xt7gms3k0z8c https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7gms3k0z8c/data/mets.xml Illinois Historical Records Survey United States. Work Projects Administration. Division of Community Service Programs. Illinois. Governor. Illinois Illinois Historical Records Survey United States. Work Projects Administration. Division of Community Service Programs. Illinois. Governor. 1942 xii, 165 p.: maps 28 cm. UK holds archival copy for ASERL Collaborative Federal Depository Library Program libraries and the Federal Information Preservation Network. Call Number FW 4.14:Il 6c/3 books English Chicago. Ill.: Illinois Historical Records Survey : Illinois Public Records Project This digital resource may be freely searched and displayed in accordance with U. S. copyright laws. Illinois Works Progress Administration Publications Archives--Illinois Cumberland Presbyterian church in Illinois Church buildings--Illinois Registers of births, etc Illinois Illinois--Statistics, Vital Inventory of the Church Archives of Illinois. Cumberland Presbyterian church, 1942 text Inventory of the Church Archives of Illinois. Cumberland Presbyterian church, 1942 1942 1942 2020 true xt7gms3k0z8c section xt7gms3k0z8c ERSITV OF KENT

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if? INVENTORY OF THE CHURCH ARCHIVES
I OF ILLINOIS

CUMBERLAND PREﬁYTHUAN

CHURCH

To bring together the records of the pest
and house them in buildings where they will be
preserved for the use of men living in the future,

a nation must believe in three things. It must
believe in the past. It must believe in the future.
It must, above all, believe in the capacity of its
people so to learn from the past that they can gain
in judgment for the creation of the future.

— Franklin Delano Roosevelt

INVENTORY OF THE CHURCH ARCHIVES

OF ILLINOIS

CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Prepared by

Illinois Historical Records Survey
Division of community service programs
WOrk Projects Administration

Sponsored by

The Governor of Illinois

Chicago, Illinois
Illinois Historical Records Survey
Illinois Public Records Project
beruary 1942

Historical Records Survey Projects

Sargent B. Child, National Director
Thomas R. Hall, State Director

Research and Records Section

Harvey E. Beoknell, National Director
Willard N. Hogan, Regional Supervisor
Frank J. Morris, State Chief

Division of Community Service Program

Florence Kerr, Assistant Commissioner
Mary Gillette Noon, Chief Regional Supervisor
Evelyn S. Byron, State Director

WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION

Howard 0. Hunter, Commissioner
George Field, Regional Director
Charles P. Casey, State Administrator

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FOREWORD

With the assistance of the Historical Records Survey of the
work Projects Administration, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church
in Illinois enjoys the opportunity of having an accurate record
made of its presbyterial and individual church history. Here,in-
cluded in one volume, is a history of the Church in Illinois and
data on individual churches. The latter items include origin, first
services, first minister, first building , subsequent pastors,
buildings, current church structure and architecture.

The understanding and cooperation of the ministers of the Pres—
byteries have been essential, of course, for the completion of this
significant work. I know that they have been glad to help.

L. M. Drinkall
Stated Clerk of Illinois Synod
Cumberland Presbyterian Church

PREFACE

This inventory of the records of the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church in Illinois is the fourth publication of the Illinois Historical
Records Survey in the field of church archives. As such it is part of
a nationawide series being compiled by Historical Records Survey through-
out the country. In Illinois the program was started in March 1941.
The ultimate goal is to survey the records of more than 8,000 churches
in the state belonging to 138 denominations and to publish the data ob-
tained in the form of an inventory for each denomination or unit thereof.

The inventories are principally designed to provide the clergy,
church officers, religious organizations, public officials, historians,
social scientists, genealogists,-and the general public with a system-
ized listing of ecclesiastical archives for denominational depositories
and for both active and defunct churches. Whereever possible, each
church entry notes essential historical facts on the founding, develop-
ment, and buildings of the church and the names of the first settled
and current pastors. Record listings give the title, inclusive dates,
description, and location of each record. In addition, each inventory
contains a fully documented historical sketch of the denomination in
the ecclesiastical area and_a section on the structure and organization
of the denomination. Illustrative maps, charts, and tables, a biblio»
graphy, and a place-name and subject index also are included.

While it is hoped that the utilization of these inventories will
result in a keener appreciation of the historical value of church records
and lead to greater efforts for their preservation, the present national
' emergency has served to point out another more immediate use to which
they may be put. Many persons who are required to furnish birth certifi-
cates for employment or other purposes, find that their births are not
registered. They are compelled to turn to baptismal records for the
information necessary to the securing of a certificate. The recognition
of church recordation of births is part of the national plan for uniform
legislation in all statbs on delayed registration of births; with the
movement now well under way, these inventories can prove helpful in as-
certaining the accessibility of such records. A Guide to Church Vital
Statistics Records in Illinois has already been compiled‘for the more
than 2,000 Illinois—churches surveyed to date, and is now in the process
of publication. This preliminary edition will be followed by other
volumes as the records of additional churches are surveyed.

Other activities of the Survey in public archives are the publica-
tion of inventories of Federal, state, and municipal records. Guides
to manuscript depositories and collections, and calendars of certain
selected manuscript collections are being produced by the manuscripts
section of the Archives Division. A separate diviSion of the Survey

-Vii-

- viii -

is engaged in the production of checklists of early American imprints.
(For lists of Illinois publications, see p. 165—165.)

This extensive program had its inception in 1935 when a nation-
wide Historical Reoords Survey was organized as part of the Works
Progress Administration, now the Work Projects Administration. Under
the administration of the Division of Professional and Service Projects,
the program was technically supervised by Dr. Luther H. Evans until
March 1940, when he was succeeded as National Director by Sargent 3.
Child. Since February 1941, the Survey in this state has been part
of the Illinois Public Records Project. The present official sponsor
is the Honorable Dwight H. Green, Governor of Illinois.

The inventory was prepared for publication by the church archives
section under the direction of Paul M. Reid, Church Editor. Margaret
Smith wrote the historical sketch. The individual church entries were
compiled by Ida Beatty, Daisy Foxx, and Carl Iverson. Harry Watts drew
the maps and charts. Collation was supervised by Edward J. McDonough,
Format Editor. Stenciling and mimeographing were done under the direc-
tion of Ethel Welzant. The field survey was accomplished under the
supervision of Kenneth C. Blood, Victor C. Karcher, J. J. McMurray, and
David D. McGraw.

Grateful acknowledgement for their cooperation is made to all
pastors and officials of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Illinois.
Special appreciation is accorded to Rev. L. M. Drinkall, Stated Clerk of
Illinois Synod, for his letter which forms the Foreword to this volume
and to the Stated Clerks of the Presbyteries.

The inventory of the records of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church
in Illinois will be available for distribution to church depositories,
government officers, libraries, schools, and other accredited institu-
tions. Requests for information concerning this and other publications
of the Illinois Historical Records Survey should be addressed to the
State Director, 1400 West washington Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois. 5

THDMAS R. HALL
State Director
- Historical Records Survey
February 10, 1942 of Illinois

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Forewerd

Preface

Explanatory Notes and Abbreviations
Historical Sketch

Denominational Divisions

Churches

Bibliography

County and Town Index of Active Churches
Subject Index

List of Publications - Illinois Historical
Records Survey

_j_x..

53
65
143
145
147

163

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND ABBREVIATIONS

Church entries are arranged chronologically by date of origin,
whether the church is active, transferred, dissolved, or defunct.

The title line of the church entry gives the official name of the
church, the date it was organized, the date it ceased to function if
transferred, dissolved, or defunct, the street or rural address, the
town and the county, wherever this information was available..

The date of organization refers to the formal establishment of the
church rather than to the date when services were first held in the
community.

hierever full names, tenures, and educational background of"
clergymen were disclosed to the compilers, they have been incorporated.
This also is true in respect to authors of publications, manuscripts,
cited page numbers, and dates and number of volumes of church organi-
zation records in depositories or in the hands of custodians.

Where no address appears for a clergyman or for other church
officials, the add ess is simply the town given in the title line and
there are no street designations.

All available information concerning the location and history of
dissolved and defunct churches has been included in this inventory.

Records are kept in the church unless otherwise indicated.

Wherever the register notation reads, "included in Session Minutes,"
the register data form a separate section of the volume labeled "Session
Minutes."

Where the notation regarding financial or other records reads,
"incorporated in Session Minutes," this simply means that some, but
not necessarily complete or all, such reports are in these minutes.

Where entries show no records, no information on them was
available; in most cases such records have been lost or destrOyed.

With the exception of four churches, records of all active churches
in the state were inventoried by field workers at the respective churches.
The records of Ewing-McLin, Foster, and Illinois presbyteries have been
surveyed; those of Lincoln—Decatur Presbytery and the Synod of Illinois
have not. These exceptions are due to the transfer of field personnel
to national defense work. In addition, records of the Cumberland presbyh
teries and synods on file at the State Historical Library in Springfield

-xi-

— xii —

and in various depositories of the Presbyterian Church in the USA., situated

in Illinois, have been inventoried.
1832.

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l-HSTORICAL.
SKETC H
CUMBERLAND
PRESBYTERIAN Ci-IURCH

Origin of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church

At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Scotch—Irish
pioneers, pushing over the Appalachian Mountains, had brought the
Presbyterian Church into the wilderness of the Indian country.

This body of doctrine and polity, a product of European culture,

was not well adapted in certain respects to frontier conditions

in the American West. For this reason several schisms occurred

in the trans—Appalachian branch of the Presbyterian Church during
the time when the frontier was dominant in this region. When

the church proved to be too rigid in procedure and creed to deal
adequately with some of the new circumstances encountered in pioneer
life, there was a split and the formation of a new denomination.

It was in this fashion that the Cumberland Presbyterian Church came
into existence.

Ehe Revival of 1800

One of the cornerstones of the Confession of Faith of the
Presbyterian Church in the eighteenth century was "predestinetion",
the idea that "those of mankind predestined to life" had been
”elected to salvation" while others had been "reprobated to eternal
p0rdition."2 Thus the devout among the Presbyterians in the new
land listened to the fatalistic notion that they had been predestined
to be the ”elect” and that their salvation was therefore assured.
But when Rev. James NeCready. a Presbyterian minister who had been
stirred by the leaven of the frentier, began to preach about ”man‘s
free agency, accountability, and total depravity, the necessity of
repentance, faith, regeneration, and sanctification . . ."3 a great
religious awakening took place, as people demanded the means of
salvation.

Ordination pf Ewing and King

The Revival of 1800 which spread rapidly through the Cumberland
country where McGready was working, made demands for ministers which

1. See: William Warren Sweet, Religion on the American Frontier,
11. Egg Presbyterians, chap. 4, extracts—from Minutes of *
Transylvania Presbytery 1786, Minutes of Cumberland Presbytery
1803-1806, Minutes of Synod of Kentucky 1802—1811. Benjamin
Wilburn McDonnold, History 2: the Cumberland Presbyterian Church,
chap. 1—9. John Vent Stevens, The Genesis of the Cumberland Church.

'2. From the Westminister Confession of Faith ns—quoted in McDonnold,
92' .92.?" p' 69'

8. Franceway Ranna Crossitt, EEE Life and Times 2: Finis Ewing, p. 41.

_ 3 _

Historical Sketch

were far greater than the Presbyterian Church was able to supply.

The Book of Discipline required that candidates for ordination as

ministers meet certain educational requirements. These specifications

were not easily met in the virgin forests where institutions of learning
were few, leisure for study hardly existed, and poverty was the prevailing
condition in the newly settled land. ~

In 1802 the Presbytery of Transylvania, embracing a large section of
Tennessee and Kentucky. accepted four men~—Alexander Anderson, Finis Ewing,
Samuel King, and Ephraim McLean-— to whom it gave authority to act as
"ethrters" for the Presbyterian Church. All these men were of rather
mature years with families to be provided with food and protected from the
Indians. They had had no time to acquire a college education. Nevertheless,
a few years later Ewing and King were ordained by Cumberland Presbytery
which in the meantime had been split off from Transylvania Presbyteny.

This action, together with other irregularities in this Presbytery, was
investigated by the Synod of Kentucky which found that not only had the
Presbytery accepted men of inferior academic training for its service,

but that it had required these men to accept the Confession of Faith only
in part. A loophole had been allowed through which the revival ministers
escaped subscribing to the doctrines of the Westminister Confession of
Faith which were repugnant to them. It was the fact that the revivalists
were, in the words of the Minutes of the Synod of Kentucky, "erroneous in
sentiment" that proved to be the most stubborn stumbling block to church
unity, rather than the fact that they were "illiterate." After several years
of controversy the Cumberland ministers were suspended from the church by
the Synod of Kentucky.

Establishment 9f the First Cumberland Presbytery

While these events were taking place, the Revival had been spreading
rapidly. The cleavage between the revival party and the anti~revival
party became wider with each new agitation of the fundamental differences
between them. When the reviVal ministers were barred from participation
in the Presbyterian Church polity they soon found it necessary to establish
an independent presbytery in order to administer the more than sixty con-
gregations which they had organized. Therefore, on February 4, 1810, three
ministers of the revival party-~Revs. Finis Ewing, Samuel King, and Samuel
McAdow——met at the home of the latter in Dickson County, Tennessee, and
constituted the independent Cumberland Presbytery. Although this step
proved to be the first move in the foundation of a nedeenomination,
there was no intention at this time of the part of the revivalists to
break away permanently from the Presbyterian Church.

Establishment of Cumberland Synod

The expansion of the movement was so rapid that by 1813 it Was
necessary to divide the original presbytery into three presbyteries-~
Elk, Logan, and a new and smaller Cumberland Presbytery. A Cumberland‘
Synod was organized in October of the same year in Sumner County,

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Historical Sketch

Tennessee. At this time there were sixteen ordained ministers within its
bounds. The new Synod immediately set to work on the revision of the

'Westminister Confession of Faith, a work that had been in progress since

the organization of the first Cumberland Presbytery. The new creed which
was adopted unanimously by the Synod embodied much of the Westminister
Confession of Faith without change, but such notions as "predestination,"
"reprobation," and "fatality" were omitted or liberalized. The emerging
denomination stood for a modified and humanized Calvinism. It was on
this platform‘ that the new church structure was built. The Cumberland
Presbyterian Church of the United States of America, as the new
denomination came to be Called, eventually comprised, at the height of
its strength in 1906. almost 3,000 churches populating an area stretching
from Texas to Michigan, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Planting the Cumberland Church in Illinois

Even before the church had become a fully independent denomination
it had begun to spread into the adjoining states. The seed of the new
church had sprouted in Dickson County, Tennessee, in Eebruary 1810.
The nearby Tennessee and Cumberland rivers were highways of travel into
Illinois, and a few years after the founding of the new sect its mem-
bers had begun to penetrate the wilderness of the Illinois Territory.
These pioneer Cumberland Presbyterians left few written records.

Dr. J. B. Logan writing the history of the Illinois branch of the
church in 1878. deplored the scarcity of reliable information about
the spread of the movement in the early days. The best accounts he
could obtain were from letters and papers written half a century after
the occurrence of the events described.

The First Cumberland Presbyterians in Illinois

Logan believes that the Tagert family, the first Cumberland Pres-
byterian family to settle in Illinois, arrived in 1813. Thié family W~3
followed by other families, both Presbyterian and Cumberland Presbyterian.
and soon a colony developed on the Illinois side of the Ohio and Wabash
rivers. In 1815 an itinerant Cumberland Presbyterian minister, John
Barnett from Tennessee, visited the settlers around Golconda in
Gallatin (now Pope) County and preached what was probably the first
Cumberland Presbyterian sermon in the state.4 He Was followed by

l. A further revision of the Cumberland Confession of Faith was made
in 1882.
2. J. B. Logan, History of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Illinois.
Logan, 3p. cit., p. 13,16.
Logan, 2p, cit., p. 14,17.

«>0:

I Historical Sketch

missionaries who came from the Cumberland country to work among the
settlers in the river counties. In 1819 the Western Missionary Board
of Kentucky sent Rev. David Wilson McLin to "ride and preach" in the
new state. Like the majority of the people who populated Illinois in
this period McLin had been born in one of the seaboard states of the
south, and his parents were of Scotch—Irish descent. He had come to
Tennessee and had been converted in the Revival of 1800. The new inde—
pendent Presbytery of Cumberland had ordained him in 1814, after which
he had been active in the work of the new denomination in Tennessee and
Kentucky until he came to Illinois in the fall of 1811. There he settled
near Seven Mile Prairie in White County where a colony of southerners
had made their homes.1 ‘

Hopewell: The First Cumberland Church in Illinois

When Rev. McLin arrived in the southeastern corner of Illinois a
Presbyterian church had already been established in White County near
what is now Sacramento by Rev. James McGready. Sharon Church, organized
1; in 1816, was the first Presbyterian church in the state.2 A few years
I after the founding of Sharon Church McGready died, and a part of the

congregation banded together under McLin and on June 18, 1819 organized
a Cumberland Presbyterian church-~the first church of this denomination
in the state.3 The name of this church appeared for the first time in
the Minutes of the fall 1819 meeting of Logan Presbytery. This record
shows that Seven Mile Prairie congregation, as it was then called, had
a representative at this meeting. Later the name of the church was
changed to Hopewell, and in 1868 the name was again changed to Enfield.
It was here that many of the fathers of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church
in Illinois got their training.’ One of the m0st outstanding men to be
ordained at the Hopewell Church was Joel Knight, who later wrote some
historical sketches of the pioneer days of the Cumberland Church in
Illinois.

According to the account given by Knight,5 McLin and the members of
the Hopewell congregation built a log meetinghouse shortly after the

: ~ 1. See: McDonnold, op. £13., p. 92. Letter from M. L. McLin, Sherman,

' Texas (undated). Ms. from Rev. L. M. Miller, Enfield, Illinois (undated)
Letter from Rev. J. T. Borah, Rienze, Mississippi (undated), in 108”n,
pp. 913., p. 146,148,150.

2. See: Inventory of Church Archives of Illinois, Cairo Prenbrt“f‘. D. 6.7
Hereinafter cited as Cairo Presbyte_.. mu”

3. Augustus Theodore Norton, History of the Presbyterian Church in the
State of Illinois, p. 19. _— _—

4. McDonnold, 3p. git., p. 165.

5. Logan, 2p. £13., p. 19.

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Historical Sketch

organization of the church in 1819. Information from another source1

_ indicates that this first log building was erected in 1823 a mile south

of Enfi-eld. Thi.s church joined the Presbyterian Church in the United
States of America in the 190? reun10n. and5 it‘ is active as a Presby—
terian USA church today. . -

Bear Creek Church :5: :

While the Cumberland Church was developing iln White County nd other
counties in the southeastern part of the- state,_tnc new denomination had
spread to southwestern Illinois. This part of the state had budn a focus
of population since 1700. The ”American Bottoms, " a strip the Miss—
issippi flood plains from the bluffs of Alton south, oi‘fered rich farming
lands to the ploneers.“ It W8S to this region that Rev. Green Prior Rice
came, probably as early as 1815. By i1817-he had opened a small store an<
established his home at Hill’s Fort, latrer. t.o become Greenville. He was
therefore the first Cumberland _Présbyterian minister to settle in the
state, having preceded Rev. McLin by at least a year. Rev. Rice, too,
had come from the old Cumberland Countnyif He had been a candidate under
the care of the first Cumberland presbytery, which was also probably
the presbytery to ordain him. In september 1817, Rice held a camp meeting
near the bottom lands around present—day‘Edwardsville, in Madison County.
Another Cumberland Presbyterian minister, Rev. William Barnett, the brether
of John Barnett, was sent from Kentucky'to take part in the meeting.

Later, many of the settlers around Edwardsville moved eastward to the
timbered country of the newly organized Bond County. Here in June 1819,
a second camp meeting was held by Rev. Rice assisted by two other Cumb-
erland Presbyterians, Robert D. Morrow and John Carnahan. At this time it
was decided to meet later in the fall of that same year, 1819, for the
purpose of organizing a church. Accordingly, the meeting took place at
the home of William Robinson abbut three miles north of the present city
of Greenville. It was here that the second Cumberland church, callgd
the Bear Creek Society, was organized sometime in the fall of 1819.
Three families made up the original membership of six peeple. They were
the Paisleys, Berrys, and Youngs. By 1820 more families had joined the
congregation, and a log church was built. .Plans were made at this time
to establish a presbytery here. Two years later the order came t‘11rou_
from the Cumberland Synod for the organization of the first Cn113rland
Presbyterian presbytery in the state.

1. See entry 7

2. bee: McDonnold, _p, J.,.p. 92; Logan, op. cit. , p. 14; Olive Kaune,
one Hundred Twenty Years of Donnellson Presbyterian Church History,
1819 1__9___39, p. 31

3. See: Logan, op. cit. , p. 23, 24 ,88,89; Kaune, op. cit., p. 3,4,13,14.

Historical Sketch

Although Rev. Rice returned to the south about 1828 and dropped out
of the affairs of the Illinois church, the congregation he helped to
establish continued to grow, exercising considerable influence on the
young denomination. It Was a mother church from which stemmed many off-
spring. The name of the Bear Creek Church was changed to Donnellson in
1882, and this church joined the Presbyterian Church USA in the reunion of
1907. It is an active church today.

Village Church1

In the southeast Rev. McLin continued his organizing activities.
Three months after the Hopewell Church had been set up he establiéhed
Village Church on September 22, 1819, the third Cumberland church in
Illinois. It was located about ten miles south~southeast of Enfield in
White County. Its original membership consisted of four families totaling
eleven people. Village Church, unlike the other two pioneer Cumberland
churches, did not join the Presbyterian Church in the 1907 reunion. ‘It
has carried on as a Cumberland church since its foundation. and it, too,
is an active church today.

Status 3: the Cumberland Denomination in 1820

At the beginning of the year 1820, ten years after the Cumberland
secession, the new sect-~for it was not yet a fully established
denomination—~had found a foothold in the Prairie State. It had three
congregations each possessing a log house of worship. The total number
of communicants amounted to about thirty people.

The Church in Illinois was administered in 1880 by McGee Presbytery
which had jurisdiction of the western half of the state, and by Anderson
Presbytery which controlled the eastern half.2 These two presbyteries were
members of the Cumberland Synod.‘ Rev. Rice of Bear Creek Church attended
McGee Presbytery while Rev. McLin of the Hopewell and Village congregations
was a member of the Anderson Presbytery.

Growth 2: the Early Church
After these beginnings the Cumberland Church gained rapidly in churches

and membership. McLin established two more churches in White County and
one in Gallatin County in the next two years. The churches in White County

l. The data about Village Church is taken largely from material collected
by the Historical Records Survey. It is barely mentioned in Logan.
and not at all in McDonnold.

2. ‘§§§ Map l. p. 9.

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(Map 1)

“ 10 _
- Historical Sketch

were Sharon Church, established in November 1821, Near Burnt Prairie—~
active today as Burnt Prairie Cumberland Presbyterian Church—~and Union .
Ridge Church established in 1822 near Norris City. This church is likewise
alive today, but it is a Presbyterian church, having joined the mother
denomination in 1906. The church in Gallatin County was probably the New
Salem Church, of which no records are aVailable.

In these years the Cumberland Church was spreading into other
parts of Illinois. A church nae established at Sugar Creek in Pope
County as a result of a camp meeting held by Revs. John Barnett, Aaron
Shelby and James Johnson in September 1821. This church seems to
have passed out of existence, and no records of it have been found.

A church was established as fa north as Menard County in 1822.

This was the Rock Creek Church which was organized by Rev. John
McCutchen Berry. Rev. Berry.3 like the other Cumberland ministers,

had followed the path of emigration west and then north into Illinois.

He had been born in Virginia and had moved to Tennessee where he had

come in contact with the Cumberland Presbyterian movement. After an
interval during which he served under Andrew Jackson and fought in

the Battle of New Orleans,4 he moved to Indiana where he was ordained

in 1822. Coming to Illinois in the same year, he made his home in

what was then called the Sangamon country, a region just being opened

up for settlement. Five weeks after his arrival he held a camp meeting
out of which the Rock Creek congregation arose on November 22. 1822.

This church met in tents and the homes of the members until 1842 when

the first church building was erected. Abraham Lincoln, who came to
this part of the country in 1831 and was engaged for several years in
surveying the land in this neighborhood, visited the Rock Creek Church

on one occasion but did not become a member. It was the son of Rev._Berry
with whom Lincoln formed a partnership to run the Lincoln~Berry store

at New Salem. The 300k Creek Church became a Presbyterian church in 1906
and is still alive today.

Summary

Before the establishment of the first presbytery in the state in
1823. there were four ordained Cumberland ministers residing in Illinois,
at least eight organized congregations, and the number of church members

1. Logan, pp. 313.. p. 17.
2. See Alice Keach Bone, Rock Creek: AIRetrospect of One Hundred E 135~
a. See Logan, 239.93., p. 152 g. "
4. "It was in this battle, exposed to instant death, with med 3 lling
all around him, that Mr. Berry promised God, if spared to r turn
home, he would serve him to the best of his ability . . . ." Logan. 2
p. 153. ‘
5. harry E. Pratt, Lincoln, 1809~1839, I, xxix,10,30,57; Bone, _p. 313.,
p. 42. “'

6. SE? Map 2, p. 11.

1 , ~11~

ketch

ie——

Inion
likewise

bher

3110 New

iron

ﬁé Rock Creek, 1822

._Berry
re
n 1906

%§ Bear Creek, 1819

GUI-.mFRLAHD CHURCHES 1
inois, ‘ BEFORE THE ESTABLISHIENT
embers 15

OF TEE FIRST 11333131112111

IN 1823

Shiloh, 1821 1;

Hopewell, 1819 a?
Village, 1819 -%
Union Ridge, 1822 *§

NeW'Saﬂem, an 1835 #

VS (Map 2)
Sugar Creek $. r

1821

ing

«121‘ - §
\ Historical Sketch

.may be estimated at somewhere around one hundred. Of the eight churches

organized prior to the founding of the Presbytery of Illinois, six are
operating at the present time~~two as Cumberland churches, and feur as‘
Presbyterian USA churches. Two of theum “1y churches have disappeared
from the records. They may be in existence today under new names or
they may have become extinct. 3

Organization of Presbyteries and Synods

The First Presbytery: Illinois Presbyteryl

Rev. Rice of the Bear Creek Church had in 1820 petitioned the
Cumberland Synod for authority to organize a new presbytery in this region.
In the fall of 1822 the Synod granted this request, directing that Rev. Rice
be the Moderator and that the Presbytery cf Illinois hold its first meet-
ing in-the spring of 1823. By this time, however, Rice had returned to
the south. A camp meeting preceded the organization of the presbytery in
order to attract a large number of people to the new denomination.

‘The meeting in this wild country in the Spring of the year was

a g