Mary Lou Merrill
In 1938, five of six Emmert brothers and their families, all Mennonites, came to Sweet Home.
Like many others they were drawn to the community to harvest the mature forest on the west slopes of the Cascade Mountains. Several of the brothers formed Emmert Brothers Logging Company.
As the business enlarged, more Mennonite families moved to the area.
On Sundays they met to worship with others in the community but they soon felt a strong desire to begin a Mennonite fellowship.
In 1939, they began meeting in their homes or sometimes in the out-of-doors. Benches for the services were made of long wooden planks and supported with big chunks of wood.
In June of 1940, the group met in a grove of trees to officially organize a church. There were 43 members.
A few of those are still living today, including current members Opal Brubaker, who now lives at the Mennonite Village in Albany, and Ethel Yoder.
The first church building was built without a lot of red tape. Members took an offering and built what they could.
Then they took another offering and another, until they had what they needed. That original building, in the 3200 block of Highway 20, is now owned by Cascade Timber Consulting.
Thus was the beginning of Sweet Home Mennonite Church 75 years ago!
It was not just a building but a group of people who would become a strong unit with many distinctly different personalities, and who would pass on to each succeeding generation their commitment to God, a strong sense of family, and the ability to work together to accomplish the work of the church.
Since this is our seventy-fifth year of worshiping as a church, a little reminiscing seems appropriate. Also since 2015 has been a year of draught and wildfires, the following story seems fitting to retell.
In those early days, God spared the Sweet Home Mennonite Church in what could have been a major tragedy.
In the summer of 1941, the woods were hot and dry.
Lightning set a fire just south of the Green Peter Mountain lookout station. Among the men called out to build fire stopping trails were Sweet Home Mennonite Church members Clifford Wolfer, Adolph Johnson, Amos Brubaker, Clayton Wolfer, Wilber Lind, Lyle King, Max Yoder, Ivan Emmert and George Emmert.
Charter member Opal Brubaker remembers that the fire occurred two weeks before she and Amos were to get married.
On the second day, the wind grew very strong, causing the fire to “crown” as it burned uphill swiftly. Flames raced along the treetops, fed by burning needles, faster than the advance on the ground. Lyle King got on a “Cat” to attempt to save some of the logging equipment by burying it with the bulldozer.
The men and the “Cat” made it to a rock pit with fire, smoke and heat singeing their hair. Lyle felt his way along the road by tapping the smooth surface with the “Cat” blade while the men held their wet shirts over his face so he could go through the heat.
Someone who escaped to town from the wildfire reported that our men were trapped and probably dead. This word spread to their families.
George Emmert, who had just returned home, immediately got into his new Pontiac and raced up to the site.
He drove through smoke and over burning logs 6 to 8 inches in diameter to the rock pit and brought 14 men to safety. He returned with smoky, sweaty men inside the car, in the trunk and some hanging on the outside.
There were many thankful hearts that day, and the story has been told and retold many times over the years with the same sense of thankfulness to God for sparing their lives.
Descendents and survivors of some of the men mentioned above, most of whom were in their 20s at the time of the fire, still remain.
Arnie Brubaker is the son of Amos and Opal Brubaker; Rod Wolfer is the son of Clifford Wolfer and nephew of Clayton Wolfer; Lyle King was the father of Mike King and grandfather of Christopher King. Adolph Johnson was the husband of Gertrude, who remains a church member though she lives at Mennonite Village. Ivan and George Emmert, uncles of Cal and Roger Emmert and great-uncles of Jodi Kauffman, were likely a little older than the others, probably in their 30s or 40s.
Editor’s note: This month the Sweet Home Mennonite Church is celebrating its 75th anniversary. Following is a brief historical overview written by church secretary and member Mary Lou Merrill, based on information from several church documents recorded by Mim Hooley and Harvey Reeser, Mary Lou’s late father.