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Churches of Indianapolis.

The primitive churches of the city and of the entire West, where there were no rituals or authoritative forms, differed little from each other in public observances or the rites of worship, and a stranger might easily mistake one for the other, as preachers are said to have done sometimes, till the sermon came to enlighten him. It was a rare sermon that did not betray the sectarian cast of the congregation. Now the points of identity or similarity have made a complete revolution. The deferences are more discernible in forms and methods than sermons. It is a rare sermon now that indicates the sectarian attitude or tendency of the church. Forty and fifty years ago it was a rare one that did not. There might be nothing precedent in the seating of the congregation, in the hymns or prayers or attitudes, to distinguish a Methodist from a Baptist meeting, but the sermon would do it. The tendency of the religious feeling of those days was to sects and separations. It magnified differences. It hunted more diligently than intelligently for Scriptural excuses for division. It perverted texts to support creeds and uncharitable criticisms of varying creeds. The best sermon was that which made the best array of plausibilities for sectarian separation. The truest preacher was he who could make most nearly incontestable the saving efficacy of what Baptist A. believed and the futility of what Methodist B. believed. Thus, as related in the general history, came frequent collisions and public debates and acrimonious feelings. The condition of society out of which they grew is hardly conceivable to a community that hears Rev. Myron Reed, of the Presbyterian Church, speak with fraternal warmth of the pious zeal of the Catholic Father Bessonies. It was little less than sinful in early days to commend anything that another church or preacher did. The rigidly righteous took it for a sinful compliance, a giving way to the worldly spirit, a warning of evil, if not worse. The iron fixedness of faith of the Puritans was the dominant characteristic of the religious element of the community. It had its admirable qualities for the generation in which it was active, but it passed away with other conditions of the times, and allowed the approach of the change in which to-day we rarely hear sectarian differences alluded to in the pulpit. The sermon in a Methodist Church might be acceptably preached in any other of the four score of churches of different creeds, and pulpits are exchanged with no disturbance of religious complacency. The changes of material condition are hardly more striking than the changes of moral condition. The log house, little handsomer or handier than the barn in the next field, has given place to stone and brick edifices that are as sightly as costly, the benches or split-bottomed chairs to carved and cushioned pews, the hearty but dissonant singing to the trim accuracy of a paid choir and a professional organist, the cheap exhorter and extempore outgiving to the high-paid pastor and written sermon; but no one of these nor all together are more impressive to the thoughtful mind than the change which has so nearly obliterated the sectarian differences so obtrusive a generation ago. Church members may have grown more worldly-minded, more luxurious, more of the Gallio type, but they have certainly grown more charitable, not so much in the ready bestowal of money as the willing exercise of generous opinion and appreciation, — a far more commendable trait and harder to come by.

In the general history is given a brief sketch of the origin of each of the early churches, their location, and the character of their buildings. It will be unnecessary to repeat these points here, but it may be well to note that but a single church established in the first twenty years of the city's history remains in its original situation. Rev. Mr. Hyde, in his address at the opening of the new Plymouth Church, said the congregation first worshiped in the Senate chamber of the State-House, then in a hall on South Illinois Street, then in the State-House again, then in the front hall of the first Plymouth Church, now a part of the English "Quadrant," and added, "I believe this has been the history of all the larger congregations in the city. Of the churches that were here when I came that then thought they were occupying permanent homes, nearly all have moved and enlarged."

It is true that the first congregations of the larger denominations have moved once, at least, and some oftener. The Baptists, who had the first local habitation here in 1823, in a school-house on the north side of Maryland Street, between Tennessee and Mississippi, nearly opposite the residence of Henry Bradley, one of the leading members, first organized in the school-house on the point of Kentucky Avenue and Illinois Street in 1822. They moved to the southwest corner of Maryland and Meridian Streets in 1829, but not till they had petitioned the Legislature for the donation of a lot for a building site, and failed. The house here was a broad, squatty one-story brick, with a wooden bell-tower against a little frame school-house a hundred feet west. This was replaced a dozen years later by a finer structure on the same site, and it burned one Sunday morning early in January, 1861, and then the church moved to its present site. This made the second removal for the Baptists. The Presbyterians built first, in 1824, on the site of the Exchange Block; moved to the Times office site in 1842, and to its present place in 1866, — two removals for them. The Methodists first had a log house, in 1825, on Maryland Street, a little west of Meridian, on the south side, and kept it till 1829. Then they built their first regular church edifice, and used it till 1846. Then they tore that down and built Wesley Chapel. They sold that in 1869 and built Meridian Church, making the fourth house and second removal. The Christians built their first church in 1835-36, on Kentucky Avenue. They moved to the present site of Central Chapel in 1852, one removal fur them. The Catholics first built in a hackberry-grove on the military ground, near the corner of West and Washington Streets, in 1840. In 1850 St. John's Church was built, on Georgia Street, and in 1867 the Cathedral replaced it, making two removals for them. The Episcopalians alone of all the leading denominations have never changed. Their first church was on the spot where the present Christ Church stands. Few remains of any of the old churches are visible now. The first Episcopal Church was moved to Georgia Street near the canal, for a colored church, and burned the second or third year. The first Baptist Church on the old site, corner of Maryland and Meridian Streets, was torn down and the second burned down. The first Presbyterian Church — the old frame — was torn down, and so was the brick where the Journal building is. The first Christian Church, a frame, was preserved and is now a tenement-house. The first Methodist (log) Church was torn down. So was the first brick, but Wesley Chapel was changed to the late Sentinel building. Roberts' Chapel was incorporated in one of Martindale's blocks. The Fourth Presbyterian Church was put into Baldwin's Block, and Beecher's church is the body of Circle Hall. St. John's Catholic Church was torn away entirely when the Cathedral was built. The first Lutheran Church, 1838, near the southeast corner of Meridian and Ohio Streets, was torn away entirely. It removed to the southwest corner of Alabama and New York Streets, where it remained for many years, and then moved uptown to the corner of Pennsylvania and Walnut Streets.

There are now eighty-eight churches in the city, each, with one or two exceptions, with a building of its own and erected for it. Of these the Methodists, including the German and Colored Conferences, and the Methodist Protestant, have twenty-four; the Presbyterians have fourteen; the Baptist, thirteen; the Catholics, seven; the Christians (formerly better known as " Disciples," or " Campbellites"), six; the Episcopalians, with the Episcopal Reformed, six; the Lutherans, six; the Congregationalists, two; the Hebrews, two; the German Reformed, three; the Evangelical Association, one; the Friends, one; United Presbyterian, one; United Brethren, one; Swedenborgian, one. In 1868, and for some time following, the Unitarians formed an organization here with the Rev. Henry Blanchard as pastor, and used the Academy of Music as a place of worship. But it has been dissolved for ten or twelve years. The Universalists had two churches here for a number of years, but now have none. The first was organized about forty years ago, but soon failed, and was reorganized in 1853, or replaced by an organization of the same views, of which Rev. B. F. Foster, Grand Secretary of the Odd-Fellows, and still the most eminent clergyman of that faith in the State, was the first pastor. In 1860 he was succeeded by Rev. W. C. Brooks for a year; resumed his pastorate for five years more, and was again succeeded, in 1866, by Rev. J. M. Austin, of New York. He resigned in about six months, and Mr. Foster, then State Librarian, resumed his pastoral charge and kept it till his civil office expired in 1869. Since then the church has had no pastor, no settled worship, and never had a building of its own. It used at one time or another the old court-house, the old seminary lecture-room (Mr. Beecher's first church). College Hall, Temperance Hall (where the News Block is), Masonic Hall, and the hall on the southwest corner of Delaware and Maryland Streets. In 1860 a personal difference in the original Universalist Church caused a secession under the lead of the eminent manufacturer, Mr. John Thomas, and the colony bought a lot and built a house on Michigan Street near Tennessee. Of this Mr. Thomas became the sole owner, and when the church ceased to use it, as it did after the first year, while Rev. C. E. Woodbury and Rev. W. W. Curry (afterwards Secretary of State) were pastors, it was occupied by the Wesley Chapel (Methodist) Church during the time their own Meridian Church was in progress, and later by a division of Strange Chapel (Methodist), under the noted and eloquent J. W. T. McMullen, first colonel of the Fifty-first Indiana Volunteers. It is now occupied by the North Presbyterian (colored) Church. There are ten colored churches in the city, — four Methodist, four Baptist, one Presbyterian, and one Christian.

WHITE BAPTISTS

First Baptist Church. — Although religious services were held in the new settlement ss early as the spring of 1821, and continued occasionally, sometimes in the woods and sometimes in private houses, no church organization was made till the 10th of October, 1822. Then the First Baptist Church was formed. The history of this earliest of Indianapolis churches is told briefly in the old records which may be introduced here as of more interest than any secondhand account could be. The first entry says, " The Baptists at and near Indianapolis, having removed from various parts of the world, met at the .school-house in Indianapolis (this was the first school-house near the point of junction of Illinois Street and Kentucky Avenue in August, 1822), and after some consultation, adopted the following resolution: Resolved, That we send for help, and meet at Indianapolis on the 20th day of September next for the purpose of establishing a regular Baptist Church at said place. That John W. Reding write letters to Little Flat Rock and Little Cedar Grove Churches for help. That Samuel Mcormack (McCormick) write letters to Lick Creek and Franklin Churches for helps. Then adjourned."

The next entry reads thus: " Met according to adjournment; Elder Tyner, from Little Cedar Grove, attended as a help from that church, and after divine service went into business. Letters were received and read from Brothers Benjamin Barns, Jeremiah Johnson, Thomas Carter (the tavern-keeper), Otis Hobart, John Hobart, Theodore V. Denny, John Mcormack (McCormick), Samuel Mcormack, John Thompson, and William Dodd, and sisters Jane Johnson, Nancy Carter, Nancy Thompson, Elizabeth Mcormack, and Polly Carter. Then adjourned until Saturday morning, 10th October." That day the organization was completed, and the old record tells the event thus: " Met according to adjournment, and after divine service letters were read from John W. Reding and Hannah Skinner. Brother B. Barns was appointed to speak, and answer for the members; and Brother Tyner went into an examination, and finding the members sound in the faith, pronounced them a regular Baptist Church, and directed them to go into business. Brother Tyner was then chosen moderator, and John W. Reding, clerk. Agreed to be called and known by the name of the First Baptist Church at Indianapolis. Then adjourned till the third Saturday in October, 1822. J. W. Reding, clerk." There was not much form or ceremony observed in constituting this old church, and a later meeting, in which financial matters were the main subject of consideration, shows that there was as little pretension to worldly wealth among the members. " At a church meeting held at Indianapolis on the third Saturday of January, 1823, after divine service. Brother B. Barns, moderator, on motion, Brother , J. Thompson was unanimously called to serve this church as a deacon, having previously been ordained. The reference taken up respecting a church fund, the brethren whose names here follows paid Brother J. Thompson twenty-five cents each: H. Bradley, J. W. Reding, S. Mcormack, T. V. Denny, T. Carter, J. , Hobart, D. Wood, J. Thompson. On motion, agreed that Brother B. Barns be sent as a help to constitute a church at White Lick, near the Bluffs of White River, when called on by the brethren at that place. Ordered, that Brothers T. Carter, H. Bradley, and D. Wood be a committee to make arrangements for a place of worship and report to the next meeting. J. W. Reding, clerk." The next entry says, " The committee chosen for the purpose of making arrangements for a place of worship, reported that the schoolhouse may be had without interruption." Whether this school-house was the first one built in the town, as above noted, or another on Maryland Street, north side, west of Tennessee Street, does not appear from the record, but it was probably the latter, and must have stood on or very near the site of Alexander Ralston's residence. A little single-room hewed log house did stand near that rather pretentious structure for several years after his death. On the third Saturday of June, 1823, a meeting was held at which Mr. Barnes, who had been the leading member of the organization from the start, " requested and was granted a letter of dismission." Following this is the statement, " Agreed, that Brother B. Barns be called to preach to this church once a month until the end of this year, to which Brother Barns agreed." Thus the First Baptist Church had a complete organization, a place of worship, and a regular, though not frequent preacher in two years after the town was laid out.

As noted above, the church petitioned the Legislature in November, 1824, for a lot to build a house of worship upon, but failed. The order says, " On motion, agreed that the church petition the present General Assembly for a site to build a meeting-house upon, and that the southeast half of the shaded block 90 be selected, and that Brothers J. Hobart, H. Bradley, and the clerk be appointed a committee to bear the petition Saturday in February." What is meant by a " shaded block" can only be conjectured, but it probably referred to a grove that made a pleasant shelter. In the spring of 1825, Major Thomas Chinn, who lived on the north side of Maryland Street, pretty nearly opposite the site of the east end of the Grand Hotel, invited the church to meet at his residence during the summer, and they did. In June, 1825, a lot was purchased for a church building, and measures taken to finish a small frame house upon it for that use, but the matter was put off after an assessment was made on the fifteen adult males of the congregation of forty-eight dollars to pay for the lot, a little over three dollars each. In 1826, Rev. Cornelius Duvall, of Kentucky, was called to the charge of the church, but he never accepted or never acted, and in December, 1826, Rev. Abraham Smock was called for one year, accepted and set to work. During his pastorate the lot on the southwest corner of Meridian and Maryland Streets was purchased, and in 1829 the first Baptist Church building erected, as above related. This was removed fifteen or twenty years afterwards and a handsome church with a fine spire erected, which was burned the first Sunday in 1861, when the present site, on the northwest corner of New York and Pennsylvania Streets, was obtained and built upon.

Rev. Abraham Smock remained pastor till 1830. when he resigned and left the church without a pastor for some years, though several ministers preached statedly, and one. Rev. Byron Lawrence, in 1832 was requested to " preach as frequently as he can on Lord's day for six months." Under the stated arrangement Revs. Jamison Hawkins (grandfather of Nicholas McCarty), Byron Lawrence, and Ezra Fisher preached till February, 1834, when Mr. Fisher was called to be the stated preacher of the church. He retired in the fall or winter of 1834, and Rev. T. C. Townsend was requested to preach till a regular pastor was obtained. Then in July, 1835, came Rev. and Dr. John L. Richmond, who served for six or eight years, and was one of the best known and esteemed clergymen and physicians in the town. He was a good deal of a humorist and one of the most eccentric men both in appearance and conduct who ever lived here, but withal a genuine Christian and a noble man. It was told of him that he once silenced a braggart who was boasting of the fertility of his farm, particularly in pumpkins, by telling him that " his farm was nothing to one he (the doctor) had seen recently." " Why, what could that farm do?" " The pumpkins grew so thick all over one of the fields that if a man would kick one on one side of the field it would shake those against the fence on the other side." The laugh of the company at this sally stopped the boaster from repeating his folly. In 1843, Rev. George C. Chandler succeeded Dr. Richmond, who was himself succeeded by Rev. T. R. Cressy in 1847, and he in 1852 by Rev. Sydney Dyer, who attained considerable distinction as a poet, and published a volume of poems about 1856. Rev. J. B. Simmons followed, and remained till 1861. After the burning of the church in that year the congregation worshiped in Masonic Hall till the new edifice was completed. It was begun in 1862. Rev. Henry Day succeeded Mr. Simmons in 1861, and remained till a few years ago. The present pastor is Rev. Henry C. Mabie. The number of members is five hundred and sixty-nine; Sunday-school pupils, about five hundred; value of property, about sixty-five thousand dollars.

South Street Baptist Church: — This was at first a mission church, established by the old First or Home Church, which purchased the lot on the southwest corner of Noble and South Streets about 1867, and built a small but pretty chapel there. In 1869 a number of the members of the parent church, whose places of residence made a church more convenient there than away off at University Square, formed an organization, and with a membership of seventy-six took the mission building as a gift from the old congregation and at once established a flourishing church there. A handsome new building replaced the mission house a few years ago. Pastor, Rev. I. N. Clark. Membership, two hundred and ninety-five; Sunday-school pupils, three hundred and fifty; value of property, about twenty thousand dollars.

Garden Baptist Church. — This also was a mission established in 1866 on Tennessee Street, and then removed to the corner of Washington and Missouri Streets. It finally built its own house on Bright Street. Pastor, Rev. B. F. Patt. Membership, one hundred; Sunday-school pupils, one hundred and fifty; value of property, six thousand dollars.

North Baptist Church. — This, like the other two. was a mission branch of the old First Church, established on the corner of Broadway and Cherry Streets, where it still is. The present pastor is Rev. Daniel D. Read. Membership, one hundred and thirty-one; Sunday-school pupils, one hundred and fifty; value of property, about eight thousand dollars.

Third Baptist Tabernacle, though named in the city directory with a pastor, Rev. Christopher Wilson, and located on Rhode Island Street, does not appear in the official list of the Association.

German Baptist Church. — Pastor, Rev. August Boelter, corner of Davidson and North Streets.

Mount Zion Baptist Church, Second and Lafayette Streets. Pastor, Rev. William Singleton.

New Bethel Baptist Church, Beeler Street. Rev. Jacob R. Raynor, pastor.

Judson Baptist Church, Fletcher Avenue, reported disorganized. These last four churches, like the Tabernacle, do not appear in the authoritative lists of the Association, but do in the directory.

COLORED BAPTISTS

Second Baptist Church, north side of Michigan, east of West. Pastor, Rev. James M. Harris.

Corinthian Baptist Church, corner of North and Railroad Streets. Pastor, Rev. R. Bassett.

Olive Baptist Church, Hosbrook, between Grove and Pine Streets. Pastor, Rev. Anderson Simmons.

South Calvary Baptist Church, comer of Maple and Morris Streets. Rev. Thomas Smith, pastor.

PRESBYTERIANS

First Presbyterian Church, — The sectarian differences which became so strongly marked in the different denominations of Indianapolis, after separate organizations had been made and separate places of worship established, were measurably suppressed in the first years of the settlement, and union meetings were frequent in which all denominations joined. Nevertheless each bad occasionally worship and sermons of its own. In August, 1822, as we have seen, the Baptists took the first steps to form a distinct denominational organization. The Presbyterians followed on the 23rd of February, 1823. Previously they had been preached to by Rev. Ludlow G. Gaines, — the same as the " Ludwell Gains" and "Ludwell G. Gains" who entered several tracts of land in Decatur township in 1821, — and during the year 1822 Rev. David U. Proctor was engaged as a missionary. The old school-house was the cradle of this church, as well as the First Baptist. The organization was made here on the 6th of March, 1823, after one or two previous meetings, and on the 22nd of March trustees were appointed. The formal constitution of the church was completed with fifteen members July 5, 1823. Subscriptions were at once obtained, and a lot purchased on the northwest corner of Market and Pennsylvania Streets, where a frame building, the first church edifice in the place, was partially built the same year and finished the following summer, 1824, at a cost for site and house of twelve hundred dollars. Mr. Gaines and Mr. Proctor both appear to have served as "stated supply" in the first days of the church's existence, and Mr. Proctor was pastor for a short time till the accession of Rev. George Bush in September, 1824, who continued till June, 1828, and remained in the town till March, 1829. Mr. Bush, as elsewhere noticed, became subsequently, on removing to the East, one of the most conspicuous heresiarchs in this country. His theological vagaries were equaled by his learning, however, and he always commanded attention and respect. It was thought by the community that his eccentricities of faith had something to do with the severance of his pastoral relation to the First Presbyterian Church here. Succeeding him came Rev. John R. Moreland, from 1829 to 1832. Rev. William A. Holliday succeeded him in 1832, continuing till 1835. A couple of years later he took charge of the old seminary, and figured prominently as one of the early educators of the city, as well as one of its most honored moral guides and instructors.

Rev. William Adair Holliday. — The parents of the subject of this biographical sketch were Samuel Holliday and Elizabeth Martin, both of Scotch-Irish ancestry. The former was associate judge of the Marion County Circuit Court, and officiated at the trial of Hudson, Sawyer, and the Bridges, in 1824, for murdering Indians. They are said to have been the only white men executed for this crime. It was said by Oliver H. Smith, in his " Early Indian Trials," " Judge Holliday was one of the best and most conscientious men I ever knew." Elizabeth Martin Holliday was the daughter of Jacob and Catherine Martin, and the sister of Rev. William Martin, a prominent pioneer preacher of Indiana, familiarly known as Father Martin. William Adair Holliday, born July 16, 1803, in Harrison County, Ky., at the age of three years removed with his parents to Preble County, Ohio, and from thence in 1815 to Wayne County, Ind., after which Marion County, as then constituted, became the permanent residence of the family. The early years of Mr. Holliday were fraught with many of the deprivations incident to the life of the early settler. Few opportunities for education were afforded, and the means for obtaining those advantages so limited as to make a thorough scholastic training a work requiring not only perseverance but often great sacrifice. William A. Holliday, being ambitious for instruction superior to that offered at home, walked from his father's farm to Hamilton, Ohio, and there attended school. Subsequently he went to Bloomington, and from thence to the Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio, where he graduated in 1829. Having chosen the ministry as his life-work, he traveled on horseback to Princeton, N. J., and there pursued a theological course, after which he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Brunswick. At the close of his studies he preached with great acceptability at Goshen, N. Y., to the congregation of which Dr. Fisk had been pastor, and would have been called to that important pastoral charge had he not discouraged the movement under a conviction that he ought to labor in the West. In 1832 he accepted an invitation to supply the First Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, over which charge he ministered two years. Subsequently he devoted himself to missionary labor among feeble churches in Indiana and Kentucky, combining the work of preaching with that of a teacher. From 1841 until his death Indianapolis was his home. He was in 1864 elected professor of Latin and modern languages in Hanover College, of which he had long been a trustee, and for two years rendered gratuitous service in that capacity, resigning in June, 1866. His own early struggles for a thorough education gave him a deep sympathy with young men similarly situated, and inspired him with a deep interest in their efforts to secure opportunities for thorough education. A desire to promote this prompted him to give while yet living, out of a moderate estate, property which sold for twelve thousand dollars for the purpose of endowing a professorship of mental philosophy and logic in Hanover College. The following tribute is paid by Rev. Dr. J. H. Nixon, a former pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, to his scholastic attainments and piety: " His prayers and counsels and influence were always heartily given to every good work.

He was a man of deep piety, of much learning, and of most excellent spirit. His habits of study were continued to the close of his life. He read daily the Scriptures in the original. He kept well abreast of the religious literature of the day, and yet was a careful and thoughtful student of passing events. So modest was he that few except his intimate friends knew the treasures of learning he had gathered. He had been for several years stated clerk of Muncie Presbytery, and was a regular and valued member of the church courts. For many years he was a member of the congregation of the First Church of Indianapolis, of which he had formerly acted as pastor, and was a most punctual and earnest attendant upon the ministry of the Word and the prayer-meetings, and ever ready to afford his pastor the benefit of his counsels, sympathies, and prayers." Mr. Holliday was married to Miss Lucia Shaw Cruft, to whom were born seven children. Two of these died in infancy, and a third at the age of fourteen years. The four survivors are Rev. Wm. A. Holliday, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Belvidere, N. J., Margaret G. Holliday, a missionary of the Presbyterian board at Tabriz, Persia, John H. Holliday, founder and editor of The Indianapolis News, and Francis T. Holliday, its publisher. The death of Rev. William A. Holliday occurred Dec. 16, 1866, in his sixty-fourth year, and that of Mrs. Holliday Jan. 17, 1881, in her seventy-sixth year. She was a native of Boston, coming from Puritan stock numbering in its branches many eminent and worthy people of New England. Her grandfather, with whom she lived for some years during childhood, was the Rev. William Shaw, for more than fifty years a pastor at Marshfield, Mass., and she was trained in all the rugged New England virtues. Two of her brothers settling on the Wabash at an early day, she removed to Indiana in 1826, making her home at Terre Haute and Carlisle until married.

Mrs. Holliday was a woman of rare strength and charm of character. Prominent and devoted in her religious life, among the foremost in the benevolent and missionary work which falls peculiarly to the hand of woman, she yet illustrated the words of Lord Lyttleton, that " a woman's noblest station is retreat," and reserved for the sanctity of home and the narrower circle of intimate and loving friends that fuller exhibition of a thoroughly developed and symmetrical life, which will cause her memory to be cherished as a precious incense. In her girlhood she enjoyed only the ordinary common-school education incident to that period in the State of her birth; but she was all her life an omnivorous reader, was endowed with unusual perception, and was withal a deep and logical thinker. With these faculties she became a woman of great and varied information, of clear and strong judgment, and a ready and capable conversationalist and reasoner.

Cheerfulness and sympathy were prominent traits of her character, and these probably were the explanation of the strong hold she secured and retained upon her friends. Throughout her long life, checkered with hardships inseparable from the lines in which it was cast, she ever had a smiling face, a warm hand, a sympathetic heart for everybody. In her Christian affection she was no " respecter of persons," and from every walk and station of life there came at her death the sincerest grief, because "a friend has fallen." One of the most unselfish of women, forgetting herself entirely to serve others, she received the reward of a devotion from her family, and of sincere affection from those who lived within the influence of her deeds, which was conspicuous because of its rarity.

Rev. James W. McKennan succeeded Mr. Holliday in February, 1835, and remained till 1840, when Rev. Phineas D. Gurley followed and remained till 1849. Mr. Gurley was the cotemporary and friend of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, pastor of the other Presbyterian Church, — separated and by no means generally friendly in those days like other sects, — and in after-years, as the pastor of a church in Washington City, attained a national reputation. For about two years the church remained without a pastor, and then Rev. John A. McClung, of Kentucky, was called. He was a brother of the distinguished lawyer, politician, and duelist of Mississippi, Col. Alexander McClung, and for many years had himself been one of the leading lawyers of his State. At that time he was skeptical, and is said by his friends to have converted himself by a close study of the prophecies. Whether this was true or not, he was more profoundly versed in the prophecies, and treated them more frequently and fully in his sermons, than any man that ever filled a pulpit in Indianapolis, or probably any other city. In his younger days he compiled a volume of stories of the adventures of the pioneers of Kentucky called " Western Adventures," which was a very popular and widely-read book, though now out of print. Mr. McClung remained here till 1855. Some years afterwards, probably during the war, he was drowned in the Niagara River, — some thought by suicide, — a few miles below Buffalo. His daughter was married to a son of Edmund Browning, of the old Washington Hall Hotel. Rev. T. L. Cunningham followed Mr. McClung in October, 1855, and remained till 1858, marrying here the daughter of Governor John Brough, of Ohio, previously for many years president of the Madison Railroad here. For two years the church remained without a pastor, when Rev. John Howard Nixon came in 1860 and remained till 1869. Rev. R. D. Harper succeeded him, and resigned in 1876 to take charge of a church in Philadelphia. The present pastor. Rev. Myron W. Reed, took charge of the church in 1876.

In the old frame church on Pennsylvania Street was conducted during most of its existence the " Union Sunday-school," which formed so conspicuous a part of the moral agencies of the early settlement, and a still more conspicuous part of the celebration of the Fourth of July. The first meeting was held on the 6th of April, 1823, in Caleb Scudder's cabinet-shop, on the south tide of the State-House Square. It continued through the summer, till cold weather began to come in the fall, with about seventy pupils, — a very creditable number for a little village in the woods of not more than five hundred souls all told. In 1824 it was revived, and thenceforward carried on in the Presbyterian Church, constantly increasing in average attendance, and not suspended on account of the weather. The average ran up from forty the first year to fifty the next, seventy-five the third, one hundred and six the fourth, and one hundred and fifty the fifth, by which time a library of one hundred and fifty volumes had been accumulated of the little marble-paper backed Sunday-school literature of the " Shepherd of Salisbury Plain"' school. On April 24, 1829, the Methodists, having completed their first church, and the first brick church in the town, drew off to themselves. The Baptists colonized their school in 1832, leaving the Presbyterians alone. In 1829 the Sunday-schools formed a prominent feature of the celebration of the Fourth of July for the first time, and for thirty years following were either the chief or sole! feature of that national ceremony.

The old church was abandoned in 1842, when: a new brick was built on the corner of Circle Street and Market, the site of the present Journal building, during the pastorate of Rev. P. D. Gurley. After this the old house came to base uses. It was a carpenter- or carriage-shop for a little while, and an occasional assembly-hall for chance gatherings that could not go anywhere else. It was torn down or moved away in 1845 or 1846. The new church was dedicated May 6, 1843, and cost about eight thousand three hundred dollars. The present structure was begun in 1864. The west end, or chapel, containing Sunday-school rooms, lecture-room, social-room, and pastor's study, was completed and occupied in 1866. The main building and audience-hall were finished and opened for service Dec. 29, 1870. The present membership of the First Church is three hundred and sixty-five; Sunday-school pupils, three hundred and eighty-one; estimated value of property, one hundred and twenty thousand dollars.

Second Presbyterian Church. — This was better known, even in Indianapolis, for a good many years as " Beecher's Church." It was organized with fifteen members Nov. 19, 1838, in the " lecture -room," or main upper room, of the old seminary. Henry Ward Beecher came as its first pastor July 31, 1839. The old seminary room continued to be the place of worship for over a year. On the 4th of October, 1840, the frame building erected for it on the corner of Circle and Market Streets, directly opposite to that occupied a year or two later by the new First Church, was completed and dedicated, though the basement-room was occupied previously. Thus the Second Church was fully launched on what has proved to be a prosperous and beneficent career. The division was not the effect of any local or personal dissension, but grew out of the same influences that produced the separation into the " Old" and " New" School Churches. Mr. Beecher made this church, during seven years of its life and his, the most conspicuous in the State. In 1843 or thereabouts he delivered in this church on Sunday nights the " Lectures to Young Men," which gave him his first reputation abroad, and which were soon after republished by an Eastern house. About the same time he conducted a revival, in which he secured the conversion of some of the " fast" young men about town. A year or two later he spoke out on the slavery issue with so unequivocal an utterance that some of his parishioners of an adverse political inclination got up and walked out of the house. A few left the church altogether. At the same time, and, in fact, all the time, he waged relentless war on liquor drinking and selling, following up the reform movement begun here by the " Washingtonians" under Mr. Matthews. In the course of this discussion he was brought into collision with a Mr. Comegys, of Lawrenceburg, then an extensive distiller, but previously a clerk of the eminent merchant, Nicholas McCarty, and a well-known citizen here. The debate grew .so acrimonious that the distiller hinted at a personal interview and a physical discussion, to which Mr. Beecher replied (the correspondence appeared in the Journal) that if his antagonist wanted to fight, he (Beecher) " would take a woman and a Quaker for his seconds." Mr. Beecher left the church early in the fall of 1847, closing his pastorate on the 19th of September.

Rev. Clement E. Babb succeeded Mr. Beecher in the Second Church May 7, 1848, and remained till the 1st of January, 1853. Mr. Babb was succeeded by Rev. Thornton A. Mills, after an interval of a year, Jan. 1, 1854, remaining till Feb. 9, 1857. He was chosen secretary of the committee on education of the General Assembly, the duties of which required his residence in New York. He died there suddenly June 19, 1867. Rev. George P. Tindall succeeded, Aug. 6, 1857, and remained till Sept. 27, 1863. Rev. Hanford A. Edson, now of the Memorial Church, followed Mr. Tindall, Jan. 17, 1864. Rev. William A. Bartlett served the church for several years in the interval since Mr. Edson left it for his later charge, and Rev. Arthur D. Pearson succeeded him for a short time. The present pastor is Rev. James McLeod. The old edifice, on Circle and Market Streets, was abandoned in December, 1867, when the chapel of the new one, northwest corner of Pennsylvania and Vermont Streets, was ready for occupancy. This building, one of the finest in the city or the State, was begun in 1864, the corner-stone laid May 14, 1866, the chapel occupied Dec. 22, 1867, and the completed edifice dedicated Jan. 9, 1870. The value of the property is now probably one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The membership is eight hundred and four; Sunday school pupils, six hundred and thirty-nine.

Third Presbyterian Church was organized by the Presbytery of Muncie, at the residence of Caleb Scudder, Sept. 23, 1851, twenty-one members of the old First Church getting letters of dismission for that purpose. The leading men were James Blake, Caleb Scudder, John W. Hamilton, Horatio C. Newcomb, Nathaniel Bolton, Dr. William Clinton Thompson, and Charles B. Davis. They first met for worship in Temperance Hall, — now the News building, — and erected the present church, northeast corner of Illinois and Ohio Streets, in 1859. Rev. David Stevenson was the first pastor. He has been succeeded by Rev. George Heckman, Rev. Robert Sloss, and Rev. H. M. Morey. Just at this time the church, now known as the " Tabernacle,'" has no pastor. The membership is three hundred and thirty-five. The Sunday-school, organized Oct. 26, 1851, has two hundred and ninety-five pupils; the value of the property, about sixty thousand dollars.

Fourth Presbyterian Church. — This is a colony of the Second Church as the Third is of the First Church, and was formed almost at the same time. The Fourth was organized on the 30th of November, 1851, by twenty-four members of the Second Church, who were given letters of dismission. Samuel Merrill, Lawrence M. Vance, John L. Ketcham, Alexander H. Davidson, Alexander Graydon, Horace Bassett, Joseph K. Sharpe, Henry S. Kellogg were among the prominent members in this organization. The first pastor was Rev. George M. Maxwell, of Marietta, Ohio. In 1857, September 13th, a fine church edifice was completed and dedicated on the southwest corner of Delaware and Market Streets, now forming part of the Baldwin Block, the congregation selling it a dozen years ago and moving up town to the northwest corner of Pratt and Pennsylvania Streets. Mr. Maxwell retired from ill-health in November, 1868, and was succeeded by Rev. A. L. Brooks in October, 1859. He remained till 1862, and was succeeded by Rev. Charles H. Marshall. The present pastor is Rev. A. H. Carrier. Membership, two hundred and twenty; Sunday-school scholars, two hundred and ninety; value of property, probably sixty thousand dollars.

Fifth Presbyterian Church is a colony of the Third, which purchased a frame mission Sunday school house on Blackford Street, between Vermont and Michigan, in the fall of 1866, and in October the Indianapolis Presbytery authorized the organization of the Fifth Presbyterian Church here, with eighteen members, — twelve from the Third, one from the First, and five from churches out of the city. The present house, on the southwest corner of Michigan and Blackford Streets, was erected in 1873. The first pastor was the Rev. William B. Chamberlin. Present pastor. Rev. Joshua R. Mitchell. Membership, two hundred and ninety-four; Sunday-school pupils, three hundred and eighty; value of property, probably fifteen thousand dollars.

Sixth Presbyterian Church. — This church was organized Nov. 20, 1867, with twenty-one members, and a handsome brick house built on the northeast corner of Union and McCarty Streets in a few years after. The first pastor was Rev. J. B. Brandt, so long secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association. He had two or three successors, but the pastorate is now vacant. The membership is seventy-five; the Sunday-school pupils, one hundred and sixty-two; value of property, probably ten thousand dollars.

Seventh Presbyterian Church. — This was originally a mission branch of the First Church on Elm Street near Cedar. It was the suggestion of an old member of that body, William R. Craig, who hoped to reduce to better order a troublesome juvenile population of the southeast quarter of the city by the influence of a Sunday-school. The scheme worked well, and the mission Sunday-school, established in an old carpenter-shop in 1865, grew into a mission church and a new frame building, on a lot donated by the late Calvin Fletcher and his partners in a tract of city property, in December of that year. The parent church gave Rev. W. W. Sickles as stated supply at the outset, but in 1867, November 27, a church was organized with twenty-three members. Rev. C. M. Howard was the first pastor, who resigned in 1869, and was succeeded for a time by Rev. J. B. Brandt, but finally in 1870 by Rev. Charles H. Raymond. Rev. L. G. Hay preceded him for a few months. Pastorate vacant. Membership, two hundred and fifty-six; Sunday-school pupils, three hundred; value of property, about three thousand dollars.

Eighth Presbyterian Church (Indianola). — Organized Oct. 1, 1871, with seven members. The first pastor was Rev. J. R. Sutherland. Rev. T. C. Horton, stated supply. Location, northeast corner of Market and Drake Streets. Membership, sixty; Sunday-school pupils, one hundred and sixty-six; value of property, probably three thousand dollars.

North Presbyterian Church (Colored). — Organized Feb. 18, 1872, with fourteen members. The first pastor was Rev. L. Faye Walker. Church dissolved in 1880, and reorganized as a colored Presbyterian Church. The building is that on Michigan Street near Tennessee, originally erected by one of the extinct Universalist congregations. The pastor is Rev. William A. Alexander; membership, thirty; Sunday-school pupils, forty-five; value of property, probably eight thousand dollars.

Tenth Presbyterian, or Memorial Church. — The origin of the Memorial Presbyterian Church is to be traced to the action of the session of the Second Presbyterian Church in the winter of 186970, during the pastorate of the .Rev. H. A. Edson. It was the desire to signalize the memorial year of Presbyterian reunion by the establishment of another mission. At a meeting of the session, March 17, 1870, a committee was appointed to secure ground for that purpose in the northeast quarter of the city. Lots were accordingly purchased at the southwest corner of Christian Avenue and Bellefontaine Street, and a temporary building was erected. On the 8th of May, at four o'clock p.m., the house was dedicated, a Sabbath-school having been held there for the first time at 8.30 a.m. of the same day. At first the enterprise gave small promise of success. The Sunday-school had a vacation, and an offer for the purchase of the property was favorably considered. Better counsel, however, prevailed, and at a meeting of the session, Oct. 13, 1870, the whole work was committed to the Young Men's Association of the Second Church. It was prosecuted with energy, and in February, 1873, forty persons reported themselves desirous of entering a formal church organization. At a special meeting of Indianapolis Presbytery, March 3, 1873, the project was fully considered, and the church was constituted March 12th. Immediately upon his release from his former field, Mr. Edson began work on the new ground, holding the first service on the first Sabbath of April. The present site, on the northwest corner of Christian Avenue and Ash Street, was at once purchased for a permanent edifice. On the 7th of April, 1874, the cornerstone was laid, and worship was conducted for the first time in the chapel, March 7, 1875.

A printed report of the board of trustees, January, 1884, shows a property valued at twenty thousand dollars, with considerable resources in real estate, and subscriptions for the continuance and completion of the enterprise. The officers of the society are at present as follows: Pastor, Hanford A. Edson; Ruling Elders, Benjamin A. Richardson, George W. Stubbs, Joseph G. McDowell, James H. Lowes, William P. Ballard, Frank F. McCrea; Deacons, E. A. Burkert, W. J. Roach, Charles H. Libean, C. W. Overman, P. M. Pursell, Joseph E. Cobb, H. H. Linville, I. H. Herrington, A. J. Diddle; Trustees, George W. Stubbs, A. G. Fosdyke, J. H. Lowes, J. W. Elder, C. C. Pierce. Membership, three hundred and sixteen; Sunday-school pupils, four hundred and fifty.

Rev. Hanford A. Edson, D.D. — The Edson family are of English nationality, and trace their lineage from Deacon Samuel Edson, of Bridgewater, Mass., and his wife Susanna, the former of whom died July 9, 1692, and his wife February 20, 1699. In the direct line of descent was Jonah, born July 10, 1751, who died July 21, 1831. To his wife Betsey were born fourteen children, of whom Freeman is the father of the subject of this biographical sketch. His birth occurred Sept. 24, 1791, in Westmoreland, N. H., and his death June 24, 1883, in his ninety-second year. He studied medicine with: Dr. Twitchell, of Keene, and also at Yale College, and at the close of the second war with Great Britain, in 1814, settled at Scottsville, N. Y., in the practice of his profession. Hanford A., his son, born in Scottsville, Monroe Co., N. Y., March 14, 1837, was named for his maternal grandfather, one of the earliest settlers in Western New York. He enjoyed early advantages of tuition at home and at the neighboring district school, and entering the sophomore class of Williams College, Massachusetts, graduated from that institution in 1855. For a large part of the three following years he was instructor in Greek and mathematics in Geneseo Academy, New York. In September, 1858, he was admitted to the Union Theological Seminary, New York City, and for two years prosecuted the study of divinity. In May, 1860, he repaired to Europe and was matriculated in the University of Halle, where especial attention was given to theology and philosophy under the instruction of Tholock, Julius Muller, and Erdman. After extended tours in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, and England, hastened by the war, he returned home. Being licensed to preach by Niagara Presbytery at Lyndonville, Oct. 29, 1861, he assumed charge of the Presbyterian Church at Niagara Falls, and remained until called to the pastorate of the Second Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, where his labors began Jan. 17, 1864. He discontinued his relations with this parish, and became the pastor of the Memorial Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, on the 1st of April, 1873.

Dr. Edson has been the recipient of many ecclesiastical honors. In 1873 he represented the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the National Congregational Council in New Haven, Conn.; and, in 1878, he was commissioned to the same duty before the General Council of the Reformed Episcopal Church in Newark, N. J. He has written largely for the press, and is the author of various magazine articles and published sermons and addresses. Among the latter may be mentioned commencement address at McLean Institute, 1864; commencement address before the theological societies of Marietta College, 1867; address at the dedication of the library and chapel of Wabash College, 1872; commencement address before the theological societies of Hanover College, 1873; semi-centennial address before the synods of Indiana, 1876. His thanksgiving sermon, Nov. 26, 1868, is said to have given special impulse to the establishment of the Indianapolis Public Library.

Dr. Edson was married, July 16, 1867, to Helen M., daughter of William O. Rockwood, Esq., of Indianapolis, and has had the following children: William Freeman, Mary, Hanford Wisner, Elmer Rockwood, Helen Mar, and Caroline Moore. Of these the four last named are living.

Eleventh Presbyterian Church, east side of Olive, north of Willow Street. Organized April 18, 1875, with thirty-seven members. Rev. William B. Chamberlin was the first pastor. Present supply, Rev. C. H. Raymond. Membership, eighty-eight; Sunday-school pupils, one hundred and fifty; value of property, probably four thousand dollars.

Twelfth Presbyterian Church, south side of Maryland Street, west of West Street. Organized June 14, 1876, with fourteen members. First pastor, Rev. E. L. Williams. Rev. C. C. Herriott until very recently was pastor. Membership, one hundred and six; Sunday-school pupils, one hundred and fifty-one; value of property, probably three thousand dollars.

Thirteenth Presbyterian Church. — This is a mission of the Second Church recently organized on Alabama Street, near the Exposition building and fair ground

METHODISTS

Wesley Chapel. — The Methodists of the first settlement of Indianapolis do not seem to have made a church organization till after the Indianapolis Circuit had been constituted by Rev. William Cravens, of the Missouri Conference, in 1822. How long after, or just when, there is no record to show. As early as 1821, Rev. James Scott came here from the St. Louis Conference and held services at private houses, and on the 12th of September, 1822, a camp-meeting was held on the farm of James Givan, on what is now East Washington Street, near the Deaf and Dumb Asylum. It was probably at this time that the Indianapolis Circuit, in connection with the Missouri Conference, was constituted. In 1825 there was a division of the Conference, and this circuit was attached to the Illinois Conference. At this time the Methodists of the town had an organization, and probably had had for a couple of years. In that year they rented a hewed log house on the south side of Maryland Street, on the corner of the alley east of the east end of the Grand Hotel, and worshiped there till they removed to the first old brick church on the southwest corner of Circle and Meridian Streets in 1829. This first building cost them three thousand dollars, and remained till the walls cracked in 18'±6, when it was replaced by Wesley Chapel at a cost of ten thousand dollars.

From the first visit of a Methodist preacher here in 1821, till the division of the church in 1842-43, was a period of twenty years of primitive Methodism, — extempore sermons, "lined out" hymns, congregational singing, separation of the sexes in church, and a sort of clerical uniform for the preachers resembling a little the Quaker fashion.

There are but few survivors of this early period of the Methodist Church here. Rev. John C. Smith is still living in the city, and a few years ago published an interesting book of reminiscences of the prominent preachers and the religious condition of the country at that time. Rev. Greenly H. McLaughlin, though too young to be in the ministry then, was a member of the church and well remembers the early incidents of its history.

Rev. Greenly H. McLaughlin. — The great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch was James, a native of Scotland, who married Nancy Franklin, and emigrating to America settled near Richmond, Va. Among their children was John, who was born in Virginia, and married Miss Herod, a native of Virginia. Their children were James, Francis, John, William, Nancy, and Mary. John, with his family, removed from Virginia to Pittman's Station, Ky., in 1781. His son William, father of the subject of this biography, was born in Virginia Dec. 19, 1779, and died March 26, 1836. He was reared in Kentucky, and later in life removed to Ohio. He married, Dec. 31, 1812, Miss Elizabeth Hannaman. Her grandfather was Christopher Hahnemann, born in Germany, who had seven children, among whom was John, born in Cherry Valley, N. Y., Feb. 15, 1769, and died Nov. 15, 1832. He married Susannah Beebe, born June 11, 1771, who died April 2, 1842. Their children were thirteen in number, of whom Judge Robert L., of Knoxville, Ill., is the only survivor and now in his eightieth year. Elizabeth, their eleventh child, was born in Scioto County, Ohio, Nov. 4, 1795, and died Feb. 3, 1880. She married, as above, William McLaughlin, and had children, —Susannah, Euphemia W., Greenly H., Nancy R., William H., Elizabeth J., and Maria G.

William McLaughlin, who was a soldier of the war of 1812, bought the quarter-section two miles southeast of the court-house, on which the subject of this sketch now resides, at the land-sales at Brookville, in July, 1821, before the lands of the " New Purchase" were subject to entry. There was then no road or " trace" through it, and it was regarded as not first choice; hence he was permitted to bid it off at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. This, however, nearly absorbed his entire capital, leaving only a few dollars for the expenses incident to moving and fixing up. In September of that year he moved upon this purchase and took up his abode in a temporary camp. This soon gave way, however, to a first-class cabin of round logs, eighteen by twenty feet, which for several years did the compound duty of kitchen, parlor, and bedroom, to which was often added the further service of tavern and meetinghouse.

Greenly was at this time four years old, having been born in Fayette County, Ohio, Dec. 24, 1817. His great-grandfather being a Scotch Catholic and his great-grandmother a Scotch Presbyterian, to settle all probable discords on account of differences on religion, it was agreed in advance that the boys who should be born of the marriage should be educated in the Catholic faith and the girls in the faith of their mother. But the pair moved to America and settled near Richmond, Va., before there was much occasion to carry out this agreement, and all in the third generation became Protestants through maternal influence.

Mr. McLaughlin, though only four years old when his father moved from their temporary sojourn (from 1819 to 1821) in Rush County to a more permanent home in Marion, remembers the peculiar trials and pleasures incident to what pioneer life then was in the midst of a dense forest. He recalls the abundance of game and of snakes, and to have seen Indians as they passed to and fro through the country. He remembers that his father once shot a deer standing in his own door-yard, and such was the abundance of squirrels that the killing of them partook more of drudgery than of sport, for if left unmolested they would entirely destroy the small patches of corn that grew in the midst of the heavy timber everywhere abounding. To aid in protecting the crop the children who were too young to handle guns were armed with immense rattles, called horse-fiddles, and sent frequently through the field to drive the thievish " varmints" away. He recalls the primitive schools and the primitive school-houses with the primitive teacher and his primitive rod and ferule. The structures were made of round logs, with doors of clapboards hung on wooden hinges, and with no light except that which struggled through greased paper in the absence of glass. Nearly one entire end was devoted to the fireplace. Such at least was the one which stood on the identical spot now occupied by Mr. McLaughlin's elegant residence, and in which he obtained the knowledge of a, b, c, and other intricacies of the spelling-book. To the ordinary appointments of such houses, the dimensions being eighteen by twenty feet, was added a pulpit in the end opposite to the fireplace, in which the early Methodist, Baptist, and other preachers very frequently expounded the Word to the sturdy yeomanry of the country, and this school-house became so much of a religious center that it was followed by a neat hewed-log and then a frame church on the same farm, and the first camp-meeting ever held in Marion County was held here in 1826, under the management of Rev. John Strange.

The elder McLaughlin and his wife brought with them their membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and soon after their arrival the first class of that church was formed in Indianapolis, of which they became members. His piety and talents were such that he became a leader and exhorter in the church, and was extensively useful as such during the remainder of his life, which ended in 1836. It is hardly to be wondered that under these circumstances, with such a home, a frequent-lodging place for the itinerants of those days, Greenly grew up a Methodist of a most pronounced type, nor surprising that four out of five of his sisters became wives of Methodist preachers.

As Greenly advanced in years the educational advantages of the home log school-house were supplemented by occasional attendance at some of the better schools in the town. He finally became a pupil at the '' Old Seminary," adding frequent turns at teaching in the neighboring districts both as a means of turning an honest penny and as further developing his own mind. In the summer of 1840, Mr. McLaughlin entered Indiana Asbury University with the intention of graduating at that young institution. He was then nearly twenty-three years of age, with a religious character well established, and a fund of theological knowledge much above the average of men of his age just from the plow; hence, when the next year he was licensed to preach the gospel, it is not strange that he at once took a high rank among the student preachers of that institution. Such was the demand for his gratuitous pulpit labors, even at that age, that his studies were seriously interfered with though he held a respectable standing in his class, and at the expiration of two years he yielded to the importunities of friends and gave up his college life altogether to enter upon the pastoral work in the Indiana Conference. His standing as a preacher may be readily inferred from the class of appointments received. He was welcomed at such places as Knightstown, Shelbyville, Brookville, Rushville, and Vincennes. While at Vincennes in 1847 he was tendered the important work of chaplain to the port of Canton, China, under the auspices of The American Seamen's Friend Society, but his health not being sufficiently robust to justify such a mission, he declined. In 1849 he was solicited by Bishop Janes to take a part in the interest of the Methodist Episcopal Church at St. Louis, Mo., but this he also declined for the same reason.

After seven years of successful labor in the pastoral work, including one year as agent for Asbury University, he sought rest and recuperation by returning to country life on the old farm where he now lives. He immediately gave himself to the work of a local preacher while engaged in the work of farming, and has been extensively useful and acceptable in this field. Meanwhile his health improved, but again relapsed, so that he never fell sufficiently strong to assume the work of a pastor.

Mr. McLaughlin is an industrious and successful farmer, as he was, while so engaged, a successful and industrious pastor. In these years of comparative retirement he has kept well read in the theology and literature of his church, after contributing to the columns of the church periodicals valuable papers on theological and ecclesiastical subjects. He lives still on the farm purchased by his father more than sixty years ago, and to which he came when a boy of only four years. He is among the few who have witnessed the growth of the city of Indianapolis from the beginning.

He was married, June 1, 1854, to Mary M. Ball, of Rush County, taking one of the three daughters of the family, all of whom became wives of Methodist preachers. The children of this marriage have been four in number. Zopher Ball, the great-grandfather of Mrs. McLaughlin, was a soldier of the Revolution and resided in Washington County, Pa. He had five sons, — Henry, Caleb, Dennis, Abel, and Isaiah, all of whom were patriots. Caleb, who served in the war of 1812, married Phoebe Walton, of Mercer County, Pa., where he settled early in the present century. His children were Amos, Jonathan, Caleb, Henry, William, Sarah, Mercy, and Aseneth. Jonathan Ball, of this number, was born in Washington County, Pa., Jan. 2, 1797, and removed to Rush County, Ind., in 1835. He later became a resident of Henry County, and died May 13, 1867, in his seventy-first year. He married Aseneth Moore, and had children, — Samuel, Henry, Demas, William, Mary M., Phoebe, Cyrus, Caleb, and Emily, of whom Mary M., born May 8, 1830, is married, as above stated, to Mr. McLaughlin. Their children are Olin S., a successful hardware merchant at Knightstown, Ind., and Wilbur W., yet a minor attending Butler University, and at intervals assisting on the farm, and two who died in infancy.

In 1842-3 the station here was divided, and a new church called Roberts' Chapel was formed. In 1846, as above noted, Wesley Chapel replaced the old church, and was itself sold in 1869 and converted into the Sentinel building, now changed to a block of business houses.

Meridian Methodist Church. — After the sale of Wesley Chapel in 1869 the congregation worshiped in the Michigan Street Church, built by the Universalists, and now a colored Presbyterian Church. It stands on the southwest corner of Meridian and New York Streets. It is of stone, costing about one hundred thousand dollars, and finished in 1870. A brick parsonage is connected with it, which cost about eight thousand dollars. The full membership numbers five hundred and eighty-seven, with ten on probation; Sunday-school attendance, about four hundred. The school has no circulating library, but provides all necessary books and charts for all the pupils. The annual contributions for benevolent purposes, exclusive of five thousand dollars annual expenses, is over one thousand dollars. Rev. John Alabaster, D.D., is pastor. His residence is No. 25 West New York Street; presiding elder, Rev. John K. Pye.

Roberts' Chapel. — Indianapolis station having been divided in 1842 into western and eastern charges, the latter went out from the old hive, and formed an organization, calling itself Roberts' Chapel congregation. In 1843-44 a church building was erected on the northeast corner of Market and Pennsylvania Streets, at a cost of ten thousand dollars, which was at that time the most imposing church edifice in the city, except possibly the second building of the First Presbyterian Church, built very nearly at the same time. In the square base of the spire was set the first town clock in the city, made by John Moffitt, and paid for by a special tax. The Rev. John S. Bayliss was the first pastor. In the basement of this church the first course of lectures ever delivered in the city was given. Here Governor Henry S. Foote, of Mississippi, lectured a short time before the war. Here Jonathan Green, the " reformed gambler," lectured on his first visit. In 1868 the old church, then just a quarter of a century old, was sold, and incorporated in one of the Martindale blocks, now occupied by the counting-room of the Journal newspaper.

Roberts' Park Church. — During the time after the sale of the old chapel till the occupancy of the new church the congregation held services in a frame building near the site of the new one. The latter was completed far enough for use in 1870. It is of dressed limestone, cost one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, including the lot, and is said to be " the finest free-seat church in the United States." The present pastor is Rev. Ross C. Houghton, D.D. The number of members, eight hundred and ninety-one; Sunday-school pupils, six hundred and three; superintendent, H. C. Newcomb; presiding elder. Rev. John Poucher.

California Street Church. — This congregation was originally formed in 1845, for the benefit of the region west of the canal, and called the " western charge." The first preacher was Rev. Wesley Dorsey. A frame building on Michigan Street, west of the canal, was built, and called " Strange Chapel," after John Strange, the third presiding elder in this circuit, in 1825. Soon after the building was removed to Tennessee Street, near Vermont. In 1869 a difficulty occurred in the church in consequence of the desire of some of the prominent members, who had contributed largely to the purchase of the lot and building, to reintroduce the old fashion of the church, — separation of the sexes and congregational singing. A resolution to this effect was adopted, and about half of the congregation withdrew. In the same year the lot on West Michigan Street was sold, and a new brick church built at a cost of thirteen thousand dollars, dedicated Jan. 9, 1870. The " Primitive Methodists" bought the lot, or donated it to the church, and made it a condition of the deed that the old ways should be adhered to. On Sunday, the 8th of January, 1871, however, the church took fire, and was burned to the bare walls, and sold. The congregation had divided before the catastrophe on the question of receiving the pastor assigned by the Conference, Rev. Luther M. Walters, the dissenting portion occupying the abandoned Universalist Church, previously used by Meridian Church congregation. After the fire the part of the congregation still adhering together occupied Kuhn's Hall, with Mr. Walters as pastor. The completion of arrangements for a new church suggested a change of name from that which distinguished so inauspicious a career as that of Strange Chapel, and St. John's Church was adopted. A lot was purchased on the southwest corner of California and North Streets for fourteen hundred dollars, and a building erected to cost about twenty thousand dollars, now estimated, including the lot, at only ten thousand dollars. There are two hundred full members and ten on probation. The Sunday-school has about two hundred pupils, with a similar provision of books to that of Meridian Street. Annual expenses, about fifteen hundred dollars; benevolent contributions, about one hundred dollars. Present pastor. Rev. W. B. Collins, 297 North California Street.

Fletcher Place (formerly Asbury) Church was first organized, in a school-house on South Street near South New Jersey, by Rev. S. T. Cooper, in 1849, and John Dickinson, William L. Wingate, Samuel M. Sibert, Samuel P. Daniels, and John Day were the first board of trustees. Of the original members there remains six, — John Dickinson and wife, Mrs. Nancy Ford, Mrs. Ellen Smith, Mrs. Montieth, Mrs. Tabitha Plank. It was first organized under the name of Depot and East Indianapolis Mission. In 1850 it was called Depot Charge. In 1852 it was called Asbury Chapel, and in 1856 Asbury Church. In 1874 its name was changed to Fletcher Place Methodist Church. The first church building was located on South New Jersey Street, near South Street. It was begun in 1850 and completed in 1852. The present church, a fine brick structure, is located on the corner of South and East Street. It was built about ten years ago, but not fully completed till later. It is valued at thirty-five thousand dollars. The membership, which at first was less than sixty, is now over five hundred. The present pastor is Rev. J. H. Doddridge, B.D. The Sabbath-school has at present on the roll eight hundred and forty-nine members. The officers are A. C. May, superintendent; Mrs. H. Furgeson, assistant; Miss Mollie Roberts, treasurer; Miss Mary Brown, secretary; P. M. Gallihue, chorister; W. T. Ellis, Jr., librarian.

Ames Methodist Church, formerly South City Mission, is located at the head of Union Street, at the intersection of Merrill Street and Madison Avenue. It was organized by twelve members in February, 1867, a mission having been maintained since July of the year before by Rev. Joseph Tarkington, in an unfinished frame on Norwood and South Illinois Streets, till cold weather, and then in an unoccupied grocery-room on Madison Avenue. About the time the church was organized, a Sunday school was formed. Though flourishing well in a moral aspect, the young church was financially straitened, and the trouble continued till the pastor. Rev. Mr. Walters, made a resolute push out of it, and bought the present site and building of the Indianapolis mission Sunday-school for five thousand dollars. Repairs were made to the amount of fifteen hundred dollars, and a good sale of a lot owned by the church on South Illinois Street enabled it to pay off most of the whole expense. It has now two hundred and five full members, seven on probation, and about two hundred pupils in the Sunday-school. Annual expense, about twelve hundred dollars; benevolent contributions, one hundred and twenty-five dollars; present pastor, Rev. C. E. Asbury; value of property, about five thousand dollars.

Blackford Street Church, located on the southeast corner of Blackford and Market Streets, built in 1873-74; property valued at four thousand dollars; membership, one hundred and twenty-five; probationers, forty-three; Sunday-school pupils, one hundred; annual expenses, seven hundred dollars, and aided by Meridian Church; Rev. T. H. Lynch, pastor. The presiding elder. Rev. Dr. Poucher, says, " These churches are all out of debt, and have all improved largely in the last three months."

Grace Church, on the northeast corner of Market and East Streets, was organized in September, 1868, on the request of a number of Methodists "residing in and near Indianapolis," as their memorial to the Conference stated. They believed five thousand dollars could be raised for a suitable church building, and promised to " go forward at once in the enterprise of building a church for the use of such congregation." Rev. W. H. Mendenhall was appointed to the charge, held the first quarterly meeting 19th and 20th of September, 1868, and at the clo.se, one hundred members of Roberts' Chapel united with the mission. The first quarterly Conference was organized Sept. 22, 1868. A site for a church was obtained at once, a house erected, and on the 21st of February, 1869, was dedicated by Bishop Clark. Present pastor Rev. S. G. Bright; membership, three hundred and thirteen; Sunday-school pupils, one hundred and fifty; teachers, sixteen; probable value of property, eighteen thousand dollars.

Third Street Church, on the north side of Third Street between Illinois and Tennessee, was organized from a class of thirty-six, led by Jesse Jones, in 1864. A site was purchased in 1866, and a building commenced for a mission church, under the direction of Ames Institute. Finding themselves unable to finish it, the young men of the institute gave it up to Mr. Jones, who completed it at his own expense. It was dedicated Sept. 8, 1867, by Rev. (now bishop) Thomas Bowman. The present pastor is Rev. E. B. Rawls; membership, one hundred and fifty-four; Sunday-school pupils, two hundred and twenty, under Superintendent Wollever.

East Seventh Street Church, organized in 1874; church building is a frame; membership, two hundred and fifty-six; Sunday-school pupils, two hundred and twelve; pastor, M. L. Wells; school superintendent, H. C. Durbin; value of property, nine thousand dollars.

Central Avenue Church was organized in June, 1877. It was formed by the consolidation of Trinity and Massachusetts Avenue Churches, both of which were located in the northeastern part of the city. The consolidated organization leased an eligible lot situate on the northeast corner of Central Avenue and Butler Street, and removed to it the building formerly occupied by the Massachusetts Avenue Society. This building was enlarged so as to comfortably accommodate the membership of the church. The lot has since been purchased, and is now owned by the church. It is the present plan of the society to erect at an early date a plain and substantial church edifice. The location of the church is an excellent one, and by careful and prudent management Central Avenue Church will, without doubt, be one of the largest and most effective organizations of the denomination in this city. Number of members, three hundred and seventy; value of church property, ten thousand dollars; names of former pastors, Rev. B. F. Morgan, Rev. Reuben Andrus, D.D., Rev. J. N. Beard; present pastor. Rev. Abijah Marine, D.D.; total number of officers and teachers in the Sunday-school, thirty-six; scholars, three hundred and fifty; Sunday-school officers, superintendent, W. D. Cooper; assistant superintendents, W. B. Barry, Mrs. C. T. Nixon; secretary, H. G. Harmaman; treasurer, Miss Sallie Pye; librarian, Jefferson Cuylor.

Edwin Ray Church, southwest comer of Woodlawn Avenue and Linden Street; organized in 1874; frame building; membership, one hundred and fifty-two; Sunday-school pupils, one hundred and fifty; John Jones, school superintendent; pastor, Rev. William B. Clancy.

Coburn Street Church, on northwest corner of Coburn and McKernan Streets.

Simpson Chapel, corner of Howard and Second Streets; pastor, Rev. Charles Jones.

First German Church, southwest corner of New York and New Jersey Streets; pastor. Rev. Otto Wilke; organized in 1849, with fifteen members. The first church building was erected in 1850 on Ohio Street, between New Jersey and East. The first trustees wore William Hannaman, Henry Tutewiler, John Koeper, Frederick Truxess, and John B. Stumph. A more commodious building was needed, and in 1869 was erected on the present site, which was purchased in December, 1868. The dedication took place on the 17th of April, 1871, the ceremonies being conducted by Professor Loebenstein (of Berea College, Ohio), Dr. William Nast, and Rev. H. Liebert. The membership is about two hundred and fifty, and the Sunday-school has over two hundred pupils. The value of the church property is about thirty thousand dollars.

Second German Church, northeast corner of Prospect and Spruce Streets; pastor, Rev. John Bear.

North Indianapolis Church. — No pastor and no report of Sunday-school attendance. Brightwood Church, not included in the statements of either of the Conferences which divide Indianapolis and Centre township.

COLORED METHODISTS

Forty-eight years ago, among the earliest churches of the city following the pioneer bodies, a colored Methodist Church was organized here, called Bethel Chapel now. It stood on Georgia Street, fronting the open ground to the south, which then extended with hardly a break by house or fence to the river. The house was a cheap little frame, erected about the year 1840-41, and the leading man was the late Augustus Turner. Rev. W. R. Revels, brother of the United States senator from Mississippi, was pastor for four years, from 1861 to 1865. For a number of years after the completion of the first little church Rev. Paul Quinn, of Baltimore (later a bishop of the Colored Methodist Church, and a man of marked ability, and as highly esteemed even in those days as any of his white coadjutors), visited the city and preached there. His arrival was the signal for a revival, and many a peculiarly enthusiastic time have the brethren had on the floor while the sedate old bishop stood in the pulpit and looked complacently on, but never giving any encouragement to the boisterous glory of the especially ecstatic members. In 1857, when the first Episcopal Church was removed to make way for the present edifice, it was bought by the Bethel Church and moved to Georgia Street, where it was burned in two or three years. The congregation now has a fine brick edifice on Vermont Street, northeast corner of Columbia; pastor, Rev. Morris Lewis; membership, about six hundred, Sunday-school pupils, about three hundred.

Allen Church, east side of Broadway, north of Cherry. West Mission, west side of Blackford Street, near North.

Zion Church, on the northeast corner of Blackford and North Streets, Rev. Thomas Manson pastor. The colored churches belong to the Lexington Conference.

METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH,

on the southeast corner of Dillon Street and Hoyt Avenue, Rev. Seymore S. Stanton pastor.

CHRISTIANS.

Central Chapel. — This is the oldest religious organization in the city after the three pioneer churches of the three leading denominations at that time. It was made on the 12th of June, 1833. Rev. John O'Kane, who died but two or three years ago in Missouri, visited the city in the fall of 1832, and gave the first impulse to the organization. Of the original twenty members there are none living now but Mrs. Zerelda Wallace, widow of Governor Wallace. Mr. O'Kane and Rev. Love H. Jameson visited the infant church occasionally, as they had an opportunity, and in 1834 or 1835 Rev. James McVey came and held a protracted meeting in the lower room of the old seminary, then recently completed, and won quite an addition of converts. The leading members in the early days of the organization were Robert A. Taylor (father of Judge Taylor, of the Superior Court), Dr. John H. Sanders (father of Mrs. Governor Wallace, Mrs. R. B. Duncan, Mrs. D. S. Beaty, and Mrs. Dr. Gatling, of gun fame), Ovid Butler, James Sulgrove, Leonard Woollen, Cyrus T. Boaz, John Woollen, Charles Secrist. The preachers who visited the church most frequently were, as already noted. Rev. John O'Kane, subsequently noted as a debater in theological duels with logical arms. Rev. Love H. Jameson, Rev. John L. Jones, very recently deceased after long years of partial or total blindness. Rev. Michael Combs, Rev. Andrew Prather, Rev. Thomas Lockhart, and Rev. T. J. Matlock. On the 18th of March, 1839, Rev. Chauncey Butler, father of the late Ovid Butler, founder of Butler University, served as pastor for about a year, and Butler K. Smith, a blacksmith on Delaware Street, whose residence stood where the present Central Chapel stands, occasionally preached. He subsequently devoted himself wholly to the ministry, and made a very able and efficient preacher. The first regular pastor was Rev. Love H. Jameson, who took charge Oct. 1, 1842, and remained till 1853.

Love H. Jameson was born in Jefferson County, May 17, 1811, of Virginia parents, who came to Kentucky, the father in 1795, the mother in 1803. In 1810 they settled on Indian Kentucky Creek-, in Jefferson County. He was educated at a country school in winter, and helped his father on the farm in summer from 1818 to 1828. He began preaching on Christmas eve, 1829. He taught himself the classic languages to such a degree of proficiency as to entitle himself to the degree of A.M. from Butler University, and also made himself equally familiar with music, which lie occasionally taught in the city after he became pastor of the church here. He was married first in 1837 to Miss Elizabeth M. Clark, who dropped dead in the garden when seemingly in perfect health, on 18th June, 1841. In the summer of 1842 he married his present wife, Miss Elizabeth K. Robinson, and brought her with him to Indianapolis when he first came to assume his pastorate. He has one son still living by his first wife, and seven children by his second, of whom two sons are dead. Mr. Jameson served for many years as trustee of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, and was one of the foremost of those engaged with Mr. Butler in founding the Northwestern Christian (now Butler) University. During the war he was chaplain of the Seventy-ninth Regiment, Col. Fred. Knefler, and after nearly two years of service resigned from ill health and general disability, for which he is now in receipt of a moderate pension. Since his retirement from the pastorate of the First Christian Church, in 1853, he has been chiefly engaged in serving congregations throughout the county, and occasionally in remote localities. Last fall he went to Europe, at the invitation of a Mr. Coop, a member of the church, a wealthy Englishman living 'at Southport. He will make a tour of Europe and the Holy Land before he returns.

In the summer of 1836 the church built its first house of worship on Kentucky Avenue, about halfway between Maryland and Georgia Streets, on the southeast side. Here the church remained till 1852, when the present Central Chapel, southwest corner of: Delaware and Ohio Streets, was completed. In that year, or the year before. Rev. Alexander Campbell visited the city and preached in Masonic Hall, the only visit he ever made here. The present pastor of Central Chapel is Rev. David Walk. The number of members is seven hundred and fifty-two; of Sunday school pupils, about four hundred; value of property, probably fifty thousand dollars.

Second Church (Colored), corner Fifth and Illinois Street; organized in 1868. Present pastor, LeRoy Redd; present membership, seventy-five; Sunday-school pupils, one hundred and twenty; value of property, probably three thousand dollars.

Third Church, corner Ash Street and Home Avenue; organized Jan. 1, 1869. First pastor Elijah Goodwin. Charter members, seventy; present pastor, S. B. Moore; present membership, two hundred and thirty-seven; Sunday-school, about two hundred pupils; value of property, about ten thousand dollars.

Fourth Church, corner Pratt and West Streets, organized in 1867. First pastor, John B. New. The present pastor is E. P. Wise; present membership, one hundred; Sunday-school, one hundred and fifty; value of property, about five thousand dollars.

The Fifth Church, Olive Branch, was organized in 1868, but lost its meeting-house in the fall of 1880, and the members were scattered to the other churches, principally to the First and Sixth.

Sixth Church, corner Elm and Pine Streets, organized Feb. 14, 1875. Pastor, no regular. Present pastor, J. W. Conner; present membership, two hundred and twelve.

CATHOLICS

The following account of the Catholic Churches and Institutions of Indianapolis is furnished for this work by the kindness of Rev. Dennis O'Donoughue, chancellor of the diocese.

The first Catholic Church in Indianapolis was built in 1840 by the Rev. Vincent Bacquelin, then residing in Shelbyville, in this State. It was called Holy Cross Church, and was situated near West between Washington and Market Streets. Father Bacquelin was killed by a fall from his horse, Sept. 2, 1846, in a wood near Shelbyville. His successor was the Rev. John McDermott, who had charge of Holy Cross Church for several years. The next clergyman in charge was the Rev. Patrick J. R. Murphy, who was transferred to another congregation in 1848. He was succeeded by the Rev. John Gueguen, who commenced the erection of the old St. John's Church in 1850. This edifice fronted on Georgia Street, and was located on the spot where the bishop's residence now stands. Father Gueguen was succeeded by the Rev. Daniel Moloney, who, in 1857, built an addition to the church. This same year the Rev. A. Bessonies took charge of the congregation, a position which he still retains.

The Sisters of Providence built a young ladies' academy on the corner of Georgia and Tennessee Streets, in 1858, which they occupied until their present academy was built in 1873. The school building for boys was commenced in 1865, and was completed the following year, when the Brothers of the Sacred Heart took charge of the school. The pastoral residence was built in 1863, and was enlarged by Bishop Chatard, when he took up his residence here in 1878.

The present St. John's Church, fronting on Tennessee Street, was commenced in 1867. It is the largest church edifice in the city, measuring two hundred and two feet in length and having a seating capacity of one thousand six hundred. St. John's congregation numbers at present four thousand souls. The parish schools are attended by five hundred children. There are several religious and benevolent societies attached to the congregation, of which the following are the principal: The Sodality for men, established in 1860, with a membership of one hundred; the Living Rosary Society for women, having one hundred and thirty-two members; the Young Ladies' Sodality, organized in 1877, with eighty-five members; the Cathedral Altar Society, two hundred and twenty-five members; Boys' Sodality, seventy members; Sodality of the Children of Mary, one hundred and fifty members; Total Abstinence Society, eighty members; Knights of Father Mathew, seventy members; Catholic Knights of America, one hundred members; the St. Vincent de Paul Society for the relief of the poor, composed of men and women, seventy-five members.

St. Mary's German Catholic Church, situate near the corner of Maryland and Delaware Streets, was commenced in 1857, and was opened for service the following year by the Rev. L. Brandt, its first pastor. The next pastor was the Rev. Simon Siegrist, who had charge of the congregation until his death, in 1879. He was succeeded by the Rev. A. Scheideler, the present pastor. The congregation has large school buildings for boys and girls. St. Mary's Academy was built in 1876 by the Sisters of St. Francis from Oldenburgh, in this State, at a cost of forty thousand dollars. The pastoral residence attached to the church was built in 1871, at a cost of eight thousand five hundred dollars.

St. Mary's congregation numbers one thousand five hundred souls. There are three hundred and ten children attending the parish schools. The following religious and benevolent societies are attached to the congregation: St. Mary's Altar Society, two hundred members; St. Joseph's Aid Society, one hundred and forty members; St. Boniface Aid Society, one hundred and ten members; St. Rose's Young Ladies' Sodality, one hundred and fifty members; St. Anthony's Church and School Society, seventy-five members.

St. Patrick's congregation was formed in 1865. That year the congregation built a church at the terminus of Virginia Avenue, of which the Rev. Joseph Petit was the first pastor. He was succeeded by the Rev. P. R. Fitzpatrick in 1869, who commenced the erection of a new church the following year. St. Patrick's Church is built of brick, and is in the form of a cross, Gothic style, with a spire of neat design over the intersection of the transept. It is one hundred and ten feet in length and has a seating capacity of six hundred and fifty. The present pastor is the Rev. H. O'Neill, who succeeded the late Father McDermott in 1882. The congregation numbers one thousand four hundred souls. There are two parish schools, attended by two hundred children. The boys' school is under the management of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart; the girls' school is taught by the Sisters of Providence in the building formerly used as a church. The following are the societies attached to the church: St. Patrick's Altar Society, one hundred and twenty members; Young Ladies' Sodality, one hundred and sixty members; Men's Sodality, one hundred and thirty members; Children of Mary Society, sixty members; St. Patrick's Benevolent Society, forty members.

St. Joseph's congregation was organized in 1873 by the Rev. Joseph Petit. He erected a two-story building on East Vermont Street, which was to serve as church, school, and pastoral residence. He resigned in 1874, and was succeeded by Rev. F. M. Mousset, and later by Rev. E. J. Spelman. This building was afterwards remodeled by Bishop de St. Palais and converted into a diocesan seminary. St. Joseph's congregation, in 1880, purchased ground on the corner of North and Noble Streets, and built the new church in which they now worship. This church is of Gothic style, one hundred and thirty feet in length, and cost seventeen hundred dollars. A pastoral residence was built in 1881 costing two thousand five hundred dollars. A large school building has just been erected by the Sisters of Providence, which is to serve as a parish school for boys and girls of this congregation. The number of children in attendance is about two hundred. The congregation numbers twelve hundred souls. The Rev. H. Alerding is the pastor. He has had charge of the congregation since 1874. The following societies are attached to the congregation: St. Aloysius Society for Boys, thirty members; Children of Mary, forty members; St. Joseph's Confraternity for Young Men, fifty members; Society of the Immaculate Conception, one hundred and six members; St. Michael's Confraternity for Men, forty-five members; St. Ann's Confraternity for Married Women, eighty-five members; St. Joseph's Association, four hundred members.

The Church of the Sacred Heart, for the German Catholics living in the southern part of the city, was built in 1875, and is situate on the corner of Union and Palmer Streets. The building first erected, and which served as a church, school, and monastery, became insufficient, and a new church was commenced in the summer of the present year. It is not yet completed, but will be soon opened for service. The clergymen attending this church are priests of the Order of St. Francis, known as Franciscans. The present pastor is the Rev. Ferdinand Bergmeyer, who is superintending the erection of the new church. There are parish schools for boys and girls. The latter is under the charge of the Sisters of St. Joseph, who erected a school building and residence in 1875. About two hundred children attend these schools. The congregation numbers eleven hundred souls. The following societies are attached to the church: St. Bonaventure's Society, one hundred and forty members; St. Mary's Altar Society, one hundred and thirty members; St. Cecilia's Singing Society, sixty members; Young Ladies' Sodality, seventy members; Emerald Beneficial Association, thirty-five members; Catholic Knights of America, thirty-five members.

St. Bridget's Church, on the corner of West and St. Clair Streets, was opened for service on the 1st day of January, 1880. It was built under the supervision of Rev. D. Curran, the present pastor, and has a seating capacity of five hundred. The congregation is now large enough to fill it twice on Sunday, the number of souls being over one thousand. The church measures one hundred and six feet by forty-four, and cost eleven thousand dollars. A pastoral residence adjoining the church was erected in 1882, costing twelve hundred dollars. A large school building was erected in 1881 near the church by the Sisters of St. Francis, from Oldenburgh, at a cost of eleven thousand dollars. There are one hundred and fifty children in attendance. The societies attached to the church are: The Sodality for Men, sixty members; Young Ladies' Sodality, seventy members; Altar Society, seventy members; First Communion Society, fifty members.

The Home for the Aged Poor, conducted by the Little Sisters of the Poor, was founded in 1873, and is situate on Vermont Street, between East and Liberty. These sisters take charge of the aged and destitute, and support them by soliciting alms from the public who are charitably disposed. They rely entirely on the means obtained in this way. They receive no one into their house except such as are old and destitute. This community was founded in France in 1840, and it has now in charge two hundred and twenty-three houses in different parts of Europe and America.

The House of the Good Shepherd, situate south of the city on the Bluff road, was founded in 1873. The city authorities donated a building partly finished, and which was intended for a female reformatory. The object of this institution is to afford an asylum to females whose virtue is exposed to danger, or to reclaim such as have fallen and desire to amend their lives The rules are founded on the strictest principles of Christian charity, and no one is received except she is willing to enter; hence the asylum is in no sense a compulsory prison. The inmates are divided into two classes, — the penitents, or those who have fallen from virtue, and in whose case, as a sanitary precaution, certain conditions are required; and the class of perseverance, or those who seek refuge from danger to which they are exposed. These two classes are entirely separated from each other, and are under the care of different members of the community. The period for which persons are usually received is two years, after which they are either returned to their friends or the sisters try to find situations for them. This community does its work in silence, away from the noise of the world, and but few are aware of the good that it accomplishes.

St. Vincent's Infirmary, situate on Vermont Street near Liberty, was established by Bishop Chatard in 1881. It is in charge of the Sisters of Charity from Baltimore. The building used is the Old St. Joseph's Church and Seminary. The sisters intend to locate the infirmary in another part of the city soon, when they will erect a new and suitable building. The Sisters of Charity are a religious community founded by St. Vincent de Paul in 1633. Its object is the care of the poor, especially the sick, and its members are everywhere the servants of the poor and afflicted. The destitute who enter the infirmary are supported by the alms which the sisters solicit. Contributions are received from those who may be able to pay for the service rendered them, and the means obtained in this way go to the support of the institution. There is no religious distinction made in regard to those received into this infirmary.

Rev. John Francis August Bessonies. — The grandfather of Father Bessonies was Dubousquet de Bessonies, who during the horrors of the French revolution of 1793 thought prudent to drop the "de," a title of nobility, which was, however, again assumed by the family in 1845, but never by the subject of this sketch. His great-uncle, a Catholic priest, was arrested as such, and about to be transported or drowned when happily released by the death of Robespierre. The parents of Father Bessonies were John Baptist Bessonies and Henrietta Moisinac. Their son was born at the village of Alzac, parish of Sousceyrac, department du Lot, diocese of Cahors, on the 17th of June, 1815, and is one of four surviving children. A sister died an Ursuline nun after twenty-five years of religious life. August (as Father Bessonies now writes his name) was placed under the instruction of a priest of a neighboring parish, but made little improvement. On attaining his tenth year he was placed with the Picpucians, and spent a year in preparation for a collegiate course. Here he made his first communion, and was confirmed by Monseigneur Guilaume Baltazar de Grandville, said to be closely allied to Napoleon First. After two years at the latter school he repaired to the Petit Seminaire of Montfaucon, and spent seven years in pursuing the classics and rhetoric. In 1834 he entered the famous seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris, and spent two years at Issy in the study of mathematics, philosophy, and natural philosophy. In 1836 he entered the great seminary as a divinity student, and at the expiration of the first year received the sacred order of subdeaconship and the second year that of deaconship. In 1836 he offered his services to Right Rev. Simon Gabriel Brute, Bishop of Vincennes, in Indiana. After completing his studies the young man left for America and arrived, after a tedious journey, in 1839. Having been ordained priest in 1840, his earliest mission was in Perry County, where thirteen years were spent. During this period he founded the town of Leopold and erected two stone and three wooden churches. Severing his very happy relations with the parishes of Perry County, he removed to Fort Wayne in 1853, and remained one year, meanwhile erecting a church and parsonage. His next mission was Jefferson villa and the Knobs, where during a period of four years he held service regularly, never missing an appointment. He completed the church at the Knobs, built a parsonage and enlarged the church at Jeffersonville, and secured a fine lot for the present church. In 1857 he became pastor of St. John's Church, Indianapolis. He raised the first cross in the city on the old St. John's Church, which is still in use on the vault of St. John's Cemetery. He the following spring erected the St. John's Academy, where a school was opened by the Sisters of Providence in 1859, and soon after built a parsonage. The Catholic cemetery now in use was purchased with . his private means. Soon after a school building for boys was erected, and at the same time the St. Peter's Church edifice, now used as a school building. In 1867 was begun the present St. John's Cathedral, which was opened for worship in 1877, and cost about one hundred thousand dollars. He was also instrumental in obtaining from the city, ground for the buildings occupied by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd and the Little Sisters of the Poor. Father Bessonies was appointed vicar-general by the bishop of the diocese, and later administrator of the Diocese of Vincennes by the Archbishop of Cincinnati. His zeal in the cause of temperance has won for him the affectionate regard of citizens irrespective of creed, and prompted, on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his pastorate and his departure for Europe, the presentation of a purse of four hundred dollars, with a graceful address by the mayor of the city. Father Bessonies continues to fill the offices of rector of the cathedral, vicar-general of the diocese, and agent for the orphans' asylum. He manifests the same earnest spirit in his life-work and enjoys as ever the esteem and love of his parishioners.

EPISCOPALIANS

Christ Church was organized in 1837. There had been an occasional clergyman in the settlement, and he had held occasional services at private houses, through a period reaching nearly as far back towards the first settlement as the early services of any denomination, but the Episcopal was the weakest numerically of all the leading sects, and took longer to grow up to organizing and building strength. Among the clergymen who were here temporarily were, first. Rev. Melanchthon Hoyt, then Rev. J. C. Clay (afterwards Dr. Clay, of Philadelphia), Rev. Mr. Pfeiffer, and Rev. Henry Shaw. The end of the transition period came with Rev. James B. Britton, in 1837; as a missionary he held regular services in July of that year. Three months before a movement towards organization had been made, and with the arrival of Mr. Britton it was advanced a step and completed. On the 13th of July, less than a week after Mr. Britton's first ministration, a meeting was held and the following agreement made:

"We, whose names are hereunto affixed, impressed with the importance of the Christian religion, and wishing to promote its holy influence in the hearts and lives of ourselves, our families, and our neighbors, do hereby associate ourselves together as the parish of Christ Church, in the town of Indianapolis, township of Centre, county of Marion, State of Indiana, and by so doing do recognize the jurisdiction of the missionary bishop of Indiana, and do adopt the constitution and canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

Joseph M. Moore, D. D. Moore, Charles W. Cady, T. B. Johnson, George W. Mears, Thomas McOuat, Janet McOuat, William Hannaman, A. St. Clair, Mrs. Browning, Miss Howell, Miss Gordon, Mrs. Riley, Miss Drake, Mrs. Julia A. McKenny, G. W. Starr, Mrs. G. W. Starr,. James Morrison, A. G. Willard, M. D. Willard, James Dawson, Jr., Edward J. Dawson, Joseph Farbos, Nancy Farbos, Joseph Norman, Joanna Norman, Stewart Crawford, John W. Jones, Edward Boyd, Mrs. Stevens.

Indianapolis, July 13, 1837.

Under this organization an election for vestrymen, on the 21st of August, resulted in the choice of Arthur St. Clair, senior warden, Thomas McOuat, junior warden, James Morrison, Joseph M. Moore, and William Hannaman. On the 7th of May, 1838, the corner-stone of the first church was laid with suitable ceremonies, and that was the first cornerstone laid in Indianapolis. One of the members made a deposit in it of the first silver coins of the dime and half-dime class ever brought to the town. On the 18th of November following the edifice was opened for worship, and consecrated on the 16th day of December by Bishop Kemper. In 1857 it was removed to Georgia Street for the colored (Bethel) church, and burned soon after. The present thoroughly ecclesiastical edifice, orthodoxically covered with ivy, was finished in 1860, the chime of bells, the only one in the city, put up in the spring of 1861, and the spire completed in 1869. The membership is three hundred and fifty, Sunday-school pupils, two hundred. Value of the property, seventy-five thousand dollars. Rector, Rev. B. A. Bradley.

St. George's Chapel, a little stone mission church on the corner of Morris and Church Streets, was built some half-dozen years ago by the Christ Church congregation. It is served by Rev. Mr. Bradley, has about two hundred children attending the Sunday school, and the value of the property is about two thousand dollars.

St. Paul's Cathedral, the largest Protestant Episcopal Church in the city, is situate on the southeast corner of Illinois and New York Streets. The parish was organized, in 1866, by the Rev. Horace Stringfellow. The first services were held in Military Hall, which was in the building located on East Washington Street, over Craft & Co.'s, and Cathoart, Clelland & Co.'s stores. The present edifice has a seating capacity of ten hundred and fifty, besides the chapel, which will seat about two hundred and fifty. The present edifice was erected in 1869, at a cost of about ninety thousand dollars. The number of communicants, three hundred and twenty-one. Bishop, Right Rev. D. B. Knickerbacker, D.D.; dean and rector, Rev. Joseph S. Jenckes. Sunday-school, one hundred-

St. James' Mission, located on West Street above Walnut, is also under control of St. Paul's Cathedral, and possesses a neat little edifice, erected in 1875 at a cost of seven thousand dollars; has a flourishing Sunday-school of one hundred scholars. Full service is held every Sunday evening by Rev. Mr. Jenckes. Will seat about two hundred.

Grace Church, at the corner of Pennsylvania and St. Joseph Streets, has a good building with seating capacity of about two hundred and fifty, with large school-room. Is at present closed as a church, but Bishop Knickerbacker will have it reopened as soon as possession can be obtained, as it has been rented for school purposes.

Holy Innocents, on Fletcher Avenue, has a neat frame building; seating capacity about two hundred. Has seventy-three communicants. Until recently under charge of Rev. Willis D. Engle.

REFORMED EPISCOPAL

Trinity, on the northwest corner of Alabama and North Streets

LUTHERANS

First English Lutheran Church, organized Jan. 22, 1837. P. W. Seibert, one of the early hardware merchants of the city, was president, and Elijah Martin, secretary. The first elders were Adam Haugh and Henry Ohr, who, like Rev. Abraham Reck, the first pastor, were Maryland men. The first deacons were King English (father of Joseph K., formerly county commissioner) and Philip W. Seibert. The first house was a brick of one story on the south side of Ohio Street, near Meridian, but not on the corner. It was built in 1838. Mr. Reck resumed the pastorate in 1840, and was succeeded by Rev. A. A. Timper. Mr. Reck died in Lancaster, O., in 1869. His son, Luther, entered the Indianapolis company of the First Indiana Regiment in the Mexican war, and was drowned while swimming in the Rio Grande, at Matamoras, where the regiment was stationed. During the pastorate term of Rev. J. A. Kunkleman, about 1860, the church was torn down and another built on the southwest corner of New York and Alabama Streets, which was dedicated in 1861. A few years ago this church was sold and a ' third built on the corner of Pennsylvania and Walnut Streets. The present pastor is Rev. John Baltzley, The membership is one hundred and two; Sunday school pupils, seventy-five; value of property about eighteen thousand dollars.

St. Paul's (German), on the corner of East and Georgia Streets, was organized June 5, 1844. The first church was built on Alabama Street below Washington, and dedicated May 11, 1845; first pastor. Rev. Theodore J. G. Kuntz. In 1860, another church was built on the corner of East and Georgia Streets, and dedicated Nov. 3, 1860, by Rev. Dr. Wynckan, president of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod. In the rear of the church two school-houses have been built, where a parochial school has been maintained for twenty years. A parsonage on East and Ohio Streets was built in 1869, and in 1870 the cemetery south of Pleasant Run, on the east side of the Three Notch road, already referred to, was purchased and laid out. The present pastor is Rev. Charles C. Schmidt. The membership is over two hundred, and the Sunday-school attendance is about four hundred. The value of the church property is about sixty thousand dollars.

Second Lutheran Church (German), on the northeast corner of First and Ohio Streets. The pastor is Rev. Peter Seuel; membership, one hundred and fifteen; Sunday-school pupils, two hundred; value of property, probably twenty thousand dollars.

Zion's Church (German) was organized in 1840 by the German members of the First English Lutheran Church. They wanted services in their own language, and formed the new organization for that purpose. The first pastor was the Rev. J. G. Kuntz, who was later the first pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, who served until 1842. The congregation was then without a pastor till 1844, when Rev. J. P. Isensee was called. The first church building was erected where the present one is in 1844, and was dedicated in 1845, May 18th. In 1866 the present house was begun, the corner-stone laid July 1, 1866, and the dedication celebrated Feb. 5, 1867. The church has about two hundred members, and the Sunday-school one hundred and fifty pupils. The value of the church property is over thirty thousand dollars.

First Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church, southeast corner of McCarty and Beaty Streets.

Second Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church, east side of New Jersey Street, south of Merrill.

During about a year, in 1882-83, a small Danish mission church was maintained in a neat little frame building on South Missouri Street, below Merrill. The " wash" of the west bank of Pogue's Creek at that point cut away the ground between the church and the creek, and finally cut under the house, and the congregation moved. The building was turned into a little grocery-store.

GERMAN REFORMED

Emanuel Church, on the northwest corner of Coburn and New Jersey Streets; Rev. H. Helming, pastor.

First Church, east side of Alabama, south of Market Street; pastor, Rev. John Rettig. The first steps in the organization of this church were taken by Rev. George Long, who came here as a missionary of the German Reformed denomination — chiefly followers of Zwingle and Calvin — in 1851, and preached till the following spring, 1852, when he organized the First Church, and they began the erection of the church, which was completed and dedicated in October, 1852. In 1856, Mr. Long resigned, and Rev. M. G. I. Stern succeeded. The membership is over two hundred, and the Sunday-.school attendance about as large. The value of the property is about fifteen thousand dollars.

Second Church, west side of East Street, opposite Stevens Street. Organization was made in the summer of 1867 by some members of a former church who lived in the southeastern part of the city. Rev. Mr. Steinbach, who had served here as a Lutheran minister, took the church first, resigning at the end of the year 1867. Rev. M. G. I. Stern was selected in place of Mr. Steinbach, and under him the mission was changed to the " Second German Reformed Church." Mr. Stern is still the pastor. A German-English parochial school of one hundred pupils is connected with the church, under two teachers. Membership, about one hundred and fifty-six; the attendance at Sunday-school, nearly double that; value of property, about twelve thousand dollars.

GERMAN EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION

First Church, on the southeast corner of New Jersey and Wabash Streets; organized June 19, 1855, with twenty-one members, as the Immanuel Church of the Evangelical Association of Indianapolis. Rev. Joseph Fisher is the pastor. The membership is about two hundred; the Sunday-school attendance, about two hundred; value of property, probably twelve thousand dollars

FRIENDS

Their meeting-house is on the southwest corner of Delaware and St. Clair Streets. The ministers are Joseph J. Mills, Anna Mills, Calvin W. Pritchard, Jane Trueblood, and Sarah Smith. The organization was made in 1854, and the first minister Mrs. Hannah Pierson. Membership, about two hundred and fifty; value of property, twelve thousand dollars.

CONGREGATIONALISTS

Plymouth Church, organized Aug. 9, 1857, by thirty-one members, who for some months previously had maintained religious services and a Sunday school in the Senate Chamber of the old State House. The chamber was used most of the time, till the congregation removed to their first church on Meridian Street, opposite Christ Church (Episcopal). This edifice was begun in the fall of 1858, and the front part, containing the lecture-room, study, and social rooms, was completed and occupied in September, 1859. The remainder was finished and dedicated, after much improving, on the 30th of April, 1871, when the Rev. Joseph L. Burnett was made pastor. The first pastor was Rev. N. A. Hyde, now of the Mayflower Church. He began in the fall of 1866, and resigned the pastorate in August, 1867, to assume the duties of superintendent of the American Home Missionary Society for this State. Within the present year (1884) this church has completed and occupied a new and very fine church edifice on the southeast corner of Meridian and New York Streets. The value of it is estimated at forty thousand dollars. The membership is not counted by the number of communicants but by the number attending the church services, averaging about six hundred in the morning and seven to eight hundred young people in the evening.

Mayflower Church, St. Clair and East Streets, was organized from a Sunday-school formed by the Young Men's Christian Association, at a private house on the corner of Jackson and Cherry Streets, May 23, 1869. There were thirteen original members, — five from Plymouth Church, two from the Third Street Methodist Church, one from Roberts Park Church, and three from the Fourth Presbyterian Church. The church edifice was completed and dedicated in January, 1870. It is a frame building, worth now with the lot probably ten thousand dollars. The membership is one hundred and fifty; Sunday-school attendance, one hundred and eighty.

Rev. Nathaniel A. Hyde, first pastor of Plymouth Church, is the present pastor of Mayflower Church. Rev. Nathaniel Alden Hyde, D.D., pastor of the Mayflower Congregational Church of Indianapolis, has been actively identified with the general, as well as the religious, interests of the city and State for upwards of twenty years. Like many other prominent and useful men of the West, he is of New England origin, and of genuine Pilgrim stock. He was born May 10, 1827, in Stafford, Conn. His father, Nathaniel Hyde, was a thrifty and successful iron-founder. His mother, whose maiden name was Caroline Converse, was a direct descendant of John Alden, one of the Pilgrims coming in the " Mayflower" and landing on Plymouth Rock. This honorable ancestry was recognized by his parents, doubtless with commendable pride, in the name which they gave to their son, — Nathaniel for the father, and Alden for the Pilgrim father. The death of the father early left the son to the entire care and training of the mother, between whom and himself there ever existed a peculiarly tender and intimate relation till she was removed by death in his ripe and successful manhood. This devoted mother was very desirous that her son should enter the gospel ministry, and, very early in his life, laid her plans for him accordingly. At the age of twelve years he entered Monson Academy, then a very popular and flourishing school in the town of Monson, which was just across the line from his native town, in the State of Massachusetts. Here he pursued his preparatory studies for four years, entering Yale College at the age of sixteen, and graduating from that institution at twenty years of age in the class of 1847. His professional studies were pursued at Andover Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in the class of 1851. After graduation, and before beginning his long and useful work in Indianapolis, he spent seven years in somewhat desultory work in his profession. During a portion of 1851-52 he preached in Central Village, Conn., and in 1852-53 in Rockville, Conn. He then became assistant secretary of the Children's Aid Society in New York City, a position which he held from 1854 to 1856. After preaching for a short time in Deep River, Conn., in 1857 he turned his face and steps westward. On the 23rd day of December in this latter year he was ordained at Columbus, Ohio, remaining there till the next year, when he went for a very brief period to fill a temporary engagement at Cincinnati. The Plymouth Church in Indianapolis had just been organized, and in 1858 it extended to Dr. Hyde a call to become its pastor. He accepted the call, and here entered, with this young church, upon his real life-work. The first services which he conducted here were held in the Senate chamber of the old State-House. But it was not long before the enthusiasm and earnestness of the young pastor, with the pressing need of a church home, resulted in the erection of the house of worship which has been occupied till recently by that church. For nearly ten years he held this pastorate to the entire satisfaction and great profit of the church. In the year 1867 the State Association of Congregational Churches and ministers felt that the time had come when the general interests of the cause of religion, and the interests and usefulness of the denomination, demanded the appointment of a superintendent of missions for the State. When application was made to the American Home Missionary Society for such an appointment, and the officers of the society replied that they would comply with the request if the brethren in Indiana would name the right man for the place, the thoughts of all turned directly to Dr. Hyde. His long residence in the State, and consequent familiarity with its peculiarities and needs, coupled with his earnest Christian spirit and sound judgment, caused his brethren unanimously to feel that of all others he was the man for the place, a decision which subsequent results fully justified. Accordingly, although it was contrary to his own desires, and contrary to the desires of his church, which was very strongly attached to him, he was appointed to this important position, and, in obedience to a sense of duty, accepted it, and discharged its duties with rare fidelity, success, and acceptability for six years. The assertion will not be questioned by those knowing the facts in the case that no other man in the State has done so much for the interests of the denomination of which he is a member as has Dr. Hyde. At the same time he Is as far as it is possible to think from being a sectarian in his feelings or work. He is broad and catholic in his spirit, and has the profoundest respect of all denominations of Christians in the city and the State with whom the duties pf his various positions have brought him in contact. Directly after resigning his position as superintendent of missions for domestic reasons, he became pastor of the Mayflower Church in 1873, which position he still holds. His pastorate has been a very successful one. In addition to his professional labors, Dr. Hyde has been associated with various other interests of city and State. He was for several years a prominent and efficient member of the school board, held the position of president of the State Social Science Association for several terms, contributing some very valuable papers to its meetings, and is a member of the boards of trustees of several educational institutions. As a friend of every good cause, and of all persons needing and deserving aid, he is widely and most favorably known throughout the city and State. He is ever counted upon as ready to lend a helping hand, and those who look to him are never disappointed, for, while he is quiet and unostentatious in manner, he is earnest and efficient in labor, of an excellent judgment, and has a very warm heart. Of all the worthy members of his profession in the city, it is safe to say that none are more generally or favorably known than is the subject of this biographical sketch. Dr. Hyde was married on the 28th of August, 1866, to Laura K., daughter of the late Stoughton A. Fletcher, Sr., of Indianapolis.

UNIVERSALISTS

As related at the beginning of this chapter, the Universalists have no distinct organization, though for many years they had a strong one, and for several years had two. They claim that so large a portion of the orthodox churches has discarded the notion of a material hell and an eternity in it that their sectarian identity is effaced. Everybody is Universalist now, except a few immovable lumps of prejudice. At all events, there is no longer a Universalist Church in Indianapolis.

UNITED BRETHREN

The only church of this denomination is on the east side of Oak between Vine and Cherry; pastor, Rev. Augustus C. Willmore. The first church of United Brethren was organized in 1850, and the congregation in 1851 built the brick house occupied for many years, on the southeast corner of New Jersey and Ohio Streets. In the fall of 1869 a dissension broke out which led to the formation of the Liberal United Brethren, containing a majority of the membership. They refused to allow the other division the use of the house, which led to a law-suit and the recovery of possession by the old society, Aug. 31, 1870. Then the Liberals disbanded and distributed themselves about among the Methodist Churches. The property is worth about seven thousand dollars. The membership now is about one hundred; the Sunday-school attendance rather larger.

UNITARIAN

A brief account of this denomination and its disappearance about 1872 has been given. It never owned anything, so it has nothing to be noted after its own dissolution.

SWEDENBORGIAN

There is but one congregation of this denomination in the city, and it occupies New Church Chapel, No. 333 North Alabama Street.

UNITED PRESBYTERIANS

The only church is on the northeast corner of East Street and Massachusetts Avenue. The pastor is Rev. James P. Cowan.

HEBREWS

The first Hebrew congregation in this city was organized in the winter of 1855. Before 1853 there were no Hebrew residents here but Alexander Franco and Moses Woolf. The growth of this class of population increased so considerably in the next two years, however, that a church organization was a natural suggestion, and it was made. In the fall of 1856 a room in Blake's Commercial Row, on Washington Street west of Kentucky Avenue, was engaged for a church, and Rev. Mr. Berman became the pastor. In 1858 a change was made to a larger hall in Judah's Block, which was dedicated by Rabbi Wise, of Cincinnati, distinguished for his learning. Rev. J. Wechsler was engaged as pastor, and served till 1861. During that year the congregation had no pastor and became greatly reduced, but in 1862 obtained Rev. M. Moses as pastor, and made some changes from the old style of ceremony which restored its strength , and it began to debate the propriety of having a house of its own. In 1864 subscriptions were started, and on the 7th of December, 1865, the cornerstone of the temple on Market Street east of New Jersey was laid with an address from Rev. Dr. Lilienthal, of Cincinnati. After some serious embarrassments the temple was completed and dedicated Oct. 30, 1868. The pews in this church are not rented from year to year, as in Gentile churches, but are sold outright as so much real estate, for which a regular conveyance is executed. Only adult males are counted as members in making up the strength of the congregation. The membership of Indianapolis Hebrew Society is eighty adult males. A regular school is kept through the week in the temple, and on the Sabbath a special school is held free for those who wish to pursue the study of Hebrew or biblical history. The value of the property is about thirty thousand dollars.

A smaller congregation was formed a few years ago, which holds its meetings in Root's Block, corner of Pennsylvania and South Streets. Its membership is about forty, and has no school attachment.

In the appended summary, exhibiting the present condition of the churches of Indianapolis, no more than an approximation is possible in some cases. In most, however, the church authorities have furnished as accurate statements as they could arrive at. The general result is very close to the truth. It must be noted, as before suggested, that the Catholic authorities number the members of their church as " souls," counting all of whatever age born into the church, as well as all attaching themselves to it, as professors of Protestant creeds do. This makes their numbers look disproportionately large. But count the Presbyterians or Methodists in the same way and they will show larger congregations. The Plymouth Congregational pastor counts attendants on his services.