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• 1 media/St-Andrews-panoramic exterior.jpg 2019-07-25T20:29:09-07:00 St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Valparaiso 70 image_header 2024-03-30T16:47:23-07:00 The Episcopal Church in Porter County has its roots in several small earlier congregations established in Valparaiso. On the Feast of the Epiphany 1861, an Episcopal missionary, the Rev. Edward P. Wright, rector of Trinity Michigan City, conducted the town's first Episcopal service in a rented hall. He maintained fortnightly services, and Bishop George Upfold organized this informal group into a congregation on 2 June 1861 as the Church of the Holy Communion. About 40 persons, including six communicants, gathered at these early services. Upfold expressed his hope that a church would take root here and at Warsaw, since both towns were on the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railroad line.
  
  As the Civil War progressed, the congregation struggled to survive. In 1862, the departure of Wright from his post in Michigan City and the removal of a few key members of the congregation diminished its initial progress. Several deaths and other changes ended the fledgling congregation, and it was formally terminated by the Diocesan Council. Two prominent members, John C. Feebles, an attorney, and John C. Thompson, a merchant, along with their wives, had supported the congregation.
  
  In 1863, a schism occurred among a group of German Lutherans in Valparaiso. Led by their pastor, the Rev. William Jahn, the congregation of more than 400 members left the Lutheran Church and formed German St. John's Episcopal Church, affiliating with the Episcopal Diocese of Indiana. Jahn, a native of Holstein, Germany, held worship services in German for 450 new members (including 230 communicants) in space rented from Valparaiso University. Bishop Upfold ordained him to both the diaconate and priesthood in two separate services in February 1864. The event was so novel that the editors of a national church publication, The Church Monthly, took note. Writing in April 1864, they observed: "Seeking our Communion as a refuge from rationalism and from an earnest conviction of its conformity with Scripture and primitive usage, we trust these new converts to Episcopacy from the land of Luther may be the earnest of a far greater ingathering." They added that the move "cannot fail of awakening a wide interest both in our own Church and in the Lutheran body."

  After a momentous and unusual beginning, Jahn went west in September 1864 in order to visit potential donors and obtain funds for a church building. On the way he was shot in a guerilla raid while riding on the Northern Missouri Railroad. Bishop Upfold observed in his Council address in 1865 that the death "has filled my heart with grief and sadness, and with serious apprehension for the success of the enterprise so auspiciously begun..."
  
  Efforts for a church continued in the wake of this tragedy, but Jahn's death had dealt it a severe blow. A new German-speaking missionary from Missouri, the Rev. Ignatius Koch, assumed leadership of German St. John's and reported to the diocesan convention that he had worked with both Lutherans and Episcopalians and had raised $540 for a church. He asked the diocese for $8,000 more to complete a church building. He noted in his report, "I visited all the Germans of Valparaiso and some in the country, introducing myself as their pastor to whose jurisdiction they belong through their Baptism, and invited them kindly to come forward for the union."
  
  The money was not forthcoming, however, and the church failed to grow. Koch left for Pennsylvania, where he died in 1872. Bishop Coadjutor Joseph Talbot visited Valparaiso during the winter of 1866-67 and deemed it inadvisable to reorganize the congregation. By 1867, German St. John's had lost its affiliation with the diocese.
  
  According to parishioner Claribel Dodd Smith, whose family moved from New England to Porter County, Episcopal services were held in private homes in Valparaiso in the 1890s. Whether members from the earlier congregations attended is not clear. Those services conducted in the home of James Wilson included use of a piano box for an altar and a gilded wooden cross. The missionary priest-in-charge at that time, the Irish-born Rev. George Moore of Momence, Illinois, would pick up worshipers in his sleigh for winter services at the home of Mrs. J. Seymour Wilcox. Services were also held in larger venues in the 1890s, including Moltz’s jewelry store across from the Courthouse and at a later period above Wark's Hardware Store, but the congregation remained officially unorganized.

  By 1900, this group of Episcopalians had grown, and the Annual Council of the new Diocese of Michigan City granted the congregation mission status under the name of St.  Andrew’s, apparently after St. Andrew's Church in Chicago where two of its prominent members, Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Parker, had been members. A church had the status of mission church if it depended on the diocese for some part of its funding. 
  
  According to a 1912 history of Porter County, Bishop John Hazen White was determined to plant a more permanent church in Valparaiso and enlisted the help of several lay leaders, including Charles H. Parker, J. Seymour Wilcox, A. W. Barnhart, M. A. Snider, J. C. Rock, and others in reorganizing the mission in a rented hall. The Rev. Legh W. Applegate became its first resident priest.
  
  In 1902, under Applegate's leadership, the congregation built a wood frame church at 104 Erie Street in downtown Valparaiso for about $25,000, using a 50-year-old house as the base, which it moved to the site. It was 32 by 64 feet in size with a twelve foot square tower, dedicated on 6 July 1902. A major renovation in 1916 led to the removal of the tower's third story and changing the entrance from Franklin to Erie Street. A stained glass window was placed where the old entrance had been. Miss Kees was the first organist with a choir of 22 people.

  Applegate moved on to establish Christ Church in Gary in 1907. A succession of rectors of short tenure followed, none of them staying long enough to strengthen the congregation. The Rev. Walter B. Williamson, who served from 1912 to 1916, added a stucco exterior finish and remodeled the rectory at a cost of $5,000. He also reached out to found a new mission at Hobart. St. Andrew's floundered financially, and in 1917, the Rev. Clinton Cromwell placed the mission under the spiritual care of Bishop White.
  
  During the Great Depression, the task of finding permanent leadership for the mission proved challenging for White's successor, Bishop Campbell Gray. In 1939, a group of monks led by Dom Paul Severance from the Order of St. Benedict arrived from training in England and at Gray's urging, settled in a house in Valparaiso. Gray assigned them to serve St. Andrew’s as well as other parishes, and their work endeared them to the diocese. They left in 1946 when they built their own monastery in Three Rivers, Michigan. The diocese was enriched by having been the first home of the American Anglican Benedictines. During their tenure, the vicarage was renamed St. Gregory's House.
  
  In 1946, the Rev. Samuel H. N. Elliott, a former Army chaplain of the 46th Quartermaster Group, arrived in Valparaiso and questioned why St. Andrew's had remained a mission for 46 years. He began an extensive renovation of the 1902 church, locating eight small stained glass windows being discarded by another church and purchased them for $100 each. Although members of the parish expressed initial dismay at the cost, they managed to raise the money for the installation. Several families contributed funds, as did the local Greek community and a group of local veterans. By 1948, the work had been completed and the windows installed. Elliott and a small group of parishioners did much of the restoration work themselves. The windows were later moved again and installed in the third church building in 2005. In 1950 under Elliott's leadership, the church marked its 50th anniversary, and a large celebration was held on St. Andrew’s Day (November 30).
  
  Elliott and a group of parishioners began the work of establishing a new mission in nearby Hobart, but Elliott gave up those duties in 1948. Humbled by the accomplishment of spearheading a major renovation of St. Andrew's, he invited the diocese to hold its diocesan convention there in 1949, the first time a convention had been held in a mission church. By 1951, Elliott had become ill with alcoholism, and Bishop Mallett removed him from the rectorship. He later became sober and was an active member of the Recovered Alcoholic Clergy Association (RACA, serving a mission church in Salem, Illinois.
  
  The Rev. Forrest B. Clark, a beloved rector of long tenure, arrived in February 1954 as priest-in-charge. A native of Crawford, Texas, he had trained for the priesthood at Seabury-Western and Nashotah House. He was soon after diagnosed with tuberculosis and sent to recover his health at the veteran's hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. Bishop Mallett arranged for Father Langendorff to take charge of services until Clark could return, but he appears to have been worth the wait. Within two years of his arrival the membership grew 30 percent. Under his leadership the church was able to advance from mission to parish status in 1960 and become self-supporting. The old vicarage was refurbished into classrooms for what was called the Monday School. Clark also led the church in purchasing a property on Bull's Eye Lake Road for a possible future site of the church. Suffering from depression, Clark retired in 1969, but despite ill health, he agreed to serve again as a non-stipendiary priest from 1973 to 1977, seeing the congregation through a difficult time. His widow, Canon Kitty Clark, remained involved with St. Andrew’s many years afterward. In 1980, Bishop Sheridan dedicated the Forrest B. Clark Memorial Center at 104 Erie Street, which provided space for the church school and offices.
  
  The Rev. Colin Mainer succeeded Clark, serving from 1968 to 1973. Mainer, a bachelor, proved unpopular, and some parishioners withdrew their funding for the church in protest to his leadership style. The financial crisis led the church to revert again to mission status, and after several years of difficulty, Bishop William Sheridan removed Mainer as rector, leading to Clark's return as a non-stipendiary supply priest. During this time some much-needed maintenance occurred with the replacement of badly-deteriorated window frames. The roof was replaced, and St. Gregory's House was demolished.
  
  The Rev. Ross Mack succeeded Clark and served from 1977 to 1984. Mack began a long process of repairing old St. Andrew’s and oversaw the building of the attached Parish Center. In 1981, the Forrest B. Clark Center was constructed at a cost of $110,000, and in 1984, the mortgage on the church was burned. Mack resigned in 1984, but he later became a member of the congregation after retirement and continued to serve as a supply priest.
  
  The Rev. Robert Bramlett followed Mack as rector in 1985 and served until 1990. During his tenure the windows underwent further restoration and the undercroft was extensively repaired.

  Fr. Patrick Ormos (1991-2007) succeeded Bramlett and led the parish during a period of growth. During his tenure the congregation outgrew the church on Erie Street and moved to a new location on Bullseye Lake Road in 2005. That same year the parish purchased an 1889 Hook & Hastings organ, completely refurbished, that had formerly been installed in a Baptist church in Massachusetts. In 2010, the church called the Rev. Roger Bower as rector, and he served until 2022.
  
  Adapted from St. Andrew's website: https://standrewsvalpo.org/who-we-are/history/
  
  Parish Register 1893-1947
  Burials, 1899-2022
  Baptisms, 1893-1996
  
  Clergy: 
  
  Edward Purdon Wright, 1861-1862
  William Jahn, 1864
  Ignatius Koch, 1865-1866
  George Moore, 1898-1899
  Legh Wilson Applegate, 1902-1907
  Marshall Mallory Day, 1908-1910
  Robert Carpenter Ten Broeck, 1910-1911
  Walter Blake Williamson, 1912-1915
  Clinton Bradshaw Cromwell, 1916-1920
  George Taylor Griffith, 1920-1925
  Arthur G. Worger-Slade, 1925-1927
  Alexander Eberhardt Pflaum, 1928-1933
  Harry Kroll Hemkey, 1933-1935
  Dom Paul Severance, 1939-1945
  Harold McLemore, 1945-1946
  Samuel Hanna Norman Elliott, 1946-1951
  Forrest B. Clark, 1954-1969, 1974-1976
  John Graham Colin Mainer, 1968-1973
  Ross Mack, 1977-1984
  Robert G. Bramlett, 1985-1990
  C. Patrick Ormos, 1991-2007
  Roger Bower, 2010-2022
  Catherine Carpenter, 2022-
  
  Adapted from St. Andrew's website https://standrewsvalpo.org/who-we-are/history/
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• 1 media/St Stephens Hobart 18 Feb 2018.jpg 2019-07-16T06:45:08-07:00 St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Hobart 48 image_header 2024-03-02T08:36:35-08:00

  St. Stephen's was officially organized as a mission on December 16, 1914, by the Rt. Rev. John Hazen White with the assistance of the Rev. Walter B. Williamson of Valparaiso. The congregation first met in members' homes and then in a small white frame building on East 4th Street that previously had been located in Gary and used by Christ Church. White described it in 1916 as "a very pretty chapel without debt for this mission."
  
  Over the years several other area priests served the church, and from 1928 to 1939, St. Stephen's was a mission of Christ Church. Bishop Gray sought a better solution to the clergy shortage in the Calumet area, and after inviting a small group of Benedictine monks to open a priory in Valparaiso, he had them lead the services at St. Stephen's from 1939 to 1945. Among the earliest members of the congregation were Richard and Mary King (grandparents of current member Bob Mattix), William Devonshire, the Rev. L. W. Applegate (missionary priest), and wife Rebecca Applegate, Mrs. F.Y. Keator, Louise and Elbert Ripley, Mrs. Thomas Parker, B.B. and E. T Bale, Alfred Epps, F. Isabel, Doris, N.B., Isabel and G.B. White, Mrs. Earl Ramsey, Mr. and Mrs. William Glynn, and Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Ruchti (grandparents of current member Fritz Ruchti).

  In 1948, two years after the monks had moved to Three Rivers, Michigan, the church building was moved to 3rd and Washington Street on land donated by a parishioner. A parish hall and rectory were built, and the church called its first full time priest, the Rev. Wilbur Dexter, in 1949. Subsequent resident clergy included the Hayward Crewe, W. Sumner Ferguson, Charles H. Sutton, John R. Smith, Karl E. Marsh, James W. Curtis and Leonard J. Brinkmoeller.

  Needing more space, the congregation purchased land on 14th and State Street, and from 1960 to 1962, the rectory was moved to the east side of the street and the parish hall to the west side. The congregation built a new church to adjoin them with the hall bricked over to match.

  A diocesan mission since 1939, St. Stephen's became again a parochial mission of Christ Church, Gary, in 1968. Following a period of rapid growth and stability, the mission received parish status at the diocesan convention on November 9, 1985. A new organ was dedicated on December 3, 1989, and a building fund was started.

  In December 1993, Leonard Brinkmoeller was called to a parish in Michigan. For the next three years the parish was served by supply clergy, mainly the Rev. Ross Mack of Valparaiso and M. Richard Miller, a deacon (and since 2002, a priest) assigned to St. Andrews, Valparaiso. In January 1997, the Rev. John Blakslee was elected priest-in-charge on a part-time basis.
  
  In 2000, several former members of the parish presented a stained glass window in memory of their mother, Stelle Hill Fetsch. Stelle was active in the parish until becoming disabled by illness, and her children no longer lived in the Hobart area. David Hill presented a design for the window and a working plan for its installation, and the vestry approved it as addition to the building. The window was presented formally by the Hill family and dedicated by the congregation on Sunday, May 14, 2000, the first Mother's Day of the new millennium. 

  In the summer of 2001, the parking lot was paved, a sidewalk from the parking lot to the church was added, and outdoor pole lights were installed. On All Saints Sunday, November 3, 2002, the following items were dedicated by the congregation: a new sanctuary light, a Paschal Candle holder, and altar and Eucharist linens all in memory of Michael Sandala. Also dedicated were American and Episcopal Church flags in memory of deceased members. In 2005 a garage for storage was constructed at the south edge of the parking lot. Renovations to the nave, parish hall, and rectory, including new windows, were completed during the first decade of the new millennium. The congregation used a gift from Alice M. Rogers to construct a hallway, bathroom, and meeting room at the west end of the narthex. It was dedicated by Bishop Ed Little on December 14, 2008, two days before the parish's 94th anniversary.

  On November 2014, Father Blakslee retired his position as priest at St. Stephen's effective at the end of the year. Father Michael Dwyer from CEMP (Calumet Episcopal Ministry Partnership) offered assistance with supply priests until the congregation could decide the next step for the parish. On December 14, 2014, St. Stephen's observed its 100th anniversary with a Eucharist celebrated by Bishop Ed Little. On October 2016, the Vestry voted to become members of CEMP, sharing a priest among five altars.
  
  Note that the parish register of Christ Church Gary dating after 1980 is located at located at St. Stephen's.
  
  Clergy:
  
  Walter Blake Williamson, 1914-1915
  Clinton Bradshaw Cromwell, 1916-1920
  George Taylor Griffith, 1920-1925
  Arthur Worger-Slade, 1925-1927
  Dom Paul Severance, 1939-1945
  Harold McLemore, 1945-1946
  Samuel Hanna Norman Elliott, 1946-1949
  Wilbur B. Dexter, 1949-1952
  Hayward Crewe, 1952-1953
  Sumner Ferguson, 1953-1957
  Charles Havling Sutton, 1957-1960
  John Smith, 1960-1964
  Karl E. Marsh, 1964-1967
  James Wallace Curtis, 1968-1983
  Leonard Joseph Brinkmoeller, 1984-1993
  Ross Mack, 1993-1994
  Monroe Richard Miller, 1994-1996
  John Blakslee, 1997-2014
  Michael Dwyer, 2014-2018 (CEMP)
  Kristine Graunke, 2015-2020 (CEMP)
  Michelle I. Walker, 2017-2020 (CEMP)
  Pamela Thiede, 2020- (CEMP)
  Cynthia Moore, 2020-2021 (CEMP)
  Charles Strietelmeier, 2023- (CEMP)
  
   

  Adapted from St. Stephen's website: http://www.calumetepiscopal.org/st-stephen/about.php
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• 1 2020-10-26T13:45:39-07:00 Rev. George Taylor Griffith 2 plain 2020-10-26T13:51:16-07:00 The Rev. George Taylor Griffith was born in Toronto, Ontario, on 15 September 1859, the son of Thomas and Lilly (Taylor) Griffith. He immigrated to Detroit in 1876, was ordained a deacon in 1884 and a priest in 1885. He became rector of St. James Church in Vincennes, Indiana, about 1896. He later moved to Nebraska and the Diocese of Springfield.He became vicar of St. Andrew's in Valparaiso as well as of St. Stephen's, Hobart, in 1920. He left in 1925 and moved to Portland, Oregon, for reasons of health. He remained canonically resident in Northern Indiana, but lived for a time in Tacoma, Washington, where his health improved. He died in Missoula, Montana, on 11 April 1939.