THE EPWORTH LEAGUE

AND THE METHODIST YOUTH FELLOWSHIP

The youth of the church played a very important role in the life of the Monthalia Methodist Church in its early years. Records kept as early as 1911-1917 show very well attended meetings of the Jugend Bund (Youth Society) when these records were all kept in German and all the programs were given in the German language.

The first officers listed for the years 1911-1912 when the church was located on what is now Farm-to-Market road 466 were:

President - John Deschner

Vice-president - John Froehner

Secretary - Paul Muenzler

Treasurer - O.H. Gabler

Organist - Emma Froehner

Librarian - Arthur Raeke

The meetings were held in the church on Sunday night before the regular church services and were always opened with a song, prayer and scripture reading after which a short business meeting was held.

There were 46 members listed by the first secretary and membership in the early years ranged from 27 to 62.

Questions on the Bible were passed out to some of the young people at each meeting and the answers were expected at the next meeting with discussions held concerning the questions.

A committee composed of Rev. E.C. Draeger, pastor, August Raeke and John Froehner formulated the first constitution which was accepted by the group. This constitution consisted of ten articles with some amendments. The organization was called the Epworth League of the Monthalia Methodist Church with the purpose being to challenge and build devoutness among the youth and to lead them to strive for purity of heart and to practice Christlike compassion.

In the following years the membership was divided into five classes of ten or more in each group with each group to plan and deliver a program on a designated Sunday evening. These programs consisted of talks on Bible characters, musical numbers, vocal numbers, recitations and even debates which must have proved very interesting. One debate subject was "Country Living versus City Living" with the affirmative and negative sides taken by August Pape and R.H. Henkel. Another subject was "Best Use of Organ versus Piano in our Church" with Martha Hornung and Lydia Froehner giving the discussion. No mention was ever made in the minutes as to who won the debates.

On February 13, 1913, it was decided to have a Jahres-fest (yearly jubilee) at which time a special program was given by the members. The Jahres-fest became a yearly tradition as time progressed.

When new officers were elected after a year of service the president gave a report on the accomplishments of the previous year. As an example of this report, the following information was given on May 1, 1913: 20 meetings were held during the year consisting of 11 literary programs, 3 Bible studies, 3 prayermeetings and 3 socials with 80 people taking part in the various parts of these meetings. A similar report was given in 1916 with an additional mention that the secretary’s record showed that 90% of the members attended the various meetings. Three delegates were sent to a youth convention in Seguin. Youth conventions were attended in Bracken and Gonzales in later years and the convention was held in Monthalia in 1916.

On April 20, 1913, the decision was made to buy a Bible for the newly built church. On January 11, 1914, two chairs were purchased for the church as well as two more chairs on February 15, 1914. These evidently were for the pulpit area, since special mention was given in the record book. Songbooks were also bought at various times.

Money was given for missions at different times. Twenty-five cents per member was sent for the "Parlor in the Ladies Hall" at Blinn College in Brenham, the place where some of the young men of Monthalia Church went for ministerial studies. In 1915 $2.50 worth of trimmings were bought for the church Christmas tree and each member gave 5c for Blinn College. Yearly dues were sent to the District Epworth League in the amount of 5c per member. The sums mentioned above do not seem like very much nowadays, but we must remember that a dollar bought much more in those days and people lived a much simpler life at that time.

In the early twenties a league benediction was adopted, but no mention is made as to what it was.

A "Win-my-Chum" week, a series of services, was held December 2-9, 1923 with the youth of the church having services each evening from Sunday to Sunday. The Epworth League members, as well as the pastor of the church, Rev. J.A. Traeger, took part in the programs for the week.

On October 23, 1924, the Epworth League decided to buy a piano for the church. Two ice cream suppers were sponsored netting a profit of $40.96. A committee composed of Rev. Traeger, Walter Raeke, and Henry Deschner chose a Style TX Williams Concert Piano with bench costing $382.50. A collection committee was appointed to accept donations from members in the four prayermeeting groups, namely Monthalia, Cost, Bebe, and the church groups. When all the reports were given all except $23.00 had been paid and that was taken out of League treasury.

Records beginning in 1923 were kept in the English language.

In 1925 and 1926 money was given toward the salary of Miss Gazelle Traeger who had gone out as a missionary. There were 75 members in the organization at this time. Program, social, and help and mercy committees were appointed to carry on the work of the Epworth League with each committee having eight members. In 1927-1928, $50. was paid toward the lighting system in the church.

In the late twenties, the Epworth League members were divided into two groups and a contest was held to see which group could deliver the best programs and who could bring the most new members. This created new interest in the meetings. Various individuals left the country and went to work in the cities and as time elapsed the membership decreased from the large number earlier, but the programs delivered and the work of the church done by the young people still prospered. Collections were taken at each meeting to help defray the expenses of those young people attending League Institute in Brenham, Texas. Members attended the Institutes and received good training from various minister teachers at that time. In 1928, twenty-eight Leaguers attended the week of Institute. At sometime during this period, the name Institutes was changed to Assemblies. In 1929 dues were changed from 50c to $1.00 per year.

In later years the membership of the Epworth League decreased, but there were still program meetings every Sunday evening before church services and a social meeting once a month. Also, for a time a special fifth Sunday night program was delivered by the youth during church services and the offering of the evening was given to the youth to be used in their activities.

In 1939 the Epworth League became the Methodist Youth Fellowship with the unification of our church, the Methodist Episcopal Church with the Methodist Episcopal Church South and the Methodist Protestant Church.

At some time during the early 1940's the Methodist Youth Fellowship started an organ fund, raising money through different fund-raising activities. With a lot of help from the entire church, this goal was realized when the new pipe organ was dedicated in the church on July 27, 1947.

As the years passed, families were smaller and some moved away to secure jobs elsewhere, so there were less young people in the community. Some of them attended MYF meetings in the Gonzales Church when there were not enough young people at our church to conduct meetings. At the present time there is not an organized MYF in the church, but hopefully there will soon be a larger group of youth since the church has acquired more young families who have small children.

The youth of the community are the church's future and it is with high hopes that more families will become interested in the work of the church.