Primitive Baptist Church and Family History
Research Assistance for Stephenson County, Illinois

PROVIDENCE (HOWARDSVILLE)

Providence Church, at Howardsville, four or five miles west of Lena, Illinois, was probably organized in the 1850's or 1860's, but the exact time and place are not known, due to loss of records. Names of the charter members are also lost, except that Bro. Joseph Wilson was one of them, and he came to the area from Ohio, in about 1848, according to land records. Several of the Howard family had united with the church a number of years before the stone church was built in their settlement in about 1870-1872.

The obituary of Bro. Murray Howard states that during the time the church was without a meeting house, they met in his house. The obituary of Bro. Ward B. Howard states that he united with the church in 1868, and a few years later helped build the stone church on one corner of his farm, and named it Providence.

This stone church building is still partially standing, although abandoned since about 1905. It is located in Sec. 34, West Point township, R5E of the 4th P.M. A deed for the church (and for the cemetery behind the church) was conveyed by Ward B. Howard and his wife, Malinda, to the trustees of Providence Church, Lafayette A. Chaddock, Joseph Wilson, and Elias H. Gillett, on September 2, 1875, but the building had been constructed and used by the church for several years prior to this time. The building was used for a funeral as late as 1915. The church building was used for farm grain storage, for about forty years, during which time the roof was replaced at least once, and other modifications made to the building. Finally, in 1959, a chancery court decree awarded title of the property back to the original owners, or descendants, of the Howard farm, due to the total abandonment of the property by the church, which had ceased to exist or meet in about 1900-1905. The cemetery was closed, and the remains of those buried there were purported to have been moved to other locations before the court awarded title due to abandonment. The earliest probable burial in the cemetery was in 1873, and the earliest known burial there occurred in 1874.

During the forty or fifty years of existence of this church, a number of ministers were members, viz., Elders Thomas Davy, Francis Gholson, E. H. Gillett, Henry Smith, Robert Smith, Lafayette Chaddock, and possibly others. The names of pastors of the church have not been determined, but probably also included Elder Benjamin Sallee, besides some of those named above.

This church was composed of white and black members, including ministers, at least for a few years. Several families of black Primitive Baptists in the Galena area moved to Rush township, the Equal Rights settlement, and joined Providence Church, and remained there until they organized a church of their own at Equal Rights a few years later. See New Hope Church, in JoDaviess county.

Providence Church united with the First Northwestern Association at a date presently unknown. An account by Elder S. H. Durand proves that the association met at Howardsville in 1865, at which meeting about 2,000 people attended. In 1873 the association again met at Providence Church, this time in their new stone building. The association meeting was held there frequently after that, until it ceased to be held in the late 1890's.

Elder Isaac N. Vanmeter wrote the following account of a colored minister who was a member of Providence Church, on June 26, 1872: "Elder Henry Smith, of Warren, Jo Daviess Co., Ill., a colored man who cannot read a word, born and raised in Louisville, Ky., and who was a still a slave till he was about forty years of age, has recently been among us on a preaching tour. "Uncle Henry," as he is familiarly called, is a remarkable man, never having been taught letters, and having been raised as a waiter and cook, till he was ordained by an able council of white brethren. He has cooked for many of the presidents and other able men of the nation when stopping in Louisville, Ky., and preached often with Edmund Waller, W. C. Buck, Jeremiah Vardeman, Silas M. Noel, Jacob Creath, and other able men, and fought them for years on the Mission subject, till they divided the Baptists. After he bought his freedom he preached for a time at St. Louis, and Alton, with Professor J. M. Peck, and others, who offered him $600 per year to preach and beg for the Missionary Board, but he spurned their offer and ever stood with the Primitive Baptists. He is now over seventy years of age, but travels much, and preaches from northern Illinois, to St. Louis, in the principal cities on the railroads. As he cannot write, I request this to be published for the information of those who knew him in former years." [end quote.]

SURNAMES OF MEMBERS:

Chaddock, Davey, Gholson, Gillett, Howard, Leece, Mizner, Perry, Richardson, Smith, Wilson (very incomplete list due to loss of records).

Go Back to the Family History Assistance Page

Go Back to the Primitive Baptist Library Page