Connecting With Zion’s Past

by Dennis Dugger

In November Zion’s past connected with me when I stumbled upon an interesting file in one of the cabinets in our Record Room.  This file indicated that Zion had once established a scholarship fund at Elmhurst College.

Next I found a reference to the scholarship in Zion Evangelical and Reformed Church, Owensboro, Kentucky, 1872 – 1947, a booklet prepared for Zion’s 75 Anniversary.  “The church gave to the Greater Elmhurst fund and now has a scholarship at the College.”

Later, I found additional information in the Council minutes from the 1940’s.  On May 7, 1945, the Council pledged to give Elmhurst College $2500 over a five year period to establish a scholarship.  However, the funding didn’t require five years.  By the end of 1946 Zion had fully funded this commitment and the Zion Owensboro Scholarship at Elmhurst had been created.

We know from the file that the scholarship was awarded at least once.  In 1973-74 a Mr. John Bretz received a $150 scholarship from the fund.  There was no other information in the folder about the scholarship or any other recipients.

After discussing the matter with Rev. Marx, a decision was made to contact Elmhurst to see if the scholarship still existed and what else we could learn about it.  Elmhurst researched the Zion Owensboro Scholarship and reported the following to Rev. Marx.  At some point, the scholarship became inactive, and since that time, its funds have been earning interest.  The original $2500 has now grown to about $14,000.  Elmhurst is in the process of sending us more information about the fund.  Soon the Zion Owensboro Scholarship will be active again.  And in the future, when it is rewarded, Zion will be notified about the recipients.  Its present size should earn sufficient interest each year to award a scholarship of about $500 - $600.

The existence of this scholarship provides an additional opportunity for outreach for anyone that might be interested.  Perhaps at some future time, as a church, we would want to make additional contributions to the scholarship.  Future growth of this type would enable the size of the rewards to increase.

The discovery of the scholarship has been very interesting, but there are still unanswered questions.  Why did it become inactive?  How many times was it awarded and to whom?  Can any of you tell me more about this scholarship?

Another November discovery was the past existence of a Zion Booster Club.  Soon we will hold our Annual Congregational Meeting.  From about 1934 to at least the 1950’s the meal for this congregational meeting was sponsored by the Booster Club.  If any of you know what happened to this group or when it last existed, please share.  I will write more about the Booster Club next month.  Oh, by the way, Happy New Year!