The Little Church

As promised, today I'm going to show you some pictures of the Little Stranger Church, which I 

"found" a few weeks ago.  I probably drove past it a hundred times, it sits on a small rise, and you don't notice it from the road. 

This is the side I saw from Tonganoxie Road, which winds clear to Lansing. 

I thought to myself: 

"Did I see a tombstone up there by that house?" 

So Thursday, I went early to my appointment at the post, and investigated. 

Here is the dedication plaque you see to the right of the door in the first picture. 

Click on it to "biggify it" if you need to.  It's very interesting. 

It says it was used as a meeting place for the community of Boling, which surrounds it.  Boling is pronounced "Balling".  There is still a 4H club based in Boling, and a water district. 

There are beautiful old stones around the church. 

We live near Stranger Creek, which runs through Leavenworth County to the Kansas River. 

Here is the east side of the church, with a grand old tree, dead now, near it.  You can still see stones.  I know there is a well somewhere, see the pipe going into the building?  That also looks like a standpipe behind it. 

I grew up in Wyandotte County, to the east of here, which has it's own wonderful history, but I'm going to stop at the Carroll Mansion in Leavenworth and research this old church.  It was not used as a church after 1918, but was a community gathering place after that.  Even though this is the week after Memorial Day, the graveyard was not mowed, and some of the stones have fallen over, but been set upright. 

I'd like to research the history of this old place soon. 

The Carroll Mansion is the home of the Leavenworth County Historical Society. 

I hope you enjoyed this trip back in time, and the next time I go, I'll have my muck boots and long pants on, so I can walk amongst the stones and take pictures and say a prayer for the people buried there. 

I'm saying prayers today, too, for those affected by yesterday's storms, whether in Oklahoma, Arkansas, or Missouri... so much sadness for all these folks.