March 28, 2024

They couldn’t find a way to save the old Ottumwa church

OTTUMWA (AP) — Pat Osteen isn’t sure if there was a way to save East End Presbyterian Church. The toll taken by the years was simply too much.

The closure of the Morrell plant, whose employees once made up a large part of the congregation, hurt. Kids who grew up in the church moved away. Then their parents followed as they retired and aged.

“It just seemed like there was no way to save the church. Everything we tried, nothing worked,” Osteen told the Ottumwa Courier. “The church ended up with, I don’t know, three people under age 70.”

The church has been a fixture in Ottumwa for more than a century. It hit 150 years a little while back. The decline was slow. Pews were taken out. Then the organ. That split the church between those who wanted it repaired and those who couldn’t see spending the money, Osteen said, taking more families away.

Sunday school classes ended. Finances slid downward. The church had a part-time pastor. The final decision to close came Nov. 6, with the final services Sunday.

It wasn’t always that way, of course. Osteen joined the church in 1947 and had been in Sunday school there since age 4. Joining was a landmark moment.

“You’re 12 or 13 years old,” said Osteen. “To be asked to join a church is a big honor.”

As with any organization, it’s the people who seem to be the focus for most of the memories. Sure, folks remember the feel of a service of how the sanctuary looked on a particular day. But it’s the people who stand out all those years later.

And it’s not always who you might think.

“My memory is this elderly gentleman when I was a kid. He always came to church and always sat in the same place. I always sat up with him because I knew he was going to fall asleep,” Osteen said, laughing. “At the end of the service I would wake him up.”

The future of the building is not entirely clear. Osteen doesn’t know. Doesn’t want to. Not yet. It’s too raw right now.

There are the what ifs to work through. What if Morrell’s had stayed put? What if the congregation hadn’t become divided?

“I don’t know if there was ever any way to save it or not,” said Osteen.