SOUTH FORK CONGREGATIONAL METHODIST CHURCH (HOWELL COUNTY, MO.), RECORD BOOKS, 1899-1950 -- R487
at
University of Missouri at Rolla, Western Manuscripts

G-3 Curtis Laws Wilson Library
University of Missouri-Rolla
1870 Miner Circle
Rolla, MO 65409-0060
573/341-4874

These are record books of the South Fork Congregational Methodist Church in southwestern Howell County, Missouri. The volumes include membership rolls and minutes of church business meetings beginning 25 July 1899 and continuing through 21 August 1950.

The South Fork Congregational Church met at Crossroads Schoolhouse west of West Plains, along what is now Highway 160 at Highway E in Howell County, Missouri. For the first decade of the twentieth century, J. D. Boles and W. P. Knox were pastor and secretary, respectively. The Black, Brown, and Knox families were well represented in the small congregation of about twenty-five members. After the 1920s, membership and the frequency of services declined.

The record books include membership rolls and minutes of meetings of the church conference, or administrative council. The officers met monthly through the 1920s. There are records of only four meetings in 1933. They are followed by the minutes of a single meeting in 1936, after which the minutes end. The last entry is a membership roll revised in 1950 by L. D. Galloway, District Missionary. The list includes only seven names.