First Congregational Church of Frankfort, MI
  • First Things
    • How to Find Us
    • Minister and Staff
    • Calendar
    • Steepleviews Newsletter
    • Sermons
    • Recently...
  • Weddings
    • Basic Wedding Information
    • The Wedding Service
    • Some Practical Suggestions
    • Vendors
    • Historic Weddings
  • Special Events
    • Baptisms
    • Block Party
    • Cake Walk
    • Celebrations of Life: Funerals & Memorials
    • Christmas: The pictures say it all
    • Cookie Decorating (for the Silver Tea)
    • Flotilla Party
    • Fourth of July Koegel Hot Dog Sale
    • Halloween Open House
    • The Lord's Supper
    • Women's Fellowship Silver Tea
  • Our History and Other Things
    • Historic This and That >
      • Historic Quilt
      • New Minister Ads: 1998
    • Previous Pastors
    • The Church Building
    • Religious Education
    • Congregationalism
    • Congregational Summer Assembly
    • Historical Marker of 2017
    • Newspaper Articles
    • FCCF Historic Television

Previous Pastors

Rev. Stephen H. Vaughn, 1910 - 1919
Rev. John C. Bockoven, 1947 - 1956
Rev. Paul and Thelma Bennehoff, 1971-1972 & 1985
Rev. Richard Hooker, 1978 - 1983
Rev. Jerry W. Dill 1983 - 1984
Rev. Richard and Betty Stoddard, 1985 - 1995
Rev. Craig Crossman, 1995 - 1997
Rev. Dinah J. Haag, 1998 -
Since our birth in 1868, our congregation has been served by 34 different pastors.  Although there are missing records, the following are the shepherds that have led this flock to this day.

1/1868 - 10/5/1874            A. H. Fletcher

7/12/1875 - 7/1/1877         L.F. Waldo

3/15/1879 - 1881               J.D. Millard

5/29/1881 - 8/4/1881         A.H. Cairnduff

4/9/1882 - 9/21/1882         F.D. Chandler

10/0/1882 - 10/1883          Robt. Adams

11/29/1883 - 7/2/1885       E.D. Curtis

8/1/1885 - 8/1888              C.W. Carrick

2/27/1887 - 8/1889            Geo. Lloyd

10/13/1889 - 3/1892          Thos. G. Baxter

9/1/1895 - 9/1896              Wm. Cochran

10/11/1896 - 4/9/1899       Daniel Truman 
                                         (Was fond of the unknown quote, "Christian names are everywhere; Christian men are                                                 very rare.)

12/10/1899 - 1/14/1904      Wm. Hurlbut

6/5/1904 - 7/1904              John G. Fraser D.D.

11/6/1904 - 1910               John H. Hull 
                                         (Was fond of the quote by Beecher, "An intense hour will do more than dreamy years.")

10/2/1910 - 4/27/1919       Stephen H. Vaughn

6/22/1919 - 10/14/1923      Albert Siebert

3/4/1924 - 6/24/1939         Louis B. Hardy

10/15/1939 - 10/25/1942    John Taylor Henry

6/25/1944 - 9/24/1946       G.W. Lomas

1/1947 - 12/1956               John C. Bockoven, made emeritus in 1962

8/1/1957 - 8/15/1960         Deryl (Dearl) Abbott

3/3/1961 - 10/1964            Arthur W. Tiffen

4/1965 - 4/15/1971            Raymond Hallock

Interim                              Rev. Paul Bennehoff 
                                         (Was the first to live in the new church parsonage.)

6/3/1973 - 6/1/1976           Larry Alan Correll

8/15/1976 - 4/23/1978       David Clyde Hirtle

8/6/1978 - 6/5/1983           Richard Hooker

Interim                               Ray Cartlige

10/16/1983 - 1984              Jerry W. Dill

Interim                               Rev. Paul Bennehoff

5/1985 - 1/1995                  Richard C. Stoddard

5/1995 - 7/30/1997             Craig Crossman

9/1/1997 - 8/31/1998          James Brammer, Interim

9/1/1998 -                          Dinah Jeannette Haag

A poem by Rev. L. B. Hardy

Memories of the Lake
​
Some sing of woodland’s beauty, 
   With its traceries of light;
Some, of mountains or of plains
   Of the beauties of the night;
And, no doubt, they have their place
   In the scheme of beauteous things;
But if glory you would know:
   - That of which my spirit sings - 
Find my seat upon the headland, 
   Just above the sandy beach,
Where the water stretches out
   To the limit of its reach - 
Just stopping at the sky-line,
   In the clear and distant west; - 
There the silence is unbroken - 
   There, my spirit is at rest.

There I sit and watch the seagulls
   As they circle in the sky,
Then mark the distant streamers, 
   That so silently pass by
And leave a stream of blackness - 
   (Not unlike a bit of crape)
All draped by quiet breezes, 
   O’er the waters of the lake;
While, breaking the horizon,
   Are top-sails, climbing higher,
Of a ship that’s coming home
   Through a sky, all set on fire.
By the red sun, sinking dow’r
   Soon to lose itself from sight;
For the shades of evening, warn me
   Of the coming of the night. 

Oh! Those glorious colors!
   Which no hand of man could paint;
The colors of the sunset, 
   That as night comes on grow faint;
And I hear the night birds calling, -
   Those below to those aloft,
As cooling evening breezes 
   Touch my cheeks with fingersoft;
Then, slowly I turn homeward
   And my mind is filled with dreams,
Though night’s turned day to darkness,
   In my spirit light still gleams
In which I’ll ever revel
   In my dreams or when awake
For in it lives the glory
   That I saw there o’er the lake - L. B. H.
Proudly powered by Weebly