On a chilly fall day a hundred years ago or so, they gathered in the predawn black to build the fires, clean the kettles, wash the jars and rinse the apples.

Each man, woman and child from Mount Nebo United Presbyterian Church in Connoquenessing Township had a job to do as the congregation commenced its annual apple butter fund-raiser.

It was much the same last weekend when members pulled a page out of the church history book -- as they do this time each year -- not only to raise money but also to preserve a tradition and a sense of community.

"The money, that's nice, too, but this isn't really about money," said Goldie Sloan, 84, of Connoquenessing Township. "It's about fellowship and history."

No one knows for sure exactly when the church's annual apple butter tradition began. Mrs. Sloan remembers her mother bringing her to the church grounds in the Whitestown village of the township when Mrs. Sloan was just a little girl.

One thing is certain, though: The old-fashioned apple-butter-making process hasn't changed much over the many years that Mrs. Sloan and her niece, Shirley Fassinger, 66, have served as official tasters for the daylong process.

Things began at 5:30 a.m. Oct. 22 when church members began gathering under a dark sky in a mist of rain at the back of the red brick church on Route 528. The property looks out in each direction onto shorn farm fields bordered by colored trees.

Within minutes, Mrs. Fassinger and Leslie Peters, both of East Butler, were scooping sliced apples from black plastic bags sitting inside stacks of wooden crates. Randy Bieber, of Mount Chestnut in Franklin, chairman of this year's fund-raiser, and Don Patton, who lives next door, began building fires and chopping kindling along with Bud Sloan, of Connoquenessing Township, and Jay Fassigner, Shirley Fassinger's husband.

A trio of boys scurried about fetching wood, pulling a water hose and doing whatever their older brothers or fathers asked of them. "The best thing about October, besides Halloween, is apple butter day,'' said Zach Frazier, an 11-year-old sixth-grader from Center.

The sweet-smelling apples came from Soergel Orchards in Franklin Park. The Soergel family has a farm near the church, and the 20 bushels of apples were traded for manpower. Two weeks earlier, about 15 church members spent a day picking 105 bins of pumpkins from a Soergel pumpkin patch in exchange for picked apples.

The church borrowed a century-old mechanical apple peeler from a nearby consortium that collects old farm and steam-operated equipment. The apples were peeled three days before apple-butter making day and then sliced by hand by women of the church during a 10-hour period.

The sliced apples were bagged and stacked in wooden crates, ready for rinsing on the morning of the event.

The Mount Nebo church, with 118 members and about 30 families, marked its 200th anniversary this year with a weekend of festivities that was paid for using the $1,500 proceeds from last year's apple butter sale. The September weekend included a pie festival, pig roast church service and luncheon.

The church never has any trouble selling the spread at $2.50 a pint, or $5 a quart. Most jars are reserved before they've been filled, said Mrs. Fassinger, sitting on an overturned crate, hunched over an old washbasin full of apple slices. This year, 55 gallons of the pumpkin-colored condiment have been ordered. If any is leftover, it will be placed in jars and sold instantly. "We never have too much,'' she said.

As the rising sun turns the sky purple, more people arrive, some with children in tow, and the real work begins. Five cauldron-style kettles lined with shiny copper are wiped clean with vinegar and salt, then filled with apple cider and apple slices and carefully leveled over the brightly burning outdoor fires.

By 7 a.m., all the kettles are on a fire; the women are snacking on home-baked goodies; men in rain slickers, flannel and rubber work boots are huddling around the simmering apples, taking turns stirring, stirring, stirring with a heavy wooden paddle on a long stick. The apples mustn't sit even for a minute because they may burn on the bottom and ruin the batch.

As Mr. Patton repeats a figure eight motion with his paddle in the kettle, he nodded his head toward his house next door. "I live just over there. I've been a member of this church 33 years, and for my whole life, I can remember our family doing apple butter every year. It's our tradition,'' he said.

It's no easy feat, the constant stirring. The sliced apples haven't cooked down yet, so they're heavy and the long-handled paddle is, too. "Basically, you put in as many apples as you can stir,'' said Mr. Fassinger, with a gravelly laugh as he stamped around in he muddy dirt in a cold, light rain.

By mid-morning, the sky is gray, which is as bright as it'll get that rain-soaked day. Despite the miserable conditions, just about every church regular and even some people from neighboring churches have come to lend a hand and share a laugh.

"When I started doing this all those years ago, it was fun. But each year, it gets a little less,'' said Mrs. Fassinger to big laughs and shared disbelief. Armed with a spatula and sticks of butter, she's walking back and forth in the rain, making sure that none of the kettles are boiling over. If the cooking apples get too hot, she drops a stick of cold butter into the mix to lower the temperature and extinguish the risk of boil-over.

By about 11 a.m., all the apples have been added and, other than stirring, there's nothing to do except set out the glass jars in the church basement. That's what Bev McKinney is doing. With 13 years of membership, the 36-year-old Prospect resident is a comparable newcomer. There's lots of other things she could be doing this day, but she said she has set it aside on her calendar because "it's tradition. It's something we want to preserve.''

VerLinda Bieber, 35, agreed. "This brings the community together in its own way, every year for as long as people can remember. It's just nice,'' she said.

By 2 p.m., the apples are pronounced ready; the sugars and spices are to be added. Mrs. Fassinger and Mrs. Sloan go from kettle to kettle, adding a bit of white sugar, then a bit of brown sugar diluted into a liquid so it won't sink to the bottom and burn. After the mixture is deemed sweet enough, then cinnamon and cloves are stirred in.

An hour later, men begin carrying buckets of the cooked sauce to the church basement, where the women immediately spoon it into the clean jars, which are then topped with boiled lids and rings. Within minutes, the pinging of sealing jars can be heard amid happy conversation.

"Aunt Peg" Fassinger, 90, of Connoquenessing Township, is among the women stationed at the canning tables. "Don't even ask me how many years I've been doing this because it's just too many to remember,'' she said as she wiped clean the mouth of a jar and topped it with a lid and ring.

By 4 p.m., the kettle flames are doused and the last of the jars are filled. There's only the cleanup to do, then an early bedtime for all involved.

This year's fund-raiser produced nearly 70 gallons of apple butter, which will net about $1,400. There's no plans for the proceeds as yet. "We don't know what we'll do with the money, but I'm sure we'll come up with something,'' Shirley Fassinger said.

The long, wet day may have been aimed at raising funds, but it also reinforced the ties that bind this close-knit country community.

Add another page to the history book.