The Little Brown Church

The music about the church was written by Dr. William S. Pitts in 1857 following a coach ride that stopped in Bradford, Iowa.

When Pitts returned to the area with his wife in 1862 he discovered a church being erected where he imagined it.

Shortly afterward, the small congregation experienced a revival that attracted new attention to it and to its song.

As the song grew in popularity, coupled with the development of the U.S. Highway system in the mid-1920s, many visitors came to the newly reopened little church.

It attracts thousands of visitors every year to see or be married in the "little brown church in the vale."