Splitlog Church

About this property

Splitlog Church (also known as Cayuga Mission Church) is a historic church building in the unincorporated community of Cayuga, Oklahoma, near Grove, Oklahoma. It is named for Mathias and Eliza Splitlog, who built the church and founded Cayuga, which was an industrial center in the late 1880s. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and still serves as a church. The church building is approximately 50 feet (15 m) long by 30 feet (9.1 m) wide and is constructed of native limestone from the nearby Boone Formation. It has a tall steeple above the front entrance with a Belfry (architecture) that held a 1,600 pound (726 kg) bronze bell that was cast in Belgium, shipped to Neosho, Missouri, and then hauled by his son Henry Splitlog the 24 miles (39 km) from Neosho to Cayuga. A smaller belfry toward the rear of the building held a second, smaller bell. The roof is high and steeply sloped. Limestone steps lead to the front entrance, which has plain wooden double doors, and has an arch adorned with fifteen Indian symbols. The meaning of the symbols is unknown. Inside, the building has imported wood, much of which has been carved very ornately. All windows are arched and had stained glass. Starting at the east end of the altar, each arched window has one letter of the designer's surname carved above it. Thus, running down the right side of the nave, across the back, and returning up the left, the carvings form the name "Splitlog". The organ that Splitlog had ordered for the choir loft could not be delivered until the church was nearly complete. The building had water from the water system Splitlog built for the town, but the furnace to provide steam heat to parishioners was not completed before his death. In 1998, a 6-foot (1.8-meter) mural was discovered in the church; it depicts Delaware County, Oklahoma and is signed Victoria L. Morell, 1946. The church has a basement, and there was a two-room building behind the church that served as a small residence and engine house. A tunnel connected the church basement to the other building, for the priest's convenience. In the cornerstone was a copper can about the size of a cigar box, with pictures of Eliza and Mathias Splitlog, their biography, one of each of the coins used at that time, and some stamps. The original windows were stained glass, that had cost $19,000 when it was built (equivalent to about $706,500 in 2024). In 1925, vandals exploded dynamite in the walls, stealing the box of coins and breaking the windows. When the Catholic Church sold the building to the Methodist Church, they removed the altar and confessional. The Methodists installed a pulpit. At that time, the Catholic Church also removed the large Belgian bell from the front steeple and sent it to St. Catherine's Church in Nowata, Oklahoma. Later, the Splitlogs' grandson Chief Grover Splitlog negotiated with the Catholic Bishop of Oklahoma Eugene J. McGuinness to return the bell, and for a while it was displayed on the groundskeeper's yard.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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