Pilgrim Holiness Church (Arthur, Nebraska)
Encyclopedia
The Pilgrim Holiness Church, also known as the Baled Hay Church or the Baled Straw Church, is a church built in 1928 in Arthur, Nebraska
Arthur, Nebraska
Arthur is a village in Arthur County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 117 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Arthur County.-Geography:Arthur is located at ....

. At a time and place in which conventional construction materials were expensive or unavailable, it was built out of baled rye straw
Straw-bale construction
Straw-bale construction is a building method that uses bales of straw as structural elements, building insulation, or both...

. For its unique mode of construction, associated with the history of settlement of the Nebraska Sandhills, it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

.

Settlement of Arthur County

Arthur County
Arthur County, Nebraska
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 444 people, 185 households, and 138 families residing in the county. The population density was 0.618 people per square mile . There were 273 housing units at an average density of 0.380 per square mile...

 lies in the Nebraska Sandhills, a region of grass-stabilized sand dunes.
Rainfall percolates readily into the sandy soil, recharging the aquifer and giving rise to hundreds of permanent lakes; but the sandy soil is poorly suited for cultivation, and the area is chiefly used for cattle ranching.

Much of eastern Nebraska was settled under the provisions of the 1862 Homestead Act
Homestead Act
A homestead act is one of three United States federal laws that gave an applicant freehold title to an area called a "homestead" – typically 160 acres of undeveloped federal land west of the Mississippi River....

, which allowed settlers to obtain a quarter-section (160 acres, or 65 ha) of government land for a nominal fee. In the Sandhills, this was not enough land to support a family, and the usual pattern of development was one of large cattle ranches on federal land,
with the ranchers using the homestead laws to secure lakes and streams for their operations.

The 1904 Kinkaid Act
Kinkaid Act
The Kinkaid Act of 1904 is a U.S. statute that amended the 1862 Homestead Act so that one section of a township of undeveloped land could be claimed in 37 northern and western Nebraska counties...

 allowed homesteaders in 37 western Nebraska counties to claim a full section (640 acres, or 260 ha) of government land.
This, combined with the opening of a forest reserve in 1911, led to rapid population growth in what is now Arthur County. The county itself was created by the Nebraska legislature in its 1912-13 session, and the townsite of Arthur was designated the county seat in 1913. By the 1920 census, the county had a population of 1412, compared to an 1890 population of 91 for what is now Logan
Logan County, Nebraska
-History:Logan County was formed in 1885. It was named after the Union General John A. Logan.-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 774 people, 316 households, and 229 families residing in the county. The population density was 1 people per square mile . There were 386 housing units...

 and Arthur counties.

Straw bale construction

The first settlers on the Nebraska prairies found few trees there, necessitating a search for locally available construction materials. In other parts of the state, the soil proved suitable for dugouts
Dugout (shelter)
A dugout or dug-out, also known as a pithouse, pit-house, earth lodge, mud hut, is a shelter for humans or domesticated animals and livestock based on a hole or depression dug into the ground. These structures are one of the most ancient types of human housing known to archeologists...

 and sod houses
Sod house
The sod house or "soddy" was a corollary to the log cabin during frontier settlement of Canada and the United States. The prairie lacked standard building materials such as wood or stone; however, sod from thickly-rooted prairie grass was abundant...

.
However, in the Sandhills, the soil generally made poor construction sod; in the few places where suitable sod could be found, it was more valuable for agriculture than as a building material.
No railroad lines reached Arthur County, so importing construction materials would have been expensive and difficult.

The mechanical hay baler had been invented in the 1850s, and was widespread by the 1890s.
The first documented use of hay bales in construction in Nebraska was a schoolhouse built in 1896 or 1897; unfenced and unprotected by stucco or plaster, it was reported in 1902 as having been eaten by cows. Between 1896 and 1945, an estimated 70 straw-bale buildings, including houses, farm buildings, churches, schools, offices, and grocery stores had been built in the Sandhills. In 1990, nine surviving bale buildings were reported in Arthur and Logan Counties.

Pilgrim Holiness Church

In 1927, a group of Congregationalists
Congregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

 in Arthur began planning a church. The building, constructed in the following year, was constructed of stacked and baled hay with walls 2 feet (60 cm) thick. The building is presently stuccoed on the outside and plastered on the inside, but in the course of renovations in 1976, it was determined that it had originally been plastered on both sides with locally obtained "gumbo mud".

Pilgrim Holiness Church is the oldest known straw-bale church in North America, and one of three known to exist today. The others are a church built in 1954 near Sexsmith, Alberta
Sexsmith, Alberta
Sexsmith is a town in northern Alberta, Canada. It is located on Highway 2, north of the city of Grande Prairie.Sexsmith is located in the Peace River Country region of Alberta, and as such sits in one of the most fertile growing areas in the province...

, and St. Francis in the Redwoods, built in 2007 in Willits, California
Willits, California
Willits is a city in Mendocino County, California, United States. Willits is located north-northwest of Ukiah, at an elevation of 1391 feet . The population was 4,888 at the 2010 census, down from 5,073 at the 2000 census. Willits is at the center of Mendocino County and its redwood forests...

.

Regular services are no longer held in the church, which is now owned and operated by the Arthur County Historical Society. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
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