For Many Years, Pleasant Hill Baptist Church was Thriving Rural Church

For many years, the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church was a thriving rural church located between Allendale and Mount Ayr on the Missouri/Iowa State Line. The church was built in 1890 on the Jim Hunt Farm. Early day ministers were Rev. Glenn and Rev. George Hensley.

The congregation nearly folded during the World War I years; at one point, there were no services for several years. It was then sold to the Assembly of God and moved to the location between Allendale and Mount Ayr, where Route T is. The first minister of the Assembly of God congregation was Kelly Campbell.

As late as 1950, Pleasant Hill was a thriving congregation. Sunday School attendance was as high as 75, and the pastor was Rev. Cecil Hardy. Judy Claypool, on the Worth County Progress Organization’s Facebook page, recalled that the Buck family ministered there, and that she loved the VBS program that they put on every year. Lorna Carter remembered giving her heart to Jesus in that congregation. She recalled that they had night services as well.

Claypool recalled she and her friends piling into Allie Wilkinson’s car and riding to church. “I don’t care how many of us there were, we all made it to church, piled on each other’s lap.” “It is doubtful if any church in this section can equal this record,” wrote the Times-Tribune reporter at the time.