Little Brown Church in the Vale

[KOHLSDORF] Settled among Iowa's endless slopes of rolling countryside, rests a place of worship that ascended during the days of covered wagons, a place made famous by a sentimental hymn, The Little Brown Church in the Vale.

 ♪♪ There's a church in the valley by the wildwood ♪♪ 

[PASTOR DREW MCHOLM] So there was a gentleman called William Pitts, who was a musician, lived in Wisconsin, came down here in 1857. And of course, there was nothing here other than grass and trees and so on and so forth, and had this vision from God to write this song about a little brown church in the vale.

♪♪  Come to the church in the wildwood ♪♪ 

♪♪  Oh, come to the church in the vale ♪♪ 

[PASTOR DREW MCHOLM] It's one of the, I think, most prominent historical sites in the area. The church is known throughout the world. We get letters and comments and emails from people as far as Indonesia and Thailand, and we've had groups from Korea come and sing for us and sing the song in Korean. And so it's certainly a landmark. And it's a very special place. We have visitors almost every single day and they fill in the guest guestbook so we know where they're from and they're from all over the States and abroad. We do a guided tour. I'm usually the guy that does that, and then we sometimes have lunch for them after that. And the other major thing we do here is weddings, of course, it's a wedding destination place. We've done something like 76,000 plus weddings since 1864. We have a church service every Sunday morning at 10:30. And so if somebody is in the area, we invite them to come by and join the worship service.

 ♪♪ No spot is so dear to my childhood as the little brown church in the vale ♪♪ 

[KOHLSDORF] After marrying an Iowan, Pastor Drew McComb relocated to Chickasaw County with his wife in 2018, where the legend of the Little Brown Church became his reality.

[PASTOR DREW MCHOLM] My wife always used to boast about Midwest people and just the salt of the earth and just regular folks. And that's what we've found. And so we've got wonderful congregation of folks like that farmers, you know, folks that work the soil and, it's just a great bunch of people. So it's a delight to pastor people like that. It's just a very special place.

♪♪  No spot is so dear to my childhood as the little brown church in the vale ♪♪