Collection #
SC 2301
CHURCH OF CHRIST CALLED LIBERTY (FAYETTE COUNTY, IND.)
RECORD BOOK, 1822–1891 (BULK 1822–1836)
Collection Information
Historical Background
Scope and Content Note
Cataloging Information
Processed
by
Charles Latham
2
January 1991
Updated 22 November 2004
Manuscript and Visual Collections Department
William Henry Smith Memorial Library
Indiana Historical Society
450 West Ohio Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3269
www.indianahistory.org
VOLUME OF COLLECTION: 1 item
COLLECTION DATES: Inclusive 1822-1891; Bulk 1822-1836
PROVENANCE: Ralph E. Fuller, Sun Valley, Nev.,
30 November 1990
RESTRICTIONS: None
COPYRIGHT: Held by Indiana
Historical Society
ALTERNATIVE FORMATS: None
ACCESSION NUMBER: 1991.0106
The "Baptized Church of Christ called Liberty"
was formed on 4 May 1822 by
Rev. Adam Banks and James Smith. Other early members were Stephen Philpott,
Thomas Moffett, John Treadway, and Joseph Hawkins. On
1 May 1824 it was
"agreed that our future meetings be held at Liberty Meeting House on the
waters of Williams Creek."
Three years later the minutes refer to "the Church
of Liberty on Ben Davis
Creek," presumably an alternate name for Williams
Creek.
Considerable research in available sources leaves the exact location of the
church uncertain. There were several Baptist congregations in Fayette
County, and in the early nineteenth
century there was considerable shifting because of both doctrinal differences
and population shifts. Fayette County
histories mention a Williams Creek
Baptist Church,
but say that it started in 1832, a decade after Liberty.
Williams Creek
itself begins in Posey Township,
flows south through the west end of Harrison
Township, and then southeast through
Connersville Township
to effect a junction with the West Fork of Whitewater River just above Nulltown. Members of the congregation lived both in Harrison
Township and in Longwood in the
northwest corner of Connersville Township.
There is a reference in the church book to "the old church, three miles
west of Connersville" (in the
vicinity of Longwood). The map in the 1885 Fayette
County history shows two churches
along Williams Creek
in Harrison Township,
one just above Longwood.
A tentative conclusion would be that the church met in a private home from
1822 to 1824, and then in 1824 built a meeting house in the southwest corner of
Harrison Township,
just above Longwood. The church records stop in 1836, which may or may not
indicate the end of the church itself.
Early members of the Liberty
church included men with responsible positions in the community. Rev. Adam
Banks issued the first marriage license in Fayette
County, on 19 February 1819, to Stephen Philpott and Rebecca
Hawkins. James Smith owned land in Connersville,
Harrison, and Jennings
Townships. In 1814 he was a
co-founder of the New Bethel
Regular Baptist Church.
Several times he acted as a visiting elder or as a representative of the
presbytery. Stephen Philpott owned land in Harrison
Township. He was the son of John
Philpott, who arrived in the county in 1814 from Kentucky,
and owned land and four houses in Harrison
Township. The settlement around
these houses, which he painted Venetian red, was known variously as Redville, Redtown, or Stumptown, and is a possible location for the Liberty
church. Philpott built the first grist mill on Williams
Creek, and ran two still houses.
Thomas Moffett, who settled near Longwood, bought Philpott's
mill and ran another mill and a general store. In the 1840s he was a county
commissioner, and in the 1860s he was postmaster in Longwood. Joseph Hawkins
was listed as a justice of the peace in 1819 and 1824.
From the earlier and later associations of its members, it seems that the Liberty
church was of the Primitive or Hardshell division of
the Baptist church, believing that a divinely called ministry was to serve a
congregation predestined to be saved. Church meeting came before the service.
"Enquiry was made for the fellowship of the Church and found her at
peace." If there should be strife between two members of the congregation, or if a member should be absent without cause
or accused of sin, steps were taken to resolve the conflict, or to recall the
recreant to righteous ways, or to expel him. When peace had been achieved,
worship might begin.
Sources: Materials from collection
Barrows, Frederic I. History of Fayette County. Indianapolis:
B. F. Bowen Co., 1917
History of Fayette County, Indiana.
Chicago: Warner, Beers Co., 1885
This collection consists of the record book of the Liberty
church, covering church history from 1822 to 1836, and then containing family
entries, mainly for the Philpott family, up to 1891. The minutes of meetings
record decisions made by the congregation, from deciding where to meet to
receiving and dismissing members to resolving conflicts and disciplining
offenders. In the right margin of each page are individual entries about
members accepted, dismissed, etc. The book seems to have fallen into private hands
after 1836. Several pages at the beginning are used for genealogical tables of
the Booe, Moffett, and Glascock families, and several
in the middle for births and deaths in the Philpott family. A few clippings are
pasted in at the end, with written explanations. The record book gives a good
picture of both the operation and the concerns of this early rural
congregation. Church government was clearly by the congregation, and the
methods of dealing with conflicts and errors are similar to those used by New
England Congregationalists.
For additional information on this collection, including a
list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:
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