Let me set the scene for you: It’s a Saturday night in October of 1975. You’re sitting around with your friends, bored.

“Do you want to shoot the loop?” asks someone.

“Nah,” says another. “Lets go see a movie at the drive-in.”

“There’s nothing good showing,” says someone else.

After a few minutes, someone finally says, “Hey, I heard there’s a haunted church out in Richland Township. Supposedly the lights flicker on an off as you get close to it. How about we drive out there and check it out?”

A few minutes later, you’re crammed into your friend’s car barreling south down 98, the windows down, the cool fall air rushing in.

The Church

The haunted church was actually St. John’s United Church of Christ (which was originally called the St. John’s Reformed Church) and was located on the corner of Firstenberger and Mautz-Yeager in Richland Township.

Construction on the church began in 1916, and it was dedicated on June 3rd, 1917. A Marion Star article at the time described it as having “a seating capacity of 250 and is modern in every way.” This church took the place of the original St. John’s Church, which stood a short distance away and was home to the congregation between 1857 and 1916.

In May of 1972, the congregations of St. Joseph’s United Church of Christ in Waldo and St. John’s Church voted to merge into a single congregation and build a new church. (This merger was preceded by the earlier closure of another church in the area, St. Jacob’s, in 1931 due to dwindling membership; most of its remaining members joined either St. Joseph’s or St. John’s.)

For the next couple of years, the congregation worshipped in the St. John’s church while construction began on the new church on Route 98 a few miles north of Waldo. That church, Peace Community United Church of Christ, first welcomed worshipers in August of 1975 and continues to do so today.

After Peace Community opened, St. John’s Church sat vacant, and that’s when rumors that the church was haunted began to spread.

The Legend

Interestingly, almost all of the people who remembered the story mentioned the role lights played in it.

Brad Walker, for example, said, “I can’t remember who told me, but a bunch of us drove out there and as you drove up to the church the lights went on or off.” He believed the effect was due to the car headlights reflecting off of the stained glassed windows.

Randall Warrick said, “I used to go by there all the time when I was taking girls on ‘ghost hunting’ trips around Marion for the fun of it. When you drove by it , it was completely dark. If you drove just a little further down the road and looked back, it looked like it was lit up for services.” He thought that an outdoor farm light in the distance was passing through the remaining stained  glass windows and giving the impression that the church was illuminated.

Kellie Tobin said she remembered driving by the church with her sister. “We turned the headlights off and it looked like there were lights on inside. It was easy to fool my 13 year old self.”

Unsurprisingly, residents living nearby were not always happy with the crowds of thrill-seeking teenagers the church attracted. A woman who grew up near it recounted how, “Kids used to tear up and down the road at night to see it. We lived on that road and [those kids] made my Dad crazy with all the cars.”

All Gone

In October of 1975, an auction notice appeared in the Star announcing the sale of church furnishings, and in the spring of 1976, the church was torn down.

Today, the land where the St. John’s Church was located is empty, any evidence of a church having been there long gone.

For a short time — less than a year, it seems  — stories about a haunted church out on the corner of Firstenberger and Mautz-Yeager captured the imaginations of local teenagers only to fade just as quickly.

Sources:

• “St John’s Reformed Church Dedication” The Marion Star, 31 May 1917
• “Two Churches Join to Become One in Richland Twp.” The Marion Star, 13 May 1972
• “Newest Church in County Opens” The Marion Star, 8 August 1975
• “AUCTION Saturday, Oct 11 1:00 p.m.” The Marion Star, 10 October 1975
• “Old Church is Being Razed” The Marion Star, 2 April 1976
• “Peace Community United Church of Christ.” Marion County History, edited by Trella Romine, 1979.