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GEN
SEP 2 8 78
FORT WAYNE. A-G.
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01821 8633
E
(Churches ) GC 977.202 F77FIC
First Presbyterian Church in Fort Wayne
Shawnee Branch Library 5600 Noll Avenue
Fort Wayne, Indiena 46306
OF
THE PRESBYTERIAN
ASSEMBLY
The
Word
of
God
OF THE GENERAL
10
N CHURCH OF THE UNITED STA
YVES+ DR
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
IN FORT WAYNE
Reprinted from an original paper published by the Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society. Permission granted by the Society
Prepared by the Staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County
1959
Board of Trustees of Fort Wayne Community Schools
Ma\ G. Scott
Gordon Reeves
M. R. Funarı
Charles Slater
Eugene A. Yergens, Treasurer
Willard Shambaugh, President
Mrs. William C. Rostetter, Jr Secretary
The Sixty - Fifth Annual Report is published under the direction of
the governing Boards of the Public Library of Fort Woyne and Allen County.
Public Library Board for Allen County
The members of this Board include the members of the Board of Trustees of the Fort Wayne Community Schools (with the same officers) together with the following citizens chosen from Allen County outside the corporate city of Fort Wayne.
Gerald W. Morsches
-
James E. Graham
Mrs. Frank Dulin
Mrs. Charles Reynolds
FOREWORD
The Public Library files of newspapers published in Fort Wayne are more or less complete from 1841 to the present. In making a comprehensive collection of items from these papers which would serve as a basis for various episodes, aspects, and periods of Fort Wayne history, I observed numerous references, beginning in the 1840's and continuing through the Civil War, to the First Presbyterian Church. After a time other denominations were mentioned, but most news articles about religious bodies during that early period concerned the First Presbyterian Church. Not only did it exert a vigorous religious influence on early Fort Wayne, but many of the town's political, industrial, business, and social leaders belonged to that Church. When all usable materials throughout that period were selected from the local papers, typed, and filed, it was evident that the First Presbyterian Church was a community factor of more than considerable importance.
These early newspaper typescripts, together with the his- torical works of Jesse Lynch Williams, Charles J. Worden, and Reverend George W. Allison, constituted a rather substantial foundation for the following historical sketch.
Mrs. Elizabeth Porter Leslie assisted materially in co- ordinating these source materials. Later, Miss Alene Godfrey and James T. Broderick collaborated to locate background mate- rial, to check local histories and directories, and to verify facts, dates, and names. Mrs. Eleanor Blume provided the cover and text illustrations and planned the layout of the publication. The editors organized all available materials, delineated a chronologi- cal story of the origins and growth of Presbyterianism in Fort Wayne during the nineteenth century, and attempted to evaluate its impact on the community.
Rex M . Pollut
Rex M. Potterf, Chairman Historical Research Associates Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society
INTRODUCTION
During the week of April 22-29, 1956, impressive services marked the dedication of the fifth house of worship of the First Presbyterian Church of Fort Wayne. Distinguished guests, clergy, and prominent laymen united to observe the one-hundred-twenty- fifth anniversary of the founding of the church in the Summit City.
In 1956 the congregation numbered twenty-five hundred members, who had contributed two million dollars to construct the beautiful modified early American edifice at Wayne and Webster streets. The area of Fort Wayne then encompassed twenty-eight square miles, and the population approximated one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants in forty-six thousand homes.
The story of the humble beginnings and the difficult under- takings of the founders of the First Presbyterian Church and their successors constitutes a record of faith and courage in this com- munity in the nineteenth century. To understand fully the numer- ous obstacles and vicissitudes experienced by the Church and its congregation, the reader must turn back the pages of local history to the early decades of the last century.
River
St. Mary's
St. Joseph River
2
WATER (SUPERIOR) STREET
7
Maumee
WABASH-ERIE CANAL
4 3
COLUMBIA STREET
5 6
CALHOUN STREET
COURT ST.
BERRY STREET
9
8
4. Carpenter shop
5. Small room
6. Franklin House
WAYNE STREET
7. First Court House
8. First church building (1837), 334 East Berry
9. Church building (1847-82), 200 East Berry
10. Court House (1882-83)
11. Temple (1883-86)
12. Church (1886), 201 East Washington
HARRISON STREET
7
0
CLINTON STREET
BARR STREET
LAFAYETTE STREET
River
LEGEND
MAIN STREET
1. Rude shelter of boards (1831)
2. Brick schoolroom
3. Masonic Hall (until 1833)
1.2
WASHINGTON STREET
Places of worship of the First Presbyterian Church
FORT WAYNE, 1795-1820
By the Treaty of Greenville, August 3, 1795, the Indians ceded all southern Ohio and southeastern Indiana to the United States. In return for the Indian concessions, the federal govern- ment promised the red men ninety-five hundred dollars worth of goods annually. The same treaty designated as American territory an area six miles square at the confluence of the St. Mary's, St. Joseph, and Maumee rivers. General Anthony Wayne had con- structed a fort on the site in the fall of 1794.
Thus Fort Wayne became a part of the Indian factory sys- tem. At the fort the government factor exchanged goods with the Indians in return for furs, skins, bear's grease, beeswax, and other native products. Many differences arose. Unprincipled profitseeking traders brought in whisky and firearms.
As the Indians consumed ever-increasing quantities of "fire- water, " they degenerated rapidly. Chief Little Turtle vigorously opposed the acceptance of the white man's values by his Miami warriors. In 1796-97, accompanied by his son-in-law, Captain William Wells, he visited the cities of the eastern seaboard; dur- ing his visit with President Washington in Philadelphia, he urged prohibition of the liquor traffic with the Indians.
After a lengthy stay in Philadelphia, Little Turtle and his party traveled to Baltimore and were received with great kindness at the Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends. Little Turtle made an appeal to the church authorities to use their influence to stop the shipment of liquors into the Indian country and to encour- age the red men to cultivate the soil.
In response to his plea, the Society sent Gerard T. Hop- kins, George Ellicott, and Philip Dennis, a practical farmer, on a mission to Fort Wayne in 1804. According to their reports to Philadelphia, they found that religious observance of the Sabbath day was ignored both in the fort and in the village. This is the first recorded visit of Protestant missionaries to the little village
1
of Fort Wayne.
The next Protestant minister to arrive in Fort Wayne was the Presbyterian chaplain, Reverend Matthew G. Wallace, who ac- companied the army when General William Henry Harrison marched to the relief of the little garrison besieged by the Indians and Brit- ish in 1812. Mr. Wallace conducted regular religious services for the soldiers.
Colonel Josiah N. Vose was the last commander of the fort (1816-19) and one of the few local military leaders who publicly professed Christianity. He did not tolerate unchristian behavior and assembled his men each Sunday to read the Scriptures and to talk about religion. Colonel John Johnston, the Indian agent, at- tended the services with his family and later wrote, "The conduct of Colonel Vose can only be appreciated by persons familiar with the allurements and temptations of military life."
On April 19, 1819, the fort -- the last army post east of the Mississippi -- was evacuated. A few French families or half-Indian families inhabited the isolated village nearby. Life was rugged, and supplies were scarce. Food was coarse; wild game was roasted over the open fire or at the fireplace. The community leaders included the Indian agent, the interpreters, the government land office agent, and the trading post proprietors. Major Benja- min F. Stickney succeeded Colonel Johnston as Indian agent in 1819.
During 1818, treaties with the Miami at St. Mary's, Ohio, granted valuable land in the region of the fort to the United States government. At that time the tiny settlement at the junction of the three rivers had less than thirty log cabins and a population ap- proximating two hundred.
Before the government could offer sections of land to pro- spective settlers, the authorities sent out Captain James Riley, a civil engineer, to survey the newly acquired land. After complet- ing his survey, Captain Riley surveyed a route for a possible canal between the Wabash and Maumee rivers. To friends he wrote:
The country around is very fertile. The situation is com- manding and healthful, and here will arise a town of great impor- tance, which must become a depot of immense trade. The fort is now only a small stockade. . . . As soon as the land is offered for sale, I have no doubt but inhabitants will pour in from all
2
quarters to this future throughfare between the East and the Mis- sissippi River.'
A few enterprising young businessmen began to seek their fortunes in the village. John P. Hedges and John McCorkle con- tracted to furnish meat and bread to the Indians. Samuel Hanna arrived in 1819, formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, James Barnett, and opened a trading post.
REVEREND ISAAC McCOY'S MISSION IN FORT WAYNE
The Protestant churches on the east coast tried to maintain contacts with the rapidly advancing frontier settlements, but the shortage of ministers and missionaries made the task incredibly difficult. In May, 1820, the Baptists sent out their first mission- ary to Fort Wayne at the joint request of Colonel John Johnston, the Indian agent, and Dr. William Turner, former army surgeon's mate at the fort.
The Baptist Missionary Society in Baltimore assigned Rev- erend Isaac McCoy to bring the gospel to the Indians in the Fort Wayne area. With his wife and seven children, Mr. McCoy began the hazardous journey from Terre Haute. Mr. Rykins, a teacher, accompanied them with the intention of opening a school in the set- tlement.
They rode horseback, and at one point in the wilderness, a party of drunken Indians attacked the missionary while he was sep- arated from the rest of his party. His life was saved by a half- breed, Louis Godfrey. Chief Richardville then met and conveyed the party to Fort Wayne in safety. The missionary drove a herd of fifteen head of cattle and forty-three hogs the entire distance from Terre Haute. Family goods were brought by flatboats on the Wabash River and portaged across to the St. Mary's. The mis- sionaries were kindly received by the people of the village, who furnished free quarters in the fort buildings and plowed two acres of ground for their garden.
Mr. McCoy preached to the villagers in his house every Sabbath. On May 29, 1820, he opened a school with ten English,
3
six French, one Negro, and eight Indian pupils. Matthew Mont- gomery, Mr. and Mrs. Potts, and Hugh B. Mckean shared his teaching duties from time to time. One school visitor reported, "It is pleasant to see the order in which the school is kept and the delight that the scholars seem to take in their studies."
The perils of frontier life are well illustrated by the ex- perience of McCoy's nine-year-old daughter. An Indian seized the child near the fort and would have murdered her but for the timely interference of a friendly young Indian and a member of the mis- sionary school. The child was struggling desperately when her rescuers reached her.
The nearly fatal incident occurred just after Reverend Isaac McCoy had returned from a trip to Baltimore to secure financial aid for the mission and school. His efforts were successful, and he established a church of eleven members. His converts were all baptized in the Maumee River. His superiors assigned McCoy to a new field in southwestern Michigan in 1822; the little organi- zation in Fort Wayne disbanded a short time later.
THE ORIGINAL PLAT OF FORT WAYNE
On May 8, 1822, Congress passed an act, signed by Presi- dent Monroe, authorizing the sale of government unappropriated and unreserved lands about the fort.
John T. Barr, a merchant of Baltimore, and John McCorkle, a citizen of Piqua, Ohio, combined their resources and purchased a tract (since known as the Original Plat) for one dollar and a quarter per acre. They took immediate steps to plat the property and to offer for sale one hundred ten lots for business and resi- dence sites. Four north and south streets -- Calhoun, Court, Clin- ton, and Barr -- and five east and west streets -- Water, (now called Superior), Columbia, Main, Berry, and Wayne -- were laid out. Alexander Ewing secured eighty acres of land immediately west of the Barr and McCorkle tract for one dollar and a quarter per acre, which became the Ewing Addition.
4
1
1
-
1
. . . the child was struggling desperately
EARLY MINISTERS IN FORT WAYNE
In December, 1822, a few weeks after the departure of the McCoys, Reverend John Ross arrived in Fort Wayne. The new minister was a native of Ireland and had served as pastor of a Presbyterian church near Franklin, Ohio. The Presbyterian Gen- eral Assembly had sent out Mr. Ross on a three-month mission as an itinerant evangelist.
Reverend John Ross traveled in a light two-horse wagon with Matthew Griggs, who was a trader. The travelers reached their destination after considerable difficulty. Their first night's encampment was surrounded by howling wolves; later intense cold froze their wagon wheels fast in the mud in the midst of a swirling snowstorm. Unable to kindle a fire, they left the wagon guarded by a faithful dog and led the horses. Stumbling half-frozen into town late at night, they awakened Samuel Hanna, who welcomed them warmly and provided food and shelter.
"Father" Ross (first so-called by the Roman Catholics and later by the Protestants as a mark of respect) preached and con- ducted morning and afternoon services in the fort, because there was no other adequate place. Although "Father" Ross visited Fort Wayne five times in the next four years, he apparently never liked it much better than on that first perilous night. "There was no place that appeared to me as unpromising as Fort Wayne," he wrote. "There was no Sabbath kept but on the part of a few."
Although Mr. Ross found Fort Wayne inhabitants lax, many citizens felt a definite need for the religious and social services of the church. In 1824, the Reverend James Holman, a Methodist minister, came with his family and built a farm home near the St. Mary's River, north of the present-day New York, Chicago, and St. Louis (Nickel Plate) Railroad. The people gathered in his home for services. Some years later (1830), the Reverend Alexander Wiley established the first Methodist mission in Fort Wayne.
In 1825 James Hanna, father of Samuel Hanna, came from Dayton to visit his son. An elder in the Presbyterian Church of that city, he organized a Sunday School in the village. Classes met in the son's storeroom and were the nucleus of the church es- tablished later.
Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman, 1775-1847) traveled on
6
foot and by canoe, through northern Ohio to Fort Wayne, planting appleseeds procured from the cider mills of western Pennsylvania. Wherever he went, he read aloud from the Bible or the works of Emanuel Swedenborg to whomever would listen and attempted to further the cause of the Church of the New Jerusalem.
Some citizens felt the need of a resident minister and urged Allen Hamilton to appeal to the Home Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church in Baltimore. The Society's minutes record the following memorandum:
Allen Hamilton, Postmaster at Fort Wayne, December 10, 1828, wrote saying that there had been no resident minister there since the town was laid out. He urged their claims by saying that the Canal was laid off through the place; that there are in the town and immediate vicinity five hundred inhabitants; and that there was not preaching within eighty miles.2
In response to this request, the Society sent the Reverend Charles E. Furman to Fort Wayne in November, 1829. His ob- servations and opinions were quite different from those of his predecessor. Mr. Furman wrote of Fort Wayne,
The people are hospitable and have more intelligence and liberality of feeling than any similar town 1 have found in the coun- try. I never knew, for the same number of inhabitants in any place, so many attendants upon the preaching of the gospel . . . and I think a church might now be formed of at least a dozen members. 3
FOUNDING AND EARLY YEARS OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CONGREGATION
Although Mr. Furman, after a sojourn of six or eight months, left without forming the church of which he spoke, his recommendation to the church officials brought the first resident minister to Fort Wayne. The Reverend James Chute came from Columbus, Ohio, in June, 1831. On July 1 of the same year, the
7
first permanent church in Fort Wayne was formally organized.
On the first of July, the minute book of the First Presby- terian Church records the event.
Pursuant to notice previously given by James Chute, a reg- ularly ordained minister of the Presbytery of Columbus, Ohio, a number of persons, members of the Presbyterian Church from different sections of the country, in regular standing, met for the purpose of being regularly organized into a Presbyterian Church.
The meeting was opened by singing, reading the Scriptures, and prayer by the Reverend James Chute. The following persons presented their certificates from other churches and were received as members of the First Presbyterian Church of Fort Wayne.
Smallwood Noel Ann Griggs
Nancy M. C. Noel
John McIntosh
Sally C. Vance
Ann Turner
Nancy Barnett
After receiving the certificates of the above-mentioned per- sons, the minister formally recognized them as the First Presby- terian Church of Fort Wayne.
The members proceeded to the election of two ruling elders, whereupon it was found that Mr. Smallwood Noel and Mr. John Mcintosh were unanimously elected.4
On July 2 the minutes list additional charter members.
After a sermon by the Reverend James Chute, Mr. Small- wood Noel and Mr. John McIntosh, who had been duly elected rul- ing elders the day previous, were set apart for that office by or- dination. After the ordination, the Session was constituted with prayer by Mr. Chute, who was invited to act as Moderator of Ses- sion.
Rebecca Hackley was received on certificate. Eliza Hood, Elizabeth Stinson, Jane Clinger, and James Barnett were received on exami- nation.
Adjourned. Closed with prayer.'
Mrs. Ann Turner and Mrs. Rebecca Hackley were daughters
8
of Captain William Wells and granddaughters of Little Turtle. They had been baptized in the Maumee River by Mr. McCoy and had been educated in a Catholic seminary in Bardstown, Kentucky. Ann had married Dr. William Turner, surgeon's mate in the United States Army at the fort. Religious services were often held in their home. Rebecca married Captain James Hackley of the United States Army.
The co-operation of many citizens made possible the es- tablishment of the church. Forty-four persons signed the follow- ing list of pledges ($257.75), dated July 12, 1831 and enabled Mr. Chute to remain in the community as minister of the church.
We, the undersigned citizens of Fort Wayne and its vicini- ty, being very desirous of procuring the services of a resident minister of the Gospel among us, do agree to pay the several sums annexed to our names in aid of the support of the Reverend James Chute, for one year at this place.
Samuel Hanna $15.00
John Jeffcoat $ 5.00
Allen Hamilton
7.50
Hill & Henderson
5.00
H. Hanna
10.00
Lewis H. Davis 10.00
Smallwood Noel
10.00
Isaac Patterson
1.00
David Archer
5.00
Francis Alexander
2.00
Wm. N. Hood
10.00
Hiram Weese 2.00
(at this rate as long as he
Simon Edsall 2.00
lives in Fort Wayne)
Charles S. Griggs
5.00
Z. B. Tenney
6.00
William Wilson
5.00
James Barnett
20.00
Lewis Armstrong
2.00
A. L. Davis
5.00
John Dubois
5.00
Wm. Rockhill
5.00
John McIntosh
5.00
Samuel Lewis
5.00
Wm. Suttenfield
2.00
Abner Girard
5.00
Samuel Brown
2.00
R. L. Britton
2.50
Thomas Daniels
2.00
Samuel Edsall
5.00
John McIntosh, Jr.
1.00
L. G. Thompson
5.00
James Daniels
5.00
Ann Turner
10.00
Philip Klinger 10.00
H. Rudisill
5.00
James D. Klinger
5.00
J. H. Griggs
7.75
John D. Klinger
5.00
Rebecca Hackley
5.00
William Caster
3.00
Matthew Griggs
10.00
(if he should remain a
Mason M. Meriam
5.00
citizen)
Robert Hood
15.006
9
These persons of many Protestant denominations joined to- gether for worship, even though most of them lacked membership in the Presbyterian Church. The number of churchgoers in the town hardly justified separate church buildings and services. Min- isters of other faiths came to Fort Wayne in these early years and preached on alternate Sundays to the community congregation. Another bond uniting the faithful was the lack of even one reason- ably comfortable meeting place in the town. It was not uncommon to see the minister with his Bible and hymnbook on a Sunday morn- ing, leave one place of worship in search of another, followed by his congregation. Smoke and fumes of stubborn chimneys fre- quently forced such moves.
At first, the Presbyterians held services near the junction of Columbia and Harrison streets in a rude board shelter. A little brick schoolhouse (then called the County Seminary) on the site of the present-day Allen County Jail served as the second place of worship. Next the congregation met for a short period in the Ma- sonic Hall on the north side of Columbia Street between Calhoun and Harrison streets. In 1833 this room was occupied by the son of Smallwood Noel, S. V. B. Noel, who, with Thomas Tigar es- tablished Fort Wayne's first newspaper, THE SENTINEL. Later the congregation moved next door to a carpentry shop, where the workbench became the pulpit on Sunday. Still later a small room on Columbia Street, a room in the Franklin House, and a brick tavern directly across from the Masonic Hall were used briefly for divine services. During the summer of 1833 and again in 1835-36, the old brick Court House sheltered the congregation. Following the death of Mr. Chute, the Reverend Daniel Jones ministered to the congregation until 1837.
THE FIRST CHURCH EDIFICE
After six years in uncomfortable and inadequate temporary quarters, the little congregation built and moved into its own home in 1837. The edifice was the first church built in Fort Wayne. The new church was located at what is now 334 East Berry Street. Reverend Alexander T. Rankin served as first pastor from 1837
10
Chalice from the first church building
to 1843.
The frame building, forty by forty feet, was a simple one- room structure. A wide flight of stairs led to two doorways in the façade of the church. Long windows in each side wall lighted the Sanctuary. A modest steeple surmounted the roof directly above the facade and housed the clear-toned bell. The churchwas sparse- ly furnished with crude wooden benches, oil lamps, and window blinds. Wood-burning stoves warmed the congregation in cold weather.
The Fort Wayne-Allen County Historical Museum has on display the beautiful silver chalice, a brick, and a candlestick from this first church.
THE PRESBYTERIAN SCHOOL
No "free" schools existed in Fort Wayne until the 1850's. In the 1820's and '30's private classes were conducted in the Coun- ty Seminary, located near the present Allen County Jail. Private and parochial schools provided almost the sole means of formal education for the town youth. The first floor of the new church stood several feet above ground level and an elementary school was housed in the basement.
The Reverend Jesse Hoover, a Lutheran minister from Woodstock, Canada, arrived in town in 1837 and became the first teacher in the new Presbyterian school. He also organized the first Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne and served as its first pas- tor. Adam Wefel and Henry Trier served as elders, and Henry Rudisill and Conrad Nill as deacons. Two years later the congre- gation began construction of a church on the site of the present St. Paul's Lutheran Church.
Miss Mann (later Mrs. Hugh McCulloch) and Miss Hubbell (later Mrs. Royal Taylor) also taught with Reverend Jesse Hoover. These pretty young women teachers were an innovation in Fort Wayne. Years later, A. C. Comparet wrote of these pioneer wom- en instructors:
They were competent teachers and did away with the raw-
12
hide and the hickory goads that male teachers had in their schools. These ladies were successful and well liked by their pupils; I was one. 7
Alexander McJunkin taught in the Presbyterian school in 1838. Dr. John S. Irwin, later Superintendent of Public Schools, characterized him as follows:
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