HOISINGTON — The settlers of the 1880s were hardy souls, enduring frequent prairie fires, grasshopper, droughts, and an untamed land filled with promise. And in those days, the settler’s sought solace from the uncertainty, the tornadic winds, and the loss through their faith.
Tracing its imprint upon the settlers-one that is still felt today-the Hoisington First United Methodist Church celebrates its 125th birthday this year.
Some of those first pioneers, who came from Illinois, Germany and Russia and lived in dugouts or sod homes, were Methodists who began meeting in the 1870s, to pray and to offer support through births, life and deaths.
“If the Prairie Could Talk-Methodism in Hoisington,” by Geraldine Tempero Callaway,  records those days when farmers brought their families to the prairie, following the lure of free land. Those first settlers held spiritual meetings in small homes filled to the brim with families worshipping together, prior to the establishment of a church .
Callaway wrote that in 1887, Hoisington was designated as a Mission Point by the Southwest Kansas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Methodist Classes meet weekly for prayer, fellowship and Bible Study. “Methodists spoke about their temptations, confessed their faults, shared their concerns and testified to the working of God in their lives,” she wrote. The leader was to see each person in his class at least once a week, inquire how his soul was prospering, offer advice, comfort or exhort as each occasion might require.
The first minister appointed to Hoisington was Rev. Frederick Ferdinand Bernstorf in 1887. At the time,  ministers were advised to rise at 4 a.m. for prayer and Bible study from 6 a.m. to noon.  
The first Methodist services were held in the top floor of what was the hardware store, but is now the Tap Room.
In 1888, planning began for building a church at the location what was the old IGA. The cornerstone of the First Methodist Episcopal Church Association was laid in 1889.
And in those early years, an incident was recorded with a billy goat. Somehow the goat got in the church, chewed the carpet, ate the straw pad underneath the carpeting, ate the upholstering on the chairs, and gnawed the window sills down to the panes. Services were not held at the church for some time.
During World War II, government bonds were bought to fund a new church, and in 1950  building began at Third and Clay St., the current location. A building for classrooms was added in later years.
Vine United Methodist Church, located a few blocks away, merged with FUMC in the early 2000s.
On Oct. 19, the church will host a reunion for anyone who has attended the church. There will be a balloon launch, a cake decorating contest, a time line and a pot luck dinner. Worship service starts at 10:45 a.m.