Enjoy a bit of history as we share our story of the trials and tribulations
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By Marilyn Moss 2003
Times were hard in White county in the early 1830’s. Swampland dotted the wilderness, breeding plague and malaria that struck down the settlers. Doctors were scarce; roads, bridges, and telegraph lines non-existent. Indians were still in the area, sometimes friendly, more times not.
Then in 1835, a large group of Virginians joined the first settlers here and made plans to form a Presbyterian Church. Townsmen gathered at the John Wilson log cabin, west of Monticello, and the Rev. John Stocker, of Delphi, officiated. It was May 7, 1836.
The pastor wrote to the American Home Missionary Society,…”several hundred gathered and about 40 took communion. Methodists and Baptists joined with the Presbyterians in the Lord’s Supper celebrated there in the wilderness.” He called it a “precious and solemn occasion.”
So, who were these courageous settlers who faced hardships as they reached for God’s hand?
One of the converts to Presbyterianism insisted on baptism by immersion, although the month was January and the river was iced over. The Sill history relates, “On the day selected, a hole was cut in the ice at the ferry landing at the foot of Marion St., "and…the solemn rite duly administered…without any mishap.”
A group of Indians attended a Presbyterian prayer meeting early on, listened attentively until the last amen, then left with gun in hand. There is no historical note they ever returned.
The first resident pastor in 1839 was Rev. Alexander Williamson, a hearty soul, who was known to preach the morning service in Monticello, then travel 10-15 miles over rugged trails to preach again that night. His undoing was a split in the church on the question of slavery. Decades later, the reunited church formed plans to replace a 1843 cabin on the present-day site.
Construction of the church at the corner of Illinois and Broadway took some 13 years to complete. Work was scarcely begun before the Panic of 1873 gripped the country. Money was tight, and the sanctuary’s interior was not completed until 1886. The church cost? $17,000.
The first pipe organ cost $2,600 with $1,000 of that amount given by Andrew Carnegie, the steel magnate. But the music was always a part of the church. The earliest members began their hymns with the help of a tuning fork, and a reed organ provided accompaniment after 1865.
A tornado April 3, 1974 killed eight and damaged 105 downtown Monticello Buildings and countless homes. Two landmarks were destroyed: the eighty- year- old county courthouse and our beloved Presbyterian Church. Only a portion of the east and west walls of the sanctuary remained standing. The remnant of the west wall still bore the cross of the Lord.
The church took another blow when a four-alarm fire August 16, 1988 destroyed the church’s north education wing, which had survived the tornado 14 years before. The fire was ignited by a stereo unit’s faulty wiring and spread through second-floor classrooms to the roof. The building and renovation of the smoke-damaged sanctuary, the southwest library area and north wing was set at $1 million.
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