USA > Indiana > Northwestern Indiana from 1800 to 1900; or, A view of our region through the nineteenth century > Part 12
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Dr. J. L. Smith, author of an excellent history of Indiana Methodism, states, that in 1844 the North Indiana Conference was formed, the line dividing the two passing through Indianapolis. In 1852 a part of North Indiana was cut off and a new conference formed called North-West Indiana Conference, which held its first session in Terre Haute in September, 1852. About the same time was also organized the South-East Indiana Conference, holding its first ses- sion at Rushville in October, 1852. In Indiana were then, at this time, four conferences, each cornering in Indianapolis. The four continued for some forty years, but a few years ago the two in the south were united, leaving three conferences now in the State of Indiana.
In 1823 Methodist church life commenced in In- dianapolis, and there their semicentennial was held in May, 1873.
The first Methodist preaching in this region seems
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to have been in La Porte County, probably in 1832, possibly in 1831.
According to a record or historical paper, pre- pared by Rev. G. M. Boyd, Rev. James Armstrong was appointed Superintendent or Presiding Elder of the northern district of Indiana, then called Mission- ary District, in the fall of 1832, at the first session of the Indiana Conference, and when he came into this part of his large district, he found an organization of Methodists gathered by a local preacher, Jeremiah Sherwood, near where Westville is now. This is con- sidered not only the first Methodist but probably the first Protestant organization in La Porte County. In the fall of 1832 an organization was formed,-thus the records reads-"at Door Village, or on a log in the grove where the village now stands." There, in 1833, a chapel was built. (Rev. G. M. Boyd calls this the first house of worship built north of the Wabash River, but the probability is that there was a Roman Catholic chapel at Bailly Town in 1827). In 1833 the name of the district "Missionary," was changed to "North Western." The work of gathering congre- gations went rapidly on. In 1834 the name was again changed to La Porte District. In 1836 Rev. G. M. Boyd was placed on the La Porte circuit with Stephen R. Jones as assistant. They now had fourteen places for preaching in the county. In 1837 a small brick church was built in La Porte. Union Chapel, the first church building in New Durham Township, was built in 1839.
As Porter and also Lake County had at this time settlers, the missionary field extended from La Porte westward.
Some of the statements now to be given rest on
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the authority of the Conference minutes, four bound volumes examined some years ago at the home of Rev. W. J. Forbes in Valparaiso, and some on his authority.
In 1834 on the South Bend Circuit was stationed Stephen R. Ball. In that year no settlements, but few settlers in what became Lake County. Some in Porter County. In 1835 Deep River Mission was formed, Stephen Jones missionary. In 1836 assigned to Deep River Mission Jacob Colclazer. In 1837 Hawley B. Beers. In 1838 Samuel K. Young. In 1839 Kankakee Mission was formed, William J. Forbes missionary, who found on his entire field about one hundred members. In 1840 was formed Valparaiso Circuit, including Porter and Lake, W. J. Forbes minister in charge. In 1841 on this circuit Isaac M. Stagg. In 1842 Wade Posey. In 1843 Warren Griffith. The Conference minutes say, Crown Point to be supplied. In 1844 North Indiana Con- ference is named and Crown Point is called a circuit.
The Conference Minutes are to be considered first- class authority and officially correct, but in Mrs. Susan G. Wood's historic paper in "Lake County, 1884," which gives an excellent history of Methodism in Lake County, are some names of devoted ministers in Lake County that are not in the Conference Min- utes. These are, for the year 1839, as a supply, Robert Hyde, and again, in charge of the work, perhaps as a supply, a few years later, D. Crumbacker, and at the same time, in 1843 and afterward, as a "local preacher of more than ordinary ability," Major Allman. (Mrs. Wood, a daughter of Rev. G. W. Taylor, has resided in Lake County since 1845.)
Pulaski is, like Lake, quite largely a Roman
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Catholic county, yet the Methodists organized the first church in Winamac, as they are accustomed to do in most places. Their organized work commenced in 1839, the year in which Winamac became the county seat, and but two years after what is called its first settlement.
Although many settlers came in from Europe, yet the work of gathering congregations continued, and Pulaski has now nine Methodist churches and four chapters of the Epworth League.
In White County the Methodists commenced or- ganized work in 1836 or 1837, the pioneer preachers being Richard L. Hargraves, John L. Smith, J. Ritchie, and Samuel Reed. There is a tradition that Rev. Mr. Lowrey preached the first sermon in the county at the house of Robert Spencer. He came from Rockville, but whether a Methodist or Presby- terian the tradition does not state.
With such missionaries and pastors as those named above the work of gathering congregations and erecting church buildings would go rapidly for- ward.
The Methodist Episcopal congregations in White County are, in Monon, Monticello, Reynolds, Tal- madge, Wolcott, Idaville, Burnettsville, Brookston, and three country congregations.
In what became Newton County the Methodist preaching was for several years across the state line in Illinois, but at length congregations were gathered and church buildings erected in Kentland and Good- land and Morocco.
In Jasper County the first sermon, according to the tradition and record, was preached by Rev. Mr. Walker, a Methodist, at the house of a widow, Mrs.
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Thomas. Date not given. But the first good-sized Methodist church in Rensselaer was built in 1849.
After Remington commenced town growth, in 1860, a church building was soon erected there.
In other parts of the county, congregations were gathered and church buildings erected.
In Starke County, what success attended the labors of the first Methodist preacher, "Elder Munson," has not been ascertained, but in 1856 there was a church building at Knox, and besides the congregation and church in the county seat, there are Methodist Epis- copal churches in North Judson and San Pierre and Hamlet, making four now in Starke County. And they have good Sunday schools.
The date of the mission work in Starke has not been found, but L. W. Munson was on the La Porte circuit in 1843.
In 1844 the Indiana Conference met at Fort Wayne, and for the next conference year, the names of the pastors are: Monticello, A. D. Beasley, G. W. Warren; Rensselaer, N. N. Werdon; Winamac, Franklin Taylor; La Porte, John B. De Motte ; Val- paraiso, Jacob Cozad; Crown Point, Jeremiah Early.
Knox and Kentland as yet were not.
In 1852, when Valparaiso was set off as a station, the preaching places in Porter County were fourteen : Valparaiso, Morgan Prairie, Kankankee, Ohio, Han- na's Mill, City West, Jackson Center, Griffith's Chapel, Horse Prairie, Hebron, Union Chapel, Twen- ty-Mile Grove, Salt Creek, Louis Pennocks.
Presiding elders of the Valparaiso District since 1852:
J. L. Smith, W. Graham, B. Winans, James John- son, Conrad S. Burgner, S. T. Cooper, W. R. Mikels,
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1871-1875. R. D. Utter 1875-1879. S. Godfrey, 1879- 1880. For a time no Valparaiso District. J. L. Smith 1886-1890. J. H. Wilson 1891-1895. S. Beck 1896 to the present time.
The date, 1840, is given for the organization of the present church in Valparaiso, church building com- mencing in 1848. Membership in 1852 two hundred and forty-five.
The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Conference was organized about 1870. In 1876 Mrs. J. P. Early of La Porte was elected Conference Sec- retary of the Society. She left for California in the winter of 1880. In April of 1881 she resigned her secretaryship. She came not back to Indiana again.
In 1897 was published, by Rev. George R. Streeter, an interesting volume, the Conference Biographical Album. This contained likenesses and short sketches of many of the active members of the Northern Indi- ana Conference.
The History of Indiana Methodism, by Dr. John L. Smith, has been already mentioned. Dr. Smith came into Indiana and commenced preaching in 1840. That was a summer of great revivals, "some of the most remarkable," says Dr. Smith, "ever witnessed in the West." Laboring among the Indiana Methodists for so many years, he was well fitted, in that respect, to write their history.
Of Dr. John L. Smith, to whom the Methodists of Indiana owe much, Rev. Dr. Utter says: "His last appointment, 1886, was Valparaiso District. He re- mained in charge of the district five years, when, at South Bend, October 6, 1891, fifty-one years from the date of his admission on trial, * * he requested the Conference to grant him a superannuated rela- tion."
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"At the close of the Conference session, 1891, he retired to his cottage home in Valparaiso, where, at 5 P. M., Saturday, March 11, 1899, in the eighty-eighth year of his age and the fifty-ninth of his ministry, he was transferred from the militant ranks to the Church triumphant, from earthly toil to his home in heaven." (See Conference Minutes of 1899.)
In La Porte County are now fourteen Methodist churches and two German Methodist. These are at Michigan City, La Porte, Westville, Union Mills, Wanatsh, Hanna, Door Village, and in country places called Summit, Waterford, Salem, Bald Hill, Rolling Prairie (this a railroad station), Lamb's Chapel, and Posey's Chapel.
Since 1876 the gain in membership has been four hundred.
In Porter County are ten. In Lake thirteen, White eleven, Pulaski nine, Starke four, Newton three, Jas- per three, perhaps four.
Present membership, 1899.
The following figures are given on the authority of the Minutes of the Northwest Indiana Conference for 1899. All the preaching stations in the counties are not given in the Minutes, but the membership of the smaller localities is probably included in the larger. It appears that in our eight counties there are forty- three preachers "in charge" or as supplies, and seven- teen local preachers, making in all sixty Methodist ministers in North-Western Indiana for the year 1899.
For the fifteen different objects for which these churches contribute in the year, aside from ordinary expenses, the Valparaiso District, in which most of these churches are, contributed, not including Royal Center, $5,217. Adding to this amount the contribu-
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tions from Brookston in La Fayette District, and of the ten amounts reported in South Bend District, $1,658, and the full amount will be $6,875. These congregations also paid in the same year for pastoral support, including presiding elders and bishops' amounts, more than thirty-three thousand dollars. And the amount of expenses in Valparaiso District alone were more than seven thousand dollars. Over fifty thousand dollars, in round numbers, will be the amount raised by the Methodist congregations in the year 1899.
The following is the membership by counties : Lake, 1090; Porter, 1263; La Porte, 1420; Starke, 360; Pulaski, 865; White, 1462; Jasper, 762; Newton, 1189. Total, 8541.
The average membership, it thus appears, is nearly one thousand and seventy in a county.
Number of Methodist Episcopal Sunday schools, 88. Membership in these schools, 8,921. The average of Sunday-school membership is about eleven hundred and fifteen for a county.
The Epworth League force is also quite strong, although included largely in the church membership and school membership.
2. German Episcopal Methodists.
Of these there are in Lake County four churches. The oldest is in Hanover Township on Lake Prairie. The earliest families of this church were the Beckley family, about 1840, George Krinbill and family in 1851, and then many others. A church was organ- ized and a building was erected about 1853. In 1874, a church at Crown Point was organized, a church build- ing was completed, and at about the same time a third one at Hobart. Still later the fourth organization was
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perfected at Hammond. For fifty years the German Methodists have been an important part of the re- ligious element of Lake County. They have had ex- cellent pastors, they have been active in Sunday-school work, there has been vitality in their religion.
In these later years the oldest and strongest con- gregation has been declining, as families not of their faith have taken the lands which once they occupied. Numbering in the county in 1884 about one hundred and fifty members, they now number, with a large in- crease at Hammond, about two hundred and thirty.
In La Porte County they have an old and strong congregation, with one hundred and seventy-five members, in the city of La Porte; and at Michigan City they have one hundred and twenty-five members. At Crown Point and Hammond, at Michigan City and La Porte, besides church buildings, they have good parsonages. Entire membership, five hundred and thirty. They have only four resident pastors, and the total amount they raise is, including the same items as were included in the notice of the American Methodists, forty-two hundred dollars. So it appears that where the American Methodists raise an amount equal to six dollars for each member, the German Methodists raise an amount equal to eight dollars for each member.
3. Swedish Episcopal Methodists.
Of these there is one organization in Lake County, at Hobart, church building erected in 1889. Mem- bership, -. Probably membership forty.
4. The Congregationalists.
There were not many of this denomination among the pioneers. It is mainly in these later years that these churches have been spreading outward from
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New England. For the following statistics the Con- gregational Year Book for 1899 is the authority.
In La Porte County are three churches, all at Michigan City. I. Michigan City Ist Congrega- tional, organized in 1835, present membership 264; number in Sabbath school, 152; benevolent contribu- tions, $180; home expenses, $1,675. 2. Emmanuel, German, organized 1891 ; membership, 43; in Sunday school, 72; for benevolent objects, $63; home ex- penses, $537. 3. Sandborn Memorial Church, Scan- dinavian, organized 1893; members, 39; in school, 30; for benevolence, $20; home expenses, $381.
In Porter County is one church, Porter, organized 1891 ; members, 53; in school, 175; benevolence, $53 ; home expenses, $575.
In Lake County are five churches: Hobart, or- ganized in 1885; Hammond, 1887; Ross, 1888; East Chicago, 1889; Whiting, 1890. Membership in 1899: Hobart, 63; Hammond, 51 ; Ross, 31 ; East Chicago, 66; Whiting, 64. In Sunday school: Hobart, 120; Hammond, 142; Ross, 52; East Chicago, 50; Whiting, I50.
For benevolent objects in Lake County, including missions, total amount $265, East Chicago and Whit- ing contributing over ninety dollars each.
For home expenses: Hobart, $550; Hammond, $500; Ross, $222; East Chicago, $900; Whiting, $689.
Totals. Churches, 9; membership, 674; in Sun- day school, 943; benevolent objects of different kinds outside of home expenses, $581 ; home expenses, $6,029. Total amount of money raised in the year, $6,600. Nearly ten dollars for each member, or more exactly, nine dollars and about eighty cents.
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5. The Presbyterians.
In the West and in the South Presbyterian min- isters, although apparently not so well adapted to the ways and needs of frontier life as some others, have nevertheless gone into new settlements, carrying their very thorough education, their scholarly ways, and their dignity and culture, into the homes of the pio- neers. If not always the first, they have generally been second or third to enter upon new fields. The first in promoting and building up schools they have generally been.
LA PORTE COUNTY.
As early as 1831, "in the late autumn," the first Presbyterian man, Myron Ives, settled on Rolling Prairie, "just east of the Little Kankakee," in a log cabin. In May, 1832, Mrs. Rebecca Ives, his mother, and his sister, Mrs. Sarah Aldrich, came with their families and settled near ; and soon also, into the same neighborhood, came Alexander Blackburn. Soon, in the true Christian spirit of worship they commenced a neighborhood prayer meeting which was held each Sabbath in the Ives or Blackburn cabin. Presbyte- rian church life there commenced.
In November, 1832, Rev. James Crawford from the Wabash region held religious services in the cabin of Alexander Blackburn in Kankakee Township, and in 1833 completed the organization of a church with twenty members. The elders were James Blair, W. C. Ross, David Dinwiddie, and Myron Ives. Meet- ings were held in a log school house on the Niles road. For some reason the locality of this church was changed to the young and growing county seat and it was called the Presbyterian Church of La Porte. This church was what was then called Old School. In 1837
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work on a church building was commenced, but the house was not dedicated before 1842. In November, 1844, a New School Presbyterian church was consti- tuted "in a school house belonging to Rev. F. P. Cummins."
Some of the ministers who were pastors or sup- plies of the first church were John Morrill in 1834, IV. K. Talbot in 1835, W. K. Marshall in 1837, until October, 1844. The membership increased from ninety-six to one hundred and fifty while he was pastor.
Rev. F. P. Cummins, a successful teacher of a pri- vate, academic school, was pastor from 1851 to 1858. Some other pastors were: J. W. Hanna, R. S. Good- man, S. C. Spofford, and L. M. Stevens.
Some of the pastors of the second church were : From 1846 to 1858, John W. Cunningham, in the first year of whose ministry, after he was duly in- stalled, eighty-eight were added to the church mem- bership; from 1859 to 1868, George C. Noyes, the church membership in 1866 having reached nearly three hundred.
In 1871, October 3Ist, the two churches were united, and Rev. John F. Kendall, D. D., became pas- tor. His was a long and successful pastorate.
The present pastor is Reuben H. Hartley. This church, with its present membership, according to the Assembly Minutes of 1899, of 365 members, raised in the year, for various objects, $4,830, or more than thirteen dollars for each member. It is a strong church, with an "elegant church building" and a large Sunday school, and ought to be in the city of La Porte, along with the other strong churches there, as no doubt it is, a large factor for good.
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In 1845 a New School Presbyterian Church was organized near Union Mills, but it did not grow and live.
What may be called the second, now living church in La Porte County, was constituted, with ten men- bers, by Rev. F. P. Cummins, in a school house east of Union Mills, June 22, 1850. It took the name of Bethel Presbyterian Church. A building was in due time erected at Union Mills. The church has had several supplies and a few installed pastors, and has now one hundred and twenty members and a large Sunday school.
The present Rolling Prairie Church may be called the third in the county, organized in February, 1852, with twenty-eight members, and now reporting only twenty.
And the fourth, not counting one organized in 1870 with a few members at Wanatch, but which has ceased to exist, is the present Presbyterian Church at Michigan City, organized May 9, 1871, with thirty- nine members. The first elders elcted were: J. S. Ford, John Orr, J. A. Thornton, and Henry W. Johnt. son.
In 1872 a church building was erected and Rey. J. Q. Hall was installed as pastor. In 1896, in Febru- ary, the church building was destroyed by fire. A. new building on other ground was erected in 1897.
Present membership about two hundred. Number in Sunday school in 1900, 215. Of this large and well conducted school H. W. Johnson has been Superin- tendent for twenty-five years, and A. B. Barron, Sec- retary for eight years, and two better officers than these have been need not anywhere be sought.
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PORTER COUNTY.
Rev. J. C. Brown, a young licentiate, began preach- ing in Valparaiso December 4, 1839, and July 3, 1840, having been ordained, he with Rev. W. K. Marshall of La Porte organized the Presbyterian Church of Valparaiso with ten constituent members, James Blair and M. B. Crosby being the first elders. A Sunday school, at first Union, was organized by Mrs. Brown and the pastor's brother, Hugh A. Brown, near the close of 1840.
Both church and school prospered. A frame church building was erected, and at length, the present mas- sive brick structure became needful. The church has had few pastoral changes. Dr. Brown, a remarkable inan, teacher, preacher, Sunday-school worker, full of labor and of untiring zeal, taking, so it was said, his breakfast at six, his dinner at twelve, and his supper at six, all the year round, continued as pastor till Sep- tember 4, 1860. In 1862 he was appointed Chaplain of the Twenty-eighth Regiment of Indiana Volun- teers, and died in a hospital at Paducah, Kentucky, July 14. 1862. He had preached not only in Valpa- raiso, but at Tassinong, Salem, Twenty-Mile Prairie, Eagle Creek Prairie, and at Crown Point. In his twenty years of a busy ministry he received into church membership four hundred and seventy-five members. Well did one of his successors, Rev. Rob- ert Beer, say of him : "Dr. Brown was a man of such piety, zeal, activity, and self-denial, as to make an im- pression never to be forgotten by those who knew him."
The second pastor was Rev. S. C. Logan, from October 14, 1860, to July, 1865. The third was Rev.
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Robert Beer, from December 17, 1865, to later than 1882. The fourth was a more than ordinary man in the qualities of a winning, noble, vigorous manhood, Rev. S. N. Wilson. His successors have been Rev. H. B. Fleming, now pastor at Hammond, and the present pastor, Rev. Martin Luther. Six pastors only in sixty years.
The Presbyterian Church at Tassinong was or- ganized by Rev. J. C. Brown, and has been supplied usually with preaching from Valparaiso and Hebron.
The Presbyterian Church at Hebron was organ- ized by Rev. S. C. Logan of Valparaiso and Rev. J. L. Lower of Crown Point, October 29, 1860, with four- teen members. First elders: William Mackey and Amos A. Burwell. Pastors, J. L. Lower, A. Y. Moore, Robert Beer, and others from Valparaiso or Crown Point, and in these later years having a resident pas- tor, or a seminary student.
LAKE COUNTY.
The pioneer Presbyterian minister in Lake County was the Rev. J. C. Brown of Valparaiso, who made an exploring visit westward in 1840 and reached the home of the Ball family at the Red Cedar Lake, which was then one of the two religious centers of Lake County, and in that home he preached, as it is believed, the first Presbyterian sermon in the county.
He returned to Crown Point, the new county seat, found there two Presbyterian women, Mrs. Hol- ton and Mrs. Fancher, arranged for preaching in the log court house, alternating these with the Baptist pastor, Rev. N. Warriner, encouraging the Union Sun- day school which held its sessions in the same room,
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and there, April 27, 1844, he organized a Presbyterian Church with eighteen members. The pastors suc- ceeding him were Rev. William Townley, from 1846 to 1856, Rev. Mr. Schultz, J. L. Lower, A. Y. Moore, S. McKee, Dr. S. Fleming, W. J. Young, J. McAlis- ter, Rev - Carson, B. E. S. Ely, E. S. Miller, L. W. A. Luckey, Ph. D., J. A. Cole, W. O. Lattimore, and the present pastor, Dr. Hearst.
A church building was erected between 1845 and 1847. The last services were held in this building August 10, 1884, when it was replaced by a much larger brick-veneered edifice. Present membership, 74.
The second Presbyterian Church of the county was organized November 9, 1856, on Lake Prairie, in the New Hampshire Settlement, with twelve mem- bers. These New Hampshire families had the year before made a settlement in the heart of the open prairie, a prairie so beautiful that some three years afterwards Professor Mills of Wabash College, having looked over the landscape from a knoll on one of the farms, said: "I have been thirty years in the West and have been in every county in the State, and never but once have I seen so beautiful a view."
Of this church on the prairie Rev. Hiram Wason, then from Vevay, Indiana, but a native of New Eng- land, in 1857 became pastor. After seven years of faithful and successful service he resigned the pastoral charge, but continued to reside in the neighborhood where he made for himself and family a beautiful home, and continued to be active and useful until laid aside by the infirmities of age. He died in June, 1898, eighty-three years of age. Some of his succes- sors were B. Wells, Edwin Post, Homer Sheeley, and for thirteen years past until 1898, Rev. J. F. Smith, now residing in Crown Point.
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