Westminster Presbyterian

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The Westminster Presbyterian Church of Hueneme dates its earliest beginnings to 1885 when Thomas R. Bard and eight other residents of the little town of Hueneme made application to the Los Angeles Presbytery to form a new church. Lacking a building, the new congregation, which was named Hueneme Presbyterian Church, made arrangements with the Methodist Episcopal Board to use their sanctuary on two Sundays each month for their services. The Reverend J. H. Harris was appointed stated supply. By 1891 the congregation was large enough to construct its own building, which was located at the corner of Second and Scott streets on land that had been donated by Thomas Bard. Two years later the Reverend David Lander would become the first pastor of the fledgling church. For the next few years the congregation continued to grow, along with the town of Hueneme that was sustained by a growing commerce in grain shipped from its busy wharf. However, toward the end of the decade, a dramatic change took place in the region caused by the introduction of sugar beets that rapidly became the dominate crop. Late in 1897, after the construction of a new sugar refinery located in an area four miles north of Hueneme, a mass exodus of people occurred -- and a new town named Oxnard was formed. With the construction of a spur track by the Southern Pacific Railroad, connecting the new sugar factory with the mail line, and bypassing the wharf at Hueneme, the old town became nearly deserted. By 1905 the congregation at the Hueneme Presbyterian Church had declined to a point that it could no longer support a pastor, causing the Session to adjourn for what would become a period of fifteen years. The doors of the church, however, were not completely closed, because Sunday school classes were continued through the efforts of the Bard family, who alternated in teaching classes each Sunday. Finally, in 1918, when the Reverend William Miedema, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Oxnard, offered to