OUR HISTORY

The Cornerstone Church of God has been part of the Redbank Valley for almost 90 years. Here is the story of our church as I remember it.

In the early years of the Great Depression, there was a group of laborers & coal miners who came to our area (New Bethlehem) from the state of Kentucky to work in our mines & in the brickyards in Clarion & Armstrong Counties. In 1931 they held a tent meeting at the fairgrounds in New Bethlehem. There must have been enough believers(16 charter members) because they started holding services in a second-floor room, Maccabee Hall, in what I recall being the Corbet Building, in downtown New Bethlehem. In 1934 a church was built in a suburb of New Bethlehem called Fairmount City, in what we call the Redbank Valley. Its hills were filled with coal and there were three brickyards in the area. The church was built from timber taken from the St.Charles area about 5 miles from New Bethlehem and made into rough lumber at Dave Huffman’s sawmill. This church was located where Redbank Valley High School now stands about 40 yards north of the main entrance to the school. They say the church would be full and people would be sitting on the window sills of the church and in crowds across the road to see and hear what was going on. This was probably the first Pentecostal church most New Bethlehem people had ever seen.

My grandmother, Bertha Huffman, was one of the early Christians to go to that church in Fairmount City. She & her family moved from a farm in Mudlic to town just across the street from the church. The year was 1932 and times were hard as far as money was concerned. She would go to church wearing her husband Dave’s work shoes because she had none of her own. Could you picture anybody doing that or being that hungry for the Lord’s word today? She prayed for her children every day to be saved and she had 10. And yes, they were all saved when they died.

When Rev Noble Stern came to the Church of God in 1936, a home was made for him out of an old coal house on Dave & Bertha’s property. He was pastor first time for two years, 1936-1938 and when my grandmother died in 38 his wife wrote a poem about Mother Huffman and put it in the paper. My father David (Huffy), was saved in this church in 1950 at age 33 and has been there under 15 pastors and now at age 86 has just stepped down from the church council. He has held every position in the church but pastor but has held church services at different times over the years. He also has been a State Layman for Pennsylvania Church of God

In 1955 the Church had to move because the School District was building a new high school on this land. So there was a businessman by the name of Paul Troup who had a grocery store in Fairmount City. He gave the Church a piece of ground between the road (Route 28) and the Redbank Creek. It was a 99-year lease if the church remained there and held services.  This lease was taken over by another businessman when Troup lost everything he had. At last, the lease belonged to Mr. Whitey Robinson. The school district paid  $5,000.00 for the church.

The land that was given to the Church was not a level piece of ground so they had fill brought in. The new church was built by my dad David (Huffy) and another carpenter by the name of Edmonds, with a lot of help from believers of the church including the Pastor Sis Knisell. It was a nice church but when you went out the front door it was only about. 12 ft to the road. The Church bought two buildings across the road from the Church; one for the parsonage and the other was torn down for a parking lot. Cornerstone Church also bought a piece of land northeast of the church with an old store building (Keener’s) on it which was our youth hall. The record attendance for this church was 109. One day I was looking at a picture taken of this record-breaking day and said to my dad( Huffy), “You know, dad, over half these people are related to your mother, Bertha!” She was a praying woman you know.

As years went by the state widen the road not once but twice and the last time it was only about 10 feet from the door to the road. O, Lord! help us. You see, Route 28 is the main route between Pittsburgh and interstate 80 with lots of traffic I mean LOTS of traffic!! Mud was splashing against the church, the noise of the trucks was terrific.

Then came Black Friday, July 19, 1996.

The Black Friday flood covered most of Redbank Valley with water including the Fairmount City Church Of God. Everything was laid to waste. I mean we had nothing. All three of our buildings, the church, the parsonage, and the youth hall were all swept away by the flood. We began to pray.  What do we do now? We can’t rebuild on land so close to the road. We didn’t own the land the church stood on so we sold what was left of the church and the land where the youth hall stood to Robinson,  The land where the parsonage stood we sold to a neighbor, Eric Myers, who built a car repair shop there.  Pastor Varney moved into my rental house & White Chapel community church let us use their church for services after first going to the Baptist Church in New Bethlehem and the Methodist Church in Fairmount City.

I believe that we received $5,000.00 from the state headquarters of the Church Of God plus the $ 6000.00 from the sale of the land that we did own. So, we had only maybe $11,000.00 to start over. Not very much to build on, but with the help of God, we did.

We prayed, and the pastor received a prophecy concerning our Ministry. Pastor Varney, Council members David Huffman Sr, David Huffman Jr. Randy Reitz,& Ron Whitling, Secretary Mawnee Huffman held a meeting and decided to build on a new site. We put it to a vote to the church members and then stepped out in faith to rebuild. We looked for weeks for a piece of land that we could build on with no luck. Then, we turned it over to Pat Merwin a New Bethlehem Realtor. I remember the day that she found us a piece of ground. It was seven acres of flat land up on the top of a hill. I mean it was beautiful!  We bought the hilltop field and a beautiful church now stands there, thanks to The Lord, and all the extra work that had to be done by Pastor Verney and Sis Mawnee Huffman his secretary – all the paperwork, phone calls, and meetings. It was unbelievable what all had to be done.  It had to be the work of the Lord that it all came to be. We are a small church, but growing, and sometimes we struggle with finances, but just when we are at our lowest the Lord seems to bring the money in somehow, someway… .In God WE Trust!

As for the camp meetings down at Somerset, dad always told me about the times granddad Dave would take his flat bed lumber truck loaded with people from the church and head for the camp meeting . it must be a distance of at least 80 to 90 miles in an open bed truck! I know a few of the members had a cabin on the grounds and it was a big event for us at this church.