This item of Church History was written by the aunt of 
Mike Dean in the year 2000
it is kept in the Archives at DePauw University.


In the 1930's Salem and Montgomery Christian Church  
(which was only about 
1/2 mile away) often held services
together and the congregations seemed to be almost 
interchangeable. I 
understand that the Salem church did not have
a minister for a while in the 1940's. In 1947 or 48  
the church received a 
minister by the name of Rev. William June
Evans. He served 6 churches and we had him every 3rd 
week. At that time it 
was still the custom to have the minister
and his family at someone's house for Sunday dinner. In 
1948 my father and 
many others of the church raised the
church and put a basement under it. They dug it with 
tractors and scoops. We 
had many children in the neighborhood 
at that time and we had a good attendance. We often had 
ice-cream socials, 
pound parties, (where everyone brought
a pound of something), like cookies, etc., as well as
 pitch-in dinners. For a 
few years we took a bus and went to
Spring Mill Park for an all day outing. In the winter 
time we would get out 
in the church yard and play fox and geese
and other games and in the summer we played drop the 
handkerchief, tag and 
other games. I also remember my
father hooking his tractor on to a sled filled with hay 
and  picking up the 
neighbors on the way to church. I was born
in 1935 and I vaguely remember going to church with my 
grandmother and they 
had pull down lights that were filled
with kerosene and then you pushed them back up. No one 
seems to know what 
happened to those lights. We were
just glad to have electricity. 

About 1953, Rev. Evans left our charge and went to 
Patricksburg. We then had 
several student ministers who
filled-in. Rev. Evans then retired and came back to 
Salem, and was there 
until we closed the doors about 1968 or 69,
due to a small congregation and the death of many of 
the members. There are 
about four graves just north of the
church with a curb like enclosure around them. Rev. 
Daniel Anderson and is 
wife are buried there, I am sure. My
uncle told me that at one time there were several 
graves north of the church 
and on the other side of the fence, but
there has been no evidence of any that I can ever 
remember.

Submitted by Mike Dean