Church Plans Anniversary Rites Sunday
IDAHO DAILY STATESMAN, AUGUST 17, 1955
The 20th anniversary service commemorating the dedication of the Foursquare Gospel Church will br held at Drybuck, Sunday at 2:30pm.
The church is located in the Drybuck mountain valley where long ago the small community consisted of a store, postoffice, school and saw mills which supplied lumber for the Emmett and Boise valleys. The church is located under four giant pines which overlook the Drybuck valley, according to the Rev. Howard E. May, who was pastor there at the time of the building of the chapel. Built in the fall of 1934, the first service was held in the church on Thanksgiving Day of that year.
In August, 1935, after the building was fully completed, the Rev. Ethel Reidner, who was at that time pastor of the Four square Gospel church in Emmett officiaated at the dedication ceremony and named the church "The Myrtle May Memorial church of the Foursquare Gospel," in honor of the wife of Reverend May who died earlier that year.
Continuous services were held weekly for several years until, one by one, the mills shut down and the famlies moved away.
What once a small but busy mountain community," Reverend May said, "now consists of only a few isolated homes and ranches scattered throughout the hills."
In recent years former members and friends of the church who now reside in Sweet, Emmett, Caldwell, Boise, Nampa and in other communities, have met there annually for special commemorative services.
Reverend May said that heavy winter snows made it necessary for residents of the area to travel to the church on sleds drawn by horses.
Today only a few isolated families live at Drybuck near the church. located between Banks and Sweet.
"But residents throughout the area still love to attend the annual worship services which are held each summer in thanksglving to God for the role that was played and for the many lives which were affected by this pioneer church on the hill," the pastor said. The Rev. and Mrs. May and their son came to the saw mill community in the spring of 1934, at that time there were three mills in operation, the Rincarson mill, the Church mill and the Martz mill.
The church was constructed by the combined efforts of the workers and their families "who sacrificed and cooperated together to build this monument to their faith and made it their church home," Reverend May said.
Reverend and Mrs. May and daughters, who now reside at Hanford, Calif., where they are pastors of the Foursquare Gospel church, are visiting here at the home of their son, Howard May, Jr. They will be in charge of the twentieth anniversary service.
The church Is located about 14 miles above Sweet. Those going via Sweet should turn right after passing through the town and go via the Brownlee road. Those going through Horseshoe Bend may inquire at Banks for further instructions.
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