USA > Illinois > Stark County > History of Stark County, Illinois, and its people : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 24
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Long before any effort was made by white men to found settle- ments in the Mississippi Valley, Jesuit missionaries visited the region with a view to converting the Indians to the Catholic faith. Father Jaques Marquette passed up the Illinois River as early as 1673. Mis- sionaries Allouez, Dablon and Zenobe Membre worked among the Indians about the head of Lake Michigan and the Illinois Valley before the close of the seventeenth century, and it is possible that some of them visited the territory now ineluded in Stark County.
THIE METHODISTS
After the white men began to settle in the Illinois Valley. the Methodists were the first to organize classes in the territory. Jesse Walker, the first Methodist preacher in Illinois, appointed Isaac B. Essex teacher to the Indians. Just where Essex's school was located is not certain, but it was somewhere near the present City of Peoria. When he settled in Stark County in 1829 he was still an earnest be- liever in the doetrines of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and as soon as a few neighbors had loeated around him he endeavored to interest
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them in the formation of a class or church. In 1835 Rev. William C. Cummings was appointed by Bishop Roberts from the Illinois con- ference to the "Peoria Mission," which embraced the present counties of Peoria, Fulton, Knox, Stark and Marshall. In writing of his experiences as a missionary, Mr. Cummings says: "I preached at Father Fraker's, whose name is of precious memory in the churches, and rode from there over the ground where Toulon and Lafayette now stand, though they probably had not then been thought of. Not far from the present site of Toulon lived Adam Perry, whom I ap- pointed class leader of a small society in the Essex Settlement, where we held a quarterly meeting in 1835, at which W. B. Mack and Stephen R. Beggs were present."
In the class thus organized by Mr. Cummings were: Gen. Samuel Thomas, James Holgate, J. W. Agard and their wives, George Sparr. Adam Day, Mrs. Perry, Ann Carney and Elizabeth Essex. It was undoubtedly the beginning of church organization in Stark County. Adam Perry afterward joined the Mormon Church and J. W. Agard became the leader of the elass.
In 1836 Mr. Cummings organized a society at Wyoming, which was the beginning of the Wyoming Methodist Church. The meeting was held at the house of General Thomas. Most of those ineluded in the class of the previous year transferred their membership to Wyom- ing. Mr. Cummings also organized a class at Dexter Wall's, of which William Hall was made leader. Mr. and Mrs. James Holgate became members of this elass, along with Mr. and Mrs. Phenix, Mrs. Wall, Mrs. Asher Smith, Mrs. William Hall and Miss Mary Hall.
About the time these classes were formed Rev. Jesse Heath, father of the first county reeorder, preached for the society at Wyoming. and he was followed by Rev. Zadoc Hall and Rev. L. C. Walker. Services were held at the residences of the members, in Whitney Smith's store and in the schoolhouse until 1856, when a house of wor- ship was built on ground donated by General Thomas. In 1837 General Thomas gave the church one and a half acres of land, upon which George Sparr built a parsonage in 1838. The old church build- ing was sold to C. S. Payne in 1882 and the present edifiee, a neat frame building, was ereeted.
William Hall continued as leader of the elass at Wall's for abont ten years. He was sneceeded by John Drawyer. In 1852 this class was divided, Mr. Drawyer taking charge of a new class at Seeley's Point. When the Chicago, Burlington & Quiney Railroad was com- pleted through the county members of these two elasses united in the
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organizing of the Methodist Church of Castleton. Among them were the Miners, Drawyers, Norrises, Pryors, Holgates, Browns, Fosters, Bunnells and other leading families of Penn Township.
The Methodist Episcopal Church of Toulon had its beginning in the year 1841, when a class was formed just sonth of the town, with Caleb B. Flint as leader. The next year the meetings were held at the cabin of John Prior, the pioneer chairmaker. His house and the meetings held there are thus described by Mrs. Shallenberger: "This structure, which was of hewn logs and but partly finished, never hav- ing the loft more than half floored, was very serviceable to the first comers here, serving them alternately as church and schoolhouse. The fireplace was rough and large, into which good sized logs could be thrown when occasion required; a pole, the dimensions of a common handspike, served as poker, or lever, and an old saw inverted played shovel. Then. as a pointed illustration of the proverb, 'shoemakers' wives always go barefoot,' there never was a whole chair seen in this establishment. A number of chair frames with shingles laid on them accommodated the adult listeners, while a turning lathe in the corner afforded perching places for the little folks. Thus the people gath- ered, the men wearing patehes without shame, and the girls in sun- bonnets and eoarse shoes, or the little ones without any, and listened to the Powells. Blakes, Wilkinsons and Boyers of old: but what our memory still retains of those meetings with peculiar pleasure is the rich, full tenor of Caleb Flint, which, when wedded to some of Wes- ley's glowing lines, bore all hearts aloft and made a sanctuary of the rough dwelling where we met."
In 1846 a quarterly meeting was held at the house of Sammel Beatty, with Rev. A. E. Phelps, presiding elder: Rev. John G. Whit- comb, minister in charge. Rev. W. C. Cummings, the first missionary on the Peoria Mission was also present. Like the Wyoming Meth- odist Church, the society met in the homes of the members and various other places for a number of years. On June 2, 1853, a meeting was called to diseuss the advisability of ereeting a church. Rev. C. Lazen- bee presided and Samuel Beatty acted as secretary. Joseph Catterlin. who had been class leader for several years, Joseph II. Riddle. Charles N. Johnson, Bushrod Tapp and Samuel Beatty were elected trustees and authorized to build a ebureh. Subsequently W. F. Thomas and T. J. Wright were appointed a building committee. Early in 1854 a frame house of worship was completed and formally dedieated.
'The building thus ereeted served the congregation for a little over thirty years. Its original eost was $2,000. In 1865 about five hun-
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dred dollars were expended in repairs and alterations, and again in 1876 several hundred dollars were spent in making the building equal to the demands of the congregation. On October 1, 1884, Rev. W. W. Carr eame to the church as pastor and soon afterward started a move- ment for a new building. In May, 1885, he reported that $4,000 had been subscribed. The trustees then bought the lot at the northeast corner of Main and Henderson streets, the corner-stone was laid on August 6, 1885, and before the close of the year the congregation took possession of the new structure. The first sessions of the Toulon Academy were held in the old frame Methodist Church, and it is a rather singular coincidenee that the building should have been sold to the same man (II. C. Bradley) who bought the old seminary, using the latter for a residence and the old ehnreh edifice for a workshop.
In 1846. while Rev. A. E. Phelps was presiding elder, a series of meetings were conducted at Lafayette lasting nearly three weeks. Previons to that time meetings had been held in the village and a camp meeting had been held there in 1842-the second in the county, the first having been held at Wyoming in 1840. The result of the "revival" was the organization of the Methodist society. The early history of the Lafayette Methodist Church is shrouded in obscurity, Imt it is believed that Rev. George C. Holmes, a "circuit rider," was the first to serve as regular pastor. Early in the '50s Rev. John Morey came. He founded the Methodist Church at Galva, which with Lafay- ette and West Jersey constituted a eireuit.
Rev. Amos Morey took charge of the circuit in 1857 and during his first year granted about thirty letters to members of the congrega- tion who wanted to go West, chiefly to Kansas. This weakened the church somewhat, but a revival toward the elose of the year added about one hundred new members. Amos Morey died on January 14, 1892, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Rhoda M. Jackson, in Abing- don. Ill. He was then seventy-nine years of age and had spent about fifty years in active work as a minister. Mrs. Jackson now lives in Lafayette.
The first church ereeted by the Lafayette Methodists was a frame structure, which stood where the present church now stands. On July 31. 1873. the church was ineorporated with James Martin, Edward G. HIill, John Williams, James Thomson and Emery Buffum as trus- tees. The present house of worship, a handsome brick building, was erected in 1900, at a cost of about eight thousand dollars.
A Methodist society was organized at Starwano at an early date and in 1868 a house of worship was ereeted at a cost of $2,200. Meet- Vol. I-16
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ings were held here until the Methodist Church at West Jersey was destroyed by fire, when the Starwano building was removed to West Jersey and used in the construction of a new house of worship, the two congregations then becoming consolidated.
Among the early settlers in Osceola Grove were a few who he- Dlonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church and meetings were held at an early date. In 1851 the "Osceola Class" was holding regular meetings in the schoolhouse, with Caleb B. Flint as class leader. Among the members of this class were William and Ann Hall. Diana Flint, William H. and Hannah Jones, the Stidhams. the Curriers and a few others. About the close of the Civil war a regular church was organized and a house of worship erected. For several years the congregation prospered. Then death and removals thinned the ranks and meetings were held only at irregular intervals for a time. This church received a handsome bequest from Winthrop E. Lyford. who in his will gave the trustees six acres of land where he lived and the income from the proceeds of the sale of 107 acres of land, on condition that they would erect a church, to cost at least five thousand dollars. His will is dated December 5, 1912.
About 1851 or 1852 a Methodist class of some twenty-five or thirty members was organized at the Indian Creek schoolhouse, in Goshen Township. Charles Howater was the class leader. No church build- ing was ever erected and after a time the members united with other convenient Methodist societies.
Soon after the first settlements were made in what is now West Jersey Township, meetings were held by Methodist ministers who visited that part of the county at intervals. The West Jersey Meth- odist Church is the ontgrowth of a class organized at Hazen's school- house. The class at Finch's schoolhouse, near the cast line of the township, developed into the Starwano Methodist Church previously mentioned. Isaac M. Witter of the latter class was a local preacher. There was also a class organized at Trickle's schoolhouse, which in time united with the class at Hazen's in the formation of the West Jersey Methodist Episcopal Church. This was about 1852. and a few years later a neat frame house of worship was erected in the village. It was destroyed by fire a few years ago, when the Starwano church building was removed to the village and used in the erection of a new building as above stated.
The Methodists living at Elmira and in the vicinity organized a class early in the '50s, which included the Fuller. Clark. Ferris and Hudson families and a few of their neighbors. In 1859 a series of
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revival meetings were held by Rev. W. J. Smith and at the close of the revival a movement was started for the erection of a church. W. M. Fuller, Matthew Bell and Elisha Clark were appointed a building committee; M. G. Brace donated a site; funds were solicited, and in the fall of 1859 a neat frame house of worship was dedicated. The society prospered for several years, when death and removals weakened the congregation. The surviving members then united with other churches and the Elmira church went down.
Soon after the Town of Bradford was surveyed in the spring of 1854 and a few people had settled there, some of the Methodists be- longing to the classes at Wall's schoolhouse and Seeley's Point began to discuss the advisability of uniting and organizing a church at Brad- ford. Several years elapsed before the movement took definite shape, but the early records of the congregation cannot be found, hence the history of the church prior to about 1875 is uncertain. In that year a frame house of worship was erected at a cost of $3.500. It was dedi- cated on March 12. 1876, and ten years later it was extensively altered and repaired. This church is now known as the "Leet Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church." Through the generosity of William Leet, Bradford's first banker, a new building was ereeted and dedi- eated on June 11, 1899, giving the Bradford Methodists one of the best houses of worship in the county. It is located on the north side of Main Street, a short distance east of Peoria Street.
About 1849 several members of the Methodist Protestant Church settled in the Snare neighborhood in the eastern part of the county. A class was soon afterward organized by Rev. Moses Jared, of Canton. The next year a parsonage was purchased, but it was sold in 1882 and the church was removed to Castleton. Among the early members of this church were the Snare. Holmes, Adams, Ackley, Morris and Smith families, Alexander and Rhoda Ballentine, Henry and Cynthia Newton, Laura and Ella Dixon and the Fultons.
A Methodist Protestant Church was organized at Wady Petra in February, 1868. The old record shows that the first members were: Weldon and Sarah Reagan, Richard and Ann Hight. Daniel S. and Clarinda Thurston. John C. and Rachel Wright. Thomas and Am Heywood. John and Mary Haines, Joseph and Rebecca Essex, Maria Luper, Emma Pilgrim, Viola Keeling, Elizabeth Pettit and Eliza- beth Simms. During the next twenty years the church prospered, but the old members have nearly all died or are unable to attend regularly, and in recent years the church has lost some of its former prestige.
There is also a Methodist Episcopal Church in the southwestern
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part of Essex Township, in the settlement known as "Stringtown." It was established many years ago, but little can be learned of its history.
THE BAPTISTS
Close behind the Methodists came the Baptists. On June 15, 1839, when Stark County was but about three months old, the Society of Baptists known as the Fahrenheit Church, was organized in Goshen Township, in what was called the Miner Settlement. Among the early members were Charles II. Miner and his wife, Selden Miner and wife, Elisha Gill and wife, Mrs. Parrish, J. M. Stickney and wife, and Susan M. Eastman. Elder Jonathan Miner, who was active in organizing the church, served as pastor until 1844. Meetings werc held at Mrs. Chas. H. Miner's until about 1850, when the church building at Lafayette was completed.
In 1848 a Baptist Church was organized at Toulon. J. M. Stick- ney, Elisha Gill and H. T. Ives were chosen delegates to the Illinois River Association. Stickney and Gill had withdrawn from the Fah- renheit Church, as had a number of others, to assist in the organization of the Toulon Baptist Church. Up to 1851 meetings were generally held in the courthouse. A revival in November. 1851, added several new members to the congregation and early in 1852 a movement was started to build a church. Nothing definite was done, however, until in October, when the pastor was requested to confer with an architect regarding plans and a campaign was started to raise funds. The church building was completed and was dedicated in April. 1855.
Early in 1868 a number of the members withdrew, owing to dis- sensions over the ownership and management of the church property, which dissensions dated back for nearly ten years. Those who with- drew then organized the Second Baptist Church of Toulon. They purchased a lot at the northwest corner of Main and Olive streets, and before the close of the year 1868 dedicated a frame church edifice, which had been erected at a cost of $2.375. Rev. W. A. Welsher was the first regular pastor.
In the meantime the remaining members of the old church tried to effect a reconciliation. In February, 1868, they adopted a resolution placing the church property in the hands of trustees, to be held for a new church organization. and on July 8. 1868, they again met and passed resolutions of a conciliatory nature. but the withdrawing mem- bers were not to be appeased, and for more than ten years Toulon had two weak Baptist churches instead of one strong one. In 1877
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the old contentions were happily adjusted, the two churches again united and the building erected by the Second Church was sold to the Catholics.
Among those who signed the constitution of the consolidated churches in September, 1877, were: Martha and Sarah Berfield, An- drew and Julia Baldwin, Abram Bowers and wife, Albert Bowers and wife, Harriet Hall, Lettie and Sarah Silliman, Frank Williams and wife, Luther, Avery and Kate Geer, J. C. Hart and wife, Mrs. A. Gill, Flora Gill, and a member of others. Benjamin Paeker, Owen Thomas, Hugh Y. Godfrey, N. F. Winans and S. W. Eastman were elected trustees and the name adopted was "The Baptist Church of Toulon." The following April the old church property was sold and within a short time afterward the present church edifice, located on the southeast corner of Jefferson and Washington streets, was erected. This building was thoroughly remodeled in the summer and fall of 1915, making one of the best houses of worship in the county.
The Baptist Church at Lafayette, which was also an offspring of the old Fahrenheit Church, continued for a member of years, when the congregation became so weakened that it was forced to disband. The church building was sold to E. G. Hill, who converted it into a planing mill.
On August 15, 1853, the Stark Predestinarian Baptist Society was organized at Modena by a number of members of the old Sandy Creek Association, who changed the name to the Spoon River Pre- destinarian Baptist Association. Among the founders of this society were the Vandikes, Chenoweths, Fillinghams, Isaac Babbitt, George Beall, Benjamin and Jane Newton, David Potter and Elder Robert F. Haynes, several of whom lived in Henry County. On October 1, 1856, the new meeting house at Modena was opened, the meetings prior to that time having been held in the Franklin schoolhouse. The record of this church eloses in 1877, though a few of the members continued to hold meetings for some time after that date.
The Baptist Church of Osceola was organized on February 10, 1860, in the schoolhouse, Dr. E. R. Boardman presiding and J. G. Boardman acting as secretary. The little society continued to meet in the schoolhouse until the following year. On January 12, 1861, Isaac Spencer, E. R. Boardman, M. H. Weaver, Otis Gardner and M. J. Weaver were appointed a building committee, but the work went slowly and the building was not ready for occupancy until in 1863. This society is one of the active Baptist congregations of the county.
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One of the early Baptist organizations was the Free Will Baptist Society of Elmira, which was organized several years before the be- ginning of the Civil war, though little can be learned of its history. Among the members were John Leason and his family, the Winslows, the Berrys, Adaline Condell, Charles Bolt, the Fairbanks family and the Griswolds, of Boyd's Grove. No house of worship was ever erected and after a number of years the society went down. The descendants of some of the early members now belong to the Baptist Society that holds meetings in a schoolhouse on JJug Run.
Elder Dodge, of Toulon. A. J. Wright, of Saxon, and J. M. Stickney visited Wyoming in August, 1867. and organized a Baptist Church with the following members. J. M. Stiekney, who was the first pastor, Ephraim and Eliza M. Holton. Margaret A. Conover, Sarah and Martha E. Wilson, Mary Butler, Josephine Holton, Rachel Long, Adelaide Cole, Lney Timmons, Louisa Hearse and Rachel Davis. Franeis Walker was also a member at an early date in the society's history. Meetings were held in such quarters as could be obtained until July 10, 1872, when the frame church on Galena Avenue was dedicated and the Baptists moved into their new home out of debt. For more than forty years this house stood and meetings were held there regularly for many years, but in the summer of 1915 it was torn down and moved away, nearly all the original members having died and the church grew so weak that it was unable to employ a pastor.
On December 12, 1869. Elder Stickney, upon invitation of some of the Baptists living in Bradford, attended a meeting in that village and presented articles of association providing for the formation of a Baptist Church, which articles were signed by J. M. Stiekney, Andrew and Enniee Britton, Annie Pront, John R. and Sarah Hateh, John and Mary Winslow, William F. and Madge J. Patt. Hannah S. Ful- kerson and perhaps one or two others. The first services were held by Elder Stickney on January 23. 1870. and on the first day of May following, the Bradford Baptist Church was formally organized. The society adopted the name of the "First Regular Baptist Church of Bradford" at a meeting a little later and Rev. F. B. Ives preached occasionally during the first year. The first regular pastor was Rev. G. D. Kent, who came to Bradford in February, 1871, and the fol- lowing April the church beeame connected with the Ottawa Baptist Association.
On July 21, 1871, Andrew Leslie was awarded the contraet to erect a ehureh building for $2.275. The first services were held in the new house the day before Christmas, 1871. The building is still oceu-
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pied by the congregation, and, although the oldest church edifice in Bradford, it is in good repair. It is the most centrally located of any of the churches, being on the south side of Main Street, only a short distance east of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.
THE PRESBYTERIANS
The first Presbyterian organization in Stark County was the Osceola Society, which was organized on June 8, 1839, though a meet- ing had been called on the 25th of May, at which the preliminary steps were taken for the establishment of a chureh. On that date five mem- bers of the Davis family-John, Polly, Margaret, Frances and Rosanna-Helen Brydon, Thomas and Margaret Oliver, Calvin and Betsey Winslow, John and Margaret Turnbull, William and Agnes Parks, Mary Wiseman, Sarah Spencer, Robert and Margaret Turn- bull. Hannah Pike, Magaret Moore, Adam Oliver and Hannah Ful- ler, all were admitted to membership "on certificate."
The record shows that "William Parks, who had been ordained an elder in Virginia, was duly elected with John Davis, ruling elders in this church: that they deelared their acceptance of the office, and covenanted to discharge the duties thereof, according to the Confes- sion of Faith and the Book of Diseipline of the Presbyterian Church in the United States."
Says Mrs. Shallenberger: "We doubt if any other religious or- ganization within our borders sprang into life with such an array of names as this-and we mean no play upon the frequent recurrence of the name 'Margaret,' although that is singular-but whether eon- sidered mimerically, or as to character and standing, it was a strong church for the time when it was formed; and it was no child's play, but a solemn compaet of mature men and women to make their in- fluenee felt for good in forming the opinions and habits of the new county."
The church never had a regular pastor. Serviees were held at intervals by Revs. R. B. Dobbins, W. J. Frazer, E. S. High, and William F. Vail. In the organization all but four of the members voted for the adoption of the Old School form of worship, which method was followed as long as the church existed. After the removal of the postoffice to Elmira and the establishment of the Presbyterian Church there, the Osceola Society went down, the last records bearing date of August 14, 1855.
Another Presbyterian Church of 1839 was the one organized in what is now West Jersey Township. Among the members in 1841
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(the earliest records preserved) were James Hulsizer, S. G. Wright, James Ferguson, Francis Anthony, Wesley Heath, Newton Mat- thews, Rev. A. C. Miller, the McIntoshes, MeKinstrys, Eatons, Bo- dines, Youngs and other pioneer families whose names are familiar in the early history of the county. The last regular pastor was Rev. J. C. Hannah, who preached there in 1877. Not long after that the church disbanded.
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