Westminster Presbyterian Church Centennial Books

Chapter One

Three days ago, it was February 16, just a regular day on the calendar, but for the Pelts family, it was not just any day. Ten years ago, our one and only daughter, Bethany, walked down the aisle, and married Matthew, our wonderful son - in - law. Our own, Julie Hurley did an amazing job catering the reception -- five hours away from here. On Thursday, through a series of text messages, our family relived some of those many details that made that day so special. God answered a lot of prayers that day. It just seemed right that we honor Him by remembering those specific details. February 16 is more than just a day on the calendar for me – because of those events that are now cherished memories. events. Fortunately, we have some of those details that we can share – perhaps for the first time. And in so doing, we ’ re not just recalling dates, facts, and information. We truly are seeing how God was at work – long before we started sitting in our chosen pew and calling Westminster our church home. When we told the church history 25 years ago, we did it during one worship service. We divided it into chapters based on the different pastors, and there was special music between each chapter. The Centennial Committee decided to take advantage of the weeks preceding our Centennial Celebration weekend by presenting one chapter at a time. I really liked that idea, because that allowed for a little more detail to be shared. Certainly the details all add up to this church ’ s anniversary, a 100 year milestone, but the story -- really can ’ t just start there. Can it? There ’ s a bit more to the story that just helps put it in a better historical context. So, bear with this retired history teacher -- who has had a lot of fun working on this, by the way -- as we think about not just our church, but also what events were going on -- that led to the development of our church – and a whole lot of others. I will caution you. I will be throwing a lot of dates around. So, if we ’ re ready? Let ’ s begin. Mercer County was established in 1837, so back then, we were still technically part of Virginia, since we didn ’ t secede and become West Virginia until 1863. Forty - five years later, in 1882, the railway extended to the Pocahontas Coal Field bringing the possibility of a new way of life to the area. By 1885 the community of Summit was formed. 1923 – it ’ s just one year that took place -- 100 years ago, but to us, it is a pretty important beginning for our church ’ s history, yet, none of us was around back then to experience any of those

In times of grief and life crises, laughter (there was lots of that!) and celebration, brokenness and failure, restoration and new beginnings, this church knew well and clearly modeled what it means to be the family of God... As is true for so many others, Westminster truly became our home and the people of church looks back on her first 100 years, I pray that the next years will blossom and flourish with even greater fruit as this body of believers continues building on the legacy of faith we celebrate. Westminster our family. As this

Jeff Chadwick

Surprise! We did not start out as Bluefield . We were Summit, West Virginia, and we had approximately 500 people. While filling out papers for the establishment of our very first post office, the name of this new post office needed to be supplied on the form. The residents had a long discussion about selecting a new name.

2