Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana Archives

St. Luke's Mission, Hartford City (defunct)

Attempts to organize a mission in Hartford City began in 1900, when Archdeacon Torrence reported that 50 people attended a service, of which four were batpized and 28 later confirmed. The unorganized mission languished in 1902 after the removal of fifteen communicants. Services stopped as of January 1903, a problem attributed to the lack of trolley service between Hartford City, Montpelier, and Bluffton.

In November 1915, Bishop White made a second attempt to restart the mission, now known as St. Luke's, sending the Rev. Edgar Pancoast to be its vicar. Most of the early attendants were disaffected members that had withdrawn from the Presbyterian Church. The congregation met in a rented hall, where an altar was set up, and in a few years there were 37 communicants. Following Pancoast's departure in 1919, services were held monthly by a group of missionary priests, but they stopped in 1922. Roy M. Goodwin, an unordained lay reader, conducted services for two months in 1927. In 1930, Archdeacon Joseph Gubbins wrote, "The enthusiasm of the first few years seemed too good to last. It didn't." Gubbins attempted to restart services by holding monthly services, while the Rev. George Jewell of Huntington and Kokomo also visited. The Rev. William Sheridan of Gas City visited in 1944, while the Rev. Gerald H. Lewis, also of Gas City, baptized several children between 1950 and 1953. The mission folded soon after, however, and the parish register was for many years at St. Paul's, Gas City, before being turned into the diocesan archives.

Parish register, 1915-1953

Clergy:

Edgar Thomson Pancoast, 1915-1919
James Augustus Baynton, 1915-1917
William Wesley Daup, 1919-1920
Elton Hoyt, 1920
George John Sturgis, 1920-1921
Howard Russell White, archdeacon, 1921-1927
Joseph William Gubbins, 1928-1930
George Arthur Peters Jewell, 1930-1931
Henry Lewis Ewan (occasional supply), 1931-1939
Sydney Hugh Croft, 1939-1942
Samuel Hanna Norman Elliott, 1942-1943
William C. R. Sheridan (occasional supply), 1944-1947
Gerald H. Lewis (occasional supply), 1947-1953

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