Idaho
Off the beaten path: It’s where to find some of the best faith stories
MIDVALE, IDAHO — My reporting journeys have taken me to…
144-year-old Idaho church survives and thrives
Pacific Northwest congregation celebrates its history while embracing renewed life.
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MIDVALE, IDAHO — Sunflowers and knee-high yellow grass line U.S. Highway 95, the two-lane blacktop through this blink-and-miss-it farm town.
Little green signs at each edge of Midvale — known as Middle Valley until the post office adopted the shortened name in 1903 — give the population as 222.
Amid barns and pastures, in the shadow of mountains that surround this western Idaho community, a mercantile, a veterans hall and a coffee shop beckon.
Midvale, Idaho, has a population of 222, according to signs along U.S. Highway 95.
Nearby stands a white, wood-frame building with a simple “Church of Christ” sign in black letters.
“We’re the agricultural hub of Washington County,” Mayor Brian Graham said of the town, about 90 miles northwest of Boise. “Everybody knows everybody and looks out for them.”
The 144-year-old church, which Graham and his wife, Shelly, attend, traces its beginning to a wagon train’s arrival from Missouri. A previous building burned, leading to the construction of the one where members have worshiped for a century.
Midvale member Brian Graham, right, serves as the town’s mayor as well as one of the church’s technology gurus.
“If people are looking for a good place to go that just studies the word of God, this is it,” Graham said on a recent weekend as about 150 men, women and children gathered to mark the meeting place’s 100th anniversary.
On a blue-sky Saturday, minister Kevin Hooper read from Joshua 4, where the tribes of Israel take 12 memorial stones from the Jordan River.
“Today I want to reveal a memorial for us,” Hooper said, “so that when our children say, ‘Hey, what happened back in 2025?’ we’ll talk about how God has been faithful to us.”
The preacher unveiled a small plaque that notes: “Church of Christ Building. Erected in 1925. Assembling since 1881.”
Minister Kelvin Hooper unveils a marker celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Midvale Church of Christ’s auditorium.
Hooper then offered a prayer of thanksgiving before the crowd sang “Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow.”
Afterward, past and present members enjoyed a barbecue potluck at Agnes Keithley Memorial Park in front of the church.
Tall maple trees and a single cottonwood provided shade as charcoal smoke wafted in the breeze. The park honors a member who planted the trees decades ago.
Dwight Towell, a 91-year-old farmer and custom knife maker, sported a cowboy hat, a pearl snap Western shirt and Wrangler jeans as he filled his plate.
“It’s where I’ve always come to worship since I was a kid,” Towell said of the Midvale church. “Whether I wanted to come or not, my folks brought me.
“Of course the church is not the building,” he added, “but it’s been a nice, convenient place for the church to meet.”
Dwight Towell, right, stands as he leads a closing prayer at the Midvale Church of Christ, the Idaho congregation he has attended his entire life.
Not too long ago, the little old church was dying — or seemed to be.
So the celebration of God’s blessings on the congregation was extra special to longtime members.
“I was one of those thinking that my generation was just about going to be the last,” Towell recalled.
Kim Hamilton and other members and guests fill their plates at a fellowship meal during the celebration weekend.
Past and present Midvale members enjoy a potluck meal at the anniversary event.
Icy river baptisms
The Pacific Northwest congregation is believed to be the oldest Church of Christ west of the Rocky Mountains.
“Through relatives, I have a trunk that came across on the wagon train,” said Mildred Horton, 92, a former longtime member who returned to Midvale for the celebration.
Among the congregation’s original pioneer members was Alexander Towell, a former Civil War soldier and Dwight’s great-grandfather.
After sharing the schoolhouses in town with Baptists, the Church of Christ constructed its first building in 1905. But that facility burned down in 1924.
The rebuilt auditorium opened the next year, although the baptistery, the fellowship hall and the classroom wing weren’t added until later. Just recently, a renovation brought a new foyer and a wheelchair ramp.
For decades, believers washed away their sins in the nearby Weiser River, which freezes in the winter.
A picture taken in the 1920s shows members outside the Midvale church building that just turned a century old.
Midvale members pose for a group photo during the anniversary celebration.
“My dad used to talk about how if people came to the decision of baptism, they would go and break out the ice,” said Hooper, who has deep roots in the congregation. His grandfather Austin Matheny and great-grandfather Denton Collins both preached for the Midvale church, while his great-grandfather Allen Hooper served on the 1925 building committee.
In 1946, 12-year-old Dwight Towell became the first person immersed in the new baptistery.
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Later, as a young man, Towell helped reroof the church.
“I remember driving nails into that metal roof,” he said with a soft chuckle. “I remember missing one of the nails and beating my thumb.”
A bulletin board at the Midvale church marks the 100th anniversary.
‘New life started coming’
In the early 1900s, Midvale’s population grew to roughly 1,000. The church approached 200 members.
Midvale gained a reputation as a “sheep capital.” It produced wool shipped via the railroad that came to town, Hooper noted in a 2004 paper while attending the Austin Graduate School of Theology.
But today, beef is the main livestock. Area farmers mainly raise alfalfa and hay. Idaho is the nation’s potato hub, but that crop is grown primarily in the state’s low-lying southern and eastern parts.
Minister Kevin Hooper displays an old photo with a deer on the porch of the Midvale church.
Hooper, 53, returned home to Midvale nearly 15 years ago. On Sunday afternoons, he also preaches for the Weiser Church of Christ, near the Oregon state line about 20 miles away.
He previously served as youth minister for the Boise Church of Christ and associate minister for the Cross Tower Church of Christ in Salt Lake City (then known as the Southside congregation).
“When I first moved back, I came right back into infighting between a couple of men, and it blew up,” Hooper recalled. “And I thought, ‘I moved home to bury my church, my home church.’
“We went from about 30 people down to the teens,” he lamented. “But then … something was stirring the water. God had trimmed away enough dead branches, and some new life started coming.”
Parker Jenisch, Emeline Hooper and Everly Hooper pray during the anniversary weekend.
Tonya Holmes thumbs through a scrapbook on the Idaho church’s history.
Photos of past and present Midvale leaders and members are displayed at the anniversary celebration.
‘There’s something special’
Now, typical Sunday attendance ranges between 70 and 80. Some drive 30 to 60 miles to worship.
That number swelled to 105 the weekend of the 100th anniversary event. Babies crying and toddlers chattering mixed with a cappella voices praising God with hymns such as “The Steadfast Love of the Lord,” “Lord, We Come Before Thee Now” and “Our God, He Is Alive.”
“We have such a unique mix of people,” Hooper said. “We have some from a Mennonite background. We have some Reformed Presbyterian people. We have Baptists and people from Christian Churches, Churches of Christ, Congregational Churches. So it’s just kind of a wide smattering of people. But they just want good fellowship and the Bible. They don’t care about any of the other stuff.”
The congregation’s peaceful atmosphere and biblical teachings appealed to Paul and Faye Troyer, who came to faith as Mennonites.
“It’s really a blessing and an encouragement to us,” Paul said.
Midvale Church of Christ members Paul and Faye Troyer came to faith as Mennonites.
The Church of Christ is one of three churches in town, along with the Midvale Community Baptist Church and the Angel Camp Cowboy Church.
Hooper serves as Washington County’s vice chairman of Love INC — the acronym stands for “In the Name of Christ.” The national organization helps mobilize Christian churches by focusing on common goals of service. In this county, the partnership involves 17 houses of worship.
Eliana Hooper, 19, is the third-oldest of Kevin and Elise Hooper’s seven children. She just moved to Tigard, Ore., to join Project Antioch — a nine-month gap-year program of the Northwest School of Discipleship, overseen by the Southwest Church of Christ.
“I cannot describe the joy of it,” Eliana said of growing up as a fifth-generation member of the Midvale church. “I love history, and it just makes me really proud to live in an old town and be a part of an old church where the men in my family have been leaders for many generations.”
Fifth-generation member Eliana Hooper take a picture of the new historical plaque at the Midvale church.
She praises God for the congregation’s renewal and said her father deserves credit, too.
“Families that have been here for under 10 years have really stepped up because there’s something special about it,” she said. “There’s something special about the people. There’s something special about the town.”
“There’s something special about the people. There’s something special about the town.”
BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. He traveled to Idaho to report this story. Reach him at [email protected].
