What Cheer Gospel Hall, IA
From BrethrenPedia
History
The What Cheer assembly was formed sometime prior to 1888, making it the first or second assembly in Iowa. It quickly grew to a company of fifty or more Christians. When work in the mines ran out at What Cheer some of these brethren moved to Carbondale and Excelsior. They continued their Gospel activity and worked underground to pay expenses. When the mines closed in those places, they moved further afield into southern Iowa.
Around 1890, a few of the coal miners from What Cheer came to Forbush to work in the mine there, establishing an assembly there. Among them were James Whittem, John Moffat, and William Allan Wilson. They worked in the mine during the winter months, saved their money, then rented tents to use for Gospel meetings during the summer, in many small towns. As people trusted the Lord, small meetings were started. A feature of the work in these towns were joint quarterly meetings consisting of one-day ministry.
This assembly was still active in 1904, with a correspondent of David Peacock, and at some point merged alongside Forbush Gospel Hall, IA with the assembly at Centerville which in 1950 became Centerville Gospel Chapel.
Notable alum
John James White and his wife May Elizabeth (Huston) White were living in What Cheer in 1889 when their daughter Naomi Isabel (White) Pinches was born. Naomi married the itinerant preacher George Pinches, from Jerome, IA in 1913.
Correspondents
1904
- David Peacock
