Plymouth Magazine-Fall26-DIGITAL - Flipbook - Page 9
The Plymouth Church Story
The Historic Frisbie Decades
The Rev. Henry S. DeForest left
Plymouth in 1870 to become president
of Alabama’s Talladega College, the
country’s first historically Black college,
and the Rev. A.L. Frisbie of Danbury,
Connecticut, began his distinguished
pastorate at Plymouth. Des Moines was
a relatively small city at that time, with
a population of 12,000 people, and
Plymouth was still a modest-sized church
with a membership of 166. During
Frisbie’s 28 years of service, membership
increased to more than 600.
In 1876, work began on a new church
building at 7th and Locust streets. It was
occupied from 1877 to January 3, 1902.
To expand the church’s reach, Frisbie
helped to found satellite Congregational
Churches in outlying neighborhoods:
Pilgrim, North Park, and Greenwood
Churches. Later, in 1921, Greenwood
Church and Waveland Congregational
Church, established in 1915, merged to
form Plymouth Congregational Church
when the new church was built at 42nd
Street and Ingersoll Avenue.
Early in his ministry in Des Moines,
Frisbie married Martha Crosby after
the death of his first wife. Martha
(Crosby) Frisbie was a teacher and
leader in the Congregational movement
in Connecticut before moving to Des
Moines. She studied at Mt. Holyoke
Seminary and taught for four years at
Temple Grove Seminary, a women’s
boarding school.
After her marriage, Martha Frisbie
continued to teach at Callanan Seminary
in Des Moines and trained Sunday
school teachers in the Des Moines area.
She was active in the abolitionist and
temperance movements and was an
active Congregational leader throughout
her life. Martha Frisbie was president of
the Plymouth Missionary Society for
30 years and was President Emeritus for
almost as long, until her death in 1931.
Under the Frisbies’ leadership, membership
soared, and a new brick church building
was erected in 1876 on the same 7th and
Locust streets lot (now the site of Ruan
Center). It was built at a cost of $37,000
and dedicated in 1877.
New church at 7th and Locust streets
Satellite Congregational Churches
North Park Congregational, 1884−1919
Located at 6th and Forest avenues.
Plymouth was instrumental in establishing this
church. Rev. Frisbie preached at the dedication.
Greenwood Church, 1898−1925
Located on 35th Street between Grand and Ingersoll
avenues, the church was later the first home of the
Des Moines Playhouse in 1927.
Waveland Park Church, 1915−1926
Located near 42nd Street and University Avenue.
This building is now the Masjid An-Noor,
a Muslim Community Organization.
Plymouth Magazine 9
