Historic Dawt Church of Christ celebrates its centennial June 29

The Dawt Church of Christ will host a centennial celebration that starts at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, June 29, at the church on County Road 317 at Dawt. Minister Wayne Stewart said everyone is invited, especially those who have been associated with the Dawt congregation through the years. "Come and help us celebrate the sacred old church that has met here on the banks of the river for more than 100 years now," Stewart said in announcing the celebration. 

The event will begin inside the church with a reading of the history of the congregation, plus comments from Stewart and other members who will share what the church has meant to them during their lifetimes. 

Stewart said the church had held a "homecoming" event in the summer of 2000, and its members "have looked forward to this day since that day." 

At the centennial celebration, a group photo will be taken, Stewart said, and it will be compared with the photo that was taken at the homecoming event to "see how the faces have changed." 

At the conclusion of the formal part of the service, probably around 11:30 a.m., Stewart said, "we will gather in the pavilion behind the building for an old-fashioned 'dinner on the grounds' – except that we will be comfortably seated in the shade with a view of the old North Fork River in the side view." Attendees are invited to bring a dish to share "like our forebears might have done 100 years ago," Stewart said.

After lunch, probably around 1 p.m., attendees will be invited to participate in a singing that will either be held outside under the pavilion or inside the air-conditioned building, "depending on the temperature," Stewart said.

The celebration is expected to last three to four hours, and members and guests are invited to come for all or part of the event, as their schedules allow.

The Dawt Church of Christ means a lot to many area residents. "Many of us owe her much," Stewart said. "Let us render her proper and due respect." 

For more information about the celebration, call Stewart at 417-257-4162. 

He has led the Dawt congregation since 1997, when he accepted the call while he was also working as superintendent in the Richland School District but "still wanted to preach the Gospel," he said. Previously, he had been the minister for the Gainesville Church of Christ from 1980 to 1984 (following in the steps of his father, the late Cliff Stewart, who was the Gainesville Church of Christ minister from 1957 until 1964). 

After preaching at Gainesville, Stewart and his wife, Elena, had moved to West Plains, where he was minister at the West 160 Church of Christ from 1988 until 1993. Each of those congregations had about 250 members, and, serving those large churches while also working full-time as a school superintendent became too much. He needed to move to a smaller congregation. 

"When I began preaching at Dawt in 1997, there were eight regularly in attendance," he said. "Since that time, we've grown to some 75 members with 40 to 60 in regular attendance." 

For five of his 27 years at Dawt, 2004-2009, he and Elena and their family lived in Washington, Missouri, just west of St. Louis, and drove to Dawt every Sunday for weekly services – plus other times when he officiated at weddings and funerals. 

In 2009, they moved back to West Plains when Stewart became superintendent of the Glenwood School District. He retired from that job last year, after serving in the job for 14 years.

In 2017, the church added an appealing pavilion on the north side of its old building. The shady, spacious structure overlooks the North Fork of the White River, below. The pavilion was added shortly before the North Fork experienced a devastating flood that demolished dozens of other structures along the river, including houses and two large bridges on state highways. 

The river's high water reached the back corner of the church building and stopped. Many people said it was a miracle that the floodwaters hadn't destroyed the church. That might have been the case. But Stewart also had some insider information that helped explain the "miracle." 

He said the information came from the late Dale Morrison one day after a baptizing upstream near the James Bridge on PP Highway. Dale's grandfather, the late Ulysses Morrison had been one of the founders of the Dawt congregation. As they were leaving the river that day, Dale had pointed toward the bridge and asked Stewart if he'd ever been told how high the water had ever been at that location. Stewart hadn't.

"It's been two-thirds of the way up to the highway," Dale had said, pointing to the two-lane steel structure that carried the highway traffic. 

Stewart thought that was surely impossible, but Dale insisted that old-timers had told him that flood had happened in 1913.  

When the church building survived that next historic flood in 2017, Stewart knew it may well have been protected by a godly miracle. But he said it also survived, "because it was built in 1924 by men who knew how high the water had been just 10 years earlier." 

Today, the congregation at Dawt continues to grow, and several of its members have young families. To accommodate the growth, last week, the church brought in a modular building that now stands next to the original building. It will be used for Sunday school classes and fellowship gatherings, he said. 

The history of Dawt Church of Christ

The history of the Dawt Church of Christ shared here comes from an October 2004 story written by the late Dale Morrison (1923-2017), with additional information from Stewart and from Janet Ebrite Taber's story about the 2000 homecoming that was published in the July 12, 2000, edition of the Times:

As near as can be determined from the deed, the building was built in 1924. Oral history tells that it was built by S. A. (Anthony) James and U. H. (Ulysses) Morrison from material hauled by Ulysses in a horse-drawn wagon from Rockbridge Mill, where the lumber was sawn. It was built on an acre of land donated for use of the church by Melvin and May Bushong, Herbert and Clara Bushong and Theron and Alma Frazier, who owned the Dawt Mill property at that time. 

“The date of completion and the first worship service is unknown, but the building has been used regularly since the beginning, and it is our hope and endeavor that it still meets the Good of God and the people responsible for its establishment,” Morrison wrote.

On June 4, 2000, folks came from near and far to celebrate a homecoming reunion. "We enjoyed food and fellowship together after worship and sang and had a little church history after lunch,” he wrote. 

Omega Morrison Watt came to the homecoming from her home in Tucson, Arizona. She was the only attendee who was also present at the first service held in the old church back in 1924, according to Taber's report. She had been 8 years old at the time. Gainesville-area resident Fanny Hunt, a former owner of Dawt Mill, was the oldest attendee.  

Morrison's history notes that, for several years, families from a congregation in Springfield vacationed at Dawt, and one year when Bob Lawrence of York, Nebraska, was conducting a meeting at the church, the Springfield group helped set an attendance record of 154. "Quite an overflow crowd for our small building," Morrison wrote.

Preachers who have served the church include U. H. Morrison, Squire Garner, Joe Blue, W. C. Rice, John Newberry, Hermon Howard, Preston Fields and Albert Thompson Doin Pitchford, Gary Pitchford, Hubert James, Bob Lawrence, Gene Ousley, Rusty Maynard, Cliff Stewart and his son, current minister Wayne Stewart. 

Wayne recalled that Dale Morrison always "took pride in Dawt's role as a very small congregation in providing a preaching opportunity for young beginning preachers of which there were many over the years." That list included Jimmy Maynard, Rusty Maynard, Vic Williams, Halbert Smith, Alan Stewart and many others. Some of those speakers, plus others including Lavern Stewart, Richard Bentley and Kenneth Luna, also conducted multi-service meetings at Dawt.

Dale Morrison concluded his history by citing Ephesians 4:4-6, which he said "summarizes our religious belief: (4) There is one body, and one Spirit, even as we are called in one hope of our calling; (5) One Lord, one faith, one baptism, (6) One God and Father of all, who is able all, and through all, and in you all."

He signed the history, "In Christian love, Dale Morrison."