Family History Research Assistance for Henry County, Iowa
CHURCHES:BIG CREEK
Big Creek Regular Baptist Church was organized at the home of Claibourn Jones, on the first Saturday in August 1836, with fifteen charter members, viz., James Willowford, Sr., June Willowford, Mary Johnson, Polly Hutton, Claibourn Jones, Elizabeth Jones, Lavina Hancock, Jesse Hancock, Amilia Hancock, William M. Morrow, Elizabeth Morrow, Mary Farris, Lavicy Turner, Susan Hampton, and Anna Sizemore, with Elders Samuel Hutton and George Walter coming in at the last, as they were the presbytery, and did not consider it good order to constitute themselves.
The first page of records of Big Creek Church reads as follows: "Rise of the Regular Baptists in Iowa Territory. Early in the spring of 1835 Elder Samuel Hutton, Claibourn Jones, Sr., and Jesse Hancock, with their families, Elder George Walter, and a number of scattering female Baptists settled in what is now constituted Henry County, I. T. It was then attached to Michigan Territory. In the summer of 1836, it was constituted Wisconsin Territory, and in the summer of 1838 was constituted Iowa Territory. We mention these circumstances merely for information in time to come. Sometime in the month of June in the year of our Lord 1835, Elder James Gholson, from North Fork Church of Regular Baptists in Hamilton County, and William M. Morrow, a licentiate from Bethel Creek Church in Gallatin County, Illinois, while exploring the far west, stopped and preached at the house of Jesse Hancock. This is supposed to be the first Regular Baptist preaching in this section of Country. In the month of September in the same year, William M. Morrow moved to the same place. Things passed on smoothly until the first Saturday in August 1836, when we were constituted into a church by Elders George Walter and Samuel Hutton."
The church covenant on the next page begins as follows: "We a body of Regular Baptists situated on Big Creek, north side of the Manitao or Skunk River, and in the vicinity of Mount Pleasant, Des Moines County, Wisconsin Territory . . . ."
For a few years, the church met either in homes of her own members, or in school buildings, in and near Mt. Pleasant. In July 1843, the church voted to build a meeting house in Mt. Pleasant, but the act was later rescinded. Between 1849 and 1852 several committees investigated possible building sites and plans. Meetings were held for a time alternately at the Marion School House and in Mt. Pleasant. In September 1852 the church authorized the purchase of the Christian Church meeting house and the lot on which it stands. The contract price was $400.00. The church rented out their building for use as a school on two occasions. In July 1856, articles of incorporation were read and approved. In May 1857 the trustees were requested to obtain a deed for their meeting house from the trustees of the Christian Church. In November 1862 the church agreed to move the place of meeting to the brick schoolhouse six miles north of town for the winter months. In April 1863, the trustees were instructed to sell the meeting house in town, and a committee was appointed to select a site to build a new meeting house. On September 7, 1863, Sarah Stansbury Hull Rowland, wife of Elder John B. Rowland, deeded two acres of ground to the church for a building site and a burying ground. The new building was a brick structure, thirty by forty feet, with two doors on the west end, the pulpit to be placed between the doors. The foundation of the building is still visible at the north end of the Oak Grove Cemetery, in Marion Township, Henry County, Iowa.
In August 1845 the church changed its name from "Big Creek" to "Mt. Pleasant," for the "convenience of foreign brethren." In 1881 the name of the church was changed again, from "Mt. Pleasant," to "Lynn Creek Oak Grove."
In the first business meeting after being organized, the church voted to send delegates to pray for admittance into the Spoon River Association of Illinois. In the fall of 1839 the church was active in laying the groundwork for a new association in Iowa territory, and was a charter member when the convention met to form the Des Moines River Association in June 1840.
Pastors of the church included: Elders Samuel Hutton (1785-1857), William M. Morrow (1805-1883), James L. Gilmore (1792- 1865), John B. Rowland (1807-1891), Isaac McCarty (1824-1908), and Burton L. Nay (1879-1955). Other ministers who were members of the church included: George Walter, Evan T. Lamb, William Long, and Achilles Hess. Elders William M. Morrow, William Long, and Isaac McCarty were ordained by this church.
From the church's early records (1836-1863) and from records of the Des Moines River Association, of which the church was a member, a list of about two hundred members has been compiled, but the list is incomplete since the records after 1863 have not been located. Twenty-six members were added by baptism in 1863, making a total of 76. The church reached the peak of its numerical strength about the same time.
SURNAMES OF MEMBERS:
Abbacrumba, Anderson, Beauchamp, Black, Bledsoe, Blowers, Cannon, Cantwell, Cassady, Caulk, Cline, Cole, Coulthurst, Dallner, Denny, Denton, Dickey, Dodds, Drewry, Dutton, Eveland, Farmer, Farris, Flint, Fulk, Garrison, Gates, Gholson, Gillaspey, Glutton, Hammer, Hampton, Hancock, Hannah, Hardin, Hess, Hiltabrand, Hitt, Hobson, Holland, Horsey, Hull, Hutton, Jerrel, Johnson, Jones, King, Kirtley, Lamb, Lewis, Linn, Long, Lyon, Mason, McCarty, McNeeley, Meeks, Miller, Morris, Morrow, Naught, Olinger, Osborn, Patton, Pennington, Pownall, Remy, Rowland, Sater, Scott, Sizemore, Smith, Sorrels, Stansbury, Stevens, Taylor, Traxler, Turner, Walter, Watts, Wells, Wilburn, Wilkins, Willowford, Wilson, Young.
LYNN CREEK
The records of Big Creek Church, near Mt. Pleasant, show that a request was received in May 1840 by the hand of Brother Michael Miller for helps to constitute a church on the third Saturday in May 1840, near Trenton, Henry County, Iowa, which request was granted. The church was called Lynn Creek. The exact location of the meetings, or whether the church ever erected a meeting house, is presently unknown, as the records have not been located. Lynn Creek Church dissolved in about 1850, but Big Creek Church continued to hold services as an "arm" at Trenton, occasionally, for several years.
SURNAMES OF MEMBERS:
Friend, Lamb, Miller, Ogen, Turner, Mitchell, Treece (very incomplete list due to loss of records).
Go Back to the Primitive Baptist Library Page
Go Back to the Family History Assistance Page
Copyright c. 2001. All rights reserved. The Primitive Baptist Library.
