Rescued at Thrift Shop

Occasionally, an artifact arrives in the mail unexpectedly and tells a long-forgotten story.  Such is the case with this key tag rescued by Julia Whorten of Eureka IL from a charity thrift store there.  The key tag is 1 3/8" at its widest point, showing a lady driving an open touring car and giving her name and her address at the manse of the First Christian Church in Lawrenceville.

 The Rev. Myrtle P. Storm and her husband, the Rev William Homer Storm, were ordained ministers of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  W.H. and M.P. Storm served the First Christian Church of Lawrenceville as co-pastors from 1923 to 1926.  During their ministries here, the church burned only five weeks after the family had settled into the adjacent manse.  The Rev. W.H. Storm led the effort to rebuild.  The Rev. Myrtle P. Storm held part-time pastorates in Lawrence County in the Allison Prairie, Russellville, Rising Sun and White House Christian Churches.  She served 55 years in the active ministry, starting and ending in Carlock.  Her last years were on the Tazewell County farm of her daughter Betty and Betty's husband William J. Kuhfuss, a past President of the Illinois Farm Bureau (1958 - 1970) and the American Farm Bureau Federation (1970 - 1976).  Betty Kuhfuss and her brother Paul spent formative years in Lawrenceville as "preacher's kids". Written and researched by John King

Postcard of First Christian Church of Lawrenceville that burned in 1923