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Organized 3 August 1822 — reorganized 4 March 1837
The claim: The oldest congregation claim in Fort Wayne belongs to the Baptists. The Allen County Genealogical Society's Wayne Township church survey, drawing on the congregation's own record, states that the first assembly of any faith in the Fort Wayne area was organized by the Rev. Isaac McCoy, the Baptist missionary to the Indians: the church was formally organized with eleven charter members on 3 August 1822, meeting at the fort, and McCoy's congregation "included Europeans, African-Americans, and Native Americans." Two of the women baptized under McCoy's ministry — Ann Turner and Rebekah Hackley, daughters of Captain William Wells and granddaughters of Chief Little Turtle — appear again in 1831 as charter members of the First Presbyterian Church.
The continuity question: The mission church did not survive McCoy's departure intact; the same account records that it "was reorganized March 4, 1837," the date from which the First Baptist Church of Fort Wayne descends, and that the congregation reached its fourth site on 8 January 1950. First Presbyterian is therefore usually called the city's oldest continuing congregation (organized 1831, never reorganized), while the Baptist line carries the earlier date with a break in it. Both claims stand here as their sources make them. McCoy's school for Indian children at the post is treated in the Schools section.
Sources:
- Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana (ACGSI), "Wayne Township Churches of Allen County, Indiana" — the McCoy organization of 3 August 1822, the eleven charter members, the 1837 reorganization, the 1950 fourth site.
- Allen County–Fort Wayne Historical Society, First Presbyterian Church in Fort Wayne (1959) — the Wells daughters baptized under McCoy among the 1831 charter members.