Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1909 — The First Presbyterian Church in Rensselaer. [ARTICLE]

The First Presbyterian Church in Rensselaer.

Old residents of this city will remember Rev. Thomas M. Chestnut, father of Thos. O. Chestnut, and will recall the period of his pastorate of the Presbyterian church in this city. He came to Rensselaer from Ohio in 1849 and in 1850 the first Presbyterian church was erected, on the site of the present building. Rev. Chestnut died in 1873, at the age of about

70, but the work that he started has gone on, a monument to his Christian zeal.