Saving the Methodist Church

Summer of 1943

SAM LEON’S BAR hosted a “Dance” to SAVE THE METHODIST CHURCH, raising $65 of the $100 needed to keep thebuilding out of Foreclosure. The adjoining building, the Joe Harhner Barbershop. (Last Barber to work in Bodie.)

BODIE’S METHODIST CHURCH was in “Foreclosure.” A sum of of $100 was needed to “prevent a Foreclosure Sale.”

E. J. Clinton, head of a mining company in Bodie in the late 1920s, restored the Church with his own funding, and often preached “Sermons in the Church.”

In the Summer of 1943, Victor Cain, (oldest son of J. S. Cain,) and  Victor’s wife Ella Cain, prevailed upon “the Chinese owner of the town’s only Saloon,” Sam Leon “to Host a Dance” in his establishment. With the Funds derived from the “Dance” going to “Save the Methodist Church.”

SAM LEON’S BAR was opened in 1937, after losing U. S. HOTEL in the 1932 FIRE. (The building had previously been a restaurant, operated by the Hise family.)

A total of $65 was raised. The remaining $35 was gathered from Donations.

Bodie’s CATHOLIC CHURCH, also built in 1882, burned in a 1928 Fire.

The METHODIST CHURCH is the only Church still standing in Bodie.