‘A better reward’ - Centertown Baptist Church has history and spiritual roots dating back to 1860

William Clark, a native of Massachusetts, later settled in Moniteau County, where he married and was ordained a Baptist preacher. In 1860, he helped organized the congregation that became Centertown Baptist Church in western Cole County. Courtesy of the Wagner family

Churches have long been recognized as the spiritual anchors of their communities, providing a central meeting location for worship and other friendly gatherings. The Centertown Baptist Church, since 1860, has been a central feature of the Centertown area and remains the only surviving congregation in a community that once contained several churches.
 
“On December 3, 1860, eighteen people met at the home of William S. Freshour for the purpose of organizing a Baptist church for the Centertown community,” explained the 100th anniversary booklet of the Centertown Baptist Church from 1960. “Before the church was started, people had their memberships at Sardis, in Elston, Mo., and in California churches,” the booklet added.
 
William Freshour, born to meager circumstances but accumulated great wealth in later years as a businessman and farmer, was a driving force in the formation of the congregation. Many times, he served as a judge in the Cole County courts, and the Godspeed Publishing Company wrote in 1889, “The (Centertown) site was first occupied in 1852, by Judge Freshour, who erected his house north of the railroad.”
 
At the time the church was organized in 1860, it was referred to as Lookout Grove Church. In 1867, the community that became Centertown was surveyed and, in 1870, the church renamed Centertown Baptist Church.
 
The first pastor of the fledgling congregation was Rev. William Clark, a native of Massachusetts who migrated to Missouri in 1841, married Mary Snodgrass in 1846 and was later ordained as a Baptist minister. As part of his pastoral duties, he helped oversee the establishment of Articles of Faith and Rules of Decorum to help guide the fledgling congregation.
 
“We believe the visible church of Christ is a congregation of persons who have given themselves up to the Lord and to one another, having agreed to keep up a Godly discipline according to the rules of the Gospel,” declared Article Seven.
 
When the new church in Centertown was organized in 1860, church history notes that although construction of a building soon began, it was not finished until 1870 because of the tumult of the Civil War. 
 
Rev. Clark shepherded the Centertown congregation for the next several years but passed away in 1877 when only 56 years old. He was laid to rest in the Centertown Cemetery a short distance from the church he helped organize 17 years earlier.
 
Like many other churches being carved from the wilderness of developing communities, the first church house was framed from trees cut in the area. Pews were also hand hewn and with rural electrification yet to arrive, lighting was provided by lanterns and candles.
 
The first church was built east of its current location inside what is now the Centertown Cemetery. This rustic frame structure served the congregation for the remainder of Judge Freshour’s life, who passed away in 1897 and was laid to rest in the California Masonic Cemetery.
 
“The Baptists of Centertown have done themselves honor in the erection of a most commodious church house,” reported the Word and Way on September 22, 1898. “Our aged sister Freshour (Judge Freshour’s widow) gave $1,000. The estate of the lamented Freshour speaks after his death.”
 
In the years following the establishment of Centertown Baptist Church, the German Evangelical Lutheran Church and Cumberland Presbyterian Church were also organized. However, both churches have long since disbanded.
 
When the new Centertown Church was erected in 1898, it was at its present location approximately a half-mile west of the cemetery. The new church was built at the cost of $2,200.
 
“The old church building with furnishings was sold (in 1906) for $125.00,” noted the church’s 125th anniversary booklet. “This same year, the pastor’s salary was raised from $250.00 to $275.00 per year.” Construction of a parsonage was the next major addition, which occurred in 1919.
 
Joe N. Smith, a member of the Centertown congregation, was killed on March 17, 1925, when the Centertown Bank, where he worked as cashier, was robbed. Smith died shortly after being found on the floor in a back room of the bank, having been shot by the thieves. 
 
“The funeral of Joe N. Smith was held in the California Masonic Cemetery, Sunday,” reported the Tipton Times on March 27, 1925. “It is estimated that 500 automobiles and 2,000 persons were present at the services.”
 
Several years later, in 1930, the glorious transition from relying on lamps and candles for lighting occurred when the church was finally wired for electricity.
 
Larry Wagner inauspiciously entered the world when he was born in a small home north of Centertown in 1939. As a child, he attended Centertown Baptist Church and was later baptized as a member of the congregation. According to his obituary, he was a deacon of the congregation for 37 years and taught Sunday school classes for 40 years, becoming a respected elder and church leader.
 
“My great-grandfather William Wagner was the first from our family to begin attending Centertown Baptist Church,” said Vicki Wagner Gerling. “My grandfather, Frank Wagner, attended there and my father, Larry Wagner, was a member his entire life. Both my sons have been members, as have my grandchildren, which makes six generations of our family who have been members of the church.”
         
Larry Wagner passed away in 2019 and was buried in the Centertown Cemetery, not far from the first church building where his grandparents had attended services decades earlier. Throughout his many years of membership, he watched the church grow and change, and later shared his own reflections on how it had influenced his own life.
 
“… I thought about the people who have used their spiritual gifts to help me grow spiritually,” Wagner wrote for a presentation several years ago. “They didn’t have to—they did it because they had a love in their heart that came from knowing Jesus personally…,” he added.
 
“What kind of example are you and I being today? I can’t think of a better reward than to have someone say that I have been an influence in their lives that led them to a saving knowledge of Jesus.”
 
Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of the historical compilations “Moments on the Moreau," "Beyond the Moreau," and "Hidden History of Cole County." 

The first house of worship used by Centertown Baptist Church was erected in the Centertown Cemetery. This building was abandoned in 1898 and a new church erected at its current location a short distance to the east. Courtesy of the Wagner family