RUMPLE MEMORIAL  PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH   South Main Street   PO Box 393    Blowing Rock, NC 28605   phone: 828.295.7675 fax: 828.295.3184 email: rumple1@bellsouth.net And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'   Matthew 25:40 “A caring congregation nurturing spiritual growth and demonstrating the love of Jesus Christ.”   A History of Rumple Memorial Presbyterian Church by Donald B. Saunders   Professor Emeritus of History, Appalachian State University   Beginnings The story of Rumple Memorial Presbyterian Church can be told in its organizational detail; its story as a part of the Eternal Body is recorded elsewhere. Still, by noting how it has witnessed to the everlasting Good News of Jesus in the world, we can see ways in which its sons and daughters have succeeded in leaving a long legacy of service in our community. Rumple Memorial Church and the town of Blowing Rock have grown up together; ours was the first permanent house of worship here. During the early 1880s Blowing Rock was a small village of mostly farm families, but a few boarding houses were accommodating visitors seeking escape from the hot summers of the Piedmont, recovering from various Victorian "nervous ailments," or studying the curiosities Nature had left in the unique mountain landscape. Among the "outlanders" who had already built summer residences on the mountain were at least three active Presbyterians: Mrs. Alfred M. Stewart of Davidson, who kept summer boarders; Col. William J. Martin, professor of chemistry, geology, and natural history at Davidson College; and the Rev. Dr. Jethro Rumple, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Salisbury and a Davidson graduate, class of 1850.  They resolved in 1882 to relieve the "widespread religious destitution" in this part of Watauga County and began soliciting small sums from friends.  In 1885 Concord Presbytery granted approval to proceed and on the fourth Sunday in July, 1886, Dr. Rumple dedicated a frame church on the site of the present stone sanctuary. Official organization came a year later, with a charter membership of seven residents. Land for the church was donated by merchant and boarding house keeper William M. Morris and his wife, Edith Matilda Morris; they joined the church in 1891 but later moved east of the Blue Ridge. Morris's store on Main Street was the center of the town when it was legally incorporated in 1889 and he became one of the town's first commissioners. The permanent congregation did not grow much in the first decade, but loyal summer friends, and support from Concord Presbytery's Home Missions Committee, kept it going. In these years the church was nominally under the care of the First Presbyterian Church of Lenoir, a difficult, half-day journey on horseback even in the best weather. The Rev. C. A. Munroe, who served the Lenoir congregation from 1885 to 1903, had studied under Col. Martin at Davidson; he and Rumple were also both trustees of the College. Munroe supplied the Blowing Rock pulpit only occasionally, if at all, during most of the year, while Dr. Rumple and other visiting pastors preached in the summer. Early records refer to a Sunday School but no teachers' names or attendance figures were given. A new chapter opened when Munroe introduced the Rev. Edgar Tufts to the mountains in 1895. After two summers of missionary work in Banner Elk while attending Union Theological Seminary (another institution at which Rumple was a trustee), the young, energetic Georgia native in 1897 accepted the denomination's call of evangelist and settled in Banner Elk, where he quickly organized a church. Over the next quarter century he built up that church and the other work still carried on by the Memorial Association which bears his name: Lees-McRae College, Grandfather Home for Children, and Grace Hospital, later the Charles A. Cannon, Jr. Memorial Hospital. Mr. Tufts preached one Sunday each month in Blowing Rock, Pineola, Cove Creek (later in Shulls Mills), and Banner Elk, riding faithfully on horseback or later automobile to all his charges, sometimes accompanied by his wife, Bessie, or later, his children. Tufts's daughter, Margaret, wrote a history of the work in Banner Elk, And Set Aglow a Sacred Flame, a book still available in local libraries and bookstores. Milestones of Tuft's Years During Tufts's years three important milestones in the history of the Rumple Church were passed: the present stone sanctuary was planned and built; the first session was organized; and the congregation began its ongoing support of the work of the Grandfather Home. The new church building took shape from a rough 1905 pencil sketch by Dr. William J. Martin, son of the Colonel and his successor as professor, and later president, at Davidson. Lightning had damaged the first building during the 1890's; the growing summer population had spilled out its doors; and so, "without a dollar, but in faith," as Dr. Martin later wrote, a building committee was formed to raise funds and start work. Charlotte architect C. C. Hook prepared working drawings realized under the supervision of Mr. Joe White, a long-time resident and later one of the first three members of the session. The building committee typified the growing attention Blowing Rock was getting as a summer resort. It included the Rev. James I. Vance, D.D., who first bought property in the village in 1901 while pastor at the North Reformed Church of Newark, N. J. and after 1910 preached at the First Presbyterian Church of Nashville; and Mr. E. M. Williamson, a Fayetteville resident and a brother-in-law of Dr. Vardell. A recently-arrived resident, Gaither W. Hall, who had transferred his membership to Rumple from the Banner Elk Presbyterian Church, was the first building committee treasurer. Dr. Martin recalled that "not only Presbyterians but many summer visitors and residents of Blowing Rock of other denominations and faiths subscribed to the (building) fund," a pattern of support for its enterprises which has been repeated at Rumple to this day. Some of Dr. Martin's recollections of the building project are now a part of the "local lore" and add life to the story. Due to the new church's "low walls and so great an expanse of roof," he observed, "one of our very good and sympathetic Episcopal friends named it 'Saint Rufus' and one of our devoted Presbyterians called it 'The Ice House!", Dr. Martin also recalled that he gave orders that the rock for the arch (above the pulpit) and the pulpit furniture be carefully select- ed. When placed on the ground, while approving of the rock, he noticed some stains on some of it. He inquired of the man who hauled it as to the source of the rock and was told that if the truth were told it would not be used. On being pressed he confessed he had taken it from the chimney of an abandoned moon- shine still house! This rock is in the arch and in the pulpit, glorifying the God who created these oldest of mountains of which they are a part. Money for construction was raised, after the first year, by contributions from Sunday to Sunday. Martin tells us that "the congregations were very patient and co- operative with the repeated calls, even when on one occasion Dr. Vance announced, 'Dr. Martin will now make the financial report and take up the congregation!'', Work on the building was virtually complete by 1912, when the ceiling and trusses were cased in oiled chestnut wood. Several major improvements to the building have been made since that time, as well as numerous smaller repairs and alterations. In the late 1920s the original porch was removed and a remodeled portico, designed by Henry C. Hibbs of Nashville, a well-known architect and an elder in Dr. Vance's church in Nashville, was added. Also in this era the original wooden roof was replaced with slate, "which was secured by Dr. Vance at a greatly reduced rate from a friend in Pennsylvania." In the 1960s the Summer Residents Committee donated funds for a new floor and a modern heating system (since updated and improved), which allows the sanctuary to be used comfort ably for all but the coldest winter months.  And in 1999 for the first time in its history, air conditioning was installed in the stone sanctuary.  Dr. Rumple, a guiding spirit in the church's early years, died during the first year of work on the new building. In his memory, his Sunday School classes in Salisbury provided a simple stone marker designating his mountain home church "Rumple Memorial." Although the name was not officially changed until 1940, the marker has been continually displayed on the exterior. In 1913, with the stone church finished, a session was organized for the first time. Its membership remained unchanged for many years: Mr. William L. Holshouser, (grandfather of James E. Holshouser, Jr., baptized at Rumple Memorial and governor of the state from 1972 to 1976), whose store on Main Street the entire village patronized; Mr. Edward G. Underdown, for many years supervisor of the Cone Estate; and the above mentioned Mr. Joe White.  Permanent membership at the church reached forty during Tufts's years. Tufts also promoted interest from his Blowing Rock congregation in the work of his home for children in Banner Elk. In 1918, the Rev. Charles G. Vardell, son-in-law of Dr. Rumple and founder and president of Flora MacDonald College in Red Springs, who spent his summers in Blowing Rock, visited the home and saw the need. He returned to Rumple Church and arranged for a special offering to be taken. The congregation dug deep into pockets and purses, raising almost $1000 that first year. The collections have continued annually. We cannot describe here all the support that has gone toward the work of Grandfather Home.  From 1940 until his death in 1960, Mr. David Ovens of Charlotte and Blowing Rock brought talent from the New York Metropolitan Opera for sacred concerts. Collections soared, some reaching above $10,000, and "Grandfather Home Sunday" became an event on the summer social calendar.  For a time these offerings amounted to nearly one-third of the home's annual operating budget. Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hayes of Concord kept up sponsorship for several years after Ovens's death. In recent times, the Farm House Singers, led by Mrs. Shirley Blackwell, continued the musical event. We should note that our church's contributions to Grandfather Home have not always been money: for years local members home-canned produce, sponsored individual children, and once even sewed housecoats for every girl under the home's care. The work Tufts started at the Home has undergone some dramatic changes since its founding, but the tradition of support remains. At Tufts's death in 1923, the preaching arrangements he had made were considered too extended to fill in the former way. From 1924 to 1928 the Blowing Rock pulpit was occupied half-time by the Rev. George S. McKaraher, who had come to North Carolina from the Presbyterian Church,  U.S.A. to devote his energy to a church and a school, the Boone Fork Academy,  at nearby Shulls Mills, then a thriving lumbering town. McKaraher lived with his family at Shulls Mills, but in 1929 he left for another charge.  During 1929 and 1930 Rumple Church was supplied again from Banner Elk, by the Rev. William R. Smith, who during these years directed religious activities for the  operations of the Edgar Tufts Memorial Association. Various alternatives for combining or dividing the pastorates in Watauga and Avery counties were considered in this period by Holston Presbytery, to which the church had been transferred with the creation of the Synod of Appalachia during World War I.  Its remarkable Home Mission Supervisor, the Rev. Walter K. Keys, often preached from our pulpit and others in the region; our church may well have been considering a call to him, but in 1931 his heavy responsibilities throughout the Presbytery, which stretched from southwest Virginia, covered much of east Tennessee, and included four counties in northwest North Carolina, temporarily broke his health. A manse next to the stone church, completed in November 1931 with Keys's encouragement, was occupied by the Rev. G. Sexton Buchanan and his family for the next eight years (the building was pulled down in the late 1960s with the present Sunday School building was erected). Buchanan was Rumple Memorial's first full time pastor until he left in 1939 to serve several churches in rural southwest Virginia. The era between the World Wars brought many changes to Blowing Rock, and a larger role for the local church. Developed neighborhoods of summer "cottages" began to typify the landscape in and around town. A golf course and country club made their appearance. Improved roads meant that the summer resident population was being augmented by weekend tourists and visitors from farther afield. Already by 1921 Dr. Martin could boast that the drive from Blowing Rock to Davidson, via Lenoir, Hickory, and Mooresville, took him only four and a half hours by car (today one can drive the distance in less than half that time). Mayview Manor, grandly situated on the John's River Gorge, was by the 1920s luring visitors from as far as Florida. During Buchanan's pastorate the Blue Ridge Parkway route was plotted and a short stretch built nearby. The local congregation too, was growing and its year-round activities were inadequately housed. In early 1936, as Buchanan and the session prepared to celebrate the church's semi-centennial, they were answered, in their need, by a generous gift from Mrs. Joseph P. Cannon of Concord, for the erection of a winter chapel and several Sunday School rooms.  Located just behind the church, its interior was finished in chestnut, recalling that of the existing sanctuary. The lower story supplied Sunday School class space for the next thirty-five years. Contract for the work went to Cameron A. Williams, a local builder and church member. Construction was again supervised by Joe White and others, with numerous church members and local residents contributing their labor at sacrificial rates. In 1987 this chapel was dedicated to the memory of the Rev. Walter K. Keys and his wife, Eleanor, who served at Blowing Rock from 1940 to 1948 and again from 1956 to 1960. The World War II Period Dr. Keys's first term of service marked an even greater outreach. War in Europe and then in the Pacific broke out by 1941. Numerous local residents were called up for service. Many of the war's survivors remember that during these anxious years Dr. Keys mailed a monthly letter from the church to each service member from Blowing Rock, whatever his denomination and however remote his station. Both Dr. Keys's sons joined the armed forces. Keys threw himself into local work, serving on the war ration board, pinch hitting as a mathematics teacher at the high school when the principal was called into the Navy, and joining or organizing numerous community organizations and clubs. Perhaps no pastor in Rumple's history has been so active in the community. But in 1948 he suffered a nervous breakdown and had to go to Florida for rest. The war years altered life in the mountains for good. Civic and national pride were stimulated; local incomes increased; veterans returned having seen the world and benefiting from education and training received on active duty and under the post-war G.I. Bill. Many men and women, facing death and loss, found renewed spiritual comfort in their Christian faith. Too, a "baby boom" led many to turn to the church for help in the raising of their growing families. Upon Dr. Keys's departure, the congregation called the Rev. Robert D. Earnest, a Tennesseean and former missionary to Brazil, who served until 1950. During Dr. Earnest's brief tenure, church membership increased, and the board of deacons was enlarged. A Sunday School council gave more formal structure to the church's youth work. The church's budget remained tight, however: a note in the session minutes indicates that the pastor was informed in late 1949 the church might not be able to pay his annual salary, $2875, in full. Early the next year Earnest asked for leave to pursue the Master of Theology degree at Columbia Theological Seminary.  Interim pastors filled the pulpit for several months until the Rev. Samuel S. Cappel, who had just completed his seminary training at Columbia, arrived at Blowing Rock. The young pastor soon left to take a chaplaincy in the Navy during the Korean War, although his zeal was long remembered by church members. meant another spell of temporary leadership. His departure meant another spell of temporary leadership. In 1953 the Rev. Leroy T. Newland was installed as pastor at a service made unique by the presence "by invitation of his son, the Rev. H. Reid Newland, to preach the sermon." By now the frequent pastoral changes and gaps in leadership had affected the church's work. In 1950, two fifths of the regular budget had been covered by outside donations.  Newland, who had seen missionary service in Korea, set to work to revitalize the session and the board of deacons. Cottage prayer meetings and morning Bible studies were organized; the Newlands and church officers urged regular attendance on the membership.  Special services led by other pastors helped to bring renewal.  In 1956 Newland and his wife retired to Black Mountain. Key's Second Pastorate Meanwhile, Dr. Keys and his wife had returned to the home they had built in Blowing Rock, and as his health slowly improved, Keys again took interest in community affairs. During the 1950s he helped to organize the Town Park, and served as director of recreation and publicity for the town he had come to love. Upon Newland's retirement, the congregation turned to Dr. Keys again for leadership. With assistance from summer supply pastors, opportunities to preach occasionally in his native region of southwest Virginia, and annual trips to Florida, Keys resumed his ministry. By the time of his move to Bee Ridge Presbyterian Church near Sarasota, his last charge, Keys had helped bring new involvement in the life of Rumple Church by its officers and its growing membership, which reached 208 by 1960. Wise in the lore of the mountains, sharing the pleasures of fishing and hunting with numbers of his flock, Keys won the love of many. He was also an earnest preacher. His sermons, several of which he published, reflected his reverence for a loving God and a warm, evangelical spirit. He inspired unprecedented growth of the Men's Bible Class: many local men who had never darkened the door of any church were drawn into that fellowship -- sometimes literally. Passers-by on the sidewalk were invited in by "captains" competing for recruits! It was an era of active lay leadership in church activities, as local people and "transplants" from other places did committed service. A generation of devoted women taught and worked then: Mrs. Annie L. Cannon's "scene- o-felt" classes for children and hymn sings on Sunday evenings are still remembered.  Mrs. Bernice Keppel was a leader in the Women of the Church; her husband Dr. Alvin Robert Keppel, retired president of Catawba College, also served as church treasurer for a time in this period.  Mrs. Mabel Holshouser, wife of long-time elder Howard Holshouser, and Mrs. Sara Payne, worked energetically in Sunday School, as did Mrs. Ethel Burns.  Another whose musical talents served the cause all through the era was Miss Margaret Vance, who had moved permanently to her parents' summer home on the death of her father in 1939 and played the church organ for many years. During Keys's second pastorate the church began receiving income from a fund established by Mr. Robert A. Dunn of Charlotte to support Christian and recreational work among the youth of Blowing Rock. Dunn had first summered in Blowing Rock in 1913 at the cottage of Dr. Martin, and later built a home on the gorge. A Charlotte banker, he was a dedicated Presbyterian layman, teaching a young men's Bible class at First Presbyterian Church in Charlotte for many years. He was Moderator of the General Assembly in 1931.  Davidson awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws in 1925. A variety of "Dunn Youth" activities has been made available by Dunn's legacy, open to all young people in town, regardless of church affiliation or of no affiliation. In 1960 the pastorate passed to the Rev. Blake Brinkerhoff. As the 1931 manse was in need of replacement, and a small building fund had already been started, the Brinkerhoffs were the first to move into the present manse on South Wallingford Street. The building campaign was sparked when two lots were donated in 1960.  Several members voluntarily signed bank notes of $200 each to get construction started. Virtually all work was done by local members: excavation, framing, plumbing, wiring, even making curtains. But to clear up the debt proved a challenge. Memorial plaques for church pews were solicited for, as a way to get help from summer residents and members.  Chicken suppers and other such projects brought additional sums.  At the end of summer in 1961, Mrs. Cannon asked to see one of the elders:  "I'd like to see the debt on the manse paid off," she said. "Do you think I should offer to the session to pay what's left?" "No Ma'am, I don't think you should," replied the elder. "This is something we should do by ourselves." "She broke out a big smile and gave me the biggest hug," he remembered. "I don't think the church was ever closer than when we were working together on that project." By late the next year the entire note had been paid off, and a grateful session held a ceremonial note-burning on the manse's lawn. The Summer Residents Committee Support of summer people has always been vital to the church. In his years Brinkerhoff began applying the Pauline injunction Presbyterians like to take to heart, "Do things decently and in order," to the sometimes- uneasy relationships between the permanent and the summer congregations. The 1960s were an era of pluralism, mobility and relative affluence. For Blowing Rock they marked the beginning of a new kind of growth: greater numbers of retired or semi-retired people, many with no previous ties on the mountain, were settling in. Condominiums, and nearby resort communities like Hound Ears and Appalachian Ski Mountain, brought increased numbers of more transient visitors. How would Rumple reach such people? Would they "fit" comfortably with the congregation's regulars? A Summer Residents Committee, chaired for 21 years by Eugene S. Bowman of Mocksville, took shape by 1962. It was directed to familiarize summer residents with the church's activities, welcome and assist in ministering to them, and offer suggestions and help in planning for the church's long range goals. The committee remained active for many years. It is impossible here to name all those who have participated on it, or all the projects they have worked for and to which they have provided support. The committee at first was large -- larger than church session. But its work made possible significant improvements to the physical plant, from the purchase and paving of additional parking space to the preservation and improvement of the stone sanctuary. Many of the aids to worship which enhance the dignity of church services came at the committee's suggestion and were purchased wholly or in part with their gifts: brass candle stands, a new communion table and baptismal font, more than one replacement organ, and a new vestibule for the Keys chapel. Their contributions cannot be reckoned only in dollar terms. Brinkerhoff and his successor from 1965 to 1973, the Rev. J. Richard Holshouser, had distinct personalities but many similar interests and experiences. They were classmates at Davidson, class of 1956, and entered Union Theological Seminary at the same time that autumn; each earned his degree in 1960. While at Rumple, both men took great interest in youth work, especially in Scouting. Abler "Dunn Youth" work was never done than by these men. Holshouser's time of service saw the realization of the Annie Ludlow Cannon Memorial Education Building. Many current members recall the details surrounding completion of this functional and substantial structure. Mrs. Cannon's estate provided the seed money, but two years of barbecue suppers, craft bazaars, and Holshouser's "expect a miracle" leadership, together with the quiet and anonymous help of summer residents and others close to Mrs. Cannon, raised additional funds. The building was completed in 1971 Our Recent Past As the church and the community entered the contemporary era, the pace of life quickened. Twice in a decade unfortunate problems disrupted the church and required the intervention of Presbytery.  The vigorous, outspoken Scotsman who pastored from 1974 to 1978, the Rev. Frank Collier, brought a taste of the "auld" highlands to the town, shaking some from their complacency and disturbing others. During his time the congregation adopted a unicameral governing structure. From 1980 to 1987 the Rev. Vaughn Earl Hartsell, a native South Carolinian, served the pulpit. His achievements included establishing a summer preaching mission by distinguished speakers; and the institution of "Rumple Sunday" to help keep alive the history and tradition of our church. The many-faceted celebration of "Rumple's Hundredth" in 1987 owed a lot to his leadership and enthusiasm. But he too faced controversy and sparked concern. Yet recovery from its problems has marked Rumple Chursh's most recent history.  From late 1987 to 1988 the church was served by the Rev. Paul Kercher, and then for nearly ten years by the Rev. Dr. James Stuart, both on an interim basis. The church and several of its members took active part in the town's centennial in 1989: a watch night service at which the church bell was tolled a hundred times was one of the year's many special events.  During 1990, with local and summer residents' donations, the congregation purchased the structure behind the church, once Blowing Rock's first hospital building, in order to add parking space and a source of rental income.   Substantial renovations to the Cannon Building were undertaken in the late 1990s, which enlarged office space, brought the pastor's study down to the first floor, and renovated the basement of the chapel building.  In keeping with the church's tradition, these projects were designed and carried out by local members. In late 1997 Dr. Stuart announced his intention to really retire.  His optimistic and irenic leadership had done much to heal wounds and draw a wider circle to the fellowship that is our congregation.  In his honor the church has established a scholarship fund to help our young people with college expenses.  This eloquent memorial has already left tangible legacies in the lives of several of our young members.  In the fall of 1997 Rev. Don Price became our interim pastor, helping with the transition to a new full time minister.  With much work, thought,  and prayer, a representative and smoothly-functioning search committee recommended in early 1998 that the congregation call the Rev. Larry Lyon to be our pastor.  Having been called in early middle age to the ministry, he brought to our church, his first charge, the experience and the mature judgment of one who had functioned in the secular world as journalist and layman.  "Smitten" with Blowing Rock, the recent Union Theological Seminary graduate moved his family to town and into the refurbished manse in the spring of 1998.   In the relatively short space since his arrival he has helped inspire the congregation to extend greatly its missionary work: two mission trips involving adults and youth were held, in summer 1999 to Harlan, Kentucky, and in summer 2000 to Rocky Mount, North Carolina.  He has promoted increased participation of volunteer leadership in the church (all have been asked to fill out "time and talent" surveys, and to make formal pledges for giving).  He urged and got approval for enlarging the session from nine to twelve members.  Our Youth Director from 1999-2002, Ms. April Hamilton, an Appalachian State University student, and Heather Wood, our current Youth Director, also an Appalachian State graduate have sparked with grace one of the most active programs for young people in recent church history.  Membership has grown and most would agree that today the church's problems are "good" ones: we have an increasingly active and involved membership that threatens to outgrow our facilities.  We hold two worship services from May to October; church suppers crowd the fellowship hall; nearly every available meeting room is used for Sunday School classes.  We prayerfully consider our future, but rejoice that the blessing of God is evident in our collective life as we start the new millennium. Through all its years, Rumple Memorial's leadership has been felt in the community and the region.  With the continuing grace of God we look forward to new occasions for involvement and service. PHONE 828.295.7675 • FAX 828.295.0982 • South Main Street  Blowing Rock, NC 28605 • rumple1@bellsouth.net