This is Rev. Ed Chappell, little boy is Dallas Burton, the man on right may have been Dallas' father or could be a deacon. Taken the fall or winter of 1900.

 Mano,

Barry County, MO

Edith Stever Prier Davis wrote a book, "A Glance Back In Time", which was published in the spring of 2006. On page 38, she tells about the church at Mano. 

This exert is from her book: "Local people built a church in Mano of native logs in 1870.  Rock Creek was about one half mile behind the church. It was a Missionary Baptist church and the people named it the Rock Creek Missionary Baptist Church. Thirty-five years later, in 1905, the congregation purchased two acres of land from the railroad company, and a new frame building was built by volunteer labor and painted white. Ambrose Towler quarried the stone for the foundation.  Kerosene lamps on the wall provided light, and a potbellied wood stove provided heat.

Sunday School was held weekly, but the preaching services were conducted once a month with a service beginning at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, a Sunday service at 11:00 a.m. and the Sunday evening service at early candlelight (just before darkness when the candles have to be lit in order to see).

The first minister was Ed Chappell. The deacons were Hedspeth Holman (Edith's grandfather), Monroe Aldridge, and William Edie.

The community had a Singing School occasionally in the summer. Mr. Henderson, from Purdy, would come and stay at our house for two weeks while teaching the Singing School. My father (Ota Stever) enjoyed singing and he wanted the church to have a good choir. People of the community helped pay Mr. Henderson for his work.

The church services were discontinued 1979, and the building was sold on Mary 19, 1980. The money from the sale of the church was given to the Rock Creek Cemetery now called Mano Cemetery.  My Great-Grandfather William "Billy" Holman had given the land for the cemetery.

The first man to be buried in the cemetery was murdered.  As a joke, a story is told that the people of Mano lived so long that they had to kill a man in order to start a cemetery.

The names of the first families living at Mano were: Aldridge, Meadows, Munday, Shaffer, Andrews, Stever, Burton, Pridgett, Allison, Brock, Towler, Strait, Chanler, Edie, Williamson, and Holman."
 

Submitted by: Darla Marbut