Church and Family History Research Assistance for Primitive Baptist Churches in Knox County, Illinois

CHURCHES:

HENDERSON (1830)

Henderson Church, the first church of any faith organized in Knox county, was constituted August 14, 1830, with fourteen charter members, at the home of John D. Roundtree, in the northwestern part of Knox county, in or near Henderson's Grove, by Elders Stephen Strickland Jr. and John Logan. The charter members' names were Elder Jacob Gum, Rhoda Gum, James Goff, Martha Goff, Daniel Fuqua, Martha Fuqua, Obadiah Fuqua, Reuben Nance, Ruth Nance, Dariah Roundtree, John D. Roundtree, Mary Roundtree, Nicholas Vailes, and Deborah Vailes.

Henderson Church was one of the founding members of the Spoon River Association in 1830 or 1831.

In 1838, this church dismissed sixteen members to organize the Edwards River Church in Mercer County. Henderson Church also helped organize a few other churches.

We have not been able to determine (or obtain a deed for) the exact site of an early meeting house in or near Henderson Grove. It is very likely that the church owned a log meeting house very early in that vicinity. In 1863 the church received a deed for the site where a meeting house was located on the east side of what is now known as the Baptist (or Robertson) Cemetery, which given to the church by Larkin and Polly Robertson. This property was 1 1/2 miles south and 1/2 mile east of Rio. The church held services as late as about 1925, or perhaps a little later. The building was moved after the church dissolved, and used as a residence, at the northwest corner of the intersection of U. S. Route 150 and the North Henderson blacktop. The cemetery is maintained by Rio township. A photo of the church building has not been found at this time (if anyone has a photo, please contact us).

Pastors of Henderson Church included William Kinner, Joseph Jones, John Roberts, Rowland M. Simmons, John M. Brown, Isaac Vanmeter, Smith Ketchum, and S. H. Humphrey.

SURNAMES OF MEMBERS:

Barkley, Bloomfield, Blunt, Bowman, Bradbury, Brown, Bruner, Dean, Deatherage, Dolton, Donahoo, Epperson, Farlow, Fuqua, Gibson, Goff, Green, Gum, Hahn, Hammack, Heflin, Jackson, Jones, Jordan, Lee, Loveridge, Maxwell, McCartney, McMurtre, Miller, Murphy, Nancy, Reed, Riggs, Robertson, Roundtree, Shelley, Stanard, Thomas, Tillburg, Vailes, Wilson (very incomplete list due to loss of records).

CEDAR CREEK (CHERRY GROVE)

Cedar Creek Church was organized in Knox County at a very early date. In October 1843 New Hope Church, near Greenbush, in Warren County, dismissed the following members to form a church in the cherry grove, (near Abingdon), viz., Calvin Morris, John Reed, Catherine Reed, Benjamin Boydstun, Polly Boydstun, Anna Runolds, Mary Blue, Sarah Lambert, and Mary Schole. This church was probably Cedar Creek Church.

FRIENDSHIP (HERMON)

Friendship Church was organized in 1853 (one source says the second weekend in October, another says August), in Chestnut township, near Hermon, in the vicinity of Knoxville.

Elders Amaziah Howard and Andrew J. Goforth formed the presbytery (another source says Elder Cyrus Humphrey rather than Amaziah Howard). There were seven charter members (another source says thirteen), including William Eggers and Nancy Evelin Eggers his wife, and probably Elder Goforth and his wife, Phoebe Eggers Goforth.

SURNAMES OF MEMBERS:

Adkins, Barton, Bell, Brooks, Clabaugh, Eggers, Goforth, Humphrey, Jackson, Robinson, Tucker (very incomplete list due to loss of records).

ADDITIONAL REFERENCE SOURCES IN THE PRIMITIVE BAPTIST LIBRARY:

Minutes of the Spoon River Association; accounts of early events from the Signs of the Times; obituaries of members in church periodicals.

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