New Carlisle United Methodist Church — first preaching 1849, class formed 1853

1849 – present · 300 E. Compton Street

The town's own Methodist congregation began as a preaching point on a circuit out of Byron. Mrs. Pidge's recollection, printed by Howard, fixes the starting scene: in 1847 New Carlisle had "no church services held here then," though Schuyler Colfax's mother, Mrs. Mathews, "had organized a Sunday school in her own house" a few years before, raising money with "little tea parties to buy books." Then "Rev. Abram Salisbury, a Methodist minister, was appointed to the circuit. He resided at Byron, between here and Laporte (our parsonage was there then). On Sunday morning he came here and preached at 9 o'clock and then went to Hamilton and preached at 11 o'clock." She adds a detail no other source carries: "Rev. Mr. Salisbury preached in what was then called the old Mormon Temple. It stood where Dr. Davis' residence is at present." Chapman, spelling the name Saulsberry, dates the first Methodist preaching at New Carlisle to 1849, "then on 'Byron Circuit.'" A schoolhouse built in 1852 was used for church purposes and Sunday school, and the first class was formed in 1853: Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Pidge, Josiah Pidge, Jacob Hopkins, James and Delilah Egbert, Mr. and Mrs. James S. White, and Eliza White, with the Rev. A. H. Pidge as class-leader; a parsonage was built the same year. The circuit context survives in a neighboring congregation's own history: a Terre Coupee circuit was organized in 1843 and lasted to 1850, and in 1852 the circuit's name was changed to New Carlisle and the work moved to the South Bend District. In conference terms the congregation's course runs from the Ohio Conference supply of 1830 through the North Indiana Conference — the parsonage context of 1848 belongs to that conference — to the present Indiana Conference of The United Methodist Church, formed in 2010 from Indiana's two conferences.

The congregation built its church in town, and here the record again gives more than one date, printed whole: Chapman (p. 767) says the church building was erected in 1858; Mrs. Pidge, who worshipped in it, remembered it "built, during the pastorate of John R. Eddy in 1858 and 1859," and "I think it was in September, 1859, that our church was dedicated," the Rev. J. M. Eddy of Chicago, the pastor's brother, preaching the dedication sermon. That brick church stood at Cherry and Front streets for a century and a half — but not in this congregation's hands at the end. The South Bend Tribune of June 28, 2026, reporting the creation of Colfax Park on the lot at Cherry and Front, states that the site is that of the former First United Methodist Church, demolished in 2024; that "the demolished building was 165 years old and a hazard" — 165 years before 2024 is 1859, the dedication year of Mrs. Pidge's account; that "a new church was built on Timothy Road in 1964"; and that "another congregation had taken over but could not maintain it." The church's bell was salvaged and stands on the park site, and a stained-glass window from the building is preserved in the Historic New Carlisle museum at 112 E. Michigan Street. The Timothy Road church of 1964 and the congregation's present seat do not reconcile in any source reached: the congregation today worships at 300 E. Compton Street, and when and how the move from Timothy Road to Compton Street happened is a named gap below, settled by the congregation's own archive and the Indiana Conference journals.

The Methodist Episcopal connection also built the town's school. In 1859 the M.E. Church erected a two-story brick building, forty-four by seventy-five feet, as the New Carlisle Collegiate Institute — Chapman says the church failed to pay its $1,500 indebtedness on it and that the town bought the building, valued at $8,000, for $1,500 as a schoolhouse, J. H. Service having given $500 toward starting it as a Methodist college; Howard says the Institute opened in 1861 under the church's patronage, "took high rank as a classical school," flourished seven or eight years, and that the building was then purchased for the school town — and that some eighty alumni gathered for a reunion on August 29, 1907. The Institute's chapel hall matters to the next congregation in this roll: the Christian Church of 1868 was organized in it.

As of November 2026 the congregation is active at 300 E. Compton Street (P.O. Box 136, New Carlisle, IN 46552; telephone 574-654-7442) under its own site, wearencumc.org. Directory and aggregator listings name the pastor as Kalvin Morrison (kalvin.morrison@inumc.org), Sunday service at 10 AM, with Jackie Widelski as church secretary; the New Carlisle Business & Community Association directory likewise lists the church "Attn: Pastor Kal," and the congregation's YouTube channel is @pastorkal7050. Its ministries include the town food pantry and "Tangled Threads," a Fresh Expressions sewing ministry meeting the second and fourth Wednesdays that had donated more than 180 handmade items by August 2026. The Indiana Conference's bishop as of November 2026 is Bishop Tracy S. Malone, assigned to the Indiana Episcopal Area effective September 1, 2024, who presided over the conference's 2026 annual conference and gave the episcopal address on June 4, 2026; her predecessor in Indiana, Julius C. Trimble (2016–2024), is not the present bishop and is not printed as such.

Sources

1. Chapman (1880), Olive Township chapter, pp. 766–768 — first-hand, ldsgenealogy.com transcription.
2. Howard (1907), vol. 1, Olive Township section, pp. 297–298 (Mrs. Pidge's recollections) and New Carlisle entry, pp. 312–313 (the Institute) — first-hand, same carrier.
3. Rolling Prairie United Methodist Church, local history page — the Terre Coupee and New Carlisle circuit course, at neighboring-congregation strength.
4. South Bend Tribune, June 28, 2026 — the Colfax Park lot, the 2024 demolition, and the 1964 Timothy Road church, read in full.
5. New Carlisle United Methodist Church, wearencumc.org — the congregation's own site; pastor and ministry details at directory and Fresh Expressions strength as stated in the text.
6. United Methodist Council of Bishops and Indiana Conference — Bishop Malone's assignment and 2026 annual conference.