Hanna Basin Museum
  • Museum
    • 2020 Carbon Cemetery Association and Hanna Basin Historical Society ​Spring Newsletter
    • 2019: Hanna Basin Historical Society and Carbon Cemetery Association Newsletter
    • Visitors to the Museum
    • Books and Magazines to Read Online about the Hanna Basin
    • Books Available for Purchase at the Hanna Basin Museum
    • Order Form for Materials Available for Purchase at the Museum
    • Membership and Support
    • Links to Other Wyoming Museums >
      • Medicine Bow, Wyoming, Museum and Hanna Basin Neighbor
      • Rock Springs, Wyoming, Historical Museum
    • Copyright Infringement Notification
  • Carbon
    • Hanna Basin Museum - Time Line
    • CARBON CEMETERY RECORDS
    • Carbon Mine Fatality Records
    • Visitors to the Carbon Cemetery
    • Carbon - Wings of Imagination - A Letter From Old Carbon
    • Carbon - A Poem by Mrs. C. E. Ellis
    • 2003: Carbon Cemetery Restoration
    • 2011: Carbon, Carbon County, Cemetery Restoration 2011
    • 2011: Bow River FFA Community Service Project: Carbon Cemetery
    • 2014: The Carbon Cemetery
    • 2015: The Old Carbon Cemetery Privy
  • Hanna
    • HANNA HAPPENINGS
    • THE HANNA CEMETERY: From the Bottom of the Mine
    • HANNA CEMETERY RECORDS
    • Hanna Burial Plots and Lots >
      • Hanna Blocks and Lots 1 - 6
      • Hanna Plots 1 - 50
      • Hanna Plots 51 - 80
      • Hanna Plots 81 - 129
      • Hanna Plots 130 - 175
      • Hanna Plots 176 - 209
      • Hanna Plots 210 - 298
      • Hanna Plots 299 - 349
      • Hanna Plots 350 - 379
      • Hanna Plots 380 - 419
      • Hanna Plots 420 - 500
    • Hanna Early Churches >
      • Introduction to Hanna’s Early Churches
      • Episcopal Church - History, Bell and Cross
      • Methodist Church - Organ
      • Colored Baptist Church
    • Hanna Military in the Hanna Cemetery >
      • Hanna Cemetery - In The Military
      • Arthurs, Peter Killed in Action World War I
      • Love, Michael V. Killed In The Line Of Duty
      • Jones, William D. Died of Wounds Received In Action World War I
      • Lucas, Bernard R. Killed In Action World War II
      • Lucas, William C. Died of Wounds Recieved In Action World War II
      • Luoma, Arvo A. Killed in Action World War II
      • McAtee, William J. Killed in Action Vietnam
      • Saari, John Killed in Action World War II
    • Hanna Cemetery - Japanese Monuments Transcribed
    • Grave Headstones for Hanna Miner Fatalities Buried Elsewhere than Hanna
    • Hanna Where Did They Come From?
  • The People
  • Schools
  • Coal Mines
    • A History of the Hanna Coal Miner from 1868 to 2017: Bob Leathers' Notebook
    • Hanna Basin Mining Companies and Mines
    • Men Injured in the Hanna Mines
    • 1903 June 30: Explosion of the Union Pacific Coal Company's No. 1 mine in Hanna >
      • Hanna 1903 Explosion Explained
      • List of Miners Killed in the June 30, 1903 Explosion
      • 1904 State Mine Inspector's Report for 1903 Explosion
      • 1903 Explosion Coroner's Inquest
      • 1903 Explosion - Earle Holmes Letter to Wilson Gobble
    • Hanna 1908 Mine Explosions Explained >
      • List of Miners Killed in the March 28, 1908 Explosions
      • 1908 Explosion Coroner's Inquest Report
      • Noah Young's 1908 Hanna Explosion Report to Governor B.B. Brooks
      • 1908 State Coal Mine Inspectors Report - 1908 Hanna Mine Number 1 Explosion
      • David M. Elias - State Mine Inspector Killed in 1908 Explosion
      • 1908 Explosion - Gov. B.B. Brooks Communiations
      • April 3, 1908 Chums From Boyhood Died Side By Side
      • April 16, 1908 U.P. May Not Be Liable
      • 1908: Newspaper Articles from The Wigan Observer in England About the March 28, 1908 Explosion of the Union Pacific Coal Company's No. 1 Mine in Hanna
      • Death of Noah Young - State Mine Inspector for the 1908 Explosion of Mine No. 1
    • 1916 Labor Agreement Between the United Mine Workers of America and the Southern Wyoming Coal Operators
    • 1917 Labor Agreement Between the United Mine Workers of America and the Southern Wyoming Coal Operators
    • 1970 - 1980: Bill Becker's Hanna Strip Mine Blasting Videos
  • Gallery
    • 1889-1912: ​ Elmer Larson - The Butvier Collection from Sally Hafdell and David Eriksson in Sweden
    • Images from Early Hanna Basin and Wyoming
    • Early History of the Union Pacific Railroad
    • 1910-1920: McNulty Family Photo Collection ​Albert Film - Hanna Basin Adventurer
    • 1920 -1930: Gert Milliken's Photo Collection of Unknown Children, Women, Men, and Families in Hanna
    • 1963 October 2: A Large Cattle Drive from Palm Livestock Company at Elk Mountain ​ to Hanna's Union Pacific Railroad Stockyard
    • 2017 April 18: Un​ion Pacific Steam Engine 844 Stopped at Hanna, Wyoming
    • 2019 May 17 and May 4: Big Boy​ 4014 and Engine 844 Were Running the Rails Again
    • Images of Old Carbon Today
  • Notebook

Hanna, Wyoming's, Early Churches

Exhibit by Nancy Anderson ​​with Contributions from Bob Leathers

1925

Hanna Churches
Picture
Hanna Churches (Union Pacific Coal Company Employ's Magazine, June 1925)

2017

An Introduction to Hanna’s Early Churches
​by Nancy Anderson

Hanna’s early congregations had their roots in old Carbon, first coal camp on the original line of the Union Pacific Railway. The Methodists and Finnish Evangelical Lutherans built houses of worship there; the first church edifice in Wyoming, Cheyenne’s first Episcopal Church, dismantled when the cathedral was built, arrived in Carbon in pieces, coming via flat car, to be recycled into Carbon’s St. Thomas. The Catholics and the Mormons met in the schoolhouse and elsewhere.  On occasion Carbon hosted revivals and services by various other denominations and independent preachers.
The Methodist Episcopal Church
 
In 1890 Rev. Benjamin Young arrived once a month to conduct Methodist services in Hanna’s railroad depot; he came from Carbon by the local train via Medicine Bow, as Hanna was not on the main line. The congregation soon realized the need for a church building and appealed to the Union Pacific Coal Company for land to lease in the company town. This was quickly granted and fund raisers and personal donations made possible the dedication of the first church in the fall of 1891, when the attending congregation filled the little church to capacity.
 
In 1914 a Sunday school room was added with the coal company furnishing materials and the men of the church, the labor. In the same year, a building from the Sampo Coal Company was moved to the site and became the parsonage.
 
The congregation continued to grow and by 1924 plans for a new building arrived from the Board of Home Missions, and work began immediately. Services were held in Linden’s Hall (now the museum) as the new church was being built on the same site as the old. In 1925, the first ME Church building was purchased and moved east on Front Street by Hanna’s black community and became St. John’s Baptist Church. Sunday December 14, 1924 the Colored Baptist Church in Hanna was dedicated.
 
 St. John’s Baptist Church
 
St. John’s Baptist Church, with a small congregation, had difficulty in finding a minister; pastors from the Hanna Methodist Church helped on occasion but the church began to decline. An Episcopal priest, Fr. Harry K. Kellam, arrived in Hanna and held regular services in what Harv Wilbur described as “an evangelical way.” The result was that in the congregation adopted the full Episcopal service and the church became the Church of St. John the Baptist.
 
St. Marks Episcopal Church
 
It took some years for the congregation of St. Marks to have permanent home; they met in the Finnish Church, the First Aid Hall, school buildings, and homes. Young Samuel E. West, who was a missionary to the coal camp in 1912, held services in the
Finnish Lutheran Church and observed that many of the Finns’ children participated in the Sunday school along with those of British descent; the fledgling pastor slept in a tent pitched on the side of the church.  Harv Wilbur noted that through the years,  “There were a number of faithful souls involved in the establishment and life of St. Marks.” Among these was miner Tom Towne, friend of Sam West, a muscular and exemplary Christian (see Mary Town in “magazine”). 
 
The first service in the newly constructed building occurred in 1922. For the first four years, lay members conducted services and classes in Christian education.
 
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
 
Hanna’s Mormon congregation first held “Cottage Meetings” in individual homes and under the leadership of local members. These were augmented by missionary visitations, occurring three or four times a year and occupying several days. The missionaries, older members of the priesthood, performed baptisms, confirmations, and other sacraments. Ralph Penman, at age eight, was baptized in the Platte River. Others were immersed in Hansen’s dam, which was near old Percy on the original line of the Union Pacific. Eventually the Mormons purchased the old barber shop on Front Street and held services there for many years.
 
The Finnish Lutheran Church
 
With the closure of the Carbon mines in 1902, the dedicated Finnish miners not only brought their congregation to Hanna, but also their church building. At Carbon and later in Hanna, the church was served by itinerate ministers of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, whose visits were necessarily few and seldom given the extents of their pastorates. Eventually, lay ministers, notably John Grooman, conducted Sunday services. Interest declined and the distinctive building with its tower was sold and became the Dew Drop Inn.
 
St. Joseph’s Catholic Church
 
The earliest Catholic services were held in Hanna’s first school (built 1890) and conducted by Father Joseph Conrath SJ.
 
In the fall of 1913, George Washington Lane, his wife and ten children plus one passenger were on an odyssey cross-country en route to the golden land of California. They traveled in two balky autos and paused often and long to earn funds to continue their journey. Grace Coffin Henry, a granddaughter, recorded her mother’s memory.
Their search for just the right job took them to Hanna….
There, they were fortunate to be offered a contract to build
a large Catholic church, complete with steeple, arched
windows, and a meeting hall.
 
The building site had already been selected by the church
vestry. Some lumber lay around on the ground in piles,
patiently awaiting the touch of a carpenter’s hand to transform
the lowly boards into a holy edifice. The priest was most
anxious to engage Papa and his sons…. Harrison, Caleb, and
 John…. Caleb [said] he felt he was going to be a little closer to
Glory when he would be working on the steeple of the church.

Sources:
  1. Finch, Mrs. J. F. et.al. The History of the Hanna Methodist Church. Hanna WY: Hanna Epworth League, 1936. 
  2. Henry, Grace Coffin. For Every Man There is a Destiny.  Rowley, MA: Rowley Printing, 1986.
  3. McAuliffe, Eugene et. al. History of the Union Pacific Coal Mines. Omaha NE: Colonial Press, 1940.
  4. Meyer, Rev. Msgr, John. Looks Back. Long Prairie MN: Neumann Press, 1984.
  5. Penman, Ralph. Phone interview with Nancy Anderson, July 19, 2016.
  6. West, Samuel E. Cross on the Range Missionary in Wyoming. The Church Historical Society, 1947.
  7. Wilbur, Harv. Hanna Field Story of a Fledging Episcopal Priest and his Six Wyoming Missions. Denver, CO: Harv Wilbur, 1995.
  8. Union Pacific Coal Company Employe's Magazine, April 1925.

Hanna Basin Museum Website – A Connection To The Past