West of Springfield, Missouri, down a rural section of Route 66, Yeakley Chapel boasts a congregation that predates the Mother Road by 60 years and a chapel itself that predates the highway by four decades.
KSMU radio, a PBS station in the area, posted a story about the Methodist congregation there, which dates to the 1860s, and the chapel that was built in 1887 after a fire destroyed the original one. The chapel sits on Highway 266 (aka Route 66) near Halltown.
Susan Schmalzbauer is pastor at Yeakley Chapel and the nearby Bois D’Arc United Methodist Church.
She said they built communities along the road that would eventually take the form of Route 66.
Schmalzbauer says in the autumn of 1831, Methodist minister James Slavens led the first Christian religious service in Springfield on what is now College Street.
“The first sermon, the first service, the first congregation—all three happened on a stretch that would later be part of Route 66. Springfield’s Christian community was born on the Mother Road,” Schmalzbauer said. […]
Schmalzbauer mentioned other notable Methodists, including Alberta Ellis, who opened a hotel along Route 66 in 1953 with lodging for Black travelers during the height of segregation in Springfield. She was helped by fellow Methodists at Pitts Chapel.
The area around Yeakley Chapel also includes the Squibb family, who helped build Route 66 in the region.
Yeakley Chapel is named after John Yeakley, who donated the land for a new church after the 1887 fire and assisted in the construction of a new building just west of the old site. A small cemetery that dates to 1852 also sits near the church.
More about Yeakley Chapel may be found in this issue of the White River Valley Historical Quarterly.
The church, which is now part of the United Methodists denomination is listed as having services at 11:30 a.m. on Sundays.
(Image of Yeakley Chapel near Halltown, Missouri, by DiAnn L’Roy via Flickr)
Post Offices,… Halltown was founded in the 1870s when George Hall settled the area and opened a store. In 1879 a new post office was opened and named after the storekeeper.