Primitive Baptist Church and Family History
Research Assistance for Bureau County, Illinois
CHURCHES:
PRINCETON (INDIANTOWN)
The Baptist Church at Indiantown (now Princeton) was organized in 1836. Elder Jeriel Root, of Peoria, made a visit for the purpose of organizing the church and ordaining James B. Chenowith an Elder. The founding members were Sampson and Rebecca Cole, Stephen Triplett, William Wells and wife, Jesse Sawyer, and James Mason. The next morning after the constitution, Elder Chenowith was ordained to the work of the ministry.
Mr. Ferrell Dunn, father of the Tiskilwa postmaster, was influential in persuading Elder Chenowith to come to this area. Mr. Dunn had been a ranger, and was familiar with this part of Illinois, and while visiting friends in Danville, Ill, met and conversed with Bro. Chenowith. They agreed to come, and left Danville on May 12, 1835.
A young man named Henry Headley had come in company with Elder Root, and he laid claim to great piety, and professed to only desire that he might learn grammar enough to preach. He was sent to Princeton to learn grammar, but he imposed himself on the church at Princeton, and soon caused a split. Elder Chenowith withdrew, and went to Ox-Bow, where he served Sandy Creek Church, in Putnam County, with great success, until his death, near the end of the Civil War. Elder Chenowith had many friends, and drew much respect and sincere love from his flocks, who left a warm testimony to his memory.
BUREAU
Bureau Church, located near Tiskilwa, was organized in about the year 1843 or 1844, and dissolved in 1879. The Bureau Church first united with the Sangamon Association, in 1844; in 1850, it became a charter member of the Sandy Creek Association. Elder James B. Chenowith and his wife, Elizabeth, were charter members of this church, and he became the first pastor. Among the other early members were George Gilbert, Eddy Ketchum, Eliphalet Ketchum, Noah Long, Benjamin Newton Sr., David Potter, and John H. Power. Elder James W. Thompson was also a member of this church. The records having been lost, we could not ascertain the exact location of the church's meetings, or whether they ever had a meeting house of their own.
SURNAMES OF MEMBERS:
Chenowith, Gilbert, Haynes, Ketchum, Long, Newton, Potter, Thompson, Vandike (very incomplete list due to loss of records).
ZION HILL
Zion Hill Church is listed as being a charter member of the Sandy Creek Association, in 1850, but no other information regarding this church has been found.
BARREN GROVE (SEE ALSO HENRY COUNTY)
Barren Grove Church was organized on Saturday, November 19, 1870, at the Union Schoolhouse, near Kewanee. The charter members were Lewis Brasel, Mary Brasel, Michael West, Phebe West, and Eliphalet Ketchum. The presbytery was composed of Elder William A. Thompson, moderator (Sandy Creek), and Elder Isaac N. Vanmeter, clerk (New Hope). Other brethren in the council included Lic. Joseph Richardson (Salem); Andrew W. Simmons (New Hope); William Thomas and William Bloomfield (Henderson); J. W. Thompson, Lic. Noah Long, and E. Ketchum (Bureau). On the following day, the church received five new members by baptism, viz., I. E. Ketchum, Orrell Ketchum, Smith Ketchum, Jane Hamilton and Sarah Hickerson. Elder W. A. Thompson was called to the pastoral care of the church. He was succeeded by Elder Smith Ketchum.
SURNAMES OF MEMBERS:
Brasel, Eckard, Elmendorf, Gordon, Hamilton, Hickerson, Jordan, Ketchum, Markle, Robinson, Stewart, West, Winchell (very incomplete list due to loss of records).
ADDITIONAL REFERENCE SOURCES IN THE PRIMITIVE BAPTIST LIBRARY:
Minutes of the Sandy Creek Association; writings and obituaries of members in the Signs of the Times.
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