The responsibility rests with her

SPALDING — Renovating and repairing the historic Spalding Presbyterian Church, located just off U.S. Highway 95 near the Nez Perce National Historical Park, is less an urgent duty to Marjory “Marge” Hyde than an obligation of the heart.

Hyde, 74, who grew up in a small house near the church, which was founded by the Presbyterian missionary Henry Spalding in 1876, was baptized in the church when she was 1 month old. Her parents, grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins — all now deceased — attended, served as elders of the church, organized evangelization gatherings, taught Sunday school, held church suppers and helped form memories and the devotion to the Lord that Hyde said she now cherishes.

“I’m the oldest member now, and that’s what’s been really difficult for me,” she said, her eyes swelling with tears.

One recent day, after losing yet another relative, “I realized, you know, the responsibility for our church now rests here,” Hyde said, motioning to her heart. “And I really had a hard time with it. And I finally realized that this is what my mother, my aunts, my uncles that I grew up with in this church would expect of me. Because they would want their church to keep going. And that’s what keeps me going.”

The problem is that Lapwai Creek, which flows about 100 feet east of the church, is notorious for flooding its banks in the spring. Over the years, water from the floods has soaked the church grounds and poured into the basement, even into the sanctuary, and is threatening the future stability of the building.

Hyde and her son, Theron Red Coyote, 42, have been seeking funding to make the repairs and started the Save the Spalding Church campaign. The most urgent need is for a perforated pipe to be installed along the creek bed to help divert the water away from the church. The next task would be to drain the pools of water in the basement, replace a sewer system that failed and make other repairs to the structure.

Hyde said she senses her forebears encouraging her to move forward with the project.

“Knowing that this is what they would want, so that’s the driving factor for me,” Hyde said. “So I really had to go through this period of mourning … because I thought, `OK, I’ve got a lot of responsibility, but I know that the Lord will bless me to keep going with what I need to do here at our church.’ ”

‘One of the real strict ones’

The Spalding Presbyterian Church is one of six Nez Perce churches in the area, including two in Kamiah, one in Ahsahka, one at Meadow Creek near Ferdinand and another in Stites.

The Kamiah Presbyterian churches, founded by Sue and Kate McBeth, missionaries brought to the area by Spalding, were founded in 1873. Hyde said even though those churches are older, the Spalding church is the more famous, because of its association with Henry Spalding and location near the national museum and Highway 95. Other than the church at Stites, which has been closed for some years, all the other Nez Perce churches have active congregations. The Spalding church meets the second and fourth Sundays of each month.

Few records of the early history of the church exist. But hanging on one wall of the fellowship room behind the altar is a framed list of names of some of the original members who contributed to the construction of the building. The donations range from $15 each from Peter Kane and Edward Connor to $5 from Agnes Three Eagles, $1 from Mrs. Clara Reuben and 50 cents each from Mak-toi-no and Kos-no-wa.

Hyde remembers a thriving church community when she was growing up.

The once-a-year evangelistic meeting “would go for seven days,” she said. “They had church in the morning, usually at 10 o’clock, then they had an afternoon session about 2 (p.m.) and then they had a dinner and a prayer service at 7 and then the main service at 7:30. And the ladies of the church always used to serve big meals in the dining area.

“The elders of this church believed that you didn’t bring food, drink or anything in the church. It was only for worship. And I used to tell my mom, I said, `I think our church was one of the real strict ones.’ ”

“We had a lady, she came to church here one time and she brought her crocheting and she was sitting, crocheting during the services and that got them all really upset. They said, `You’re not supposed to do those kinds of things in church.’

“We had services and hymns in our Nez Perce language, and we have song books translated from English to Nez Perce by elders a long time ago. So we still sing those. All of the people that used to be here, one of the elders would start a song and they all knew it. They didn’t have to get a book out to look at it; they all just started singing.”

The inside of the church is basically the same as it was 145 years ago — three sections of wooden pews that altogether could probably seat at least 100 people. Hyde said the women would sit to the left of the preacher’s pulpit and the men would sit to the right. There was a mix of people in the middle section.

One of the early pastors of the church was the Rev. David Scott, a member of the Spokane Tribe who had been trained by the McBeth sisters.

Flooding becomes a problem

Years ago Lapwai Creek had not cut through the bank as much as it has today, and the church seldom had problems with flooding.

But Hyde remembers a time when she was a girl and the creek overflowed, inundating the church.

In the early 1960s Hyde’s aunt, Nancy Halfmoon, and several other women opened the door of the sanctuary “and all of the floor was full of mud. And so I asked Mom, I said, `So what are you ladies going to do?’ And she said, `We’re going to sweep up the mud.’

“So they all took their shoes off and their stockings and got started at the other end of the church and swept it all down.”

The next major flood happened in 1996 with water gushing into the basement and pooling on the floor. Hyde, who spent a career as a social worker on other reservations around the country, was not living in Lapwai at the time and does not have much information about that event.

In 2015, the resident pastor moved away and the executive director of the Presbytery of the Inland Northwest closed the building.

It remained shuttered for some time, Hyde said, until she and her children decided to do something about it.

“We had to clean the church because when my cousin, Chloe, and I came in here, we went in there and it was a mess. There were cobwebs from the pews to the lights. Small openings at the bottoms of the benches and most were full of cobwebs. Cobwebs all over the windows, bugs everywhere and it smelled terrible,” Hyde said.

The church reopened in 2016, and services are led by visiting ministers.

Then came April 2019. Lapwai Creek burst through its banks once again, sweeping across the grounds and into the church. Tribal members piled sandbags around the church to protect it as best they could, but Hyde said the area was saturated.

“The church was completely engulfed with water,” she said. “It was hitting the backside of the church, and I came down to check on it and I could hear the creek running. When I came down, I found the church was completely engulfed in water.”

For the elders

Because of its historic status, the Spalding church has attracted the attention of state and federal organizations dedicated to helping preserve such sites.

The problem is, there’s scant money for the upgrades it needs.

Recently, Eric Hasenoehrl, of Keltic Engineering in Lewiston, was hired by the Idaho Heritage Foundation to make an assessment of the most critical repairs.

Red Coyote said Hasenoehrl identified the compromised creek bank and recommended the perforated pipe to help divert the water away from the church area.

Other concerns include the basement that retains water and two rotting pillars holding up the back of the building. The church also has a defunct plumbing system — and myriad other troubles.

“It’s more about just getting all the water out of the basement, maybe returning it to a functioning room at some point,” Red Coyote said. “At some point, it’s going to fail. It’s old wood, really good wood, but it’s not meant to last forever. That’s expensive to get all this stuff replaced.”

Hyde said she doesn’t know how much all the repairs would cost, even if they could find the money, but she and her son are currently the only ones working on the issue.

“This isn’t for my glory or my son’s glory,” she said. “This is to keep our Lord strong in this church and to our membership in our community. But most importantly, it’s for all those elders that I talked about and people that I remember in this church when I was growing up. Because if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have what I have in my heart today regarding my beliefs and my faith. So they laid the foundation a long time ago.”

Anyone wishing to make a donation, or for more information about the Save the Spalding Church campaign, may contact Hyde by mail at: Marge Hyde, P.O. Box 524, Lapwai, ID 83540.

Hedberg may be contacted at kathyhedberg@gmail.com or (208) 983-2326.