09/06/11 Historic Jacoby Church on King Road was the place to be a couple of Sundays ago as the Marshall County Church Orchestra performed concert of sacred and secular music. Wythougan Valley Preservation member Maxine Whiteman welcomed Director Don Harness to the podium as the orchestra members came to attention.
Harness opened the concert with prayer and scripture from the book of Joshua concentrating on verse 24:15 “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The orchestra followed with the inspiring hymn “Amazing Grace” and then played several older hymns from the early church. They continued with popular selection from Broadway and movie tunes and completed their concert with an excerpt from a Red Skelton monologue about “The Pledge of Allegiance” followed with the song “America, The Beautiful”. Members of the MCCO find the Jacoby Church a particularly gratifying venue for a concert because the acoustics are so beautiful.
The day was particularly meaningful for a family that traveled from Ft. Wayne to visit the Jacoby Church. Five generations of the Jacoby family were sitting in the audience during the concert.
Betty (Jacoby) Harris of Churubusco, In. explained after the concert that her great, great, great grandfather’s son had donated the land where the Jacoby Church was built. She told the audience that there is also a Jacoby Church exactly like the one on King Road that was built in Missouri around the same time.
This was Betty’s third trip to visit the Marshall County Jacoby Church. She had seen it before the remodeling and preservation project and this was her first time to see it completed. She liked what she saw and continued to visit with the visitors while her grandson-in-law Ryan Teague of Ft. Wayne played the old Up-right piano that sits at the front of the sanctuary.
The MCCO will finish their Concert in the Park series with an outdoor concert at Miller’s Senior Living Community located at 625 Oakhill Ave. on Sunday, September 11 at 6:00 p.m. The outdoor concert will kick off National Assisted Living Week. Special guest artist with the MCCO will be Quentin Flagg of Plymouth. A patriotic section of the concert will honor Patriot’s Day. Please remember to bring your lawn chair for the concert. Concessions will be available with all proceeds going to the orchestra. For more information about the MCCO or the concert you may call 574-936-7357 and ask for Don Harness.
Photo 1: Five generations of the Jacoby family pose outside the Jacoby Church on Sunday afternoon: front – Betty (Jacoby) Harris and her son of Ft. Wayne Jerry Harris. Back – Carmela (Harris) Tuttle of Ft. Wayne, Nicole (Tuttle) Teague and her daughter 1 year old Elise Teague.
Photo 2: Director Don Harness reads scripture before the MCCO concert at Jacoby Church.
