The original church building was built on 4th & Meridian, across from the library and Pioneer Park

One Hundred Years in the Making

The earliest history of this congregation stretches back to late 1888 or 1889 when the state evangelist of Washington, E.C. Sanderson along with J. T. Eshelman organized an all-day church meeting at Frank Spinning Grove on the bank of the Puyallup River.  From that first event a Christian Church was formed.  The church met in a variety of places.  Meeting places at first were in private homes, vacant store buildings, halls and clubrooms.  By 1892 regular worship services and Sunday School were being held at the Christian Hall in Puyallup on the corner of Stewart and J Streets with Rev. Alfred Brunk serving as pastor.  S. W. Clascock came from Missouri to guest preach in April 1894.  Among his first activities was to hold a night-to-night meeting at Sumner.  Bruce Wilkerson, who was born while his family was crossing the prairie in 1853 and became a well-known church planter and preacher in the Northwest, preached at the first evangelistic service held by the church.  The first recorded baptism by the congregation was Mable Morse on April 16, 1904.

L. F. Stephens, at the time a Washington State evangelist, was traveling in the Northwest helping to build and organize Christian Churches throughout Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.  In June 1905 Stephens came to Puyallup and with the assistance of four carpenters was able to complete a church building in four weeks.  That church building stood at 331 Meridian across from the rose garden in Pioneer Park (on the east side of Meridian between Pioneer and 4th Avenue SE).  The church was incorporated on October 7, 1905 with J.T. Eshelman serving as pastor.  Eshelman was a strong ecumenist, participating in union services with other churches in the area.  A sermon he preached at one of those union services entitled,  “Christian Union,” was published on the front page of the Puyallup Republican in April 3, 1908.

In 1927 the church building was enlarged at a cost of $5,000.  (Our photo above comes from a later era, but the original building is probably wrapped inside of the one pictured. It was common in that time for an architect to add to an existing building and the earlier one can be detected by looking at the roof lines.)  In April 1937 the church celebrated full payment of that debt with a victory banquet and a service for the burning of the bonds.  This was accomplished during the early part of the ministry of Clive Taylor.

David E. Norcross would serve as pastor in the early 1930’s.  A noted pacifist, Norcross would move to Portland to work as the field secretary for the National Council for the Prevention of War and later worked with relief and peace organizations in Seattle.  On Sept 13, 1937 under the leadership of Rev. Clive Taylor, the church would join many other protestant congregations by sending a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt urging the Neutrality Law be applied equally in the conflict between Japan and China. 

Many pastors have served in ministry in our congregation.  Another pastor from those early years, Harry Bell, a native of Australia who studied at Eugene Bible College, served our congregation and several others in the Northwest before taking a pastorate at Columbia Heights Christian Church in Washington, DC.

Rev. Lee Sadler also was a graduate of Eugene Bible College.  He was ordained at FCC Puyallup and served as pastor for several years.  He is perhaps best-known as the pastor who initiated the Golden Wedding Service (1929), a tradition that has continued through the years.  He had other talents as well:  in the history  of the Castle Rock Christian Church, which Sadler also served, “Pastor Sadler won the respect of every man in Cowlitz County when he worked in the woods as a choker setter.  He also won the love of his church as a devoted pastor and good pulpit preacher.” 

In 1958, unable to accommodate all of its Sunday School classes, a motion was made to buy our current property on 9th Avenue SW.  The motion was seconded and carried with 83 votes For and 9 Against.  With Fred Towne as pastor they broke ground for the new building on December 4, 1960, and the first worship service in the new church building was celebrated on July 30, 1961.

In 1988, under the pastoral leadership of Rev. Bernie Krager, the church began the process of changing its Constitution and Bylaws to open the position of elder to both women and men.  This was a difficult time for the congregation.  The revised Constitution was approved in 1990, and in 1993 Martha White served as the first woman elder for the congregation.

From those first days with J.T. Eshelman and the Community Union Services down through the years the church has maintained the core value of ecumenical relationships.  In 1938 with Rev. Clive Taylor as pastor the church joined two other local Baptist churches in offering combined Vacation Bible School.  In current years the church continues this practice by partnering with the First Presbyterian Church and Christ Episcopal Church to host a joint Vacation Bible School for children in our community.

The congregation looks forward to a new chapter in the life of this church, as we faithfully seek to continue in the ministry of God’s gracious reconciliation.

Other references to FCC Puyallup's history:  http://ncbible.org/nwh/WaPierce.html#puyallup

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