111 Years of Service

For the congregation of Cascade United Methodist Church, Sunday, September 15th, was a day of worship, history, and dedication. Pastor Dotti Behling began worship at 9:00 a.m. with a sanctuary filled with the faithful. They were worshiping in the same church building with the same stained-glass windows as the original congregation did in September 1913, one hundred and eleven years ago. Following worship, Church Historian Kendra Lane presented a slideshow of early church and Cascade community history.

The community and the church share a history that has been entwined since almost the beginning. The early area communities of Chestnut Valley and St. Clair, previously called Ulidia and Gorham, were visited by early Methodist Church pastor William Wesley Van Orsdel, “Brother Van,” and small rural congregations began in those communities as early as the 1870s. As the area gained more settlers, these congregations began to grow, and many merged together. At St. Clair, directly across the river from today’s Cascade, a beautiful wooden church with a tall steeple was built and became the St. Clair Methodist Episcopal Church. That church was damaged in the flood of 1908 when Hauser Dam broke upriver. When the railroad came through on the west side of the river, a town called Dodge formed, which was later renamed Cascade. Businesses and homes on the east bank gradually moved across the river to Cascade. Rather than build a new church in St. Clair, the congregation of the Methodist Church decided to build their new church in Cascade. They used the cornerstone of the St. Clair church to begin the foundation of the new building, which was completed in September 1913.

On Sunday, the congregation remembered and honored this history and took the opportunity to dedicate a new sign that was installed in front of the church. The brick pillars were gifted by Murry and Marilyn Moore, and the sign was gifted by Duane and Kathy Gebhardt as a memorial to Dorothy Gebhardt, who was a member of the Cascade Methodist Church.

A fellowship with cake and ice cream followed the ceremony.