Lamar Colorado: Its First Hundred Years-1886 to 1986 excerpt from pages 95 and 96
Seventh Day Adventist Church. Information regarding the beginning of the Lamar Seventh Day Adventist Church is very scant, and it all comes from the memory of some of the old-timers. It is not known just when the church started, but in 1911 Mr. and Mrs. Lewis W. Davies, owners of the old Davies Hotel, began fellowshipping with a small group of Seventh Day Adventists that met in the home of a family named Jones.
About that time two Adventist evangelists, Pastor Alway and Pastor Altman, conducted tent meetings in Lamar. As a result of the tent meetings, the group grew enough so that they needed a church in which to meet: so they rented the Lutheran church building and conducted their service there. Frank Friend was the head elder at this time. Later Lewis Davies and Ed Hill also served terms as head elder. The church did not have a resident pastor, but visiting Adventist pastors frequently conducted services.
In approximately 1916 or 1917, the church bought a small four room house about two blocks north and two blocks east of the Davies Hotel. This structure was used for a school for the children of the families in the church. The congregation also met for their church services in this schoolhouse. A number of children attended the school, and at one time there were enough children so that it became necessary to employ two teachers. Some of the teachers employed were Eunice Donaldson, Nona Beeler, Verlie Beeler, a Miss Innis, and a Miss Stanley.
In the early 1920's, many of the Adventists moved away, and the membership gradually dwindled to the point where the church was finally closed.
A list of the charter members is not available, but some of the members during the time of the church's early existence were Mr. and Mrs. Lewis W. Davies and family, the Jones family, Mrs. Beyers, Carrie F. Davies, Mrs. Tillie E. Copeland, Mrss. Nogle, Frank Friend, Dorothy Ames, Sam Jennings and family, the Jessie Johnson family, the Watts family, the Ed Hill family, the Frank Carver family, the Muters family, and Mrs. Bertha Gordon and family.
There is no record of an organized Seventh Day Adventist Church in Lamar from the 1920's until the 1950's. In 1956 two Adventist evangelists, Pastor Sneyman and Pastor Fletcher, came to Lamar, constructed a temporary tabernacle, and began holding evangelistic meetings. As a result of these meetings, a Seventh Day Adventist Church was organized. Charter members included Mrs. Mary Hallmark, Mrs. Getrude McClellan, Mrs. Irene Jones, Mrs. Ella Weitrick. Mrs. Edna Johnsonk and Chifton Coop.
This newly organized church at first met in the evangelists' tabernacle, but then members rented the Odd Fellows Hall on West Oak Street for their services. In 1960 they purchased from the Nazarenes a church building on the corner of Sixth and Poplar Streets. In the spring of 1976, they started worshiping in the present building, which is at Sixth and Savage Streets. The contractor who built the new church was Melvin Draft, who as a boy attended the Seventh Day Adventist School near the Davies Hotel.
In 1970 the Lycan Seventh Day Adventist Church, which had been meeting in the Star Schoolhouse south of Holly, merged with the Lamar church, and the members from that area now commute to Lamar for church services.
Pastors who have served the Adventist Church in Lamar since 1956 are L. E. Himpel, Freddie Bargas, Norman Graham, Jere Wallace, Lloyd Barnes, Jerry Oster, Jerry Chapman, and Don Sales. The current pastor is Richard Rose.
The Lamar Church is part of the Worldwide Seventh Day Adventist denomination, numbering over four million members in 184 countries. Locally, they are part of the Rocky Mountain Conference of Seventh Day Adventists, which includes Colorado, Wyoming and San Juan County in New Mexico.
Former Pastors of Lamar Church
Brent Wilson. 5/15/2009 to 8/31/2009
Dale Fuhrmeister. 2/15/2010- 2/14/2010. 1/1/2014- 2/28/2017
J.J Martinez- 9/1/2017.