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• 1 media/St Thomas Episcopal Church, Plymouyth exterior undated.jpg 2019-07-25T04:30:21-07:00 St. Thomas-Santo Tomas Episcopal Church, Plymouth 77 image_header 2024-02-22T07:09:03-08:00 In October 1856, the Rev. Almon Gregory, rector of St. Paul's, La Porte, arrived in Plymouth and began conducting "house services" as an Episcopal missionary. He led the first service on 19 December 1856, when fourteen people gathered in the Presbyterian Church for a sermon. He promised to return once a fortnight, holding later services at the home of Joseph Westervelt. This first congregation was still not formally organized and had no lay leadership. Bishop George Upfold visited the town in 1858, 1860, and 1861, confirming several persons and encouraging Gregory's efforts. On 23 March 1861, the congregation finally organized officially as St. Thomas Episcopal Church with the election of Gilson L. Cleveland and A. O. Packard as wardens, and Charles Palmer, Thomas McDonald, and John G. Osborne as vestrymen. Other early leaders included Mrs. Sarah Westervelt and John C. Cushman.
  
  During these formative years the congregation gained the support of Henry C. Carter of New York City, who donated a lot on Center Street for the building of a chapel in May 1860. The vestry raised funds to build the small frame church at a cost of $10,000. The first Eucharist was celebrated on 27 June 1860 in the Presbyterian Church; the second was held in November 1860 and the third, the first in the new chapel, was celebrated by Gregory on 3 April 1861. The Rev. Louis Tschiffely arrived in October 1861 and became the parish's first resident priest. Through his efforts, he secured from Henry Carter a donation of the church's first communion set. By 1865, 73 families attended.
  
  The parish struggled to find permanence in the years following the Civil War. Both Episcopal clergy and adequate funding were in short supply. Between 1865 and 1870, the Rev. William Lusk, a Presbyterian minister, supplied the parish and performed baptisms and marriages, but he was not able to celebrate the Eucharist. After his departure the parish called several priests who stayed only for a few years. In 1877 the Rev. John Jacob Faude arrived in Plymouth, and under his able leadership the parish built a rectory at a cost of $3,500 in 1881. For several years Faude conducted services at both Michigan City and Plymouth before resigning the Plymouth charge and moving to Michigan City to become its rector, remaining there until 1890 and returning to Plymouth for a brief stint between 1889 and 1890.
  
  Services continued in the chapel until 1905, when the congregation outgrew it. During the tenure of the Rev. Walter S. Howard (formerly dean of the cathedral at Michigan City), the parish built a new edifice of Indiana limestone designed by local architect Jacob Ness and located on the southern part of the lot at the corner of Adams and Center streets. Bishop White consecrated it on St. Thomas Day, 21 December 1909. A few years later the old church was moved and remodeled into a parish hall. Among the priests who served during these years was the Rev. Benjamin F. P. Ivins, who later became Bishop of Milwaukee.
  
  After World War II, the congregation suffered financially, and the building fell into poor repair. The Rev. William Cordick, who had become rector in 1916, retired in 1940 after a 24-year rectorate. After several pastors served short tenures, Bishop Reginald Mallett ordered the Rev. William Sheridan, then at St. Paul's Gas City, to become rector in 1947. It marked the beginning of a 25-year pastorate, during which the parish grew and gained distinction. The building was extensively restored under his leadership. Sheridan also became chaplain of nearby Culver Military Academy. He remained rector until he was elected bishop in 1972, the first bishop chosen among the priests of the diocese. After his retirement, he returned to Plymouth and became a member of the congregation. In the 1990s under the leadership of the Rev. John Schramm, St. Thomas developed a strong ministry with the local Hispanic community and began offering Spanish-language services. Schramm also led several mission trips to Honduras in the 1990s to build churches and do community work. Later, under the rectorship of the Rev. Thomas Haynes, the parish became known under the dual name of St. Thomas-Santo Tomas to better reflect the diversity of the congregation.
  
  Clergy:
  Almon Gregory, 1856-1861
  Louis Phillippe Tschiffely, 1861-1865
  Richard Leo Ganter, 1865
  William Lusk, 1865-1870 (Presbyterian supply)
  John Portmess, 1870-1871
  Samuel Johnson Yundt, 1872-1873
  James N. Hume, 1874-1875
  Andrew Mackie, 1876-1877
  John Jacob Faude, 1877-1886
  Thomas Byron Kemp, 1886-1889
  John Jacob Faude, 1889-1890
  William Wirt Raymond, 1891-1902
  Walter Simon Howard, 1902-1910
  Benjamin Franklin Price Ivins, 1910-1913
  Samuel Winfield Day, 1913-1916
  William John Cordick, 1916-1936
  Charles Delano Maddox, 1936-1939
  Edward Lemuel Roland - 1939-1941
  George G. Shilling, 1941-1943
  J. Bradford Pengelly (supply), 1944-1945
  James Savoy, 1946-1947
  William Cockburn Russell Sheridan, 1947-1972
  James Gossett Greer, 1972-1976
  Gregory Brian Sims, 1976-1981
  John Schramm, 1982-2013
  Thomas Erskine Haynes, 2013-2019
  Bernadette Hartsough, 2020-
  
  
  Sources:
  
  Marshall County Historical Society, History of Marshall County, Indiana (Plymouth: Marshall County Historical Society, 1986), p. 27.
  
  Parish Registers:
  
  First Book, 1857-1871: Baptisms, Marriages, Burials, Confirmations, Visitations, History, Sponsors
  
  Book 2, 1872-1890, History, Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages, Burials
  
  Book 3, 1892-1910, Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages, Burials
  
  Book 4, 1909-1956, Communicants, Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages, Burials
  
  Book 5 [marked as Book 1], 1956-1977, Communicants, Baptisms, Marriages, Burials, Confirmations, Index
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 1 2020-08-14T09:57:40-07:00 Rev. John Jacob Faude 3 plain 2022-02-11T19:01:15-08:00 The Rev. John Jacob Faude was born in Tuttlingen, Wuerttemberg, Germany on 29 August 1852, the son of Philipp Friederich and Henriette Caroline (Riess) Faude. He came to America with his parents when aged 7 and settled in Coldwater, Michigan. He graduated from Racine College, where he had sung in its choir, and later Nashotah House. In 1870 he worked as a school teacher in Branch County, Michigan, but he later settled in Indiana and married in Marshall County on 7 October 1875, Florence S. Hollund. Faude was ordained to the diaconate by Bishop Talbot in 1877, the same year he was given charge of St. Thomas Church in Plymouth. In 1882, he also took charge of Trinity, Michigan City, and held both posts concurrently.
  
  In 1883, Faude, who served as dean of the Northern Convocation of the Diocese of Indiana, met with the Rev. William Naylor Webbe and vestry of Trinity, Fort Wayne, to discuss the possibility of creating a new northern diocese. Though the meeting was kept secret from the press, Trinity's vestry pledged issuing a $10,000 bond for it support, should the diocese be created. A second meeting in Fort Wayne after Easter that year included other clergy and gathered increasing support for the idea. When the Diocese of Indiana gathered for its Annual Council in June, the matter the division was brought up, and Bishop Talbot had indicated his consent, even though he was now paralyzed after suffering a stroke. Although Webbe spoke enthusiastically on the subject other clergy broke ranks and opposed it as premature. An article soon appeared in a Cincinnati newspaper accusing Webbe of being overly ambitious in his desire to become the bishop of the new diocese. Webbe rebutted the charge, but Faude disliked the letter and disputed the charge that he had endorsed the plan or supported Webbe's views. Faude said he had counseled waiting to divide the diocese until all parishes in the northern convocation had paid into Bishop Talbot's endowment fund. The clash between the two rectors seemed to dampen any further discussion of the issue for a number of years.
  
  Faude remained at Plymouth until 1886 but stayed at Michigan City until 1890. He also returned briefly to Plymouth in 1889-90. That year he was elected rector of Gethsemane Episcopal Church in Minneapolis, an influential parish which Bishop Knickerbacker had previously led. He remained there until his death from appendicitis on 2 April 1901.  At the time of his death, an obituary on the front page of a Minneapolis newspaper said, "He had ... self-control in the highest degree and has always held himself well in hand. He was a natural leader and a born organizer. His work at Michigan City was very successful."