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Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana Archives

Rev. Edward L. Roland, St. Paul's, La Porte, St. James, Goshen, and Trinity, Logansport

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St. James Episcopal Church, Goshen The roots of an Episcopal Church in Goshen, Elkhart County, began in the mid 1850s when the Rev. Albert Bingham, missionary at St. Mark's in Lima (Howe), Indiana, made occasional visits to the town to preach. Bishop Upfold commended Bingham's work, but the missionary died in 1858, just as his efforts were beginning to bear fruit. On March 29, 1859, the Rev. William H. Stoy of Lima, Indiana, held a meeting in the office of George Howell in which they agreeing on the terms for the formation of a new church. Thirty men signed the agreement. Nearly a month later on Easter Monday, 25 April 1859, Stoy led the formal establishment of the new church, called St. James, and the congregation elected George Wadleigh as senior warden and Henry Pearce, junior warden. The vestry requested the Rev. Henry M. Thompson of Bristol to preach every other Sunday, beginning on 11 July 1859, and in November it secured the use of the Swedenborgian Meeting House for these services.

In 1860, the vestry called the Rev. Colley A. Foster to be its first resident rector. Under his leadership, the vestry drew up plans for a church edifice to be built at 105 South Sixth Street, with a lot purchased for $850. The plans progressed, and Foster laid the cornerstone on 22 August 1860. The building was completed at a cost of $5,000 in 1861, with Bishop Upfold consecrating it on 4 December 1862. The bishop waived the usual rule of not consecrating when a parish was in debt because of the "prosperous condition of the parish," according to a newspaper article. Pew renting became the principal way of supporting the church, and the practice remained in place from 1862 to 1887, when it was abandoned for a pledge card system.

Even so, St. James suffered perennially from cash shortages, and there was much instability in its early leadership. Foster resigned in 1864 and was succeeded by several rectors of short duration, including Samuel D. Pulford from 1864 to 1867; Robert C. Wall from 1867 to 1869; J. Edmund Wildman from 1869 to 1870; Richard Totten from 1870 to 1871; Thomas W. Mitchell from 1872 to 1874; and James L. Boxer (priest-in-charge) from 1877 to 1878.

During the rectorate of the Rev. William Wirt Raymond, the interior of the church was finally finished and decorated in 1882 at a cost of $2,000. Plans for a chapel were adopted in October 1886. The following year parishioner James Latta donated land for a rectory, and in 1900, a pipe organ was installed. Milton Latta, an architect, donated and designed Latta Hall, an addition to the church.

In 1898, under the leadership of the Rev. Elias Boudinot Stockton, the parish celebrated a solemn Te Deum "in commemoration of Almighty God's mercies and blessings vouchsafed during the War with Spain to the Army and Navy of the United States." However, Stockton resigned the following year, and an additional succession of rectors followed with short tenures. During the 1940s, Dom Leo Patterson, a Benedictine monk stationed at Valparaiso, provided services during World War II and brought some stability.

The Rev. Bruce Mosier, a successful and popular priest, began serving Goshen in 1944 as a deacon. Born in Bristol, Indiana, in 1903, he had studied privately for Holy Orders under Bishop Mallett while also working for the Elkhart Truth newspaper as a linotype operator. Upon his ordination in 1946, he had worked briefly as an assistant priest at St. John's Elkhart, and later in 1950 became the founding priest-in-charge of St. Anne's Warsaw. In 1948, he requested to be assigned again to Goshen, and Mallett had replied, "I'll send you to Goshen, Mosier, but when you're ready to close it, be sure to mail me the key." But Mosier proved the bishop wrong, having a successful rectorate and putting the parish on a strong footing. An article in The Beacon in 1956 hailed Mosier's efforts to make $8,000 worth of repairs and to revitalize the parish's sense of spirituality. Under his leadership a parish hall was added in 1965. He retired in 1968 as its rector emeritus but continued to remain active in the diocese as a popular interim priest. In retirement he authored three short memoirs about life in Bristol.

St. James endured the 1970s and 1980s with declining membership. In 1993, the rector, the Rev. Carl Bell, a strong Anglo-Catholic, attempted to withdraw the congregation from the Episcopal Church. The church was deeply divided over his leadership, and he resigned at Bishop Gray's request. Since 2007 the congregation has been led ably by the Rev. Larry Biller.

Bibliography:

Meliss Challoner Howarth and Ruth Fidler Coggan, comps., Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Northern Indiana Diocese, Goshen, Indiana, St. James Parish Register, Volume 1 (Goshen: The Authors, 1969).

Parish Register, Book 1, 1860-1892

Parish Register, Book 3, 1899-1928

Parish Register, Book 4, 1929-1956

Clergy:

Colley Alexander Foster, 1860-1864
Samuel Decater Pulford, 1864-1867
Robert Carter Wall, 1867-1869
Joseph Edmund Wildman, 1869-1870
Richard Totten, 1870-1871
Thomas W. Mitchell, 1872-1874
James Langhorne Boxer, 1877-1878
William Wirt Raymond, 1880-1885
Sherwood Rosevelt, 1886-1889
James Banks Mead, 1889-1892
Charles Tullidge Stout, 1893-1898
Elias Boudinot Stockton, 1898-1899
Frederic William Goodman, 1900-1901
Edgar Morris Thompson, 1901-1904
Frederic Welham, 1904-1905
Edward Lemuel Roland, 1906-1914
Louis Thibou Scofield, 1914-1916
Duncan Weeks, 1917-1924
Albert Linnell Schrock, 1924-1935
Ernest William Scully, 1935-1938
Harvey Livermore Woolverton, 1939-1941
Dom Leo Kenneth Douglas Patterson, 1941-1944
Bruce Bickel Mosier, 1944-1945
Gail Colyer Brittain, 1945-1946
John C. R. Peterson, 1946
William Karl Rehfeld, 1947
Bruce Bickel Mosier, 1948-1968
James Gossett Greer, 1969-1973
Robert J. M. Goode, 1973-1981
Mark Woodbridge Brown, 1981-1983
Daren Keith Williams, 1983-1986
Richard S. Bradford, 1986-1991
Carl W. Bell, 1992-1993
Martin Brownlee Lavengood, 1994-1998
James Nicholas Lodwick (int.), 1999-2000
Errol Montgomery, 2001-2006
Larry Biller, 2007-2021
Robert Armidon, 2021-
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, La Porte
St. Paul’s is the third oldest Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Northern Indiana, incorporated on St. James Day, July 25, 1839, shortly after St. Paul’s in Mishawaka, 1837, and Trinity in Michigan City, 1838. However, the history of Episcopalians in La Porte can be traced back at least as far as 1835, when visiting clergy conducted services in town. In August 1837, the Missionary Bishop of Indiana, the Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper, made his first visit to La Porte and recorded in his diary the baptism of “Dr. Rose’s sick child at home on August 15, 1837, prior to the evening service in the Court House.” The first recorded baptism was that of two-year-old Thomas Lafayette Johnson on November 24, 1838. The Rev. Daniel V. M. Johnson of Michigan City also conducted services before the parish was organized.

St. Paul's first rector was the Rev. Solon Manney, who served the parish for ten years, during which time he began a parochial school where “common and high English, Latin, and Greek were taught.” He also served as head of La Porte University, from which the Mayo brothers graduated before moving to Rochester, Minnesota, and founding the Mayo Clinic. After leaving La Porte, Manney founded what is now Seabury Western Seminary.
Early in the 1840s the southeast corner of Indiana and Maple Avenue was purchased for a church site. However, the property was later exchanged for the present location and “fifty dollars, half in cash and the balance in hewed timbers suitable for the church frame.” The first church building was constructed in 1846 and consecrated by Bishop Kemper on March 2, 1848. Before this time, a member of the congregation said her father “had hauled the benches to and from the places of worship.”

The present Indiana limestone building, an example of English Gothic architecture designed by Fort Wayne architects John F. Wing and Marshall S, Mahurin, was built in 1897 and consecrated in 1898. A local newspaper editor called it “the most imposing church building in La Porte if not in northern Indiana.” The church contained an 1872 organ built by Steer & Turner, which was restored in 1979. More recently, in 2009, an anonymous gift of $60,000 by a parishioner made it possible to renovate the exterior of the building.
In 1954 a $1,000 gift started a fund for a new Parish House, which was completed in 1957. In 1959 a new heating system was installed. The present building was built for $92,000 with only $20,000 remaining to be paid five years later.The two priests who served St. Paul’s the longest are the Rev. George Childs from 1927-49 and the Rev. B. Linford Eyrick from 1956-92.
In 1963 the church sanctuary and nave were remodeled, including new altar, new pews, and new floor. On Tuesday, January 15, 1963, the new altar was consecrated and blessed by Bishop Mallett. The top of the altar is a piece of golden marble mined in the Holy Land; the fifteen foot crucifix is made of white oak and carved limba wood; the tabernacle is bronze and oak, flanked by eight bronze candlesticks. The original sanctuary light has since been replaced. New faceted glass windows were dedicated on May 3, 1963, three of which were given in memory of the Rev. George J. Childs, former rector. The windows depict the four evangelists, St. Paul, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the sacraments, and the corporal works of mercy.

The ministry of the Rev. B. Linford Eyrick spanned from 1956 to 1992 and was the most consequential. He came to La Porte after serving as rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Hoosick Falls, New York. He had attended the Hoosac School and Hobart College, and received his seminary training at General Theological Seminary with his degree in 1948. Once in La Porte, he baptized much of the Baby Boom generation of the parish, served several diocesan offices, and was a respected leader in the community. When he arrived, his wife Winnie suggested that the parish open a pre-school, which ran successfully for the next 66 years before eventually closing in 2019. Eyrick died in 1995, three years after his retirement.

In later years the church was served by the Rev. Richard Alford, who left the Episcopal Church for the Eastern Orthodox Church, as well as the Rev. Glenn Kanestrom, the Rev. Jamie Jones, the Rev. Anthony Clavier, the Rev. Thomas Kincaid, the Rev. Paul Nesta, and most recently, the Rev. Cn. Michelle Walker, who divides her time as priest-in-charge with being a diocesan missioner for Bishop Douglas Sparks.

Clergy:
Daniel Van Mater Johnson, 1838-1839
Solon Wines Manney, 1839-1849
Hiram M. Roberts, 1851
Franklin Reeve Haff, 1852
Walter Emlen Franklin, 1854-1856
Almon Gregory, 1856-1861
Addis Emmett Bishop, 1862-1864
James Hervey Lee, 1864-1867
Frank Mark Gregg, 1867-1869
George John Magill, 1869-1875
Walter Scott, 1872-1873
Charles Thompson Coerr, 1875
James Taylor Chambers, 1875-1877
Andrew Mackie, 1877-1878
James Langhorne Boxer, 1879-1881
Rush Spencer Eastman, 1883-1886
Walter Scott, 1886-1894
Asa Appleton Abbott, 1894-1895
Thomas Bennington Barlow, 1895-1899
Edward Lemuel Roland Jr., 1899-1902
Addison Alvord Ewing, 1902-1904
Joseph Cooper Hall, 1904-1905
Arthur Edgar Gorter, 1906-1908
Lawrence Southworth Kent, 1908-1910
Daniel Le Baron Goodwin, 1911-1917
Francis John Edmund Barwell-Walker, 1918-1927
George Jay Childs, 1927-1948
Eric F. Pearson, 1949-1951
Robert Frank Royster, 1952-1956
Benjamin Linford Eyrick, 1956-1992
Richard Alford, 1992-1995
Glenn W. Kanestrom, 1997-2002
James Place "Jamie" Jones, 2002-2008
Anthony F. M. Clavier, 2008-2011
S. Thomas Kincaid, 2012-2015
Paul A. Nesta, 2015-2018
John Houghton, 2019-2020 (interim)
Michelle I. Walker, 2020-

From St. Paul's website: http://stpaulslaporte.org/history/

Parish Register 1838-1865

Parish Register, 1838-1910

Parish Register, 1911-1939

Parish Register C, Baptisms Confirmations, and Burials, 1940-1979
Trinity Episcopal Church, Logansport In 1840, Bishop Jackson Kemper visited Logansport as he traveled west on the Wabash & Erie Canal. His visit likely marked the first time a service in the Episcopal Church was held in the town. A year later the Rev. Francis H. L. Laird arrived to establish a congregation, conducting services in a schoolhouse at 228 Market Street. On 29 July 1841, a vestry was elected and chose the name of Trinity for the new congregation. For the next two years the congregation met on the third floor of a downtown building. The vestry raised subscriptions for a church building, and in 1843, a white, wood-frame church was erected on a hill at the northwest corner of Seventh and Market streets. A prime mover of the church was Graham Fitch, who had brought his family from New York in 1834 and had built a house at Seventh and Market streets. A strong abolitionist, he may have given support to fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad.

Between 1843 and 1863, the church held services irregularly as a variety of clergy of short duration came and went. They often held dual pastoral roles with St. Mary's in Delphi. After the Civil War, the church experienced structural problems, and when the Rev. Edward Purdy was called as rector in 1869, he accepted with the understanding that the building would be demolished and a new one of stone constructed. Work on the new edifice began immediately with limestone quarried locally on Fitch's farm on the west side of town and hauled to the site via the Wabash & Erie Canal. On February 19, 1870, the congregation worshiped for the first time in the new building. A new transept and chancel were added six years later as the parish grew under Purdy's leadership. A tracker organ built by the firm Hook and Hastings of Boston was installed in 1877 and is still in use. Many members of the early congregation had been members of the Church of Ireland.

During the 1890s and early 1900s, the parish experienced financial shortages and a number of divisions as various rectors came and went. In 1894, the Rev. Douglas Hobbs reported that in the wake of the financial depression, the year had been the hardest financially in the history of the parish, but he commended the congregation for "the practice of self-denial in meeting their obligations." The Rev. George H. Richardson arrived in 1918 and led the parish in celebrating a jubilee in 1919 and helping to raise funds for an episcopal residence in South Bend for Bishop White. When he left in 1920, he was criticized for self-boasting and for not following canons. His successor, the Rev. Clinton B Cromwell, arrived in 1920 and found the parish "utterly impossible" and "resigned as soon as he could find work elsewhere." A history in the parish register written by Cromwell explained, "a clique wanting to run the church in absolute defiance of the canons and the Bishop resulted, just as in the case of every other priest for 12 or 15 years, in the attempt to starve the Rector." He added, "God only knows what the next man can do - unless he is an angel from heaven."

The next two rectors, Edward Roland and W. Edward Hoffenbacher, had longer rectorates. Over time, especially under Bishop Campbell Gray, Trinity became increasingly Anglo-Catholic. Gray's son, Francis Campbell Gray, served briefly as rector from 1936 to 1937.

In the 1980s, the vestry made plumbing and heating renovations, and the edifice underwent a major renovation. Then in November 1989, during the rectorate of William Hibbert, a severe thunderstorm struck the church, tearing off part of the roof in a downdraft. Much of the interior was severely damaged, but funds arrived to help rebuild the church. In addition to insurance money, financial help came from many parts of the diocese. In November 1990, the restored church was rededicated by Bishop Frank Gray.

Under the ministry of the Rev. Clark Miller, who became rector in 2010, the parish began giving away school supplies to needy children, which quickly expanded to providing clothes and free haircuts. It also opened a food pantry that serves between 75 and 80 people on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month.

Clergy:

Francis H. L. Laird, 1841-1843
Anson Clark, 1845-1846
Thomas Bassel Fairchild, 1848
Josiah Phelps, 1849-1850
Frederick Durbin Harriman, 1850-1852
Walter Emlen Franklin, 1852-1854
Henry Cook Stowell, 1854
John Trimble, 1855-1857
Alonzo James Madison Hudson, 1857-1858
Elias Birdsall, 1858-1860
Nathaniel Rue High, 1860-1861
Abner Platt Brush, 1863
John Edward Jackson Jr., 1866-1868
Edward James Purdy, 1869-1879
John Andrew Dooris, 1879-1881
Benjamin Tucker Hutchins, 1881-1882
Gustav Edmond Purucker, 1882-1883
Harry E. Thompson, 1884-1886
Benjamin Franklin Miller, 1887-1891
Douglas Irvine Hobbs, 1891-1895
Francis Clarence Coolbaugh, 1895-1898
Walter Jay Lockton, 1899-1906
Almon Clarke Stengel, 1906-1910
John Cole McKim, 1910
Louis Thibou Scofield, 1911-1914
Charles Frederic Westman, 1914-1918
George Harry Richardson, 1918-1920
Clinton Bradshaw Cromwell, 1920-1921
Edward Lemuel Roland Jr., 1923-1930
William Edward Hoffenbacher, 1930-1936
Francis Campbell Gray, 1936-1937
Raymond Mansfield O'Brien, 1937-1939
Clarence Charles Reimer, 1940-1949
Robert Chesleigh Holmes, 1949-1950
Gerald Lionel Claudius, 1950-1959
Hugh Crichton Edsall, 1959-1961
Henry R. Solem, 1962-1969
Wright Ramsett Johnson, 1969-1977
H. James Considine, 1977-1986
M. Richard Hatfield, 1986-1988
William C. Hibbert, 1989-1991
Michael J. Haas, 1992-2004
Theodore Neidlinger, 2004-2007
Clark S. Miller, 2010-

Bibliography:

Barbara Colford, History of Trinity Episcopal Church, 1841-1991 (Logansport: Trinity Episcopal Church, 1991).

Trinity Episcopal Church, Logansport, Vestry Minute Book 1, 1841-1855

Parish Register, 1841-1865 [lost]

Parish Register, 1866-1879

Parish Register, 1880-1930
St. Mary's Episcopal Church, New Carlisle (defunct) St. Mary's, New Carlisle, began as a mission in 1885, when the Rev. J. Gorton Miller of Bristol began holding monthly services. He remained until 1888, during which time a Ladies Society with seven members was organized. In 1886, this Society purchased two lots on the south side of the village, giving the title to the Diocesan Trustees. The north half of the lot was sold to James Reynolds in 1891, but the south half was dedicated for a church building.

The Rev. Walter Scott of La Porte arrived as missionary in 1890, holding services once a month on a week day. Under his leadership, the mission contracted with George W. Ashley to build a wood-frame church edifice, which he completed in May 1893. Bishop Knickerbacker and several other clergy arrived on 16 May 1893 to hold a service of consecration. Scott resigned in June 1895, just after a silver chalice and paten were presented to the church as a gift. He was followed by the Rev. Thomas B. Barlow, also of La Porte, who remained until 1897 and was followed by the Rev. Elias B. Stockton, who resigned in December. The Rev. John Foster Kirk, a deacon, served the church from December 1897 to May 1898, when he was ordained to the priesthood and celebrated communion for the first time.

St. Mary's was one of the charter congregations of the Diocese of Michigan City in 1898, but its membership dwindled, especially after a prominent lay member decided to become a Christian Scientist. Clarence E. Brandt conducted services from 1899 to 1900, followed by Edward L. Roland from 1901 to 1902. A few services were held in 1906 and 1907, but the mission closed. The building with its windows and fixtures were moved by rail car and incorporated into the new Church of the Good Shepherd in East Chicago, Indiana, in 1915. The wood-face exterior was resurfaced in brick at that time. The extant parish register of St. Mary's contains records from 1885 to 1904.

Clergy:

Joseph Gorton Miller, 1885-1888
Walter Scott, 1890-1895
Thomas Bennington Barlow, 1895-1897
Elias Boudinot Stockton, 1897
John Foster Kirk Jr., 1897-1898
Clarence Estelle Brandt, 1899-1900
Edward L. Roland, 1901-1902

Parish Register, 1885-1904
Rev. Edward Lemuel Roland Jr. The Rev, Edward Lemuel Roland Jr, was born in 1873 in Washington, D.C., the son of Edward L. and Isabel (Randall) Roland. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1896 and married Julia L. Scholl the following year on 23 June 1897. He began his career at St. Margaret's Church, Windsor Park, Chicago. From there he moved to La Porte, Indiana, serving as rector of St. Paul's from 1899 to 1902 and of St. James, Goshen, from 1906 to 1914. He later returned to the diocese to become rector of Trinity, Logansport from 1923 to 1930. He moved from there to Danville, Illinois, to become rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, but was back in the Diocese of Northern Indiana again in 1939 as priest-in-charge of St. Thomas Church, Plymouth, from 1939 to 1941. He died in Marion County, Illinois, on 27 March 1949.