People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 27-25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1896 — Rensselaer Methodism. [ARTICLE]

Rensselaer Methodism.

HISTORICAL DATA—BY R.D.U. Methodism invaded Jasper county in 1886. The year 1838 witnessed the organization of a Methodist society at the falls of the Iroquois, where the village of Newton soon afterwards was. and where the flourishing little city of Rensselaer now is,—the first church of any denomination within the present limits of the county. (The town of Newton, if the tradition is reliable, was founded in 1839 as the county capital; in 1811, on petition of James Van Rensselaer and Henry Weston, the name was changed to Rensselaer.) The fall ol 1839 Hachaliah Vreedenburgh was appointed to the pastorale of Monticello mission. The Rev. Dr. J.L Smith, says: “This Mission included White, Jasper, and considerable parts of Carroll and Pulaski counties. I distinctly remember Bro. Vreedenburg’s telling me of his preaching at several points on the Pinkamink and Iroquois rivers, one of these points being the present site of Rensselaer. “John H. Bruce, my colleague in 1840,_ who was appointed to the Monticello mission in the fall of 1837, often spoke of his tracking Bro. Vreedenburg up and down the Iroquois,. “Enoch Wood had charge of Monticello mission one year, beginning in the fall of 1838. Sometime it: the course of the conference year, presumably before the close of the calendar year 1838, lie organized a society at the place now known as Rensselaer. “There were two Enoch Woodses in the conference, cousins; one was known as Enoch G., the other, who was a man of considerable longitude, as Long Enoch. Enoch G. and the late well-known Aaron Wood, D.D , were brothers. It was Enoch Wood.—not. Enoch -G., but Long Enoch,—whose name is associat'd with the rise of Methodism in Tasper county.

FIRST CHURCH BUILDING. ‘•The first Methodist church buiit at Reusselaer was dedicated in 1850, during my second year as presiding elder and Bro. George Guild’s first year as pastor. The timbers for the church were cut and hewn in the woods, the people turning outen masse, without money and without price, to do the work. All debts were provided for at the dedication. /

CAMP-MEETING. “A little way below the town, in the early autumn of 1850, we held acamp meeting. Themeeting resulted in several conversions. Some of the converts are yet living, and holding on their way .” OLD CHURCH. The church of 1850, to which Dr. Smith refers.—the first denominational building erected in the present bounds of'the county, it is supposed—stood on the south-east corner of Cullen and Rutsen streets, and was occupied continuously till 1890, a period of forty years, A parsonage,—the history of which, who knoweth?—was located across the street, west,and fronting the church.

IROQUOIS MISSION. The Societies which had been organized in the Iroquois region, were detached fiom the Monticello mission, and made a separate pastoral charge, Iroquois m ission, in 1840. The next year, 1841, the name was changed to Jasper mission; in 1842, to Rensselaer mission. “Mission” was dropped from the title of the charge in 1844, RENSSELAER CIRCUIT. The original Circuit included the territory— not less than all the territory in the present jurisdiction of Jasper and Newton counties. The church in Rensselaer became a “station”, i.e . the one church a pastoral charge, in 1884. NEW CHURCH. The movement which culmi nated in the erection of the substantial and commodious Trinity church, south-east -corner of Cullen and Angelica streets, began in the pastorate .of Rev. E. G- Pel ley. The walls of the building were up, and the roof on, when he was transferred to another charge, llis successor, Rev.T F. Drake. came to the charge in September, 1889. A few months later, January 26, 1890, the new church was formally dedicated by Bishop Stephen M. Merrill, of Chicago. The building committee consisted of the pastor, chairman; EzraL. Clark, secretary; Wallace Robinson, treasurer; Wm.E. Moore, James T. Randle, Dr. Moses B,Alter, John F. Warren, and Rial P. Benjamin. The church is a solid brick structure, with slate roof and cathedral—glass windows; heated with furnace; has excellent acoustic properties and abundant seating ca pacity for a congregation of five hundred. According to a state raent left on record by Rev. T. F. Drake, the cost of the build ing, exclusive of ground (and furnishing-?) was S7OOO, of which sum, 81300 was subscribed on dedication-day. The subscriptions so taken, failed, as often happens in such cases, to produce the cash results expected. The accruing debt, however, was not much of a burden, and, for that, reason perhaps, final payment was delayed until a few months ago.