Plymouth closed

A longtime church in Dunkirk has closed its doors and members are grieving the loss of not just a building, but a haven they attended with their parents and later where their children grew up and got married.
Plymouth United Church of Christ, located at the corner of Main and Pleasant streets, held its last service Jan. 24 with its aging remaining members and not enough funds to cover expenses.
Fundraisers were held, but it just wasn’t enough to keep the doors open.
June Messersmith grew up attending Plymouth church and later attended with her husband Michael.
“It’s just awful hard to watch the doors close,” she said.
Lois Pines was the moderator of the church.
“It was just a very difficult vote,” she said of members making the decision to close. “A very emotional time.”
No one wanted to make the choice, but the members knew there were no other options.
“But we know that God is with us,” Pines said.
She has been in contact with the Indiana/Kentucky Conference of which that Plymouth Church is a member. Members want the building to be used as a church after it is sold, and the conference is helping with the process.
Plans to build the church began through discussions with the Rev. D. A. Holman, who was pastor of a church in Washington (Indiana), in 1891 during the Gas Boom era in Jay County.
Members were meeting at Pythias Hall, and in 1895 sent an application asking for funds from the Congregational Church Building Society in Boston. The church was completed in 1903.
“So it has a very rich and deep history,” said Janet Soule, Muncie, who is a United Church of Christ member as well as a clergy person and attended Plymouth for the past two years.
A few years ago, after James Glass did a study of buildings and artifacts created during the Gas Boom Days, Jay County Visitor and Tourism Bureau created a Jay County Gas Boom Trail brochure. Plymouth Church was one of the stops.
Glass suggested during a meeting in the spring 2014 at Jay County Historical Museum that the church give tours.
Soule was involved with the project and said the next step was to have plaques put on all the locations on the trail.
But the Indiana State Bureau of Tourism funding the project came up short.
“It was very, very sad,” Soule said of the closing.
Tuckpointing repairs need to be done to the north wall of the church to save the historic stained glass windows that adorn that wall, and members have held fundraisers to pay for the work. Even though the church is closed, repairs are set to begin in the spring.
Two of the windows are inscribed — one with the name of Harriet Gaunt, the wife of Jacob Gaunt, who was one of a group of trustees named to have a building built for the congregation. The other is the Honorable William G. Sutton, who made a motion in 1895 to proceed to find a committee to secure a site, plans and funds for the church.
Sutton also owned the land on which Dunkirk was founded.
The church also raised money through trumpet benefit concerts with member Steve Coomer, a Dunkirk native who maintains a house in his hometown while living in Indianapolis. Coomer was a trustee for the church, and his wife Jeanette played piano at services.
Coomer’s father Robert was moderator, and his mom Thelma was secretary. They began attending in the mid 1960s when Coomer was in college.
Susie White was treasurer of the church and attended with her husband Jack.
“You feel sad,” she said. “That’s about all you can do.”
Even though members are still upset over the closing of their beloved church, they are continuing to take the necessary steps to sell the building.
“We wanted to be good neighbors,” Soule said.