Friendship Church is a small, one room, frame church located southwest of Hallsville, MO in Boone County.
Friendship Church was a church that was part of the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ denomination. As people migrated westward with the expansion and exploration of the United States in the 19th century, many who settled in Missouri were members of the Christian Church. At first they would worship together in houses, fields, groves, or sometimes in the local school houses, but in time, the first Christian Church buildings sprung up.
On October 5, 1822, the Red Top Church became the first Christian Church organized in Boone County, MO. It was also the 3rd Christian Church to be established west of the Mississippi River, and is still in use to this day. As Red Top grew and more people settled in Boone County, more Christian Churches were established. This is how Friendship Church began.
Friendship Church was originally organized in 1837 and had nine member. The original building stood one mile southwest of the current building. The church saw some growth, but was disorganized in 1876 with members moving to other churches and organizations.
Just two short years later, in 1878, Friendship Church was reorganized and the current building was built. It cost $950 and was a frame building, typical of most small, country churches at that time. The first sermon at the new building was preached by Joel Heddington in October of 1878. By 1882, church membership had grown to 83 members. James A. Stevenson, John W. Ridgway, and Josiah Jones were elders in 1882, and Willis Robinson and Cyrus Turner serving as deacons.
Due to the ecclesiastical structure of the Christian Church denomination, each church is autonomous. But as more churches were planted and the membership grew, the Christian Churches in Boone County and the surrounding area started meeting together in cooperation with one another. The first annual meeting of Christian Churches in Boone County was held in 1837 at Bear Creek Church. This was the forerunner to the Missouri State Convention. A highlight of Friendship Church's history is that Friendship Church hosted the first ever convention of the churches from September 7th-9th in 1908. At these conventions were held activities such as: devotional services, addresses to church members, luncheons and meals, formation of committees, election of convention officers, reports, and planning for future convention and church activities. The Convention of Christian Churches remained officially active until the 1960's.
Pastors who served at Friendship Church included: an Elder Mason, Joel Heddington, Mr. Cave, Mr. Burton, Mr. Roselle, Mr. Burnam, and Elijah Chrisman.
Today the church sits abandoned, but in pretty good condition. I am not sure when the church officially closed its doors, but it is clearly not being used for worship services or even occasional, special services either. The church was active through at least the mid-1900's, as the building clearly had electricity running to it. At one point in its history it appears to have had gender segregated seating, based on the fact that the building has two front doors. Men would enter through one door, the women through the other, and while married families could sit together in the middle pews, the single men and single women had to sit on their respective sides of the church in the pews along the walls. The graveyard in in really good condition and appears to be being kept up.
