"Reverend Wilbur Yeager, son of Reverend Elijah Yeager, was in 1930, 87 years of age, and this is what he said: 'My father, the Rev. Elijah Yeager, settled in the neighborhood of Bowers Chapel about the year 1838 when there were no church societies there, and started Methodism in that section. He taught school and preached all over the county. Even before the chapel was built there had been church services in that community. In 1837 or 1838 the M. E. Church South organized a church and built a small church on a knoll a little way from the present building.'"

"Methodist Episcopal Church South was started in 1848 and ran till 1862, when it was disbanded during the Civil War."

"When the Bowers Chapel was built in 1870, the church was designated Methodist Episcopal, dropping the term South. The cost of the building was $1,000. The land belonged to my grandfather, E. Mikel Bower, and his son Emanuel and that is how the church got its name."

"The Bowers Chapel was the first Methodist Episcopal Church in the whole section. I think the first in either Dallas or Hickory Counties. (The earlier churches were M. E. South.)"

"It was the center of the community at that time and from the time it was dedicated had quite a religious success."

"From that foundation or beginning Rev. Elijah Yeager, John R. Reser, Mrs. Virginia Andrews, Aaron Darby, the Rev. James Reser, James Robertson, J. H. Vaughan and many other young men and women were trained. More than 15 young men went out into the ministry. Among them the Rev. Grant Reser, D. D. (became President of Marionville College; Rev. William Jasper Simmons, D. D. of St. Louis Conference, Rev. James Hall Glanville, Presbyterian, and C. W. Glanville, M. E. Church South." (End of quote by Rev. W. F. Yeager.)

The Dallas County Missouri Story (1841-1971) pp 19-20

Name: Margaret Bower
Gender: Female
Birth Year: 1816
Spouse Name: Elijah Fisher Yeager
Spouse Birth Place: KY
Spouse Birth Year: 1804
Marriage Year: 1840
Marriage State: MO

Name: Elijah Fisher Yeager
Gender: Male
Birth Place: KY
Birth Year: 1804
Spouse Name: Hannah Stanfield
Spouse Birth Place: TN
Spouse Birth Year: 1808
Marriage Year: 1826
Marriage State: TN