New Light Christians - Congregationalism
The record says: The Christian Church in Marion, Grant County, Indiana, was organized on the second of May, in the year of our Lord, 1839, by Elder Hallet Barbour, of the Ohio Central Christian Conference. At the time of its organization there were but nine persons constituting it. Most of these were persons who had formerly belonged to Bethel Christian Church, in Champaign County, Ohio. Immediately after the organization one new member was added, making ten in all. Of those, four were men and six were women. Following are the names of the ten charter members: John Moore, James Stackhouse, Thomas Wall, Case Broderick, Susannah Moore, Mary Stackhouse, Elizabeth Oppy, Mary Marshall, Lydia Alder and Nancy Broderick. Some of the present Temple members are descended from these founders of the church. While the name of this church has been changed, the site occupied is the one chosen by its founders, and the third edifice now marks the spot. When the first little church was razed in readiness for the second the work was so sacred that it was performed by the members themselves, and only because of need of larger auditorium accommodations.
While Hallett Barbour founded the local church. Barton W. Stone was the real founder of its liberal tenets, and Silas parks was among the active early day local ministers. He preached in Marion frequently and organized the Walnut Creek Church, where he had preached the night before his death, although the burial ground near the county farm is all that remains of that historic church. Silas parks was the man to whom death came twice, having been prepared for burial several years before his final interment. When the pennies were removed from his eyes the spell was broken, and he escaped from the house where the family was living in Illinois. For many years he preached the gospel, rearing his family in Grant County.
Lugar Creek Christian Church -McKenney Chapel -was organized in 1855, Dr. William McKinney, who lived near, being a charter member, and doing much toward establishing it. While it once had a large membership, families have left the community, and it is now a small communion circle. Along those churches are Farrville, Landess, Swayzee, Jefferson and Antioch, although Mr. Ferguson did not know about Antioch's early history. There are now two New Light Christian Churches in Marion, one on South Adams Street and the other in North Marion -old Salem Church moved to town. Since January 18, 1905, the original Christian Church in Marion is a Congregational Church, the change of name being all that was necessary.
The Fairmount Congregational Church, organized in the '80's by Rev. William Weidenhoeft, was the introduction of Congregationalism, religious democracy, into Grant County. Congregationalism is not widespread in Indiana because in an early day the American board cooperated with the Presbyterian board in this locality, advancing the kingdom, rather than denominationalism. The cornerstone of the present church was laid in 1888, soon after the denomination was organized. There was a Congregational church in North Marion later. It began as the Bradford Church, but it was finally abandoned and the house sold, some of the members affiliating with the Temple Congregational Church after it changed its name from Christian.
While the Bible is the religion of all Protestantism, the Word of God is the basis of all Congregationalism, and on this point the New Light Christians in different communities have different conceptions of doctrinal questions -baptism an open question. Congregationalism is a religious democracy closely in accord with United States History -we the people. While Congregationalists are sometimes called aristocrats, the humbling member is given equal recognition. Both New Light and Congregational Churches have suffered loss from floating membership, and membership in the two denominations would hardly reach one thousand, although loyalty is a strong element.
At the 1912 Forefathers' Day celebration in the Temple Congregational Church, Mrs. G.A. Southall presented Early Congregationalism in America, and J.W. Miles reviewed the charter membership of the local church -the history of the Christians in 1839 down to date. It would have required a discriminating mind to have discovered the difference, the Pilgrim Fathers and the New Light Christians having one common purpose -the freedom to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience, and it was apparent to all that there is no essential difference between the Christians that were and the Congregationalists that are -just the same families, and the same church community. The primitive church had part in a Union Sunday School held in the courthouse in 1841, and since 1851 it has maintained an independent Sunday "School, said to be the oldest one in the county. It was in 1842 that a member was excommunicated for the use of profane language.
Centennial History of Grant County 1812-1912
The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914