Williams, Indiana

Another early church building was erected north of Monmouth in section 17 in 1S65 and is a' frame. This was built by the English Lutherans and named Concord church. Many year? before this building was erected the Gorsline school house was used by this congregation for church purposes. In 1S54 there was a frame church built in Monmouth on inlot No. 17 by the Baptist church organization. Doubtless this was one of the first, if not the first, frame church building erected in the county. In 1870 the United Brethren built a frame church in the northern part of Monmouth near the graveyard. In 1868 the Methodist congregation converted one of the Ziba Dorwin tavern buildings into a church, but this has long since been abandoned. The German Lutheran people in the northern part of the township as early as 1841 built a log church building in section II. This was used for both church and school purposes. In 1851 a large frame church took its place and was used by this congregation until 1879, at which time the only brick church in the township was built. This building is a fine structure, about forty-five by ' seventy-five feet in size, and is known as the Saint Peter's Lutheran church. It is frequently called the "Fuelling church," as it is in the Fuelling neighborhood. This property consists of a church building, school house, parsonage and teacher's dwelling, and a conservative estimate would place the value of this property at about seventeen thousand dollars. Root township has two more towns within its borders. The town of Williams is situated on the north line of the county, nine miles west of the Ohio state line, on the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad. It was laid out and the plat recorded on the 7th day of June, 1S72. Its originators were David Crabbs and Benjamin Rice. This town has two streets. Main, which runs east and west, and Adams, a north and south street. It has fifty-four lots and was one of the timber towns that sprang into existence when the heavy forests were being removed and the railroads loaded with lumber for market. The timber interests, as heading factories and saw mills, were removed and the- town ceased to grow or improve. At present there is a postoffice, a general store, a saloon and creamer}'. This town has some good houses, among which is a good district school building.

Passage source: Snow's History of Adams County, Indiana, published 1907.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Root Township.