Primitive Baptist Church and Family History
Research Assistance for Stephenson County, Illinois
PRIMITIVE BAPTIST WORSHIP SERVICES ARE NOW BEING HELD REGULARLY AT THE OLD STONE CHURCH, AT HOWARDSVILLE, ABOUT FOUR MILES WEST OF LENA, ILLINOIS. CONTACT US FOR DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT TIMES OF MEETINGS.
CHURCH:
PROVIDENCE (HOWARDSVILLE)
The details of the constitution of Providence Church are presently unknown, except that the obituary of Joseph Wilson states that he was a charter member. Since Joseph Wilson is shown in the 1850 census for Scioto County, Ohio, with his wife and children, and since he purchased his farm in Rush Township, Jo Daviess County, Illinois, in 1852, the church must have been organized after that date. Most likely the church was formed by members being dismissed from Mt. Pleasant Church near South Wayne, Lafayette Co., Wisconsin, in the mid to late 1850's. Elder Andrew J. Norton's journal indicates that several churches were organized out of Mt. Pleasant Church, during this time frame. He was probably the leader in the establishment of Providence church, and probably also the first pastor.
The obituary of Bro. Murray Howard states that during the time the Providence church was without a meeting house, they met in his house. Until evidence appears to the contrary, we assume that the church had no meeting house of its own until the stone church was erected. In 1861 Providence Church hosted the First Northwestern Association, but it appears the meeting was held at the meeting house of Mt. Pleasant Church, the mother church. The obituary of Bro. Ward B. Howard states that he united with the church in 1868, and was baptized by Elder Isaac N. Vanmeter, and a few years later helped build the stone church on one corner of his farm, and named it Providence. The cemetery, however, had been used at least twenty years before the stone church was built.
In 2016, this stone church building was still partially standing, although abandoned since about 1900. It is located in Sec. 34, West Point township, R5E of the 4th P.M. A deed for the church (and for the cemetery behind the church) was conveyed by Ward B. Howard and his wife, Malinda, to the trustees of Providence Church, Lafayette A. Chaddock, Joseph Wilson, and Elias H. Gillett, on September 2, 1875, but the building had been constructed and used by the church for several years prior to this time. The building was used for a funeral as late as 1915. The church building was used for farm purposes by Howard family descendants for about forty years. Finally, in 1959, a chancery court judge signed a decree quieting title through adverse possession, due to total abandonment by the church, which had ceased to meet in about 1900. As soon as the property was awarded back to the descendants of Ward Howard, by this judicial action, they sold it with their farm to another party. The cemetery was judged to be vacated on the presumption that all the graves had been moved to other cemeteries by family members. However, it is now known that there are quite a number of graves which were not moved.
During the period of over fifty years of its existence, a number of ministers (ordained or licensed) were members of this church, viz., Elders Thomas Davy, E. H. Gillett, Henry Smith, Robert Smith, Lafayette Chaddock, and Licensed brethren Francis Gholson and James W. Rouse. The names and dates of the church's pastors have not been determined with absolute certainty, but it appears that Elders Andrew J. Norton and Benjamin Sallee served in the 1860's, Elder E. H. Gillett in the 1870's and 1880's, and Elder Benjamin Sallee again in the late 1880's and 1890's.
This church was composed, at times, of both white and black members, including ministers. Several families of black Primitive Baptists in the Galena area moved to Rush township, the Equal Rights settlement, and joined Providence Church, and remained there until they organized a church called New Hope, which met in the Equal Rights School, in Rush, in about 1879. Elder Henry Smith (familiarly known as Uncle Henry or Preacher Henry) was a member of Providence Church at the time of his death. New Hope Church, at Rush (the Equal Rights settlement) also had both white and black members and ministers.
Providence Church united with the First Northwestern Association at a date presently unknown, but prior to 1861, as the association met with this church in August 1861. An account by Elder S. H. Durand proves that the association met at Howardsville in 1865, at which meeting about 2,000 people attended. In 1873 the association again met at Providence Church, this time in their new stone building. The association meeting was held there frequently after that, until it ceased to be held in the 1890's.
In 2016 the property was purchased by the Primitive Baptist Library, and restoration began shortly thereafter, and was substantially completed by August 2018, when worship services were resumed.
SURNAMES OF MEMBERS:
Chaddock, Davey, Fisher, Gholson, Gillett, Howard, Kelley, Leece, Mizner, McElwain, Mizner, Parsons, Perry, Richardson, Rouse, Smith, Wilson (very incomplete list due to loss of records).
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