Peabody Singing Tower

 NORTH MANCHESTER HISTORICAL SOCIETY
 North Manchester, Indiana

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Source: North Manchester Journal, February 1, 1883

The German Baptist have been holding a series of meetings at their church, corner of Locust and 7th streets, for the past week. The meetings are well attended. The building a large one would not seat all who were at the Sunday evening services. The meetings are conducted by Rev. Robert Miller assisted by other speakers.


Source: Helm, History of Wabash County, 1884

The German Baptist Church 

As early as 1838, religious exercises were conducted in the town of North Manchester by ministers of this denomination, and it is believed an organization was effected. Joseph Harter was the first minister elected by the congregation, and Elders Cripe, Leatherman and Waybright were the first who conducted the services of their church in the settlement on Eel River. For a number of years, the houses of members were their only places of meeting, but they preserved their organization, and met at regular intervals. In 1858, they erected a frame church two miles west of North Manchester, in Pleasant Township, on land donated by Joseph Crill. In this church they have ever since continued to worship, though in 1881 the congregation was divided for the convenience of a large proportion of the membership, and a house of worship erected in North Manchester. The latter is a one-story brick edifice, and was completed at a cost of a little over $3,000. The present membership is over 200, and while possessing two churches is practically one congregation. The ministers at the present time  [1884] are R.H. Miller, Jacob Fundaburgh, George Grosnickel, Michael Miller and Isaac Miller, and the Deacons are Eli Harter, John Blickenstaff, Joseph Lautzenhiser, Samuel Bowman and John Mohler. Each church is served by the same pastors on alternated Sundays, services being held one Sunday in the frame church, and the next Sunday at North Manchester. They have a well-organized system of church extension, and have erected several churches in Western States for congregations unable to build for themselves.

In the southern part of the township, a society of the German Baptist denomination was organized in 1873 or 1874 by Elder Abraham Leedy. There were eighty members in the organization, and the district schoolhouse was their place of meeting until 1876. In that year they erected their present house of worship on land donated for that purpose by Milton Gill. The church is a one-story brick structure, 40x60 feet, situated in the northeast corner of Section 27. The congregation consists of about 100 members, and the church is under the pastoral care of Elder John Wright. It is known as Ogan Creek Church.