted here.” Not too many years later he was murdered by a burglar and became the first of that group to be buried in the cemetery.

After the work on the church in 1932, the community was drawn closer together. Many had attended a revival at Salem Church about two and a half miles northeast of Mt. Olive, and urged that a meeting be held at Mt. Olive to carry on the good work. One was and forty persons were brought to Christ. Again regular services were held for two or three years before they were discontinued.

About 1937 or 1938, two ladies of the community, feeling that the children of the neighborhood should have a place to go to Sunday School, secured help and repaired the church and started a Sunday School which was held in the afternoon. Brother Michael, now deceased, a Union Sunday School missionary, helped organize a Union Sunday School, which increased in size as the years went by.

On August 15, 1942, Roy E. Green, Cal Gentle and Courtney Green, who were elected trustees of the cemetery, leased the real estate to H.B. Yates under the name and style of Trustees of the Mt. Olive Methodist Episcopal Church, which lease was assigned to the Kewanee Oil Company following which a community organization agreement was entered into and oil wells were drilled on the 80-acre tract of which the church yard and cemetery are a part. Although the Methodist Church was not functioning any more, the money was paid to the trustees, who used it on the cemetery. These trustees have since passed away or moved away and the oil well was abandoned; however, a son of one of the former inhabitants of the community, Homer Johnson, his son Verne and his nephew, Gene, are still in charge of the cemetery and the church helps keep it in good condition.

In 1948 at the New Year’s Watch Service a revival started. There were 37 conversions and several young married couples started attending Sunday School. Church services were held part time, and it was their desire to have a church home. On taking a vote it was found that the majority of those voting preferred to join the General Baptist denomination and so it was done on May 19, 1949, and the church was organized under the name of “Mt. Olive General Baptist Church.”

Although there is a new sanctuary near completion of which the members are proud, still the little log church is very dear to the hearts of all in the community. They intend to keep it in good repair and to use it as a chapel of prayer and for meetings of the church. We intend to replace the logs as necessary and to take care of and keep the little log church as long as circumstances will permit. This is the only log church building still standing in Jefferson County.

History of Jefferson County, Illinois, compiled by Continental Historical Bureau, Mt. Vernon, IL, 1962

The church was taken apart, moved to Mt. Vernon, Illinois and reassembled in 1992 at the Jefferson County Historical Village.