The St. Joseph Valley congregation, 1881–1921

Shultz (1952), Part 14, "St. Joseph Valley (1881–1921)," read whole at transcription strength; Part 12 for the 1882 report

On 29 January 1881 the northern territory was organised as its own congregation. In Shultz's words: "The St. Joseph Valley congregation was a part of the St. Joseph congregation until January 29, 1881, when the new church was organized. John Wrightsman was chosen pastor. Peter Cripe, Thomas Longley, Joseph Ulery Sr. and Joseph Ulery Jr. were deacons… Their house of worship, two miles north of South Bend, was the first meeting house in the St. Joseph church before the territory was divided. The church was finally disorganized in 1921 and the members transferred to the two churches in South Bend." The 1882 report carried 140 members for the combined body, and Shultz says of it that it "also included St. Joseph Valley, which had just been organized from the territory north and east of South Bend, and sometimes known as the Ulery Church. However this congregation, St. Joseph Valley, continued only until 1921 when it was disorganized and the territory going back to the mother church." Both of Shultz's wordings for the end print here — members transferred to the two South Bend churches; territory going back to the mother church — because the build does not choose between its own carrier's two sentences. The two South Bend congregations then standing were First South Bend and Second South Bend (organised 1907), but no carrier reached states that the transferred members went to those two by name, and that step is not asserted.

The keepers the record names, in Shultz's order: John Wrightsman, chosen pastor at the organisation (Chapman's pastor of 1880, before it); Isaac Miller, "the second pastor"; ministers called — Frank Hendricks, 1882; David Miller, 1884; Jerry Bottorff, 1895; and David S. Cripe, "pastor and elder here for many years," the last keeper the record names, his tenure printed undated because the carrier gives it no dates. A Sunday School was organised in 1882. Who kept the congregation between Cripe's unnamed years and 1921 stands as a named gap (G3-1). And the question this article cannot answer is the building's: no carrier reached states what became of the 1868 meeting-house after 1921 — not demolition, sale, removal or survival. A dedicated search for its fate returned only other places' Brethren buildings. That stands as gap G3-2, with the denominational minutes and the county deed record named as its settlers.