Eclipse Church

In the early part of this century a great need was eventually felt for a church building at Eclipse Cemetery, especially since there were so many funerals and the distance to travel was so great. The various Tucker families were most gracious to lend the use of their home to those in sorrow, but still it was a distance to their place, and was a hardship in frigid weather.

Once a group of people built a little sod house for church purposes on the ranch of Judd Gragg, but money with which to pay a minster could not be raised, and before long the little undedicated building was being used as a granary by Mr. Gragg. So it too, did not fill the need for a community building.

Eventually there was money enough to build a church building, enough to match that coming from the Episcopal Church, and in 1916 the building was constructed. The Reverend George Ware was one of the the most encouraging forces behind it. In 1918 the church was dedicated, and in 1978, they celebrated their sixty year anniversary as an Episcopal Church.

After the erection of the church, Bishop Beecher made the trip to All Saints Church to hold Memorial Day service almost every year. Later the Rt. Reverend Howard R. Brinker. D.D. carried on the tradition.

The women of All Saints Guild was organized in 1910 with Mrs. A.J. gragg first president; Mrs. Placer Tucker, Treasurer; and Mrs. Thomas Quinn, Secretary. A few years after that the Helping Hand Community Club came into the picture. Both worked for the upkeep of cemetery and church.

On November 1, 1981, the Eclipse Church resumed regular church services as a non-denominational organization. We were blessed with John Gale as our first minister. he and his family came to use from Tryon for nine months and we were deeply saddened to lose them.

We continued having regular church services with the help of many wonderful guest speakers. During this three month interval we also began working on our badly deteriorated church walls. Dave Christensen did the carpenter work, which was quite a challenge with no electricity. The work was completed within a two week interval and we were so pleased to have John Gale and his family back to help us celebrate the completion.

On November 21, 1981, we were again blessed with a wonderful minister from the Arthur Baptist Church, Paul Kondy is still with us as we hope he will continue to be for a very long time.

As far as we know, there have been only two wedding in the church. The first was November 3, 1956 with Don Bullington and Bonnie Connell. Milt Seson and Laura (Davis) Sedlacek were married on January 28,1984.

With God’s help we know that our little country church will continue to grow and be a wonderful service to our fine community.

Source:
McPherson County: Facts, Families, Fiction
Published 1986
Page 115