LANTHIER

Staff Writer

MANSFIELD TOWNSHIP — The Mansfield Pioneer Church will come alive with music and reflection during the annual summer ecumenical service at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

Shirley Dishaw-Beck, one of the six remaining members of the Mansfield Memories Historical Committee, along with two of her sisters, helps organize the service. She is also a member of the Mansfield Choir and serves as organist. She got involved because of her mother, Pat Dishaw, who was a longtime member.

Mansfield Memories Historical Committee volunteer Shirley Dishaw-Beck points out one of items dropped off at the church for display.

The Rev. Ryan Flunker, pastor of Grace Sagola Church, will serve as the officiant.

“We try to rotate as we can, with a variety of area pastors. Being in Sagola, he usually brings a pretty good crowd with him,” Dishaw-Beck said.

Services typically draw 60 to 80 people, she said.

“We’re somewhat weather-dependent for the summer and Christmas service,” she said. “In winter — are the roads icy? Is it below zero? Is it raining in the summer?”

After the service, they usually set up a picnic on the side lawn and have refreshments and time for visiting. If it rains, the picnic will be in the church.

The memorial to the 27 miners who died in the 1893 Mansfield Mining Disaster.

No admission fee is ever charged at the church, but a free-will offering will be taken during the service for church maintenance.

After the land was donated, original members of Mansfield Memories built the church using logs salvaged from other buildings in the area and Crystal Falls. The church was completed in 1988. It was once the site of a temperance hall that had church services and later was a shingle mill. Volunteers built benches for seating, which are still used today.

“Five years ago we had a big fundraising campaign and had all the chinking replaced. And we used to have a very antique-looking cedar roof. We couldn’t afford to replace the roof as it had been done, so we just bought a regular roof,” she said.

The costs associated with maintaining the church, which includes things like insurance, renting a port-a-potty, fumigating in the spring and fall to try to keep the bugs down, and general upkeep, are covered strictly through donations.

She said there are many “kind neighbors” who help with lawn care and snowplowing and lighting the wood stove if needed.

The church benches were built by the original volunteers.

Over the years, many items have been donated to help decorate the church. She said people just drop things off — paintings and drawings of the church, religious items. The most unusual donation was a basket of silver coins, which she and her mother and sisters found on a shelf at the back of the pulpit.

“We have no idea where or who it came from. There was no note. We salvaged them and it was several hundred dollars. Anyone could have taken them. It was kind of a silly thing,” she said.

The organ was donated by about 20 years ago by someone from Crystal Falls but they don’t have much information on who donated it.

The service also serves as a memorial to the 27 men who died during the Mansfield Mining disaster in 1893, when the Michigamme River flooded a portion of the mine.

“When they started this church service, it was tied into that. It was a very vibrant little town. When the choir group sings the song ‘Down to the River to Pray,’ we are incorporating that horrible mine disaster. How it must of been for families as they went down to the river to pray,” she said. “This service, the church — it kinda keeps the history alive.”

Mansfield Memories Historical Committee volunteer Shirley Dishaw-Beck at the pulpit, with the organ in the background.

She said the committee is worried about the future of the church if they can’t find enough volunteers to help with upkeep and the planning the services.

“My mom was super-involved and she’d be sorely disappointed if we didn’t keep it going,” Dishaw-Beck said. “She was one of the main members of the group. She was one of the younger ones back then.”

The church is open year-round for visitors. There is a guestbook for visitors to sign that are preserved for future generations. There is a donation box and envelopes if people wish to donate.

“If people have a interest Mansfield history they can certainly contact me. If singers have an interest in our little Mansfield Choir, they can contact me,” Dishaw-Beck said. She can be reached at 906-367-0972.

The church is part of the Iron County Heritage Trail, a 36-mile loop connecting 14 sites in the county. It is also available to rent.

It is on Stream Road in Mansfield Township and can be reached via the Mansfield Cut-Off Road, about 4 miles east of Crystal Falls and 6 miles west of Sagola on M-69.

The committee will host a rummage sale near Superior Sport and Feed on Superior Avenue on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 23-24, during the Fungus Fest celebration in Crystal Falls.

Proceeds from the sale are earmarked solely for church expenses and upkeep.

Marguerite Lanthier can be reached at 906-774-3500, ext. 242, or mlanthier@ironmountaindailynews.com.