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Olive Branch United Brethren Church — the Township's Second Society

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c. 1839 – present · township class · 22750 Osborne Rd

The United Brethren came into Union Township about when the Methodists did, formed a society about two miles north of Lakeville, and removed to Olive Branch — where their church stands today. Chapman, in full: "About the same time that the Methodists started here, United Brethren ministers came in and began their labors. They soon formed a society about two miles north of Lakeville. Here they continued to hold their meetings for a number of years, when they removed to Olive Branch and formed the society which is known by that name. They worshiped in the school-house till a few years ago. The new church at Olive Branch was commenced in April of 1878 and finished in a short time. The trustees were: Joseph Shuppert, John H. Bennett, H. A. Manuel, W. Lower, Rev. N. F. Surface. John Todd was the Pastor at that time. The church is 30 by 40, and is a very neat, pretty building. Its cost was about $1,000. The society numbers now about 50 members, is out of debt and flourishing." Howard agrees on the removal and the 1878 building. Chapman's own sketches corroborate the membership: John H. Bennett "is a member of the U. B. Church at Olive Branch," and Allen Hardy and wife are "worthy members" of it. Whether the 1878 Olive Branch building was one building or two is a separate conflict, carried in its own article below.

The congregation worships at 22750 Osborne Rd today, listed active with Sunday services at 9–11 a.m. and 6–8 p.m., in its own listed words "a small church just north of Lakeville, Indiana." Its corporate name carries the succession, and the succession is a trap this build prints plainly: the exempt listing reads "OLIVE BRANCH UNITED BRETHERN CHURCH IN CHRIST INC" [spelling as listed], exempt 10/1993 — the United Brethren in Christ line, the Old Constitution body headquartered at Huntington, Indiana, not the line that ran United Brethren → Evangelical United Brethren (1946) → United Methodist (1968). The two are different churches, and Olive Branch's own corporate name places it on the UBIC side at that listing's strength; its former website domain no longer serves the church, a present-state fact about its web presence, not a closing. Its modern course carries a hard passage, at the strength the carriers state it: the Indiana Court of Appeals (Pelley v. State, decided 13 August 2025) states, "In 1986, Bob had become minister of the Olive Branch Church on Osborne Road in Lakeville" — the Pelley case, whose 1989 parsonage killings the congregation's pastoral record runs through: Steve Dennie's account of his own parents' pastorate states they first came in 1989, "just a few months after the previous pastor and his wife, along with two young daughters, were shotgunned in the church parsonage," served about five years, and returned in an interim capacity before a final service on a July 2 (the account's year was not captured in the text read). The congregation's current pastor was not found; the gap banks with the UBIC directory as its settler.

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Source: Olive Branch United Brethren Church — the Township's Second Society, Moosed History by Project Moosed, https://history.projectmoosed.com/usa/midwest/indiana/lakeville/religion/olive-branch-united-brethren-church-the-township-s-second/