WARDEN FAMILY

by Harry Warden

Since 1972, my wife, Lois, and I had been coming to Cascade for vacations and to visit our daughter, Joan, who was a teacher there. In 1990, we retired and moved to McCall from southern California. We had been Presbyterians, but when we saw this beautiful white New England Congregational Church that was very similar to Lois’ church in Madelia, Minnesota, and where we were married on March 15, 1945, we started attending.

A Rev. Phil Shively was minister briefly, then Miss Susan Trinks, who later resigned. This old congregation had a history of very opinionated factions or one individual wanting to control everything – which is not the Congregational way of consensus, approval votes by the members. All peoples were welcomed; no minorities rejected.

From its simple beginning in 1912, then for over three-score years more, our Community Congregational Church was THE one to belong to. Then turmoil began to erode the membership.

Herb Schneider was head trustee at that time and persuaded me to become a trustee. When his term ended, no one was willing to take over, so your Harry Warden took it only by default.

Because so many members had either dropped out or just became inactive, we had a big money/income problem. A rumor had it that we wouldn’t/couldn’t last two months. We didn’t have a Moderator; we didn’t have a minister. So each week, I had to call around – all the way even to Nampa, Council and Riggins, to come for $100 as that Sunday’s minister. Later I begged Jeanette Seetin to be head trustee for one year, but that I’d do all of the work.

Miss Nelle Tobias would help us from time to time when Herb Schneider would go out to seek some help. Nelle was a very intelligent, knowledgeable lady. She and I talked about that old one-way road across the river along Highway 55, and once talked about writing a book about it, but just never had time enough.

In about a year or more we located a retired Air Force chaplain who was willing to come to McCall. He and his wife parked their camping trailer out at Pilgrim Cove Camp. Harold tried many things to help us, but to no avail. One Sunday we dipped to a low of seven in attendance.

Lt. Col. Chaplain Harold Henderson’s wife told Lois, “I wonder what would happen if you just closed the doors and walked away.” Some others thought the same way. Some felt strongly that we would mortgage the church and hire a young man with a family who would bring our church to life. I refused to gamble and encumber it.

A few weeks later, some folks in eastern Idaho called me at our home, wanting to bring their church group (adults and kids) to bed down in our church on a Friday and Saturday night. They would make a very small donation, but needed mattresses. I called Pilgrim Cove and got a “yes” for the mattresses.

I went out and met Ray and Charlottie. Instantly, I knew that this energetic, very friendly, attractive lady was our solution. But how to get her? But that’s another story.

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Now For the Rest of the Story

by Charlottie Havlicak

Today, we look around and see all the wonderful accomplishments created by our many, many church mice. They come in quietly, they do the work they are called to do, and leave just as quietly.

Often we who are here every day do not even realize all the many items that have been cleaned or repaired – lights replaced, steps repaired, railings fixed, some painting here, a room painted there, snow shoveled, lawns mowed, flowers arranged for the altar, flowers on the tables in our Fellowship Hall, communion always prepared and ready to serve by the deacons, coffee hosts, liturgists, greeters, trustees, deacons, Christmas tree delivered, hanging of the greens, gifts for children around the Christmas tree, soup and bread supper, potluck dinners, funeral lunches, ushers, so many church mice. I think we must have a colony of mice living in our building.

When I came here in August of 1995, there was only one church mouse, named Harry Warden. One church mouse that did everything. He opened the church, turned on the lights and heat, found someone to preach for each Sunday, shoveled the sidewalks, mowed the lawn, watered the lawn, fixed the leaks in the basement. He was head trustee and his wife was a deacon, and between the two of them they kept this church open and alive.

There were many who pondered, “Maybe we should just walk out and shut the doors.” Other churches talked about buying this building if we closed our doors. Some had great ideas. We could mortgage the church. Then we could hire a high-priced young man who might know how to turn the church around and make it a warm and loving church family again.

I know that our Lord moves in strange and mysterious ways, for from the beginning of Harry’s and my meeting that day at Pilgrim Cove Camp, I truly believe that our destiny was set in ways we never imagined. Our paths were joined by a Divine Power and together we have been a great team ever since.

In the early 1990s the church didn’t have a full-time minister and at that point they could not afford a full-time minister. Harry kept a list of folks willing to preach on Sundays and usually they would stay in someone’s home if they drove up from Boise or Nampa.

This church would not have survived if the few folks that still called this their church home had not struggled day by day to keep the doors open. Folks like Maggie and Tom Crum, Herb and Doris Schneider, Jeanette and Jack Seetin, Marilyn Conley, Hugh and Janet Meryl Kantola, Rose Adams, Martha Chitwood, Marilyn Krahn, John and Virginia Boydstun, Warren Brown, Phyd Huffman, Lucille Rush, Delores Wallace, Ann Edwards, and Harry and Lois Warden.

As I look back, those are the folks that voted on that day in July – July 16, 1995 – to hire this new preacher gal, this woman from Pilgrim Cove Camp. Harry knew the Lord had told him something that day when we first met: “This is your pastor.”

Harry has always said when things were tough, “Cross your fingers, Char.” I tell him, “Harry, you cross your fingers and I will pray.”

Harry was a fireball in those days. Folks, there was nothing he couldn’t accomplish. He bought the church’s first computer and copy machine. He always told us he was our tall, dark and handsome trustee, with lots of curly black hair.

Harry is too modest to tell you everything he and Lois have done over the years to see that this church remains the church with a heart in the heart of this community. So I have tried to tell you how important those folks were who struggled through 1992, ‘93, ‘94, and that is the reason that each month we will honor people who have made a difference in the life of this church during its 100-year history.