Now that's preaching!

The Brethren genealogy listserv provides some entertaining reading from "the old days." Here's an item from 1914 recalling how things were 40 years before in Iowa--

"The winter of 1873 and 1874 was not severely cold,
with very little snow. IRA CHASE, a Brethren minister
from South Dakota, came to our neighborhood and
opened a revival meeting in the school house. The
elder was one of the 'hollering' kind. No person could
go from the meeting and say that they did not hear
what the preacher said, for he usually could be heard
for one-half mile. Elder Chase was a good man as well
as a good speaker. His sermons began to take effect.
People came for miles from every direction. The school
house could not hold one-half of the crowd. A collection
was taken up, teams were dispatched for lumber, one
end of the school house was moved out and the sides
were built in to double its former size. All of this was
done and not a meeting missed. Something over 80
people were converted or went to the mourner's bench.
During one of the elder's sermons he designated the
locality as Pleasant Valley, which name it carries to
the present time.


LeMars, Iowa Sentinel, Jan 9 1914

Expanded the building, renamed the town and 80 souls saved, too!