The Founding of St. John
a mural located at the corner of 2nd and Main in St. John
This was a citizen-driven project that began in 2019 when David Robinson approached Stafford County Economic Development to be a fiscal sponsor for a mural project. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, EcoDevo was able to accept donations and secure matching grant funds for the proposed project. In 2020, Artist Inga Ojala painted a mural depicting settlers coming to the area. To learn more about the mural, watch the video below.
Funding for this project came from The Church of Jesus Christ in St. John (in memory of Alex Robinson) and the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission.
Thank you to the Mural Committee and Volunteers who helped make this happen!
Mural Committee:
David Robinson, Carolyn Dunn, Carol Long, Amber Turner, Pam Turner, Brian Brown, Mackenzie Hacker, Damian Rios, and Destiny Talbott
Volunteers:
Ashlee Bevan, Devon Wilson, Eliza Lawrence, Lizzy Baker, Hannah Ward, Caleb Krankenberg, Brian Dunn, Preston Dunn, Ian Dunn, Garrett Dunn, Chris Mansel, Chase Mansel, Clayton Rodarmel, Trey Turner, Tom Turner, Donna Thornburgh, Rita Schartz, and Kathleen Norman
Benches:
In Memory of Don and Jeanne Fisher
Sponsored by Stafford County Drug
Sponsored by Alice Lockridge and Lora Hase (in honor of their pioneer ancestors)
Carolyn Dunn, Executive Director of Stafford County Economic Development, talks with the artist, Inga Ojala. Inga painted this mural during March and April of 2020. She points out a number of details you might otherwise miss.
THE FOUNDING OF ST. JOHN
As the leader of The Church of Jesus Christ, William Bickerton felt called to be a missionary focused on bringing his faith to Native Americans, whom he called Lamanites.
In 1875, Bickerton, inspired by God, came to the area with thirty-five families to create a colony. Calling it Zion Valley, their hope and desire was to establish a community based on the values and principles of the early Church depicted in the New Testament after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Embracing Christ’s teaching on prayer, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven” The Church of Jesus Christ strived to do just that. Their vision for Zion Valley was to bring about a time of peace on Earth when all men and nature would come to know all the great things God has promised for mankind, and that the love of God would reign over all God’s creation. They would be light to the world, a “city on a hill that cannot be hidden.”
Their lives were not without hardships, as they worked to clear fields and plant crops. Many of these settlers had been miners, not farmers. They did remarkably well, though their biggest problems were the weather and broken promises by those back East who had pledged to support them until the mission was self-sufficient. Despite the challenges, more settlers arrived. And by 1877, Zion Valley was a promising settlement of almost 200 people, some church members and some not.
While the church community was growing, merchants also began building in the area. There was neighborliness among them, regardless of their beliefs, though this led to the start of secularization. When a group met to formally establish the town in May of 1878, it was named St. John after the state governor at the time, John P. St. John.
The church and its mission had always been Bickerton’s primary focus. As the area evolved from a religious colony into a more diverse town, what Bickerton saw was a successful community with his church at its heart.
St. John continues to be a special place as this unique legacy lives on: a blessed past and a promising future.
