A Visit to St. Paul's United Methodist Church, Drums, PA

#23: Faith - A Visit to St. Paul's United Methodist Church, Drums, PA

This is an article that appeared in the Hazleton Standard-Speaker. I found it, like most things Mom kept, glued into one of her scrapbooks. The article says the first service was held there on Feb. 18, 1874 so I am guessing the article appeared either February 18 or 19, 1999.

In the previous post we learned the history of the Methodists, and of the churches they built here in Drums, some with the help of Drums! We recall that the congregation began in 1833 and their first church building was put up in 1840. So, although the present church was 125 in 1999 (145 in 2019), the congregation, in 2019, is 186!

On March 9, 2019, I got to visit this church again. Unfortunately, my visit this time, was actually not for a happy reason. I was there to attend a funeral.

Carrie E. Fuehrer had been a long-time family friend. During a recent visit with Carrie’s daughter, Linda Fuehrer Yanac, I was reminded of how it was Carrie who taught my mother how to drive. Born in the same year, Mom and Carrie “connected”. They were good friends.

Situated where Drumyngham is in the valley, we can look across the valley toward Butler Mountain and see the Fuehrer/Yanac home sitting in the foothills just below Foothills Drive and just east of Sunset Drive. I remember going along with mom to this home upon many occasions to buy eggs when I was small. I’d play with the kittens, perhaps kittens my mom gave to Carrie, and the other animals they owned while Mom and Carrie would sit on Carrie’s porch and talk, and laugh.

Carrie departed this world on January 13, 2019. She was 92 years old. For those of us who grew up in the valley, her parting has left a hole in our lives that cannot be filled.

On March 9, 2019, Linda held a memorial service for her mother in the Drums Methodist Church. I was honored to be one of the many who was there to remember her. In fact, I was given an even higher honor. Linda asked me if I would be the greeter and hand out the funeral programs at the start of the service. I was proud to do so.

St. Paul’s United Methodist Church.
Photo was taken during a previous visit
on July 29, 2018.

Now let’s have a look inside this 145-year-old building, St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, Drums, PA. Upon entering the building, memories of my mom singing in this church flooded my thoughts. Mom had a wonderful voice and would be asked to sing quite often; at weddings, birthday parties, Easter Services, Christmas Services, other special occasions, and sometimes funerals. As a teen I wanted to “capture” her voice so, when she would allow me to do so, I’d go with her and bring along a small cassette recorder. Somewhere in the Drumyngham house are those tapes, waiting to be heard again. At least one of them was recorded in the Drums Methodist Church.

When you first enter this church through those red front doors you do not find yourself in the Narthex or even the Nave. You find yourself looking into a social hall. To your left and to your right are staircases spiraling up to a second floor. It was difficult to capture that image in one photo. So, I climbed the 12 stairs to my right, up to the first landing and pointed the camera back down the stairs capturing the social room entry. Then I moved to the right and pointed the camera left and down toward the front door. Sitting the two photos beside each other gives one an idea of how the entry is laid out.

The light shining on the chair-lift in the photo on the right is the sun streaming in through the window above the front door as can be seen in the photo on the left. The light shining on the wall in the right photo is coming from a window in the Narthex on the second floor.

Then I climbed the next six stairs to arrive in the Narthex. The Nave is to the right in this picture. You can see one of the double doors to the Nave propped open. Straight in front of me is a display case and past that is the top of the other staircase. The stairs that continue up lead to a small room above the Narthex where the bell rope is located.

I didn’t photograph that room. It is located behind the round “window” that can be seen when looking at the front of the church, just below, of course, the belfry.

The display case is interesting. It contains documents, mostly Bibles, which I assume are from this church’s past. Along the back, however, upper left in the photo, is a member roster that I rather connected to, if one can connect to an old roster! The entries were all dated “1957” – my birth year.

Sitting on top of the case were two older hymnals.

The one I looked at, carefully, gingerly, was dated 1847.

Walking to the center of the Narthex and standing with the display case behind you, this is what you see. The Nave.

This is a handsome church built true to its traditions, not overly ornate. Plain white walls punctured by four clear windows on each side of the room allow no confusion as to where the center of attention ought to be. Your eye is drawn directly to the front of the room, directly to the Apse. To the right of the Apse is the church organ, just a corner of which can be seen in this picture.

In a discussion with Glenn Limbaugh, who described himself to me as “the church caretaker”; but who also serves, by the way, as a part-time church pastor; told me that "the alter cross was made by a parishioner maybe 10 years ago". Pastor Limbaugh went on to say that the parishioner used wood he had harvested from the trees behind his home. It made for a simple, honest, and affecting reminder of the purpose of the building we were in. The cross holds a quiet and simple beauty.

As I stood there, in that hall, just enjoying the simple beauty of the room, my eyes turned to the windows. In many churches, the windows allow only light to enter because they are covered by pictures of saints or lambs; angels or church emblems; all green and red and blue and gold stained glass. But not in this church so filled with its simple elegance. Here we find clear windows that allow God’s world itself, to be the “Stained Glass” pictures found elsewhere.

As I was considering this thought, I realized that through these windows could be seen not just the world we live in, but the connection that exists between this church and the community. There, framed by the church window, was the building that was once the Drums Hotel; built by George and his son, Abraham, whose son, George, donated the land upon which this church is built.  That building is hard to make out in this photo due to the screen in the window (it was easier to see in person). It is the building above, and slightly to the left, of the blue car in the parking lot. Through these windows, the past connects to the present in ways I had not expected. 

I was there for a funeral which made the visit a somber one. Yet, as I stood once more in this hall of worship, I was reminded of so many happy moments I’d spent there listening to my mom sing. Woven through all of these conflicting emotions was the quiet spiritual beauty of the architecture and decorations. Carrie would have liked that. She would have liked that very much.

So too, I believe, would have Edward, who helped build the building, and Nathan, Edward’s brother, who once served as the President of the Sunday School Board. So too, would have Nathan’s daughters Lottie and Nora, the last Drums to be members of this church; as would have all of the Drums who worshiped God in this building through the years. Of that, I am very sure.

Now, are you ready to visit another church? For this one we will need to go over a mountain, the Nescopeck Mountain to be specific. That’s the mountain that stands between Butler Township and Hollenback Township. Hollenback Township is where we find the village of Hobbie and the church we want to visit. In our next post, St. Peters U.C.C., scheduled for May 6, 2019, we will tour the church Anna Margaret Rosina Drum Hart and her husband, John, were members of in the 1880’s and 1890’s. It is in this church’s cemetery where they were laid to rest. Their story, and the sad story of their four daughters, was told in an earlier post entitled The Story of the Hart Children.

Come along for the tour!