The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

On Sunday, Oct. 23, the Haxtun United Methodist Church congregation, led by Pastor Jeri Soens, held a dedication service commemorating the completion of a six-year project replacing the seven arched exterior memorial windows with designs in stained glass. The original windows, six of which had been given by church families in honor of children or fallen veterans from World War II, were previously painted designs based on scriptural references chosen by the separate families, all of which were part of the church structure first dedicated in August 1952. Over the ensuing 70 years, the painted designs, despite some repainting attempts, had faded and chipped away, so when church trustee Ron Guernsey considered the situation in 2015, he queried member and local artist Nancy Dee for her thoughts. Her response was that the painted images should be redesigned and replaced with actual stained glass, and, after fully considering the enormity of the task, that she would be willing to take on the challenge.

The window structures were beneficially unique, in that rather than a single, unified window of roughly six feet by three feet, each had been designed with a metal framework containing 12 individual panels that comprised the full image. This eliminated the difficulty of handling a complete single unit and the need for reinforcing metal supports typically used to help carry the load of a single stained glass construction of that size.

Thus, in 2016, Nancy started her multi-year endeavor, allocating around five months for the completion of each window. Drawing out the design, making sure the proportions were correct and then editing all the lines so they could be cut out of glass, took a considerable portion of the time. After the design was completed it was copied, one copy cut apart to create the pattern pieces, glass selected, each piece was then cut out of glass, fitting them together like a jigsaw puzzle and then soldering all the pieces to complete each of the 12 panels for one window. Her experience as an artist was applied to the composition and color selections for each design. Charging only for the materials used, and with memorial funding from the estate of her late mother, Bonnie (Maine) Biesemeier, plus additional designated donations in honor of Dick Fryrear and from the families of Candy Hofmeister and Rod Salvador (descendants of John W. Bentson), the project saw completion with installation of the last window this October.

Once the 12 panels of a window were ready, the actual installation required an average of five days of work by Ron Guernsey, with assistance from Nancy's husband, Rob, and occasionally Ron's fellow trustee, Dave Green. A typical installation week would see removal of the original glass panes on Monday (including 70-year-old cemented mortar and caulking); cleaning and wire brushing, then priming the framework on day two; finished frame painting on day three, followed by installation and caulking-in of the new stained glass panels on day four. Finally, on day five the exterior frame of the window and the new caulking were painted white. Each day, scaffolding provided by the Westbrooks would need to be set up, the existing plexiglass exterior shield removed, the day's window task completed, then the shield replaced and the scaffold taken down.

As noted, six of the original windows were the memorial gifts of several families: Fuesz (Mary and baby Jesus), Miller (Young Jesus with lamb), and Olsen (Jesus with child), for children lost to illness; Hulse (Following Jesus the Good Shepherd), Beckman (Christ knocking at the door), and Bentson (Christ in Gethsemane), for family service members killed in World War II. The seventh window, previously undesignated, was redesigned by Nancy in honor of the Haxtun Methodist Church Family by the Biesemeier and Dee families and the generations of family that came before. It depicts the resurrected Christ emerging from the tomb on Easter, which is the most important and defining component of Christianity.