Ransomville

For members of the Franklin County Rural History Club, warm weather means one thing: field trips. Our first adventure of 2018 took us a few miles southwest of Ottawa, where a quiet farm near Interstate 35 shared some--but not all--of its secrets.

Appanoose Brethren Church

In northwestern Franklin County, down a private lane and obscured from the main road by trees and brush, a once-neglected house of worship is being resurrected.

The Appanoose Brethren Church, built in 1886, served the local community for close to 100 years. Local records show that it was in use through at least the 1960s. In recent years, though, the church, abandoned and vandalized, began to deteriorate.