Warren County Iowa Genealogical Society

Belmont Zion Christian Union Church

Belmont Township, Belmont Zion Christian Union Church, was located in the southwest quarter of section 9, Belmont Township, two miles east and 1 mile north of Milo.

A history of the Belmont Zion Church is copied from The History of Warren County, Iowa, compiled by the Warren County Genealogical Society, Curtis Media Corp., Dallas, Texas, 1987

The Belmont Zion Church was located two miles east and one mile north of Milo in the southwest corner of section 9, Belmont Township, where the present Belmont Cemetery is located. The Belmont Church was first organized as a Free Will Baptist Church in the winter of 1871-1872 by James GOLDEN and his wife, Samuel SHAW and his wife, B. S. RUNNELS, William HICKS and his wife. Early pastors included Harrison OTIS; M. S. HUBBELL and Y. N. EMERSON. Joseph FELLOWS was an early Sunday School Superintendent. The church was constructed in 1873 and dedicated by Rev. C. E. BAKER. John FEIGHT donated land for the original section of a cemetery beside the church about 1864. Church services were held for several years, then discontinued.

The Belmont Zion Christian Union Church was organized there around 1889.Early pastors included K. D. WOLF, B. M. HUTCHINS, C. S. FAIR, A. F. DORRELL and N. D. GORDON. B.S. REYNOLDS was an early Sunday School Superintendent and John LONG was an early Board of Trustees President. Services were held for a few years, then later, when the Christian Union Church in Milo was built, its members became part of that congregation.

When the church was dismantled in the early 1900s, an evergreen tree was planted at each corner of the church site where they remain today on the south side of the cemetery. In 1937, the bell from the old church was sold to Saint Augustine’s Catholic Church in Milo where it was mounted in its dome. The east section of the cemetery is associated with that church and is called Saint Augustine’s Cemetery.