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Their meetings added so many members that a division had to be made to take in the many who were coming great distances at a hardship. Four churches resultedCherry Grove (Georgetown), Dutchtown (at Milledgeville) Hickory Grove (Wacker) from the Arnold's Grove. Churches were built by 1861 and the Dunkards settled in. Others were in a state of flux. The 1850's, indeed, were stimulating times. Groups of same denominations met informally in their homes, barns, house yards and nearby school houses. It was unsettling times and settlement times as railroads loomed on the horizon. One railroad had pled bankruptcy and scalped many a resident of Carroll County and its closeby environs. Georgetown had been the objective of that railroad scheme (1856). Its plat showed a tidy depot and railyard, named streets and the future. A couple of stores sprang up in hopeful anticipation. Later they had a physician and for a short time a post office. It seemed convenient to have a school. Necessity called for a nearby cemetery which dwindled to yesterday when the Cherry Grove Church came about. Their cemetery took people's preference. And although only a scattering of homes remain, the school is now a residence, Georgetown did become the nucleus of a neighborhood and important to the eastlands of Carroll County. Everyone speculated in the late 1850's where the new rail line would pass on its way to the Mississippi. Everyone knew another market depot besides the one which became Shannon had to rise half way between it and Mt. Carroll. Exactly where it would be spotted no one knew but Rock Creek Township was a good guess. Not only "capitalists" again invested in rail bonds and land, but the church builders did too. Dunkards weren't the only ones touched by spiritual awakenings.
For one were the Methodists who'd been who'd been gathering at the Georgetown schoolhouse since a few times in 1858 and then more seriously in '59. As the railroad came nearer, at least figuratively, the Methodists opted to move into Rock Creek Township at a place closer to the rumored townsite. Another school became their meeting room, the Sherwood School in the northeast corner of Section 9, later used at the township's maintenance sheds and presently Miller Marine at the corner of Center Rd. and Rts. 64/52. The school later was known as the Grissinger School. There is some confusion about whether or not the Methodists built a church at that site or waited until the town's plat was ready. but one hundred fifty years ago, 1859, the Methodists were in the second school they were said to have met in before a sanctuary was constructed! PDQ Me opts for the Methodists meeting in the Sherwood School, not building but one reference does say "moved it to town." The argument against that is because once they'd secured a lot in the southeast corner of the town-to-be, Glasgow, in October of 1860, they'd chosen a Board of Trustees and they'd apponted a Building Committee who immediately set about erecting a church!!! That latter note was found in a informative article in an 1887 Lanark Gazette which was noting the sixteenth anniversary plus the 29th of construction of the Methodist's present church and their ogranization from its initiation at Georgetown ... 1871 and 1858. The town wasn't completely platted when the move from a mile over east occured but one reference does say, and ONLY one, that the church was placed in the circle of pine trees (now dwindling) in the center of the cemetery. Every other notation says "southeast corner of cemetery." For certain anyone? Oh, the woes of the researcher!! It's logical to see that with the "appointment of a 'building committee'" meant the church was to be constructed and hadn't been moved. All material about the history of the Methodist church also gives that it met in two schools before building ... If the Georgetown and Sherwood count as two we give that as evidence also in the argument for its not "moving" a structure to town. There is no definitive statement as in many things here. However the sequence, it would seem that the peripetic Methodists were not done roving even once in town. Early in the winter of 1862 a lot was purchased closer to the activity of town building, the southwest corner of Locust and Rochester. Then the church was moved; ninety dollars to J.C. Wheat, contractor. Though the town hadn't been completely platted when the MEs came in, the town's name had already been changed. Glasgow to Lanark. There was a Glasgow post office in Illinois and Lanark was the shire in Scotland where the bankers were who funded the railroad. Several businesses had sprung up on Broad Street and wagons, herds of livestock were lined up thickly by the depot. Trade was good. With arrival of the rail line, settlement was rapid. The movers and shakers who began businesses, plied trades and professions were organizing churches, too, and schools. In Lanark's first years, three places are named as holding schools in them ... Two residence and a commercial building downtown. Of course something more permanent was needed. A building was put up on the northwest corner of Broad and Prairie although there is no specific description of it anywhere, only off-hand mention. One source, however, states that Mrs. Peter Whitmer went to school there in 1863; Mrs. Crinklaw also. Other references come from use of it by other denominations such as, "The Baptists had rented the school, now the Church of God (in 1878). The Church of God had organized in 1868. In a summary of their history it gives that "they secured a lot of ground on the northwest corner of Broad and Prairie with a 70 foot front." There, apparently, was a school house there already so it's confusing. The calaboose and the dog pound were directly across the street, east, so it may have been that the planners of the town expected the commercial district to locate another block south with those two "municipal" utilitarian structures at that corner. The house at 224 S. Broad replaced the school which was moved to the rear of the lot to serve as a barn, then a garage which, too, has been replaced by a new model The school there became a kind of community center and apparently served as the Church of God until they built their own Bethel in 1885. The "Grant property," the northeast corner of High and Franklin was the site of their "prosperous" congregation. It still stands though its use as a church has been long removed. Its pretty steeple and entry stripped from it as it now serves practically as a warehouse and storage structure. At the end of its turn-of-the century summary it stated, "There is a faithful and persistent effort on the part of each member to maintain a true interest in the welfare of the town and a spiritual devotion to God," a philosophy that is apparent in the rich background of all the churches of our town. The article touches on the origins of the churches here whose story is repeated in every other community ... Struggle, sacrifice, trial and triumph. One affected every other despite a finite difference in their tenets. Meanwhile, the Baptists had gathered in private homes for some months at the beginnings of Lanark's formation. They, too, obviously experiencing a spiritual awakening. They'd met in the Congregational Church as had other denominations and organizations. The Baptists felt joy at meeting together in a house of worship even if not their own. This, in part, was included in a summary of their origins ... "For several years before Lanark was founded when these beautiful and fertile prairies were in their pristine conditionexcept a few sparsely settled locations in which were the humble homes of enterprising citizens from the Eastern, Middle and Southern states and who as a class have always followed the "star of empire westward" Baptist principles were then represted in Carroll County by a very respectable proportion of those who were the advanced guard of civilization." It tells a lot about the pioneers who settled the Midwest, the Baptists claiming the forefront! They'd organized in 1867 and by 1873 able to construct their own church, that where 520 East Locust, a residence sets now. The Baptist church was a dramatic Gothic-style edifice with a board and batten-like exterior, upright to emphasize the architecture. This was written about it ... "Presents to the eye by appropriate designs and monograms, objects of study which in the soft, mellow light within lead the mind to pure, holy contemplation." The seats folded and were of ash and walnut. The late Jessie Jones once remarked that the stained glass windows and furniture were the most beautiful she'd ever seen. In all it cost $3,800.00. Most of those who settled our communities were church-goers guided by "principle of truth and equity," they carried their convictions into their everyday lifeand town building. The Congregational Church in which other denominations and community functions gathered, like the Methodists had come from east of Lanark but by only three quarters of a mile. What that was isn't found so far. They were meeting in 1859, however, though not in town until 1863. An item in the early "Lanark Banner" had stated "The pupils of LHS will give a concert at the Congregational Church to raise money for maps and charts," that in 1863. No matter the lack of exactness and the confusion the Congregationalists built a simple house of worship that was used for many programs and projects. It was at the northeast corner of Locust and Rochester, katy-korner from the recently moved Methodists. It's seen here with the Congregational which, perhaps, was in tempting competion with the other (?). The sketch of the Congregational Church was reprinted in the Gazette from a drawing made in 1864 and done by the then current pastor's wife. The church was erected for $2,500.00. It would be replaced by even another denomination as would the Methodist. Yes, they'd move again but into another, bigger structure which will be seen next week. They'd also accumulate quite a bit of property in the meantime. What? Where?
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