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• 1 media/Trinity Michigan CIty exterior 25 Oct 2014.jpg 2019-07-17T06:26:17-07:00 Trinity Episcopal Church, Michigan City 109 image_header 2024-10-24T10:56:46-07:00 Trinity Episcopal Church, Michigan City, is officially the second oldest congregation in the Diocese of Northern Indiana. It was actually the first to be established in 1837, but through a technicality in its first year its official organization was delayed until after St. Paul's Mishawaka had been organized.
  
  In the 1830s, pioneers, adventurers, and entrepreneurs began arriving at the new town named Michigan City, platted at the end of the Michigan Road near Lake Michigan. The new road that began at Madison, Indiana, was fulfilling its purpose of encouraging settlers to move from southern Indiana into the scarcely-populated northern part of the state. In 1830, Isaac C. Elston, a real estate speculator, purchased land at the mouth of Trail Creek as the site of his town, which was called Michigan City. In 1832 only one cabin stood, but by 1833 enough settlers had arrived to hold an election for a justice of the peace and to name a postmaster. The stage coach ran through the town three times each week, bringing new residents. In 1834, Charles Cleaver stayed in the local tavern and wrote that in Michigan City, “the buildings consisted of one small brick tavern, a frame one opposite, a blacksmith shop, and half dozen houses built in, on, above and below the sand. It then contained about fifty inhabitants.”  However, no church had yet been built. With few people living in the area between Niles, Michigan, South Bend, Indiana, and Michigan City, there were few resources to support a church. Those few clergy who had moved to the area traveled frequently to serve the needs of the new settlers.
  
  The first Episcopal Church service held at Michigan City occurred in October 1834, when the Rev. Palmer Dyer preached what is considered the first sermon in town. However, Bishop Philander Chase is given more formal credit for getting church services going. Chase, formerly Bishop of Ohio, had settled with his family for a time on a farm near Niles, Michigan. In the same month that Dyer preached, Chase visited the town and recorded in his diary that he “stopped in Michigan City, read the service, visited with a few people, drove through the sand dunes along the lake, and in the evening again read the service.” By this date there were about 700 residents. A few months later in 1835, Chase was elected Bishop of Illinois. On his way to Illinois from Niles, he again stopped in Michigan City and recorded the event in his diary: “Preached the first sermon ever delivered there from an Episcopal minister. This was in a large schoolhouse well filled with attentive auditors.”
  
  With a lack of clergy from its inception, Michigan City's community of Episcopalians depended on the work of its faithful members reading Morning Prayer. The first recorded communicants who arrived in 1835 included Zebina Gould, Dr. H. T. Maxon, and Schuyler Pulford, who later served as wardens and vestrymen of the fledgling church. Gould, a bachelor and native of Charlton, Massachusetts in 1803, had arrived by way of Rochester, New York, in the spring of that year, and wrote that he considered himself a "stranger in a strange land" until another communicant arrived that fall.
  
  Gould and others made arrangements with the Rev. James Selkrig, missionary at Niles, Michigan, to travel periodically to serve the spiritual needs of the new community. On December 11, 1835, he held services in the building used by the growing congregation as the first church in Michigan City. This structure was located at the corner of Fourth and Pine streets, and it later housed the congregation until 1858.
  
  When Jackson Kemper was appointed Missionary Bishop, Gould wrote him a letter of welcome in March 1836 and invited him to establish a church in Michigan City. He extolled what he deemed the town's future prospects: "A single glance... at a map will show you that from its local situation, being at the extreme head of Lake Michigan and the only port upon the Lakes...It must ere long become the great inlet and outlet for all the imports and exports of this truly fertile and flourishing State."
  
  Indeed, Michigan City was incorporated as a city later that same year. Gould and another parishioner induced the Rev. J. W. Hallam of Chicago to visit in June and conduct two services. Selkrig returned in the fall for a service, and the congregation increased in strength such that by the season of Advent, the congregation organized itself informally without a clergyman as the "Church of the Advent."
  
  Due to a conflict with state law and the fact that no official papers had been filed, the congregation had to organize itself again in 1837, and they changed the the name to “Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church.”  Gould attempted to entice the Rev. Burton H. Hickox of Watertown, New York, to serve as the first rector, but the effort fell through when the missionary chose to settle in Maumee, Ohio. Gould wrote to Kemper in April 1837, hoping the bishop could recruit a clergyman, but he hoped the missionary would not have a large family, since the parish could not support him. Nevertheless, Gould expressed his congregation's high standards. "The people of our place are mostly from the East, where they have been accustomed to hearing men of the first order of talents & one of anything less would scarcely meet their expectations or succeed in building up a congregation." 
  
  Kemper visited the newly-named parish for the first time in August 1837. With his encouragement, the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of New York sent the Rev. Daniel Van Mater Johnson, a cousin of the Rev. Samuel Roosevelt Johnson of Lafayette, to serve as missionary and became the town's first settled priest on 1 February 1838. Gould purchased hymnals, prayerbooks, and other books for the parish from the Sunday School Union. Johnson met all of Gould's expectations and was a talented priest. In his first report to the society, the missionary wrote: “The large room which the congregation has neatly fitted up is almost full of attentive listeners to the preached gospel.” Regular participation in the sacraments thus began with the first baptism in February 1838, the first marriage in April, and the first confirmation in January 1839. After two years the society concluded that its aid was no longer necessary and that Trinity could be self-supporting.
  
  The history of Michigan City and that of Trinity Episcopal Church are inseparably intertwined. The strength and prominence of the church was due to the faithful service of its wardens and vestry, many of whom were also civic leaders. Gould, elected the first Senior Warden in 1837 and Trinity's chief lay supporter, also served as the city harbor wheat inspector for the growing shipping industry. Other early members included T. B. W. Stockton, Samuel Mower, Charles Palmer, and H. I. Rees, all of whom served as early mayors. Augustus Barber was an early postmaster and city treasurer. Urial C. Follet also served for many years as treasurer.
  
  Michigan City evolved over time from humble beginnings, but progress was slow. When Bishop George Upfold visited in April 1850, he arrived by rail after having visited Detroit. Less optimistic than Kemper about the town's prospects, he commented: "This is a doleful looking place - separated from the lake by immense hills of sand - and surrounded by a very dreary looking country. There are about 1500 inhabitants. It is very irregularly built, and there are few fine looking houses." Over time, the town would grow, and its appearance as a town became more defined.
  
  More than any other lay leader, Urial Follet had the most significant influence on the growth and development of Trinity Church. He served for 25 years as a vestrymen from 1849 to 1862, and again from 1864 to 1872. He served as Senior Warden for 24 years in 1863 and from 1872 to 1896. His generosity made the present endowment fund possible. In spite of the tragic loss of all three of his children, his faith endured. The memorial gift of the white marble baptismal font in honor of his children is used to this day. He led the parish through the Civil War, economic depressions, and panics, as well as through the industrial growth of Michigan City. During his years of leadership, Trinity had 15 rectors, and two churches were built.
  
  By mid-century, the pioneer church on Pine Street was no longer adequate to meet the needs of the congregation or the growing importance of the Episcopal church in the social and political life of the city. The rector at this time was the Rev. Caleb A. Bruce, formerly rector of Trinity Fort Wayne, who in his long career built six new churches from Michigan to Arkansas. Under the patriarchal leadership of Zebina Gould and Urial Follet, the vestry resolved to seek subscriptions for a new church. The congregation acquired the property at the corner of Sixth and Franklin streets, essentially the geographic center of the town. A new wood frame church was built in the prevailing architectural style of the time called “Carpenter Gothic.” It was a demonstrative statement of the church’s prominence in the community.
  
  The fortunes of Trinity Church rose with the growth and development of Michigan City as both a port of commerce and an industrial manufacturing site. The largest and most significant industry was the manufacture of railroad cars by the Barker and Haskell Company. Three generations of the Barker family left their imprint on Trinity as major patrons. The marriage of John Barker Sr. and his wife Cordelia in 1841 was one of the first recorded at Trinity. Both his son, the industrialist John H. Barker, and his granddaughter, Catherine Barker Hickox, donated buildings and many improvements to the property at 6th and Franklin streets.
  
  Success as an industrialist did not insulate the younger John Barker from personal tragedy, when his three children by his first wife all died in infancy. The construction of the first Barker Hall, a building attached to the church, became his memorial to his children. It served the congregation as both community center and school with classrooms and an auditorium.
  
  During the 30 years between 1858 and 1888, the Trinity Church congregation experienced a six-fold growth. Under the continuing leadership of  Follet as Senior Warden and the influence of Barker and banker W.W. Vail as vestrymen, the old wooden church was deemed no longer adequate in size or style for the congregation. In 1889 the third Trinity church seating 450 was built of Indiana limestone. Designed by Chicago architect Henry Starbuck in the Romanesque Revival architectural style, it matched the grandeur of any Chicago building of its day.
  
  In 1898 the Diocese of Indiana was divided with the northern portion of the state becoming a separate diocese. The vestry, under the continued leadership and financial backing of Barker, voted to offer Trinity as the cathedral church. Bishop John Hazen White took residence in the rectory as both rector of Trinity parish and the first bishop of the new Diocese of Michigan City. The Very Rev. Walter S. Howard served as the first dean and associate rector. In 1901, Barker, at his expense, replaced the old rectory with a grander eight-bedroom mansion as a residence for the bishop. In 1910 Mrs. Barker donated the Gothic arched cloister that connects the church to the bishop’s residence. However, changes in liturgical style and lay leadership brought conflict to Trinity parish. Bishop White was too High Church or Anglo-Catholic in his liturgical preferences for the parish's tastes, and the vestry demanded that the dean of the cathedral be of Low Church style against the bishop's wishes. Relations between the bishop and the vestry soured and eventually ruptured. John Barker died in 1911, and by 1918, Trinity's cathedral status had been revoked at White's insistence. With the bishop relocating to South Bend, the diocese was renamed Northern Indiana, though it had no designated cathedral at that time.
  
  It is a testament to the spiritual fortitude of the Trinity congregation that in its first 100 years the parish thrived without clergy leadership for 15 years and nine months. Twenty-five rectors served Trinity with each staying an average of one year, nine months. Only five rectors served more than five years.
  
  The 20th century brought stronger clergy leaders who served for much longer terms, resulting in congregational development. New buildings and renovations were added to the Trinity church complex. Lay leadership remained as a core strength of the congregation, with several parishioners serving multiple terms as senior warden. The beauty of the church and its worship services were enhanced through numerous furnishings, gifts, and memorials from parishioners. Ministries included choir and organ, Altar Guild, Acolytes, Youth Group, and Women of Trinity.
  
  By the 1920s the congregation had outgrown the space provided by the first Barker Hall. The Rev. Earl Ray Hart coordinated the gift of a new Barker Hall, financed by the railroad car heiress Catherine Barker Hickox, daughter of John H. Barker. Her gift included a substantial endowment for the maintenance of the hall. The new facility was constructed in 1929 as a memorial to her father and his deceased children. Dedicated “for the use of the people,” the building became a social and cultural center for the entire community. Along with the “Great Hall.” meeting rooms, classrooms, and offices, a chapel expanded the opportunities for worship.
  
  During the rectorship of the Rev. David Reid in 1956, significant alterations were made to the layout of the 67-year-old church in the name of modernization and to fit better with changes in liturgical style. Entrances were rearranged, the choir and organ were moved, and open arches were closed, changing the essential character of the sacred space. At that time, growth of Michigan City’s lakefront communities and a desire to offer alternative liturgical worship lead several Trinity’s lay leaders to found St. Andrews by the Lake Church.
  
  The long rectorship of the Rev. Robert Center from 1964 to 1988 provided stability for the parish during the time when Michigan City was undergoing both economic and urban transformation. The departure of manufacturing industries, combined with the forces of urban renewal and changes in consumer shopping, left the historic center of the city with mostly empty storefronts. Trinity Church and Barker Hall were no longer at the cultural, social, and geographic center of the city, as new city development occurred to the south. Nonetheless, Trinity’s congregation supported extensive repairs and maintenance projects, including a new slate roof for the church. An additional endowment fund was established to support the ongoing maintenance of the church and rectory. Throughout the ten-year rectorship of Father Stephen Gerth, Trinity maintained its identity as a locus of traditional Anglo-Catholic worship.
  
  In the twenty-first century, Trinity has been sustained by the faithful service of its lay leaders and the visiting ministry of the Rev. Canon Hugh Page Jr., Vice President of the University of Notre Dame. Recognizing its important role in servicing the community, Trinity leaders established a Food Pantry program, continued its Thrift Shop ministry, and hosted community events in Barker Hall.
  
  As Michigan City heads into the third decade of the century, it is once again at the center of an urban development: Michigan City’s revitalizing Arts District. The beauty of Episcopal worship remains at the center of parish life. A youth music program provides spiritual growth and education for children. Service to neighbors continues to make Trinity integral to Michigan City community life. Under the guidance of dedicated wardens and vestry, and the ministry of Father Joseph Tamborini Czolgosz, Trinity remains a loving community dedicated to serving the spiritual, social, and cultural needs of Michigan City in the name of Jesus Christ.
  
  Clergy:
  
  Daniel Van Mater Johnson, 1838-1841
  Solon Wines Manney, 1841, 1843-1847
  George Bartly Engle, 1841-1843
  Fortune Charles Brown, 1847-1851
  Henry Monroe Safford, 1852-1855
  Caleb Alexander Bruce, 1855-1859
  William Henry Stoy, 1859-1860
  Edward Purdon Wright, 1860-1861
  Richard Leo Ganter, 1863-1865
  Thomas Lloyd Bellam, 1865-1866
  John Frank Winkley, 1868
  Abraham Reeves, 1869-1870
  Richard Brass, 1870-1873
  Samuel Johnson French, 1875-1879
  Charles James Wood, 1879-1881
  John Jacob Faude, 1882-1890
  Herman Baldwin Dean, 1890-1891
  Niles Wright Heermans, 1891-1898
  John Hazen White, 1898-1905
  Walter Simon Howard, (dean and associate rector), 1898-1905
  Frank Ernest Aitkins, 1905-1910
  Walter Stephen Trowbridge, 1910-1917
  James Andrew Miller, 1918-1922
  Jesse Ketchum Brennan, 1922-1927
  Earl Ray Hart, 1927-1938
  William Aaron Driver, 1938-1943
  Russell Garfield Flagg, 1943-1950
  David Joseph Reid, 1950-1963
  Robert June Center, 1964-1988
  Stephen Shea Gerth, 1988-1999
  Eugene Edmund Kohlbecker, 2001-2007
  Anthony F. M. Clavier, 2010-2012
  Tanya Scheff, 2014-2017
  Joseph Tamborini Czolgosz, 2018-2020
  Kathy Townley, 2021-2022
  Robert Rhodes, 2022-
  
  
  Text adapted from from "History of Trinity Church [Michigan City]"
  
  Bibliography:
  Robert J. Center, Trinity Episcopal Church, Michigan City, Indiana, 1834-1984: A History of the First One Hundred Fifty Years. Michigan City: Trinity Episcopal Church, 1985.
  
  Centennial, Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church, Michigan City, 1834-1934
  
  Parish Registers (Forthcoming)
  
  Book 1, 1838-1872
  
  Book 1 transcription (to correct legibility problems)
  
  Book 2, 1873-1882
  
  Book 3, 1882-1914
  
  Book 4, 1914-1927
  
  Book 5, 1928-1947
  
  Book 6, 1947-1955
  
  Zebina Gould Papers, 1836-1841, on the Founding of Trinity
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
• 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 John of the Cross, Bristol, Feb 2016.jpg 2019-07-13T10:43:09-07:00 St. John of the Cross Episcopal Church, Bristol, Indiana 97 image_header 2024-08-28T07:43:39-07:00 St. John of the Cross Episcopal Church was founded on 25 April 1843 by the Rev. Solon W. Manney, rector at Michigan City and La Porte, with two wardens, Henry P. Hanford and and Albert Royce. Originally called "St. John's," its name was changed in the 1960s because there was another St. John's in Elkhart County, and Bishop Klein felt that the two similar names were confusing. St. John's is the only parish in the diocese founded almost entirely through the efforts of a lay woman, Ann Jennette (Burnham) Judson. Such a role for a woman was an unusual occurrence in the 1840s.
  
  Ann Jennette Burnham was born in Auburn, New York, on 29 April 1807, the daughter of Captain John Burnham and wife Barbara (McCarty). Her father had been an officer in the Continental Army who was imprisoned by the British during the war and later became a sea captain. Jennette married Samuel Parsons Judson, a widower, in Batavia on 28 July 1833. Samuel Judson became interested in purchasing land in the West, and in 1834 settled with his wife in Elkhart County, where he laid out the town of Bristol. The couple was active on the Underground Railroad, helping fugitives from slavery escape to Michigan. In 1847, a group of slave catchers from Kentucky broke down the front door of their home and seized a fugitive named Thomas Harris. When the Judsons confronted them, they were threatened with guns. The Judsons brought charges, and the men were imprisoned while Harris was freed and made a successful escape. In 1849, Samuel formed the Bristol California Mining and Trading Association and launched an expedition to the gold fields of California, dying en route near Fort Laramie of cholera.
  
  During these years Mrs. Judson was determined to establish an Episcopal Church in Bristol, the first of its kind of any denomination in the town. The congregation was organized on 25 April 1843, and land was purchased under the names of her husband, along with Thomas Wheeler, Henry H. Fowler, and Edward A. Lansing as trustees. Albert Royce and Henry P. Hanford were the first wardens. Plans were drawn up for a church, and Bishop Jackson Kemper arrived to lay the cornerstone on 29 December 1843, while also setting aside land for a cemetery for the baptized of St. John's. The Rev. Richard S. Adams, missionary at Mishawaka, conducted services every third Sunday beginning in July 1843, but he left in April 1846 and was succeeded by another missionary, the Rev. Benjamin Halsted, formerly of Fort Wayne.
  
  Between 1845 and 1851, members of the congregation constructed the small wood-frame church slowly at what is now 601 East Vistula Street. Construction funds were surprisingly tight, and it took great effort to complete it. Mrs. Judson began reaching out for support and enlisted Bishop Kemper for help. After informing him of the planned organization of the parish in 1843, Kemper replied, "I rejoice at your perseverance and pray that it never flag. The divine Head of the Church, in His own good time, will help those efforts which are put forth to the glory of His Holy name."
  
  Kemper wrote a letter of introduction for the fund raising effort in December 1843, and Albert Royce, one of the wardens, managed to raise just $12.25. Undeterred by this failed attempt, Mrs. Judson made a personal visit East the following year to meet with friends and solicit additional funds. However, the building was still not finished in May 1848, when Kemper managed to conduct a service within its open frame. Mrs. Judson embarked on a second trip, and the bishop wrote her another letter of introduction: "The zeal of this lady for the House of God, and her anxiety to receive for her children and neighbors the sacred privileges of the Sanctuary, deserves the approbation and encouragement of all the well wishers of our beloved Zion." Bishop Samuel McCoskry of Michigan also wrote a letter, saying: "I know of no place in which the Church has greater claims upon Churchmen than at Bristol. There is no place of worship of any kind in it, and the possibility is that if Mrs. Judson is successful in her mission, the larger part of the population will be brought into the Church."
  
  Mrs. Judson wrote later that she visited Buffalo and New York City, as well as other intermediate cities and towns. An unidentified priest, writing in the parish register, noted of Mrs. Judson's efforts: "It was new work to her experience, but, as results will show, not beyond her large and generous capacities. It was a work, too, brought with many disappointments and annoyances and must prove especially so to one of her refined sensibilities; all these things she was willing to endure for His sake, for whose honor and glory she was chiefly anxious to have a temple erected." In 1850, after a third trip east, she brought back $2,222, enough to finish the building and purchase a bell for $180.
  
  Bishop George Upfold consecrated the building on 8 May 1851. The wood-frame building resembled a New England church, with painted wood sides and a simple steeple. St. John's first permanent rector, the Rev. Homer Wheeler, had arrived two years earlier in 1849, and since he had a family, he had insisted that the vestry provide him a parsonage near the church, near where a cemetery (or "churchyard") was also located. Land was purchased and eventually a Greek Revival house was erected. Mrs. Judson left town about 1855 and lived for many years in New York. She returned in 1875 to see the church one last time and died a decade later in Chicago in the home of her daughter.
  
  William H. Stoy, a missionary who served at both Bristol and Lima in 1859, offered a report in the "Spirit of Missions" in January 1859. "The field promises well - a new interest has been excited among the people, and all seem anxious to do what they can. My congregations, particularly at Bristol, have been uniformly large. I have organized a Sunday-school and Bible-class in each place. I am my own superintendent when I am present. All seem much interested in these organizations. There is no want of teachers to engage in the work of instruction, though the number of our pupils is small yet. I hope, by God's blessing, to make the Sunday-school a means of much profit for the church, and to those whose privilege it is to attend the church's instruction." 
  
  After the vestry bought and sold two different lots for the rectory, they constructed a more permanent building about 1875 during the rectorate of the Rev. Wellington Forgus. A series of rectors, all of relatively short duration, served the parish in the ensuing years until the arrival of the Rev. Henry Streeter and his family in 1907. He had formerly served at Gas City but left because of his growing deafness. He remained at his post as a resident priest for 10 years, and his hearing problems did not hamper his ministry. His family would remain members of the parish. During the 1950s, the Rev. Bruce Mosier served as a part-time priest, moving back and forth between St. James Goshen (where he served as its full-time rector) and Bristol. Mosier was a native of Bristol and had grown up as a member of St. John's.
  
  The Rev. Donald D. Dunn arrived in 1966 and remained five years. An English professor, he taught at Ball State University during the week and conducted services on Sundays. During his successful rectorate, the parish expanded its classroom buildings, the money for which was given as a memorial to the Rev. Henry Streeter. The addition allowed room for a Sunday school that attracted many new families, including some from the Elkhart area. In 1980, during the rectorate of the Rev. John Henry Morgan, a resident priest, the parish was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and received a visit from Bishop Tinsley of Bristol, England.
  
  In 1994, during the rectorate of the Rev. Shelby Scott, the church was renovated and enlarged, changing it in some respects from its original appearance but making it more accommodating for modern liturgy. Scott also led the parish on a mission trip to Honduras, prior to the renovation, where they built a church for a local congregation. In more recent times the parish has been served by two women, the Rev. Carol Fleming and the Rev. Jennifer Coe Fulton.
  
  Clergy:
  
  Richard Samuel Adams, 1843-1846
  Benjamin Halsted, 1846-1848
  Homer Wheeler, 1849-1853
  Albert Bingham, 1855
  Almon Gregory, 1858
  William Henry Stoy, 1858-1859
  Henry M. Thompson, 1859-1862
  Joseph Adderly, 1863-1866
  Henry M. Thompson, 1867-1871
  Wellington Forgus, 1871-1876
  Moses Clement Stanley, 1877-1881
  Sherwood Rosevelt, 1881-1885
  Joseph Gorton Miller, 1885-1888
  Franklin White Adams, 1889
  Charles Turner, 1889-1892
  Sherwood Rosevelt, 1892
  Walter Scott, 1894-1900
  Addison Alvord Ewing, 1900-1901
  Clarence Estelle Brandt, 1901-1907
  Henry Stephen Streeter, 1907-1917
  Elton Hoyt (deacon), 1919-1920
  Edwin Ellsworth Smith, 1920-1921
  Walter Jay Lockton, 1921-1933
  Lawrence Cecil Ferguson, 1935-1937
  Virgil Pierce Stewart, 1937-1939
  Harvey Livermore Woolverton, 1939-1941
  Dom Leo Kenneth Douglas Patterson, 1941-1945
  John Peterson, 1945
  Bruce Bickel Mosier, 1945-1948
  Charles Ray Boswell, 1950-1951
  Bruce Bickel Mosier, 1953-1965
  Donald Duane Dunn, 1966-1971
  Robert Manning Maxwell, 1971-1973
  Hugh Steiner Hostetler (assistant) 1972-1973
  Paul Menzies Ross, 1973-1976
  William Evans Martin, 1976-1978
  Richard Joseph Brown, 1978-1979
  John Henry Morgan, 1979-1990
  Shelby Hudson Scott, 1990-1996
  Timothy Merle Ljunggren, 1997-2004
  Richard Wineland, 2005-2010
  Carol Fleming, 2011-2014
  Jennifer Coe Fulton, 2014-2024
  
  Bibliography:
  Ron Kaser, St. John's, Bristol: A Parish History. Bristol, Indiana: Bristol Banner Books, 1989.
  
  
  Papers and Letters Concerning the Founding of St. John of the Cross Episcopal Church (formerly St. John's Episcopal Church), Bristol, Indiana, 1842-1855, Consisting Chiefly of the Papers of Mrs. Ann Jennette (Burnham) Judson (1807-1885). Fort Wayne: Allen County Public Library, undated. 
   
  
  Parish Register (History Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages, Burials), 1843-1966
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 1 media/St Marks Howe.jpg 2019-07-18T06:51:06-07:00 St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Howe (formerly Lima), and Howe Military School 69 image_header 2024-05-14T16:57:26-07:00 The Episcopal Church in LaGrange County can trace its origin to 1834, when Bishop Philander Chase, formerly of Ohio and later Bishop of Illinois, visited Lima from his home in Gilead, Michigan. He held services for nine local Episcopalians and preached. Between that time and 1851, no attempt was made to establish a parish, though itinerant Episcopal priests, including the Rev. Henry W. Whitesides, would visit occasionally due to its proximity to the Michigan state line.
  
  A church called St. Mark's was organized formally in the spring of 1851, forming a vestry and inviting the Rev. John O. Barton of Wisconsin to become the first rector. Barton, a Nashotah graduate, held services on the second floor above the Williams store in Lima. In July 1852, the congregation laid the foundation for a simple church edifice using a plan designed by W. R. West, architect of Cincinnati. John Badlam Howe and James Blake Howe, local residents and sons of an English-born Anglican priest in Boston, gave most of the funds for its construction. The new church, a small rectangular wood-framed chapel nicknamed "the little brown church," was located on the south side of Defiance Street. Its length stood parallel to the street and had a steeple with a bell on its east end. The yard surrounding the church was enclosed by a fence, and inside was a crystal chandelier providing light. It included a small organ which James B. Howe played.
  
  After Barton resigned and moved to Lafayette, the Rev. Albert Bingham arrived in May 1853, and two months later the church was consecrated by Bishop Upfold on 28 July 1853, with Barton returning for the service. Bingham left in 1855, and the Rev. Henry C. Stowell arrived for a few months in the spring before returning to New York. Bingham then returned to Lima but died four years later after the church had experienced considerable growth.
  
  Several rectors of short duration followed. The Rev. Wellington Forgus of New Jersey assumed the rectorship in 1868 but moved to St. John's, Bristol, in 1874. His daughter Sally is said to have improved the church's choir during this period. Bishop Talbot ordained two priests, the Rev. F. R. Cummings, a former Presbyterian, and the Rev. Abraham Gorrell, a former Methodist, in 1870. In 1876, the Irish-born Rev. Samuel C. M. Orpen arrived, beginning a period of active ministry. Under his leadership the parish established St. John's Mission in LaGrange, which became a separate parish two years later but eventually folded. One writer recalled that Orpen was "a splendid worker among the young people of the village and made the church with its religious and social activities the very center of the lives of those who were privileged to have a part in it." Orpen built a large Sunday school class, baptized 35 and sponsored 39 confirmations during his rectorate.
  
  In 1883, John Badlam Howe died, leaving $18,000 for a new church in Lima dedicated as a memorial to his family. Orpen led the congregation in raising additional funds and broke ground for a new building in July 1884 on land formerly owned by the Presbyterian Church. The new building was larger and constructed of wood and brick in a cruciform shape. It was consecrated by Bishop David Buel Knickerbacker on 21 May 1885. The LaGrange Standard called it "a substantial brick building, artistic in design and graceful and harmonious in proportions."
  
  Howe had also left money for a church school, leaving thirteen acres and $10,000 toward a school for boys to study for the ministry. The money was left in trust to the Bishop of Indiana until $50,000 could be raised. After Bishop Knickerbacker deliberated, a new school, the Howe Grammar School, opened in September 1884.
  
  Under the Rev. Dr. Charles Nelson Spalding, Orpen's successor, the former brown church on Defiance Street was moved to the campus to serve as a chapel for the boys, while Bishop Knickerbacker acquired additional 30 acres two miles west of the school. Beginning in 1890, the grammar school became Howe Military School, offering drilling, officer training, and military instruction for the boys who attended. By 1894, a former graduate, Warren William Holliday, was made Commandant of Cadets.
  
  On 28 November 1902, school leaders laid the cornerstone of St. James Chapel, designed by architect John Sutcliffe and given in memory of James Blake Howe, John B. Howe's half-brother. It was modeled after the chapel at Magdalene College, Oxford, with ornately carved pews that faced the main aisle. An unsubstantiated tradition holds that a student did much of the carving work in exchange for tuition at the school. The chapel was completed in four stages and included a crypt below for members of the Howe family and future bishops of the diocese. A transept was added in 1909, the Mother Chapel in 1914, and bells in 1915. Stained glass windows with the images of bishops look down at the scene. At the time, most of these figures had blank faces, which were to be painted in when new bishops were elected.
  
  Under the leadership of the Rev. John Heyward McKenzie, who became rector of St. Mark's in 1895, the school grew substantially with an influx of students and the construction of more classroom buildings. McKenzie attempted to hold worship services both at the chapel and at the parish in Lima, but by 1908, the task of maintaining both churches proved impossible. The older church was decommissioned, and all services at St. Mark's were moved to the St. James Chapel on the Howe campus. Indeed, the town of Lima would change its name to Howe in 1910 at the insistence of a railroad line because of confusion with Lima, Ohio. McKenzie died in office in 1920 and was praised as a far-sighted leader.
  
  Howe School continued to grow under McKenzie's successors. The Rev. Charles Herbert Young headed the school from 1920 to 1933. The Rev. Robert J. Murphy arrived in 1934 and held many leadership positions in the diocese. During his tenure in 1955, the chapel was resurfaced with Indiana limestone to bring it into harmony with other campus buildings. In 1960, All Saints Chapel, a separate facility, was constructed on the Howe campus for use by its cadets. Murphy retired in 1968, and several priests followed, including Theodore Sirotko, Richard Curtis, George Minnix, and Philip Morgan.
  
  Howe Military School flourished for more than a century. The bishop of the Diocese of Northern Indiana served on its board of directors, and the two entities enjoyed a close relationship. However, by the twenty-first century, declining enrollments forced the school to curtail many of its operations. The relationship between the school and the diocese became strained and ended in 2016. Three years later in 2019, the school officially closed its doors. St. Mark's continued to hold services at St. James Chapel on the Howe School campus until 2016. Afterward, the parish moved to a building the parish owned at 709 Third Street in Howe. Built in the 1940s, it had been used formerly as its parish hall. It was remodeled to include both worship and hall space. In its sanctuary, the parish uses the original altar of St. Mark's that had formerly been stored in the crypt of St. James.
  
  Sources:
  Anne Wade Haglind, A History of St. Mark's Parish, Howe, Indiana (undated typescript).
  
  Raymond R. Kelly, Here's Howe: The First 100 years. (Indianapolis: Raymond R. Kelly, 1984).
  
  Karen Yoder, Historic Howe: The Philomaths of Howe, Indiana (Kearney, Nebraska: Morris Publishing, 2014).
  
  St. Mark's, Howe, Marriages, 1896-1912, typescript
  
  Parish Register vol. 1, 1852-1885
  Parish Register vol. 2, 1885-1894 (missing)
  Parish Register vol. 3, 1895-1913
  Parish Register vol. 4, Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages, Burials, 1895-1912 (duplicate register in later handwriting)
  Parish Register vol. 5, 1913-1956
  Parish Register vol. 6, 1956-1976
  Parish Register vol. 7, 1976-1986
  Parish Register vol. 8, 1986-2021
  
  Alternate digital link to all the above records
  Clergy:
  
  John Oliver Barton, 1851-1853
  Albert Bingham, 1853-1854
  Henry Cook Stowell, 1855
  Albert Bingham, 1856-1858
  William Henry Stoy, 1858-1859
  Henry M. Thompson, 1859-1867
  Wellington Forgus, 1868-1874
  Samuel Campbell Montgomery Orpen, 1876-1885
  Charles Nelson Spalding, 1885-1895
  John Heyward McKenzie, 1895-1920
  Charles Herbert Young, 1920-1933
  Kenneth Owen Crosby, 1933-1934
  Robert James Murphy, 1934-1968
  Theodore Francis Sirotko, 1968-1970
  Richard Arthur Curtis, 1971-1974
  George Myers Minnix, 1974-1986
  Philip Morgan, 1986-2000
  David Yaw, 2000-2010
  Michael Thomas Fulk, 2010-2015
  Rachel N. Evans, 2016
  Beverly Collinsworth, 2017-2018
  Paul Wheatley, 2019-2021
  David Evans (supply), 2022-
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
• 1 2020-08-12T12:47:46-07:00 Rev. William Henry Stoy 1 plain 2020-08-12T12:47:46-07:00 The Rev. William H. Stoy was born in Hamilton, Ohio, 29 April 1833, the son of Henry William and Isiphena (Bemiss) Stoy. He graduated from Nashotah House seminary in 1859 and was ordained to the priesthood the following year by Bishop Upfold of Indiana. His first assignment was as vicar of St. John's Bristol, where he served from 1858 to 1859, also serving nearby Lima. In 1859 he went to Michigan City, where he remained until 1860, becoming a founder and organizer of St. James in Goshen. He then moved west, serving at Delafield, Wisconsin, 1860-1863; Amora, Nevada, 1863-1864; Marysville, California, 1864-1865; New Almaden, California, 1865-1866, Portland, Oregon, 1866-1871; Deer Lodge, Montana, 1871-1872; Logan, Utah, , 1872-1878; Marysville, California, 1878-1880; and San Rafael, California, 1880-1892. He died there on 28 February 1906.