Little Brown Church

A favorite memory growing up was hearing the story of my parent’s wedding. My mom, at almost 19, and Dad, barely 20, gathered on a blizzardy November day with their parents and two friends as witnesses at the Little Brown Church in Nashua, Iowa. The only two photos I can recall of this occasion are a slightly grainy photo picturing the two of them standing side by side at the front of the church and the other showing them at a family reception at my grandparent’s farmhouse. Yet the bond held and before Dad died in 2014, they celebrated 62 years of marriage. The marriage survived and thrived in moves from the Iowa cornfields to army training at Camp Roberts, California, to the campus of Iowa State in Ames, Iowa, as students on the GI bill, to work and life in St. Paul, Stillwater and Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota.

This week’s painting is a tribute to my folks, Dale and Jan Stull, and their sweet Little Brown Church, 8” x 11” on 300 lb. watercolor paper. The church became well-known through the song “The Church in the Wildwood” written by Dr. William S. Pitts in 1857. Today this special place is still known as “the little brown church in the vale.”