MyIndianaHome.net

The Religious Landscape in Southern Indiana
in the Nineteenth Century

Many researchers want to know what denomination their ancestors were affiliated with. But the religious landscape has changed over the years as denominations merge, fold, or begin. This thumbnail sketch is designed to help researchers understand which denominations were active in southern Indiana in the nineteenth century, and whether these denominations are still active. It also covers “nicknames” that were not the official names of denominations, but were usually applied by opponents. In some cases, denominations that had churches in the area in the 1800s, are no longer represented with local bodies, even though the denominations themselves are still active. There are certainly many more denominations that existed in the 1800s. But I have listed only those known to be present in Switzerland and Jefferson Counties. I have also not tried to cover twentieth century denominations, which involve newer groups such as the Assembly of God or Holiness Churches.

African Methodist Episcopal. The African Methodist Episcopal was founded in 1816 by Richard Allen (1760-1831), an emancipated slave, and was an organization for blacks. Most black churches that were regular Methodist Episcopal bodies became A.M.E. churches, which was apparently more aggressively anti-slavery than the regular Methodist Church.

Associate Presbyterian Church. This group was founded by the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine in 1733. Also known as the Seceder Church, the Associates Presbyterians severed ties with the Church of Scotland in protest against its doctrinal laxity. Other accounts say the issue was largely the right of local congregations to select ministers. Many of these congregations became part of the United Presbyterian Church in 1858, but some churches remained separate. The modern group is known as the Associated Reformed Presbyterian Church. Known Associate churches in the nineteenth century include Caledonia (Jefferson/Switzerland County), Bethel (near Hanover), and an Associate congregation in Madison.

Campbellites. A name applied to the followers of Alexander Campbell (1788-1866) Campbell was born in Scotland and died in Bethany, West Va. The name is often applied to early converts to the movement that became known as the Disciples of Christ. He and his father Thomas organized the Brush Run Church.

Christian Church. (See Disciples of Christ).

Covenanters. The term Convenanters is more of a political phrase, than religious, in some ways, but initially described those who supported the Scottish Covenant of 1638 which was a protest against ecclesiastical innovations in the Church of Scotland. The group became anti-royal and anti-episcopal. The opening page of the Caledonia Presbyterian Church has the term “Covenanters” in parentheses under the words, Associate Presbyterian Church, itself a dissident branch of Presbyterians. (See Associate Presbyterian Church in this article)

Disciples of Christ. This group is most commonly known as the Christian Church, and in the early nineteenth century was also referred to as Campbellites. The group developed in 1832 from the Campbellites, who called themselves the Disciples of Christ, and the followers of Barton Stone, who called themselves Christians. Many early churches in Indiana were formed from congregations that had been affiliated with other congregations. The Manville Christian Church grew out of the Milton Baptist Church, the Liberty Christian Church was previously a New Light body while the Salem Christian Church (since the 1990s known as the Cross Plains Church of Christ) congregation had been Separate Baptist.

Episcopal. The Episcopal Church, which is the Anglican Church in America, is represented only a single church in Madison. The Episcopal Church also tends to have higher-income members than did many other Protestant denominations and Southern Indiana was definitely not a high-income area after the Civil War. Early Episcopals were concentrated in Virginia.

Free Will Baptists. This group originated in the North in New Hampshire in 1780. In 1910-1911, this group merged with the Regular Baptists, according to a Free Will Baptist Web site. The denomination that existed in the 1800s was anti-slavery. A southern group by this name, still in existence, traces its roots to 1721 in North Carolina. A Free Will group operated briefly in Moorefield in the mid- 1800s. The modern group is fundamentalist. It observes the practice of feet washing, like baptism and the Lords’ Supper, as an obligation.

German Evangelical Lutheran. The Web site of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America gives the following history: “The LCMS, firmly rooted in confessional conservatism and relatively unchanged since its organization in 1846-47 as ‘The German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States,’ stood firmly on its belief in the inerrancy of the Bible.”:

German Methodists. There were German Methodist Churches in Madison and in Posey Township in Switzerland County. This does not appear to have been a separate congregation, but was rather the result of conversions from missionary work by Methodists involving German immigrants.

Hardshell Baptists. (Primitive Baptists) From a doctrinal point of view, these Baptists believed that God would save non-Christians without human help, according to one Web site. This group apparently arose late in the eighteenth century and became known as Primitive of Hardshell Baptists. It is also described as extremely Calvinistic and the Pigeon Creek Baptist Church in Indiana is mentioned as Hardshell. However, the group’s reputation has been mired in the view that they believed too enthusiastically in drinking alcoholic beverages. That view is embodied in the negative depiction of a Hardshell preacher in the book, “The Hoosier Schoolmaster.” Since Eggleston drew his book from experiences in Jefferson and Switzerland Counties, it seems certain that he was picturing real practices. But no specific churches are known to have been associated with the Hardshells.

Lutherans. The Lutherans were a relatively small denomination in both Jefferson and Switzerland County. Lutherans in Indiana were largely of German origin. There were fewer Germans in the countryfied in this area, as opposed to Ripley County where they were more numerous. As a result, there were no rural Lutheran churches in Jefferson County, and only one rural Lutheran Church in Pleasant Township in Switzerland County.

Methodist Episcopal Church. The Methodist movement became organized as the Methodist Episcopal Church in America at a meeting in Baltimore in 1784. The M.E. church split before the Civil War into the Methodist Episcopal Church and Methodist Episcopal Church South. They united in 1939 to form the Methodist Church, later the United Methodist Church. Methodist congregations were not organized in great numbers until the 1830s. Then, circuit riders produced a wave of new churches. By 1850, there were more Methodist Churches in Jefferson County than any other denomination and the same was probably true of Switzerland. Many of these churches failed in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries leaving the Baptists as the most common group.

New Lights. The New Lights arose from the same religious ferment that gave rise to the Christian Church. An important event was the Cane Ridge, Ky., camp meeting in 1800/1801 at which many Presbyterian ministers withdrew from their denomination. The Liberty Christian Church in Monroe Township was originally a New Light congregation. Founded in 1817, it became a Christian Church some time in the 1820s after Beverly Vawter, who had been baptized by New Light minister John McClung, became converted to the teachings of Alexander Campbell. Many New Lights joined the Christian Churches during the 1820s and 1830s and the group disappeared.

New School Presbyterians. Leaders included the well-know Lyman Beecher, The Monroe Presbyterian Church grew out of a split of the Old School and New School, with Monroe aligning with the New School. New Schoolers were more aggressively anti-slavery than Old Schoolers.

Nondenominational Churches. These were rare on the frontier. There was a mixed congregation founded in 1819 on Ryker’s Ridge and it may have retarded the formation of a Baptist Church then. The Ryker’s Ridge Baptist Church was not formed until 1840.

Old School Presbyterians. The split between Old School and New School Presbyterians developed in the 1830s. Key players in this schism were Princeton theologians Archibald Alexander and Charles Hodge, leaders of Old School. The group claimed the New School had veered from Calvinist orthodoxy. The Old School opposed a union with the Congregationalists and said their faith was aligned with the Westminster Confession of Faith. The New School expelled the Old School in 1837, but the two bodies reunited in 1869 because New School theology became more orthodox. In Jefferson County, the Smyrna Presbyterian Church was defined on March 28, 1842 “as being in full communion with the Old School Presbyterians.” The former Middlefork Presbyterian Church split over this issue with one group becoming the Lancaster Presbyterian Church, then later changing its name to Monroe Presbyterian and identifying with the New School. The Dupont church was also Old School. Madison First Presbyterian was Old School, the Second Presbyterian, New School.

Primitive Baptists (See Hardshell Baptists)

Reformed Church. This term was sometimes applied to Christian Churches such as the Manville Christian Church. But the phrase is more commonly used in connection with Calvinist-based churches in Switzerland whose members tended to become Presbyterians in the United States, and to the Dutch Reformed Churches. There were no Dutch Reformed Churches in the area. The “Low Dutch “families such as the Rykers and Demarees originated in the New Amsterdam settlements in New York and New Jersey, where there were Dutch Reformed Churches, became Presbyterian in Indiana. The Swiss settlers in Switzerland County also tended to become Presbyterian.

Regular Baptists. This term was applied to what appear to be Northern Baptists, as opposed to Separate and General Baptists. There is a denomination today called Regular Baptists, but the term in the nineteenth century appears to have been more informal, before the modern groups such as American Baptists and Southern Baptists arose. Even though the American Baptists were organized in 1844, local Baptist associations do not appear affiliated. The Southern Baptists, which originally withdrew because of disputes over slavery, do not appear to have entered the area until the twentieth century.

Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints. This denomination, headquartered in St. Joseph, Mo., split from the Latter Day Saints in the nineteenth century. It does not use the term, “Mormon,” but neighbors of the churches in southern Indiana did not make that distinction. This group appears to have entered the area in the late 1870s through missionary activity (No L.D.S. church existed in Switzerland or Jefferson County until the twentieth century) Activity started on Halls Ridge in Shelby Township in 1876, but no record of an organized congregation can be found until 1893 and it was gone by 1912. The denomination changed its name to Community of Christ in 2000.

Roman Catholic. The Roman Catholic church in Southern Indiana offers few major differences from Catholics in the rest of the country. In Jefferson County, in particular, the churches were organized around the national origin of parishioners. St. Michael’s was known English, while St. Patrick’s was largely Irish and St. Mary’s and St. Anthony’s principally German. In fact, city directories specifically identify St. Mary’s as German Catholic and St. Michael’s as English Catholic.

Seceders. (See Associate Presbyterian)

Seceder Church. Although, the Associate Presbyterians were known as Seceders, the term also appears to have been applied to a group of Methodists. There was a Secession Church on Big Creek.

Separate Baptists. Originating in Virginia in the 1700s, this denomination is still in existence, which congregations in Indiana, although there are no churches left in Jefferson, Switzerland, or Ripley Counties. It originally included the Salem Baptist Church (which was to become the Salem Christian Church in 1856, now known as the Cross Plains Church of Christ); the Center Grove Baptist Church, (now extinct. (It became the Hicks Baptist Church, a regular Baptist organization in 1898. Local organization is largely attributed to the Rev. Alexander Sebastian. An account in the History of Switzerland County says Sebastian organized three churches, one in Ripley County (probably Salem). The church was more actively anti-slavery than regular Baptists prior to the Civil War.

Shouting Methodists. These Methodists have religious practices that include exhortation. The Home Methodist Church north of Brooksburg was of this variety. A church history notes that exhortation was an important practice at home. At least one religious history says “shouting” was not confined to the Methodists, and that it does not denote a separate denomination. But locally, the practice has not been discussed in histories I have seen for any other church except Home.

United Brethren. Officially the Church of the United Brethren of Christ, this congregation was founded in 1767 in Pennsylvania. Of the 250 U.B, churches in the United States, 180 are located in Pennsylvania, Ohio, northern Indiana, and Michigan. But in the nineteenth century, there were a number of congregations in Switzerland and Jefferson County, including the Otterbein (on Bee Camp in Milton Township, but it moved to Madison), Bethel in Saluda Township, Middle Fork, and Vevay Churches. All are extinct.

Universalists. A denomination that originated in the 1700s in New Jersey with the arrival of John Murray, it preached universal salvation. During the 1800s, there was apparently an active proselytizing effort. There were Universalist churches in Center Square, Patriot, and Vevay, in Switzerland County, and Madison and Saluda Township in Jefferson County, starting around the 1840s, but they disappeared before the second half of the twentieth century. The denomination was fiercely anti-slavery. The denomination merged with the Unitarians in 1956.