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• 1 media/St James Goshen exterior 2011.jpeg 2019-07-16T07:16:47-07:00 St. James Episcopal Church, Goshen 99 image_header 2024-08-28T08:00:34-07:00 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. The Rev. Elias Birdsall, a missionary at Mishawaka who visited Goshen occasionally in 1858, reported to the Spirit of Missions in May 1859: "Goshen, too, is a hopeful place. It is a growing town, the county-seat of Elkhart county, twenty-one miles from Mishawaka by railway. With but occasional services, the few Church people there have, 'with one heart and mind,' done what was in their power toward securing and sustaining the full services of the Church."
  
  On March 29, 1859, the Rev. William H. Stoy of Lima, Indiana, held a meeting in the office of George Howell in which they agreed 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-
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
• 1 media/St Pauls LaPorte exterior.jpg 2019-07-22T20:59:37-07:00 St. Paul's Episcopal Church, La Porte 85 image_header 2024-05-13T11:50:57-07:00

  St. Paul’s is the fourth 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, Trinity in Michigan City, 1838, and Christ Church in Fort Wayne in May 1839. 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
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
• 1 2020-08-03T10:39:33-07:00 Rev. James Langhorne Boxer 1 plain 2020-08-03T10:39:34-07:00 The Rev. James Langhorne Boxer was born on 6 February 1828 at Folkestone, Shepway District, Kent, England, the son of John and Mary (Davies) Boxer. The father was a colonel in the Fourteenth Dragoons who had reportedly served under Wellington. James married Sarah A. Wilson on 29 June 1851 in Folkestone. After his ordination he served several parishes in England and worked with Charles Dickens in the writing of "All the Year Round." He immigrated to America, was ordained in the Episcopal Church, and began his pastoral work in Sing Sing, New York. He came to Goshen, Indiana, in 1877 to become rector of St. James, and the following year moved to St. Paul's La Porte, where he remained until 1881. He then moved to become rector of Trinity Church, Houghton, where he died on 15 July 1884. He is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, Houghton.