Published: July 26, 2009 10:38 pm         

Church closes after 114 years

Last Sunday, the 114-year-old Ringwood Presbyterian Church voted to close its doors, a victim to dwindling congregation.

The church started in a saloon more than a century ago and grew with the times numbering as many as 100 members at one time. There were only 12 active members when the church closed and five of them drove out from Enid each Sunday, said Jim Percy, one of the remaining members.

“There just aren’t enough of us to keep it going,” he said.

According to a two-page history written by Nora Craig, the church was organized on Nov. 3, 1895, as a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination. Rev. C.B. Parkhurst was the first pastor.

Sunday school and worship services were first held in the old Ringwood schoolhouse, four miles northwest of the present town. After a school was built in Ringwood, the congregation met there.

In 1908, an old saloon was purchased for $200 and moved to the church’s current location at 4th and Oak streets. The church members—with aid from the Presbyterian Sunday School Mission Board—then raised $999.50 to remodel the old saloon into a church building. The total cost of the remodeling was $999.05, leaving 45 cents in the treasury.

By 1950, the women of the church worked as cooks for summer youth camps of the Presbytery of Oklahoma at both Roman Nose and Boiling Springs state parks. They contributed a large part of their earnings from cooking to the church’s building program.

The Rev. Charles Louis Pattison served the Ringwood church continuously for 35 years.

The average age of the congregation is 78 years old, including 95-year-old Mattye Smith. A group of the remaining members sat around the church Sunday and talked about the demise of their church home.

“We were just like a family,” said Vera McNickle.

Until recently, the church met one Wednesday night a week in addition to Sunday services, plus a dinner on Sunday.

Most of the members started going because it was the most popular church at the time and their children wanted to go with their friends. Barbara Percy said it was an active church at the time, and the congregation still numbered in the 90s as late as 1995.

They had a full-time Presbyterian minister until 11 years ago, then had a lay minister who preached until the church closed, July 19, 2009. Melvin “Red” Allen said Ringwood’s population now is between 500 and 600, but mostly Hispanic, who attend two Baptist churches in town or go out of town to church.

“It was a good church when the kids were young. We had good teachers and a good junior church. When the kids got older, they left home to find a job,” said Barbara Percy.

McNickle attended another church Sunday morning, but some of the others did not go anywhere. They said they have not made up their minds where they will go. They have been invited to church by family members, but if they attend with them, they will have to drive into Enid. There are six other churches in Ringwood, plus churches in Ames, Helena and Meno, but no Presbyterian churches unless they come to Enid.

The church will officially close in October. Meanwhile, no one attends on Sunday and the building, which is owned by the Cimarron Presbytery, sits empty.

Mattye has been a member for 63 years, starting in 1946. McNickle joined junior church in 1962.

They formerly built a house for one of their ministers but sold it a few years ago. The front of the sanctuary was originally a saloon and has served the church well for years.

One of the outstanding memories of the group were the meals they had at the church or at church functions – meals that helped bring the church members closer together. They cooked for church camps at Roman Nose State Park and Boiling Springs State Park, and they attended church meetings as far away at Guymon. The church women cooked enough meals to pay for the ministers’ home they built.

“We cooked for the full Presbytery, and I had to make rhubarb pie for one of the officers,” Vera recalled.