Across the line: the Walkerton-address congregations that stand in other counties

2026

Four congregations carry Walkerton in their addresses and stand, on the instrument, somewhere else entirely — and because their people are Walkerton-area people, they are printed here at boundary size, in their true townships, rather than dropped. The Koontz Lake Missionary Church, at 8044 N State Road 23, is a congregation of the Missionary Church with a federal ruling of November 1969, its own site, and a pastor, Brian Baughman, named officiating at a Walkerton funeral as late as November 2026 — Greg Bentle held the pulpit in the town paper's 1990 church page. The Census geocoder seats its address in Oregon Township, Starke County, inside the Koontz Lake census-designated place: it is a Starke County church on the lake whose congregation has always drawn from Walkerton, seven miles north. The Catholic frame doubles at the same lake: St. Dominic Mission, a mission of Holy Cross Parish of Hamlet, belongs to the Diocese of Gary — the second diocese in this section — and its diocesan page names its pastor, the Rev. Anthony L. Spanley; aggregators seat it at 10440 IN-23, and the geocoder seats that address likewise in Oregon Township, Starke County. The diocesan newspaper across the line spells it "St. Dominick," and the spelling conflict prints with the Gary diocese's own "St. Dominic" governing. St. Anthony of Padua, at 7732 E State Road 4, is a Fish Lake parish sharing a site and a mailing address with St. John Kanty of Rolling Prairie, its pastor carried at 2023 bulletin strength as the Rev. Michael G. Heimer; the geocoder seats it in Lincoln Township, LaPorte County — a namesake township in the next county, not Walkerton's own. And Teegarden First Brethren Church, at 16518 1st Road, a congregation of The Brethren Church with a federal ruling of April 1964, tests in Polk Township, Marshall County, in the Teegarden CDP. None of the four is a Walkerton seat; all four belong to the religious life of the Walkerton countryside, and they are carried at this size so that the boundary, and not the postal service, decides the town's roll.

Sources

1. Koontz Lake Missionary Church, own site, klmc.us; IRS register via BMF-derived listing (ruling 11/1969); obituary record, November 2026 (Pastor Brian Baughman); The Independent-News church page, 15 March 1990 (Pastor Greg Bentle).
2. Diocese of Gary, parish page, St. Dominic Mission of Holy Cross Parish (Hamlet) — Rev. Anthony L. Spanley, pastor; aggregator address 10440 IN-23.
3. St. Anthony of Padua / St. John Kanty joint parish site, stjohnkanty.com (7732 E State Road 4; 2023 bulletins, Rev. Michael G. Heimer).
4. Teegarden First Brethren Church, IRS register via BMF-derived listing (ruling 04/1964); Brethren Church denominational listing.
5. Census geocoder tests, 11 November 2026: 8044 N State Road 23 and 10440 State Road 23 — Oregon Township, Starke County; 7732 E State Road 4 — Lincoln Township, LaPorte County; 16518 1st Road — Polk Township, Marshall County.