USA > Indiana > Porter County > History of Porter County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests > Part 26
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
Other clubs that had existed at some time in Valpar: por are still in e: istence, were the Mathesis Chib, the Saturday Night ( tun. the Har riet Beecher Stowe Club, and the William Henry Harrison Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution , which held its fos : open meeting on Monday evening, November 2, 1903, at the Presbyterian Church parlors.
One of the most unique social organizations ever foimed in the county is the "Thirteen Club." It had its origin in the Fall of 1896, when thirteen young men met, partly by chance and partly by under- standing, in the office of Dr. A. J. Ilomfield, and joined in cating a "pig dinner" in a room in the rear of the doctor's office. The thirteen were. Dr. A. J. Homfield, L. G. Benney, Ernie Finney, Leon Wheeler, Leslie R. Skinner, Roy Wheeler, Gus Jones, Frank B. Winston. L. H. Pierce, E. G. Osborne, Charles G. Foster, F. G. Ketchum and Dr. C. R. Kuder- ling. All were at the time unmarried. It was agreed to form a permis nent organization, with the understanding that as the mendays got mar- ried, they were to entertain the other members at their homes. For fifteen years the arrangement has been sacredly observed, and oure a year the members of the club assemble to partake of a dinner provided by one of their number. The dinner for 1911 was provided by Leslie H. Skinner. If thirteen is an unlucky number, its ill luck seems to have failed in the case of this club, for of the original members all are living except Dr. A. J. Homfield, and when they meet at their annual festival it is gen- erally remarked that Fate has been kind to them, as most of them enjoy good health and are well-to-do in a financial way .
CHAPTER XIII
RELIGIOUS HISTORY
FIRST JH SIONARIES - AN INTERESTING RELIC - CATHOLIC MISSIONS INDI- ANI A MISSIONARY FIELD -- FIRST MINISTERS IN PORTER COUNTY THE BAPTISTS- CHE METHODIST --- THE PRESBYTERIANS-THE CHRISTUS CHURCH-VARTAS CHER & SOCIETIES-ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH -. FATHER O'REILLY-THE L VIERANS -- THE UNIT ARIANS-UNION MISSION
. CHURCH . CONGREGATIONALISTS - PLYMOUTH BRETTIREN-PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCHE -- COUNTRY CHURCHES -- YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION- YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION-INFLUENCE
In the early part of the Seventeenth century Jesuit priests crossed the Atlantic and began the work of establishing missions among the North American lundians. The Jesuit fathers may have been somewhat fanatical in their religious zeal, but they were generally sincere in their devotion to their calling, loyal to their king, and men of unquestioned courage. No wilde mess was too dark and uninviting for them to plunge into its depths in their efforts to carry the story of the Cross to the he- nighted inhabitants. Quite a member of these early missionaries played important part in the exploration of the vast, unknown interior of North America, and themes of Man nette, Joliet, Hennepin, De la Croix and others are indelibly written in the pages of American History. Long be- fore the first permanent white settlers came to northern Indiana, some of these Catholic un somaries visited the Indian tribes in the Great Lakes
292
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
region. As early as 1672 Fathers AHlouez and Dablon landed on the south shore of Lake Michigan and passed through what is now Porter cour ty on their way to the Kankakee river, but there is no evidence to show that they endeavored to fond a permanent mission is any of the territory they visited.
Daniel E. Kelly, the well known Valparaiso laweyr, has in his posses- sion a relie, supposed to have been lost by some of the early Catholic priests who visited the country about the head of Lake Michigan. It is the lid of a lavorium, or holy water fount, semicircular in form, the straight side, or diameter, being about two inches in length, with traces of the hinged joint plainly visible. On The top is engraved a lamb lying down; above the lamb is a cross surrounded by a halo, and around the design is a sort of saw tooth borde . These teeth, which point toward the center are not uniform in size. This relie is of silver, which is completely oxidized from long exposure to the elements. It was found by Frederick Carr on Sunday, May 19, 1912, in the old bed of the Grand Calumet river where it empties into Lake Michigan near Granger Springs, Lake county. The early United States surveys show a trail leading from that point eastward into Porter county. Young Carr gave the relic to Mr. Kelly, who showed it to Rev. Thomas Jensen, of Gary, and from him learned that what is presumably the other part of the lavorium was picked up on the beach some fifty years ago and is in the possession of Father Blackman.
The first Catholic missions in Indiana were established in the southern part of the state, where they developed into churches and edu- ational institutions. The denomination is still much stronger in that part of the state than in the central and nothern portions, the mon- astery at St. Meinrad, Spencer county, and the convent at Oldenburg, Franklin county, being among the best known Catholic schools in the Middle West.
Closely following the Catholicy were the Baptists. A R. fist church was established on Owen's creek. Clark county, as early as 1798. From that time until 1860 Indiana was a missionary field for the Baptists,
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
Methodists, Presbyterian and Christians, or Campbellites. vlethodist circuit riders were at work in the southern part of the state in the carly part of the Nineteenth century. Thomas Cleland, a Presbyterian mis- sionary, organized the first church of that faith in the state at Vincennes about 1800, and the second was organized at Chathough. Clark county, in 1807. About three years later the Friends, .: Q:skors, founded settlements in easteru Indiana, near the present city of Richmond As the tide of emigration flowed north and west the church, followed. -Joseph Bailly, the first white settler in Porter county, was a devont Catholic, and soon after he built his cabin and est dili hed lis branding post on the banks of the Calmnet river his place becky w ende vous for "all sorts and conditions of men." Missionaries He Really hope with him, and the masses said by them were doubtless the In a r ligonis services ever held in the county. Many of the early sothey had boon identified with some church organization in their old homes. As soon as their cabins were built and their families sheltered, their thoughts turned toward the building up of the church in the wilderness where they had cast their lot.
Missionaries of the Baptist and Methodist churches came into Porter county about the time it was organized, or perhaps a little before. The records in the county clerk's office showing that during the year 1936 marriages were solemnized by at least four ministers. These four Fore Alphens French and Asahel Neal, Baptists, and Cyrus Spurlock and Stephen Jones, Methodists. It is said that Rev. Asabel Neal orgam. d a congregation in Morgan township in the latter part of 1835 or early in 1836. If so, that was the first church organization in the counts, but the report is not well authenticated. Rev. Alphous Freuch pre' ! at Blachly's Corners, in Union township, in the spring of 1896. The meeting was held in a grove, about twenty-five persona being pre ... This is generally credited with being the first meeting held by a Bap- tist minister within the confines of the county. On Jun . 10 IS .. . French organized the First Baptist Church, with twelve mondays at . whom were John and Drusilla Bartholomew, Edmond and Charity .'
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
lings, James and Rebecca Withdra, John Robinson, Warner and Adelia Pieree. John Robinson and John Bartholomew were the first deacons, and Jacob C. White, the first elerl. On February 8, 1810, the name was changed to the "First Baptist (Furch of Valparaiso."
For some time the congregation was without a permanent house of worship, the meetings during this period being held in various places. Elder French served as pastor until 1842. He was sureceded by Har- lowe S. Orton, who served for about two years. Rev. W. T. Bly was then pastor until 1847, when he was succeeded by Rev. Alexander Nieker- son. Under his ministry a church building was erected at a cost of $2.200. It was dedicated on March 13, 1853, and since that time the con- gregation has had a permanent home, though the old church edifice has been supplanted by a new one which was dedicated on November 13, 1881. It is located at the northwest corner of Lafayette and Chicago streets and was created at a cost of $6, 100. It is a brick building, in the form of a (freek cross, with two entrances and has a seating eapa- city of about 600. In June, 1912, the seventy-fifth anniversary of the elmreh was celebrated with appropriate services, meetings being held daily from the 9th to the 16th of the month. During the seventy-five years of its history the church has had twenty-two pastors, the present pastor being Rev. J. A. Knowlton, who assumed charge in 1910. The pastors, from 1854, when Mr. Nickerson left, to the coming of Mr. Knowlton, with the year in which cach began his service, were: Henry Smith, 1854; G. T. Brayton, 1860; J. D. Cole, D. D., 1861 ; J. M. Maxwell, 1862; M. T. Lamb, 1864; Otis Saxton, 1867; W. W. Caplinger, 1870; W. A. Clark, D. D., 1873; E. S. Riley, 1875; C. J. Pope, 1886; J. B. Banker, 1889; D. Heagle, D. D., 1892; W. E. Randall, 186; W. E. Storey, 1897; Jolm L. Beyl, 1899. II. B. Benninghoff, 1905; S. I. Long, 1907.
In 1835, acting under authority of the Indiana conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, Rov. Stephen Jones organized the Deep River mission, which embraced the counties of Lake and Porter. Sub- sequently the field of labor became known as the Kankakee mission, and
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
still later as the Valparaiso cireux Rev. Richard Hargrave was pre- siding elder at the time the mission was first organized, and among the carly pastors were Stephen Jones, Jacob, Collasier, Ilawley B. Beers, Samuel K. Young, William J. Forbes, Isaac M. Stagg, William F. Wheeler, Wade Posey, Warren Griffith. J. Cosad. Thomas C. Hackney, S. T. Cooper, William Palmer, W. .. Samaix, d. G. D. Pettijhon, L. B. Kent, Franklin Taylor, David Dud. .... Alram Carey and Samme! Godfrey. This brings the list down to 1852. when Valparaiso was set. off as a separate charge and organized into a station. Prior to that time, however, Lake county had been ent off and formed into a new charge in the fall of 1844, the Valparaiso eirenit from that date includ- ing only Porter county. When the mis ion was first organized the places of holding meetings were fired at Valparaiso, Gosset's Chapel. Twenty-mile Grove, Indian Town (afterward known as Hebron), Mel- vin's, Lee's, White's and Louis Pennoek's. As the population increase ! new places of worship were added, and at the time Valparaiso was made a separate pastoral charge in 1852, the appointments in the district were fourteen in number, to wit: Valparaiso, Morgan Prairie, Kankakee, Ohio, Ilanna's Mill, Jackson Center, City West, Horse Prai- rie, llebron, Griffith's Chapel, Union Chapel, Salt Creek, Twenty-mile Grove and Pennock's.
Rew. W. J. Forbes organized the first class in Valparaiso in 1840. The first Methodist church in the city was organized in 1847 in a small frame building, and the following year work was commenced on the first house of worship, under the pastorate of Rev. W. G. Stonix, who left before the building was completed. It was finished in 1849 under Rev. J. G. D. Pettijohn. That same year a parsonage was purchased at the corner of Monroe and Franklin streets, but in 1853 it was sold and a new parsonage erected in the rear of the church, at a cost of $900. The congregation grew rapidly, and after some $5,000 had been ex- pended in enlarging and improving Loth church and parsonage, they' quarters became too small and it was decided to build a new church. The pastors during this period- from 1852 10 1881-were: David
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
Crawford, Albion Fellows, W. Hamilton, G. W. Stafford, S. T. Cooper, Aaron Gurney, C. N. Sims, B. W. Smith, C. A. Brooke, T. S. Webb, Nelson Green, G. M. Boyd, L. C. Buckles, Thomas Meredith, W. Gra- ham, N. L. Brakeman, W. B. Stutz, G. M. Boyd and C. A. Brooke. It was under the second pastorate of Mr. Brooke that the present church edifice was ereeted. It is located at the northwest corner of Jefferson and Franklin streets, is in the form of a cross, 65 by 105 feet, with base- ment, etc. The main auditorium is 58 by 63 feet; the Sunday school room is 45 by 57 feet; the infant class room is 22 by 24 feet, and there are two class rooms each 15 by 16 feet. Art glass windows give a pleasing and soothing effect and the church is equipped with a fine pipe organ. The total cost of the building was abont $23,500. The present pastor is Rev. Thomas J. Bassett, who was formerly at the head of the prepara- tory department of De Pauw University at Greeneastle, Indiana.
For a while after the Deep River mission was organized, the few Methodists in the vieinity of the present town of Hebron met at the homes of Simeon Bryant and Absalom Morris. After the school house was built meetings were held there. A regular society was organized in 1837 by Rev. Jacob Colelasier, who was the first minister to extend his labors into that part of the missionary field. Hawley B. Beers, Wade Posey, L. B. Kent, William F. Wheeler, William J. Forbes and Warren Griffith also preached there during the early days of the congregation. In 1840 a protracted meeting lasting nearly two months was held and a large number of members were added to the church. Several of the meetings were held at a school house about four miles east of Hebron. In 1844 a log church was built and Rev. Warren Griffith regularly en- gaged as pastor. Fifteen years later the log building was replaced by a neat frame structure, at a cost of about $1,000. Since that time the Methodist church of Hebron has prospered. A parsonage was bought in 1877 and has since been enlarged and improved. The pastor in 1912 was Rev. O. P. Paxton.
Among the carly settlers of Morgan township were four men by the name of White, who located in the northwestern part. These four men
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IUSTORY OF PORTER OU
and a Mr. Cornish, with their wives, organi. . ' dist society and erected a small church on se il 6, where it is still maintained, though for sono held there regularly.
Two Methodist societies were organized in Io 1837-one at the Robbins school house and the No church was erected until about 1855, when near the present village of Crisman, Mr. MeCool in securing its construction. After a time tl died out and the house was used for awhile by i
A few years before the beginning of the ' congregation was formed at Jackson Center. purchased, an addition built to it and for m. church purposes. The church at the present ! 21, township 36, range 5. About the time the .]: established a Methodist society was formed at church was built at "Kinney's Corners," near :. Liberty, Jackson and Washington townships. ' writer has been unable to learn the fate of this congregation or i's house of worship.
The Methodist Episcopal church of Chester. . was formed about 1860 or 1861. Work was commenced on a chi ! Bdin but the war broke out and it was allowed to stand in an unfinn a condition for two or three years, when it was finished at a cost of Bout $2,000. Among those who were active on the organization of th: gre gation and the Whitman, Gilbert n y. Henry Hage- word the establish- 1912 was the R .... Sheeler, Rev. J. P n! in various por- Pro or halls, h. . 'pieropal congrega- 0, 2% a Swedish erection of its spiritual home may be mentioned !.. Morgan, D N. Hopkins, Albert E. Letts, Willi .. man and J. W. Stewart, all of whom gave liberal ment of the church. The pastor of this chmiel C. A. Brown. There is also a Methodist churi Cox, pastor, and Methodist meetings have been tions of the county in the school houses, private the above include all the representative Method". tions and houses of worship in the county. On .'
Is. it's a Metho. tonuship 34, range services were not a township about on the west side. & house was built ing the prime mover alist organization German laithere is. wir a Methouist 2. moot Lense was .. it was used for located on zestien C'enter church was : lake and + small junction of Center,
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ILISTORY OF PORTER
Methodist chitartu was organi- ol at Chico,
was erected at a cost os som +600. The fi. .... . . Hisson and the number of members at the time of the nearization was only twelve. Within three years after the church as wilt the to theship had reached forty-five. The first trustees of ho ol ph wy lohn B. Lundberg, August Melin and August Poder ontinned + erve
in that capacity for several years and wery and gregation. From the beginning the church heap expired ami is today one of the substantial religions organizations o! ! county. El pres- ent pastor is Rev. A. Reese.
The fundamental idea of Presbyterianist Is ministered by presbyters or a body of ellers .nech government of this character was that institu! Wald n the ty part of the Sixteenth century, though JJe .r' of the Reformed church, has been generally ere ยท ith her. , the founder of the Presbyterian church. The fit i toward stab- lishment of a separate denomination, by the dvo- cated by the Waldenses and Calvin, was ou r 3. 15. mnuber of the Scottish noblemen met at Edhe a and sich d "The ! church her me the First Covenant." In a few years the Presbyt. established church of Scotland. The doctrine: & the church were intro- dured into America by refugees from European : bries in ilo p .st half of the Seventeenth century, and as the march of di Hzation moved : lowly but steadily westward. Presbyterianism W>> funded mail today very hatet of the mind ni . . urch sterians, ant there ud, th jate churches of that faith are to be found in ab . Thion. About the time that. Porter county became divided into the Old and New Schocke have been some subdivisions, such as the . tu turned and the United Presbyterians but vi the parent organization have remained unchanged
Presbyterian missionaries were early in t' of the first to visit. Porter county was a time " sented that branch known as the Associato li
One
pre-
On
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IHISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
July 28, 1838, he organized Bethlehem Church of that faith where t. town of Ilebron now stands. The first members of this congregation were Thomas Dinwiddie, Berkley Oliver and Samuel Turner, and their wives, John W. and David T. Dinwiddie, Susanna Dinwiddie, Sr., Sus- anna Dinwiddie, Jr., Mary McCarnehan, Margaret A. and Margaret .T. Dinwiddie, and Susan P. West. Shortly after the church was organize ; Mr. Hannan left and Rev. Wilson Blain became pastor. Ile remain until about 1847, and for the next three years the congregation was with- out a pastor. In 1851 Rev. J. N. Buchanan became pastor and reman: 1 with the church for over thirty years. As the members were not in affluent circumstances, no attempt was made for some time to ervet at church. Meetings were held at the residences during the winter season . and in warm weather the groves, "God's first temples," were utilized as places of worship. Mr. Blain urged the members to build a church. even though it should be a humble one, and a log house was ercefer in which the seats were small logs split in halves with pins for legs to rai, the scats to the proper height. In 1852 a frame house was built three fourths of a mile south of Hebron, at a cost of $1,200, all of which was paid up before the house was oceupied. This house was removed to Hebron in 1864 and there used as a church until 1879, when a larger building was erected, costing $2,500. This congregation is now known as the United Presbyterian church, with Rev. C. M. Filer as pastor. 0: Sunday, April 10, 1902, the United Presbyterians of northern Indiana met at Hebron, every church in the distriet being represented. G 1 Gordon was at that time installed as pastor of the Hebron church. Re- ports from the various congregations showed that during the precedun. year more money had been raised by the church for foreign missions and benevolent year than ever before. Communion was celebrated at Hchrun in the morning and at Leroy, Lake county, in the afternoon.
It is quite probable that some meetings were held by Presbyterians in or about Valparaiso during the first three years after settlem were made there, and that sermons were preached by some of the eaty. Presbyterian ministers who came to the county. No attempt was made
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
to organize a church, however, until December 4, 1839, when Rev. James C. Brown, a young licentiate, preached a sermon in the old court- house. Ile remained in the county, was soon after ordained to the minis- try, and on July 3, 1840, assisted by Rev. W. K. Marshall, of Laporte, organized the Valparaiso Presbyterian church. The original members of this congregation were James and Isabel Blair, Elizabeth Martin, M. B. Crosby, Henry Battan, Mary E. Brown, Nancy Buch, Abby Salisbury, Bathsheba E. Ilamell and Elizabeth Marshall. James Blair and M. B. Crosby were elected elders. Later in the year a Sunday school was or- ganized by Mrs. Brown and Hugh A. Brown, the latter a brother of the pastor. The school was a union school and started off with eighteen pupils, including practically all the children of the neighborhood. Meet- ings were held in the court-house until the spring of 1811, when a house was rented on the south side of Jefferson street just east of Franklin, where services were held regularly for the next two years. In 1842 the congregation began preparations for the erection of a church. The lot immediately west of the present Methodist church was bought, but when it was learned that the Methodist congregation had purchased the lot on the corner, it was deemed inadvisable to build so close to another church and a house of worship was erected on the lot afterward occupied by Professor Boucher's residence. Here a building 35 by 45 feet in size was put up, at a cost of $750, exclusive of the labor furnished by members of the congregation. It was occupied by the church in 1844, though the pews were not put in until five years later. Two noted re- vivals were held in this old building-in 1847 and 1854-and a number of new members thereby added to the church. In 1857 the church building was removed to the lot on the south side of Jefferson street and just west of the alley between Franklin and Washington streets. . At the same time an addition of twenty-five feet was added to it, making its length seventy-feet. Other additions in the way of a lecture room and an infant class room were subsequently added.
Mr. Brown continued as pastor of the church until the breaking out of the Civil war, when he entered the army as chaplain of the Forty-
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
eighth Indiana infantry and died at Paducah, Kentucky, in JJuly, 1862. During his ministry of twenty years he saw the church grow to be one of the most important and influential Presbyterian congregations in north- ern Indiana. Hle was succeeded as pastor by Rev. S. C. Logan, who re- mained during the war, resigning in July, 1865. Robert Beer was then called to the pulpit and remained as pastor until 1884, when he accepted a call to the church at Cedar Grove, lowa, and Rev. N. S. Willson became pastor at Valparaiso. Toward the close of Mr. Beer's ministry a move- ment was started to build a new church. The lot on the southwest cor- ner of Franklin and Jefferson streets was purchased and an active can- vass for subscriptions to the building fund was inaugurated. Work was commenced on the new building in 1883, and on Sunday, March 1, 1885, it was dedicated. The work of construction was carefully watched by Artillus V. Bartholomew, a member of the church, who devoted his time to that purpose without money and without charge. The dedica tory sermon was preached by Rev. Willis G. Craig, D. D., of the North- western Theological Seminary, of Chicago. John D. Wilson, the con- tractor who built the Porter county court-house, also ereeted the Pres- byterian church, the two buildings going up simultaneously. It is also worthy of note that while the new court-house and church were in process of construction the sessions of the court were held in the okl Presbyterian church. The cost of the building was $24,368, all of which was fully provided for at the time the church was dedicated. The present pastor is Rev. J. M. Gelston, and the number of communicants is in the neighborhood of 400. The seating capacity of the house is about 1,000. There is a fine memorial window to commemorate the services of Dr. Brown, the first pastor, and another to Robert Beer, who served the elmirch for nearly twenty years.
In connection with this congregation, it is deemed appropriate to add a few words concerning the character of Rev. James C. Brown, the first pastor, to whose work much of the present prosperity of the church is due. Energy and activity were his distinguishing characteristics, and the church was the object of his constant care and solicitation. When
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