One Township's Yesterdays Chapter LI  

The Methodist Church

The Methodists were in evidence in this region. from the beginning of the white settlements. Prior to the establishment of regular congregations and the building of churches, the work of the Methodist faith was carried on under the authority of a mission.

The Reverend WARREN TAYLOR Taylor, an itinerant of the Wesleyan persuasion, attempted, around 1860, to place upon record such reliable information as he was able to gather at that time regarding the introduction and progress of religion in Marshall County, up to the time he wrote. "Ministers of the Gospel of different denominations," he says, "appear to have preached to our earliest settlers almost immediately after the latter located themselves in the county. These religious meetings, however, at the first, were like angels' visits, few and far between. In 1836, Rev. STEPHEN MARSTERS was, by the Indiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, appointed to a mission, which embraced the counties of Marshall, Fulton, and Kosciusko.

"In Marshall County he had four appointments, one at the house of STEPHEN FARNSWORTH, about six miles northwest of Plymouth, one at the house of GEORGE VINNEDGE in North Township, one at the house of SIDNEY WILLIAMS where Argos now stands, and one at his own residence, which was then on the Michigan road, about one mile north from the Fulton County line. In Fulton County he had four appointments, and in Kosciusko two. During the year he organized societies at the most or all of these appointments, except at GEORGE VINNNEDGE's [VINNEDGE’s] where a society had been previously organized by a minister from St. Joseph County.

"Mr. MARSTERS was succeeded in the circuit, or mission, by Rev. WILLIAM FRALEY." Reverend TAYLOR was unacquainted with Reverend FRALEY's talents or labors, so made no comment.

The Reverend THOMAS OWENS succeeded Reverend FRALEY, and probably commenced laboring on his work in the fall of 1838. Reverend OWENS was of pleasing demeanor, possessing fine natural abilities, and gave promise of rising to eminence as a minister of the Gospel, both in talents and usefulness. But his career was short. Being of weak constitution, he went into a decline, which was accelerated by the hardships of an itinerant life, and he died two or three years after closing his labors on this circuit. He was succeeded by the Reverend BOROUGHS WESTLAKE.

In Plymouth, the Methodist Congregation was organized in the year 1836, at a time when some of the first permanent settlements were made in the Maxinkuckee region. In the beginning, at Plymouth, there was a small membership, but this increased apace as the mid-county region grew in population.

The Congregation at Maxinkuckee village was meeting in the year 1854 and evidently had been organized some time prior to that. The Marmont Congregation is heard of as active in the year 1863, but may have had its inception at an earlier time.

It is of interest that the first resident minister in the county, though not a Methodist, was a resident of Union Township. He was a Baptist by the name of WILLIAM THOMPSON, and he lived on a farm near the present village of Culver, in 1856.

In 1867, the people of the Marmont community were mostly Methodists and Baptists, worshiping alternately in the old school house. The Methodist Church edifice in Marmont was built in 1868. The church was rebuilt in 1898-99.

Several residents recall incidents and circumstances in connection with the building of the first church. Among these is EZRA HIBRAY of Maxinkuckee, who says that the church at Marmont was originally of frame construction, and was painted white. "The lumber for the church," he adds, "was bought right down in the hollow here, at Maxinkuckee, and was rafted across the lake." That lumber was milled at Fizzletown, or what is now called Maxinkuckee. There used to be two saw-mills here. The Methodist church across the lake was built under BEALL I remember right." Rev. B. H. BEALL was pastor at Marmont in '68.

It is a tradition in the MEDBOURN family that the siding of the original Methodist Church edifice in Marmont was all made out of one poplar tree, which came from the THOMAS MEDBOURN property.

So it was that the Methodist services were first held in the school house in the Marmont community. Then, for many years the wooden church structure served the congregation faithfully and well as a meeting house. Finally, the need of a more commodious and pretentious edifice was felt, and, accordingly, the present brick building of the Methodist Episcopal denomination was erected in the year 1898, at a cost of five thousand dollars, on the original church site at the southwest corner of Main and Washington Streets.

In outward appearance, the present church has changed but slightly since its erection. The faces of the clock in the tower are gone now. They were there, doing duty at the beginning of the century. Today only the blank spaces they used to occupy mutely bear witness to the former existence of the big timepiece, the "old town clock." Also, in those days, surmounting the tower was a weathervane supported by an ornamental device of wrought iron. At the street corner stood an old fashioned lamp-post.

In 1905 the church was composed of about one hundred members and had a flourishing Sunday School, with an average attendance of seventy-five pupils. The Epworth League and the Junior League had about forty members apiece. The Ladies' Aid Society, "fund raisers" for the church, then was headed by Mrs. CALLIE MEDBOURN as president. Mrs. O. A. REA, wife of the doctor, was secretary, and Mrs. WILLIAM PORTER, treasurer. Rev. WAYNE NICELY, a recent appointee of the Northwest Indiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a graduate of DePauw University, was the pastor. Reverend NICELY had succeeded Rev. GEORGE RANSOM STREETER as resident pastor. Reverend STREETER went to Wheeler. Ind., in 1905. FRANK C. BAKER was superintendent of the Sunday School and president of the Epworth League.

An historical record of the pastors of the Culver and Poplar Grove churches was compiled by Rev. VORIS B. SERBIES from the conference minutes in the possession of the Conference Historical Society. This was several years ago. The record, brought down to date, runs as follows:

Methodist Episcopal Pastors Maxinkuckee

1854--LEANDER CARSOM 1855--ABRAM UTTER 1856-57--JACOB MUSSER 1858--JOHN T. JONES, CHARLES SMITH 1859-60--ROBERT H. CALVERT 1861--JOHN H. CISSEL       (one of the great men of the early church) 1862--MOSES WOOD. Marmont 1863-64--A. BYERS supply 1865--J. M. DRESSLER 1866--LEVI MORRE supply 1867--WILLIAM MAHIN supply 1868--B. H. BEALI [BEALL]

1869--J. B. ADDELL 1870--Harrison 1871--S. C. PLATTS (3 months)       and SAM PLANTS 1872--R. BEEBEE supply 1873--MILES H. WOOD 1874-75--R. B. BEATTY 1876--JEPTHA BOUICOUNT 1877--A. J. CLIFTON 1878--HENRY P. VENCILL 1879--W. H. MEHAFFIE 1880--FRANCIS COX. 1881-82--W. H. MEHAFFIE 1883-84--W. R. NOBES supply.

Rochester circuit

1885--W. R. NOBES supply 1886--J. W. LODER Marmont 1887--JOHN EEMRY supply 1888-89--THOMAS BIRCH supply 1890-91--R. M. HUTCHINS supply 1892--H. M. CANNON 1893--HENRY ROSS 1894--R. W. BURTON supply 1895-96--F. G. HOWARD supplyCulver 1897--F. G. HOWARD 1895-99--F. O. FRALEY 1900-01--F. C. TAYLOR

1902-1904--G. R. STREETER 1905-1907--W. M. NICELY 1905-09--OWEN WRIGHT 1910--W. B. MORGAN 1911-12--W. C. HARRIS 1913-1916--J. F. KENRICH 1917-18--W. W. ClOUSE 1919-20--E. M. KUONEN 1921-22--O. L. ChIVINGTON 1923-1931 --VORIS B. SERVIES 1931-1933--WILLIAM B. WARRINER 1933-1935--Richard PENGILLY

Quite a number of these pastors are recalled by people who have long been residents in this township. EZRA HIBRAY of Maxinkuckee says he remembers BEALL, of '68, and had heard, he is sure, of CALVERT and DRESSLER of earlier dates.

A list of Methodist preachers. dating back to long ago, is generally pretentious, as in the local case. In early days, as ALLAN HARDING once remarked, "Methodist ministers moved so often that a list of their children's birthplaces looked like a railroad time-table."

It was thought that the Rev. Sam. Plants of 1871 might have been the eminent SAMUEL PLANTZ of Lawrence College at Appleton, Wisconsin. The writer communicated in March, 1934, with Dr. Milton C. TOWNER, assistant to the president of Lawrence College, inquiring if SAMUEL PLANTZ, the Methodist preacher who was president there for many years, might possibly have been a member of the Northwest Indiana Conference and was ever located in the Marmont (now Culver) charge. The reply stated that "according to the Lawrence College Alumni Record SAMUEL PLANTZ was born June 13, 1859, and was educated at Milton College, Lawrence University, School of Theology, Boston University between the years 1880 and 1883." The opinion was that "this together with the difference in the spelling of the names would seem to indicate that President PLANTZ of Lawrence College was not the Reverend PLANTS of Marmont."

Closely affiliated with the Methodist Church in Marmont, and later in Culver, were JOHN and BETSY MATTHEW, and no history of the church would be complete without mention of this attachment. JOHN MATTHEW, a native of England, who died in Culver, January 15, 1916, settled in Marmont around 1886. The family's first residence was in the old Methodist parsonage. The entire MATTHEW family became members of the M. E. Church when the original frame building stood on the present location. Mr. MATTHEW and his wife were for many years known as Uncle John and Aunt Betsy. They took a great interest in the church and were ever intimately associated with its affairs and progress. JOHN MATTHEW died in 1916, Betsy in 1926, just ten years later, and they were buried side by side in the Culver Cemetery.