Plymouth Magazine-Fall26-DIGITAL - Flipbook - Page 24
The Bequest that
Saved Plymouth Church
Excerpts from a sermon by the Rev. David Ruhe given on March 7, 1999
to make payments on the mortgage,
and foreclosure was at hand. What
happened then was almost too corny
for Hollywood, let alone Iowa.
Rev. David Ruhe
“Two things happened in 1929:
Stoddard Lane arrived and the stock
market crashed. . . . When people
around here talk of a golden age, a
time when this church became in large
part what it is today—spiritually more
than institutionally—the pastorate of
Stoddard Lane is most often mentioned.
“But during that time the church
itself nearly died. The Depression
was hard on everyone and everything,
churches included. There was a time
when the congregation was not able
The stained glass window dedicated to Emma
Whisenand. This window is located in the
Sanctuary on the west wall, third from the left.
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“Two days before the bank was to
foreclose, the church received a letter
from an attorney in California, informing
us that the church had been mentioned
in the will of one of his clients, Emma
Whisenand, who recently died.
The church showed the letter to
representatives of the lending institution,
who agreed to hold off on foreclosure,
pending receipt of the bequest. Well,
it can take a while for things to work
their way through the courts. Several
months went by, during which time the
financial fortunes of the congregation
improved, and we were able to resume
making mortgage payments. So the crisis
had passed when the bequest finally
came in. It amounted to $200. There is
a window in the sanctuary dedicated to
the memory of Emma Whisenand. It’s
the third one of the Beatitude windows:
‘Blessed are the meek.’”
