Editor’s note: Over a period of 12 years beginning in 1983, local historian Ken Munford wrote 561 columns for the Gazette-Times. As part of the city’s 150th anniversary, the newspaper will publish a selection of these columns each Saturday. This one was originally printed on March 25, 1991:

The building once known as “the little brown church” at the Benton County Fairgrounds has led three lives. (Most recently, it has worn white). It got its start in 1895 as the second church built by Baptists in Corvallis.

In his “History of Benton County,” published in 1885, D.D. Fagan wrote: “The first society of Baptists of Benton County was organized in 1848 about five miles north of Corvallis. ... J.C. Avery donated to it Lots 1 and 2 in Block 16 (Third and Jefferson streets in Corvallis) upon which was built — for those times — a commodious edifice, but during the winter of 1855, heavy fall of snow caused it to fail, and the society failing to rebuild, the lots reverted to the original owner.” Other accounts say that the roof collapsed in February 1863.

The church members continued to meet, sometimes in homes, sometimes in the chapel of Corvallis College on Fifth Street. Part-time and itinerant pastors served the little congregation, 11 different ones between 1845 and 1895.

Because traveling to Corvallis was time-consuming and sometimes difficult, Baptists in the northern part of the county organized a mission Sunday school in the Mountain View area. On a hill east of there, they built the North Palestine church and set aside land for a cemetery.

In 1892, three Corvallis members acting as trustees incorporated the First Baptist Church of Corvallis. They obtained lots 7, 8 and 9 of block 21 of the original Marysville townsite. They avoided going into debt to build. Donated funds, materials and labor made it possible to erect a building seating 250 in 1895. They did mortgage the property for $100 borrowed from the American Baptist Home Mission Society and repaid it in 1916. At that time, they also paid $525.22 to the city to cover the cost of paving Jefferson Street.

The prospering congregation built a new sanctuary at Ninth and Monroe. In 1917, they sold the old property to Fred S. and Anna Catherine Fischer, owners of the flour mill on Marys River and the flour, feed, seed and hay warehouses on First Street. They built the house that still stands at 460 S.W. Jefferson Ave. In it, their daughter Catherine and son William — who was lost in World War II — were born.

Fischer paid Gustav Leder $100 to move the little church to the east side of First Street between Monroe and Jackson. There it stood for the next 40 years, mainly used for hay storage.

In July 1953, Marion Teal wrote a story for the Gazette-Times headlined “60-Year-Old Former Church to Give Way to New Highway on First Street.” She pointed out, “Along with other buildings in that area along the river, this one is being condemned and probably will be torn down as a new highway is built there sometime in the future. As it goes, so goes one more relic of the town’s past.”

T.J. Starker, who had a reputation for taking part in civic improvements, took an interest in saving the relic. His daughter, Jean Roth, says he may have attended the church in his student days at Oregon Agricultural College and may have had a personal interest in the building.

Starker enlisted the help of another lumberman, John S. Brandis Sr. In 1957, they arranged to have the building taken apart carefully and reassembled on the Benton County Fairgrounds.

Others helped. The trustees of the Christian Church donated the Chipman window, which came from their old church. George F. Buxton, owner of the planing mill on the waterfront, made a gift of yellow and green stained-glass windows. William Teeter donated the front window in the vestibule. Plywood came from Plywood Products at Camp Adair.

Clips in time

Editor’s note: Morris and Lynn Walker are working to make “150 Years in the Heart of the Valley,” a documentary film about Corvallis’ first 150 years. Each Saturday, they share tidbits from Corvallis that they’ve uncovered during their work. You can contact the Walkers at heartofthevalley@yahoo.com or by calling 609-0107.

Soon after 1900 it was accepted by most folks that automobiles and electricity were in Corvallis to stay.

Nevertheless, technology was of little concern to John and Emma Coleman in 1911: They lived in a cabin with their children and their 9-year-old son had been stricken with polio. They didn’t know what to do. And many doctors were not aware of the disease until the first major nationwide outbreak in 1916.

Their son, young Alfred Coleman, soon realized that he would never be able to use his legs. He carved his own crutches out of sticks, and for the rest of his life, he called them just that, his “sticks.”

Despite his disability, the boy became a self-taught craftsman and inventor. Coupling his desire to be an athlete with his craftsmanship and determination, he became the only man to ever win the Oregon state archery competition two years in a row, in 1931 and 1932. He developed a stance called the “tripod stance,” in which he would lean on his crutches while shooting his handmade arrows from his handmade bow.

He turned his artistic and inventive talents toward making jewelry and repairing watches and opened Coleman Jewelers in 1927. Today owned and operated by his son, John, Coleman Jewelers stands as the third longest-running family-owned business in Corvallis.