PEORIA MAGAZINE October 2023

SEED AND SOIL

THAT OLD-TIME RURAL RELIGION For 182 years, Blue Ridge Church near Chillicothe has proven ‘a spiritual anchor’ in central Illinois farm country

BY STEVE TARTER PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

T he small country church may be the last of the rural out posts resisting the fate that’s befallen such reminders of the past as the one-room schoolhouse, the blacksmith shop and the old-time soda fountain. Blue Ridge Church, a chapel 22 miles north of Peoria at the border between Chillicothe and Edelstein, has a long his tory but a short supply of congregants. ‘I THINK THE SMALL COUNTRY CHURCH STILL HAS A PLACE IN THIS WORLD’ — Ellen Donsbach Contrary to rumors, the Blue Ridge Church has not closed, and it contin ues to invite any who seek “a spiritual anchor,” noted Mary Meyer and her daughter, Carolyn Blair, in a recent notice for a Chillicothe newspaper. WANTED: A PASTOR Meyer, 90, recalled her first memories of the church, which was founded in 1841. “My mother and dad always sat in the back pew with me. I don’t know if the reason we sat there was because of

said Blair. “We’re looking for a minister. Right now, pastors in the area like Don Kennedy, a retired pastor at the Cedar Hills Baptist Church in Dunlap, help us out,” she said. “There’s been a shortage of pastors,” added Meyer. SUNRISE, SUNSET A lot has changed in the area since the church was first founded, according to a history written by Meyer’s grandfather, Henry H. Nurse, in 1917. “There were no houses between Northampton and Blue Ridge, nor be tween Blue Ridge and Boyd’s Grove, except on the stage road between Peoria and Galena,” wrote Nurse in the pocket-sized history preserved at the church. That history also details the construction of the present church, erected in 1898 to replace the origi nal sanctuary, which had fallen “into a dilapidated and dangerous condition.” Since Roswell Nurse came from New York to settle in the region in 1836, 10 generations of Nurses have grown up in the Blue Ridge area and in this very church, said Meyer. In Blue Ridge Cemetery, located across the street from the church, “a

me,” she said, laughing. “We had Sunday school held in the back of the church,” she added, pointing to an area that now holds extra pews. But handling overflow crowds isn’t a problem at Blue Ridge these days. “It’s hard drawing people to a small country church,” said Bobbi Wages, Meyer’s granddaughter and overseer of the church’s Facebook page. “We’re trying to get our name out there. A lot of people think the church has closed.” Previously known as Blue Ridge Unit ed Methodist Church, the church is now non-denominational. Some 20 people were in attendance at an August service at this house of wor ship, which now has another challenge,

10 OCTOBER 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE