USA > Illinois > Brethren in northern Illinois and Wisconsin > Part 3
USA > Wisconsin > Brethren in northern Illinois and Wisconsin > Part 3
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Consider the Long family. There were the parents, Jacob, an elder, and Catherine; their three daughters, Susanna and husband, Henry Coffman; Catherine and husband, David But- terbaugh; Sarah and husband, Joshua Slifer; all of these except Coffman were members of the church. In addition to these were six other children: Isaac and wife, Catherine; four sons and one daughter, unmarried. The Long families entered government land north and east of what is now Maryland. These families became the nucleus from which the West Branch congregation grew. The following spring the tenth of the Long children, Mary, and her minister husband, Samuel Garber, also came west and settled at the village of Maryland, living in the house a few rods from the present Old Order meetinghouse.
With these new families added to their number the members saw in the coming of an experienced elder and a young minis- ter of promise hope for strong leadership for the church serv- ices which they so much desired. Things looked bright for the Brethren in the western part of Ogle County. A schoolhouse was already located on the southwest corner of the Daniel Eversole farm. Here the new Maryland settlement gathered for its first public worship service. Once a month services were
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conducted here. Nor were these new Marylanders satisfied to worship alone.
Two miles south of Mount Morris was the Price settlement in the Salem neighborhood. No Brethren settlement would long be without the love feast which has meant so much in the life of the denomination. Here the first love feast for Ogle County was held in the summer of 1845 in the John Price barn. The following summer a second love feast was held in this same barn. The time was July 4, according to some. Consider the ministerial force at this love feast. There were Joseph Emmert, Henry Strickler, Jacob Long, and Samuel Garber. Present also was Jacob Price, a layman from Franklin County, Pennsyl- vania. No doubt John Lauver of Lena, who had recently lo- cated in Stephenson County, was among the visiting brethren.
At the time of this love feast in the Price barn, which still stands, the members of Ogle County were organized into a work- ing congregation with Jacob Long as the elder in charge. Isaac Hershey was called to the ministry on that occasion. It is more than a conjecture that deacons were also chosen at this time for no Brethren church would be properly officered with- out deacons. But who were they? In the very early years of the West Branch church the following were chosen as deacons: David Butterbaugh, Daniel Zellers, Joshua Slifer, William Young and William Hopwood. At least some of these may have been elected then. David Funk, the miller on Pine Creek, his wife, Lydia, and two others were baptized, theirs being the first baptisms in Ogle County.
Ere long the growing congregation felt the need of a meet- inghouse. The greater part of the congregation being in the Maryland neighborhood, the house was located in that section. In 1848 they erected a house about thirty-six by forty feet, one story with an attic that furnished ample room for sleeping quar- ters for those who came to the love feasts and found the distance home too great after the evening services. The main floor fur- nished the audience room and a kitchen. There was an entrance from the east to the kitchen and two to the audience room, one for the men and one for the women, for, of course, in those days there was no mixed seating.
Simple handmade furniture sufficed for this simple house and these simple people whose tastes had not yet run to extremes.
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Stored away until love feast occasions were the tables, enough of them to meet the needs of the congregation, all except the one behind which sat the ministers in seniority order, and in front of which sat the deacons also in seniority order. Follow- ing the old rule the deacons read the Scriptures at the regular services.
In the southeast corner of the audience room were the wind- ing stairs to the attic with its straw ticks waiting for the over- night guests. In the kitchen were the cupboards for the table- ware and linen, while the open fireplace furnished ample facil- ities for cooking the meals for love feast and district meeting. As the old schoolhouse had provided the first place for worship so now in turn this new church reciprocated by allowing it to be used as a schoolhouse in which John Burner taught readin', 'ritin' and 'rithmetic while a new schoolhouse was being built. Samuel Brantner and Amos Harmon, both in the nineties and still living, were among the boys who went to school in the church.
In this meetinghouse was held the first district meeting for the four organized churches of this part of the state, on Easter Monday, April 13, 1857. The entry in John J. Emmert's diary for the day reads: "Big council meeting in Ogle County. The ground is covered with snow, cold-Seminary examination con- venes today." (By "seminary examination" he means com- mencement at old Rock River Seminary, later Mount Morris Col- lege.) Little did Bro. Emmert dream that in 1872 a daughter Mary was to be born to him, and that in Old Sandstone she would give her heart to the Lord and at Mount Morris College receive the inspiration that would lead her to become one of the pioneer foreign missionaries of the Church of the Brethren. The four churches in this first district meeting were West Branch, Arnold's Grove, Yellow Creek and Rock River (now Franklin Grove). The Annual Meeting of 1856, held at Lena, had given permission to hold district meetings. The Ash Ridge congregation of Wisconsin had been organized in 1854 but Wis- consin was not yet affiliated with Illinois as a district.
In this meetinghouse the people worshiped until sometime in the summer of 1859 when the house was made unsafe because of a windstorm and a bolt of lightning. In the meantime serv- ices were held, but less frequently, in Samuel Long's barn one-
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half mile northwest of the church site, and at least one love feast was held in the barn of David Butterbaugh a mile south of the church. The crowd may be judged by the fact that forty people spent the night at the Butterbaugh home. In the meantime materials were being assembled for the new stone church which was completed in the spring of 1862. The church with its low ceiling and solid walls still serves the community, though it has been slightly remodeled inside. It was no small undertaking to erect a stone meetinghouse forty by sixty feet in those days.
Joshua Slifer was treasurer of the building fund and we have some of his old accounts. From certain receipts we learn that he paid on November 25, 1862, $26 for two stoves, received from himself $20, from S. Garber, $25 and from I. Newcomer, $5. You will also be interested in the following statement:
To Building Meetinghouse Amount Spent on Church
to quaring stone
$ 125.00
Boarding Bill
128.00
to holing stone
172.00
Time Bill
100.00
Carpenter Bill
380.00
Tenders Bill
145.00
Mason Bill
270.00
Holing sand and Lime
35.00
plastering Bill
70.00
Stoves and pipe
45.00
Lumber Bill
595.00
Sill stones
12.00
Hard weare Bill
116.00
Fencing in the house.
15.00
Lamps and Sunders
21.00
To Making the walk
10.00
Panters Bill
25.00
Garman Bill for stone
24.00
Total
$2,300.82
Because they were short of funds some money was borrowed from Abram Toms. Next spring when final payment was to be made on bills and borrowed money a paper was circulated which brought in the following amounts:
Money for Building Meetinghouse
Susan Petrie
$ 10
Daniel Long 10
William Wallace
5
William Hopwood
10
Kahil for stoves
10
Phillip Eby
19
John B. Diehl
5
Henry Butterbaugh 15
Henry Stover
5
Emanuel Swingley
10
Daniel Stover
5
Sarah Wallace
10
Emanuel Stover
10
Solomon Nalley
10
John Fridley
200
John Diehl
8
Samuel Stover
20
Samuel Long
10
David H. Butterbaugh
20
John A. Wagner
5
Michael Emmert
10
A note at the bottom of the page says that the above amounts paid the bills in full.
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You will, of course, understand that much labor was donated, and possibly some material. The stone came from West Grove, a distance of two and one-half miles. Considering the times, the church undertook a big job and did it well, for the West Branch meetinghouse is substantial in its structure, beautiful in its simplicity and lovely in its setting. It must have been an out- standing structure as it stood forth on the prairie in 1861. The first love feast was held in the stone church in May 1862.
In the Christian Family Companion of June 1872 the editor writes of his drive from Dutchtown to a love feast at West Branch and enumerates the following visiting ministers present: Paul Wetzel of Lena, Daniel Fry of Yellow Creek, Isaac Myers of Pennsylvania, brother of Graybill Myers, Samuel Lehman of Franklin Grove, David Miller of Polo, D. M. Miller, Michael Kimmel and Jacob Hauger of Dutchtown. In those days it was customary to attend feasts at neighboring congregations. Especially did the ministers make it a business to attend these neighboring love feasts. On these occasions many ministers studied the sermons of the more able speakers, heard their dis- cussions in little groups and went back home with a larger vision and a new inspiration for the work in the home com- munity. For, mark you, those sermons were largely Biblical and the subjects discussed in private conversation were vitally related to Biblical interpretation and the fundamental doctrines of the Church of the Brethren.
During the years when revivals were much in vogue the following were among the outstanding series of meetings held at West Branch: S. H. Bashor, 1877; J. M. Mohler, 1889; David Eby, 1890; George D. Zollers, 1893; Henry Frantz, 1894; I. N. H. Beahm, 1895; J. G. Royer, 1896; I. B. Trout, 1897; Andrew Hutch- ison, 1898; John Heckman, 1899; W. E. Trostle, 1901.
Because from West Branch came an Old Order congregation we give a brief account of the same here. Though many of the congregations of northern Illinois were conservative the Old Order element was not strong enough to make much of an im- pression. Further, because the Old Order Brethren were never very aggressive in Illinois the aftereffects were not so serious as in some other parts of the brotherhood. That you may have a fair idea of the situation it should be said that the Progressives were the liberal party, chafing under certain conditions and re-
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straints, while the Old Orders were opposed to what they called innovations and departures from the old gospel standards. Be- tween these two extremes stood the great body of the church known as the Conservatives. The Conservatives aimed to hold to the best of the past and adopt such changes as seemed to them would most nearly measure up to Bible standards. The following from a remonstrance passed by a group of the Old Order type in Southern Ohio in August 1880 expresses their view:
The causes of the trouble must be removed before peace and union can be restored; and among some of these causes are high schools among us, popular Sunday schools with their conventions and celebrations, long protracted meetings and the way they are generally conducted, by sing- ing revival hymns and giving invitations to rise or come forward; a sal- aried ministry, and the single mode of feet-washing.
Now the things here named we do not regard as being in harmony with the spirit of the Gospel, neither are they in harmony with the ancient order of our church, we have reference also to non-conformity to the world, not only in dress, but in the building and fancy painting of our houses, barns, etc., after the custom of the world, the gaudy and costly finish put on them and fine furniture, etc., to set off our rooms and parlors, after the fashions of the world, together with fine and costly carriages, etc. In these things we confess that Southern Ohio has gone too far out of the way: and we hope will be willing to reform and make any sacrifice for Jesus' sake.
The following are the names of those who withdrew from the West Branch church and went with the Old Order Brethren: Samuel Long and wife, Andrew Long and wife, Albert Long, Daniel Butterbaugh and wife, Isaac Long and wife, David Gar- ber and wife, Julia Garber, Daniel Stover and wife. From sur- rounding congregations came Solomon Nalley and wife, Aquilla Rowland and wife, Benjamin Fridley and wife, Andrew Fridley and wife, Mary Wetzel and two others whose names are not now known. Daniel Butterbaugh and wife, Julia Garber, Samuel Long and Albert Long returned to the church later. This Old Order congregation had no resident minister but depended on ministers coming in from Indiana, Michigan and Iowa.
Ever looking back and not forward, being negative rather than affirmative, living in the past and failing to adjust to new conditions, the church made little appeal to the younger gener- ation. Ever the hope of the church is the coming generation.
On September 23, 1902, the women met in the home of Mrs.
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Mahlon Wesner and organized their first Aid Society with Pearl Plum as president and Mrs. George Hollinger as secretary, the organization continuing for two years. In 1915 the Aid came to life and continued for a brief period of time. In December 1920 it was again restored, with Bessie Binkley as president and Mrs. Beard as secretary. Since then they have kept up the organiza- tion. They have rendered substantial aid to world-wide missions and have done their part in district and national projects of the Women's Work. They have been a vital factor in the commu- nity, have fostered a spirit of neighborliness so that nearly all the women of the community attend the meetings and take part in the work. In this purely rural church the Aid has become a community center of helpfulness. The books show that about $3,000 has been contributed to benevolence, not considering the many useful articles that have brought comfort to many.
Among the ministers that came from West Branch mention should be made of David E. Price, thrice moderator of Annual Meeting, Melchor S. Newcomer, the founder of Mount Morris College, Andrew Butterbaugh, who died on the India mission field, and Samuel S. Plum, pastor from 1906 to 1931 when broken nerves drove him from active service. E. Wayne Gerdes is the present pastor.
Yellow Creek (1848)
Yellow Creek was the fourth church organized in the district. The first Brethren to arrive in Stephenson County were Wil- liam Miller from Ohio and Joseph Rush from Pennsylvania, who settled in this neighborhood about 1843. In early summer of 1846 two groups of covered wagons lumbered their weary way from Pennsylvania to Stephenson County. The one group set- tled in the vicinity of Kent; the other took up their abode in West Point Township, about two miles west of Lena. Our inter- est in these early settlers centers in the following eleven per- sons who were members of the Church of the Brethren: John Lauver, a German minister, and his wife, Christina; their son, Michael, and wife, Catherine; Joseph Sausman and wife, Han- nah; Dr. Frederick Voight and wife, Wilhelmena; Allen Boyer, a deacon, and wife, Leah, and her mother, Lydia Jorden. The year 1848 brought in other Brethren from Ohio and Pennsyl-
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vania. Some of these settled on Yellow Creek, whence the name chosen when the congregation was organized. Among these were Daniel Fry from the Nimishillen congregation, Ohio, and family, Jacob Delp and Benjamin Kepner, who located in Jo Daviess County.
Consider a few of this number as they are related to our church: Lauver, the first minister in the county; Boyer, called to the ministry in 1862, the antiquarian of the district; Delp and Kepner, both to be future ministers; Fry, the first elder in the county and in his old age to be sent to Denmark to help or- ganize the church; and his able and saintly wife of Scotch-Irish descent, a niece of President Buchanan; when a little girl she and her mother were captured by the Indians, but were rescued by the settlers. How little we know about those who daily pass before us, yet each has a thrilling story.
John Lauver was an able minister in the German language. Being the first Brethren minister in the county he doubtless was not slow in calling the people together for public worship, even though services had to be held in the open, in private homes, in barns and in schoolhouses. Such was the rule among pioneer Brethren. In the fall of 1848 the group met to organize a church as they already had two ministers and about thirty members. To the east, north and west their territory was boundless. To the south was Arnold's Grove. The year 1849 records the bap- tism of John Wales and Eliza Derr, and the first love feast, which was held in the home of Michael Reber on July 1. The next year they called Benjamin J. Kepner to the ministry. All this be- speaks a church working in the present and providing for the future.
The congregation was greatly strengthened in 1855 when Enoch Eby, minister and future Conference moderator, and about fifteen other members came from the Aughwick congrega- tion of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, and presented their church letters. The long list of love feasts held in private homes before a meetinghouse was built indicates a strong spiritual at- mosphere. It was this new congregation, the fourth in the dis- trict, that petitioned for the Annual Meeting, and it was in the barn and house of Michael Reber that the Annual Meeting of 1856 was held. One must admire both the faith and courage of the four churches to ask for the Conference and of the brother-
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hood to venture so far into the little-known West of that day. In spite of the cold and rain that Annual Meeting must have proved an uplift to the membership in Illinois.
In 1856 Jacob Studebaker and part of his family came by train from Bedford County, Pennsylvania, and settled two miles west of Pearl City. There were seven children in the family, all zealous for the church. The older boys did not come by train but drove through by wagon. Three of the sons, Samuel, George and Simon, later served in the ministry. The Brethren held services in the Center schoolhouse of the community. In- terest grew and in 1874 a small meetinghouse, known as the Center house, was built in the neighborhood of the schoolhouse, on the Jacob Studebaker farm. In this house services were held for some years and then were shifted to Pearl City. As serv- ices had alternated between Yellow Creek and the Center house, so later they alternated between Yellow Creek and Pearl City. The two places, however, were too close together, and the mem- bership too small to carry on at both places. This condition re- sulted in dropping the Pearl City services.
But we have gotten ahead of our story. Though services were held in different localities, two points grew into favor. These places were in the vicinity of the present Yellow Creek meetinghouse and a few miles from Lena where later the Louisa house was erected. The membership in both these cen- ters was growing to such an extent that after 1855 sentiment for a meetinghouse devoted exclusively to worship increased. It was evident, however, that not one but two houses were needed, although the two groups were as yet one congregation. Being Brethren they decided to build a house at Yellow Creek and, whenever the group should divide, both groups would unite in the expense just as both would contribute to the first meeting- house.
There were great activity and rejoicing while the house was being built in 1858. This house, forty by sixty feet, is still standing, the oldest in the district. It was after the conventional Dunker pattern with its two entrances from the side. The first love feast in it was held June 11 and 12, 1858. After this it was no longer necessary to hold the feast in private homes and barns. In 1881 a basement was put under the house, the committee in charge being Jacob Delp, Anthony Vote and David Irvin. Later
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NORTHERN ILLINOIS AND WISCONSIN
the house was again changed by providing classrooms and a sin- gle entrance. Hard by the church is a parsonage with five acres of land, which has recently been sold.
In the early days devotional meetings were held in the pri- vate homes. These meetings were called "social meetings" be- cause there was much prejudice against "prayer meetings" at the time. By this shifting of names the members availed them- selves of the blessings of the prayer meeting and at the same time avoided the censure that might have arisen had they been less willing to give cause for offense. The first Sunday school was organized in 1877 with Samuel Studebaker as superintend- ent and Marcus Fowler assistant.
Yellow Creek called ten men to the ministry from 1850 to 1906, although one, Michael Lauver, failed to serve. Eleven men have served as elders of the congregation; of this number the first four served for seventy-six years. Note their names and periods of service: Daniel Fry, 1848-1881; David Eby, 1881- 1898; Franklin Myers, 1898-1910; P. R. Keltner, 1910-1924. The pulpit was filled by the free ministry until 1917 when the first pastor was called. Eight pastors have served so far, the present pastor being Galen G. Gerdes. From 1935 to 1938 J. F. Burton, pastor at Lena, served Yellow Creek also. During this period there was an attempt to unite Lena and Yellow Creek, but with- out success. The seventy-six years of service of four elders stands in bold relief against eight pastors in twenty-four years.
The church will always remember Yellow Creek because of its contribution to the Danish mission. The district had first called Enoch Eby and Paul Wetzel on this commission. Later it proved inexpedient to send Wetzel, he not being an elder. Dan- iel Fry was appointed in his stead. He was then seventy years of age. When his name was announced as the new appointee tears flowed down many cheeks for all felt that he was too old to undertake such a heavy burden. The younger generation should remember that in those days a sea voyage was considered very dangerous by the common people. But Fry proved a good sailor and an efficient counselor. The high esteem in which he was held is well stressed by the fact that he was familiarly known as "Pappy" Fry.
The Aid Society was organized Dec. 20, 1906, with Kate Stude- baker as president and Elsie Fisher as secretary. Though their
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membership has never been large they have been energetic in their labors. At first they sewed for the poor and needy. Later they turned to knotting comforters and doing quilting and needlework. In this way they helped to pay for the parsonage and other church expenses. Though the records are incomplete they estimate their money contributions at $500 and other mate- rials at a like amount.
Hickory Grove (1858)
While Arnold's Grove was the center of Brethren activities in the forties and fifties, other settlements were being made that led to the organization of new congregations. We turn now to beginnings of the Hickory Grove group. In 1853 three families secured land and established homes to the south of Arnold's Grove. Of these three families Michael Sissler's belonged to the Church of the Brethren and was the first to live in the Hickory Grove territory. Sissler was called to the ministry by the Arnold's Grove church in 1854. Daniel Harnish and Andrew Baker also purchased land in this section in 1853, though neither of the families was Brethren. However, at the time of the great spiritual awakening and ingathering of 1858 both of these families entered the Brethren fold by baptism. The revival of 1858 was a chief factor in organizing Hickory Grove at the close of the year.
At that time David Rittenhouse was an active minister and leader, having come to Illinois from the Green Tree congrega- tion, Pennsylvania, in 1854. Of him the History of the Church of the Brethren of Eastern Pennsylvania says:
By 1845 David Rittenhouse was in the ministry. He was not regarded as able, but was very strict for the so-called order of the church. In the early fifties he accompanied Jacob Gottwals in a horse and carriage trip to the Publishing House of Henry Kurtz in Poland, Ohio. This seemed to give him the spirit of migration, for in 1854 he organized a company of Brethren in Eastern Pennsylvania, which migrated to Northern Illinois. There he became the founder of the Hickory Grove congregation.
Leaders in the Green Tree church at that time were men like John Umstad, James Quinter and George D. Price, all aggressive and liberal-minded. Rittenhouse was not in full accord with their views and sought a new field in which he could more eas- ily stamp his policy on the church. To him, a strict disciplina-
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