Indiana history

Indiana

Several assemblies were started by the Scottish pioneers in northwest Indiana not far from Chicago. Assembly testimony in Indiana began in the 1870s when James Campbell visited Valparaiso. As a result of his visit, an assembly was started in that city, and was strengthened when Judge Gillet, a well-respected Christian and Bible teacher, identified himself with the testimony. Alexander Matthews and Donald Ross, among others, ministered there. The work continued at the Valparaiso Gospel Hall until the mid-1980s.

Mr. Ross had meetings at Crown Point in the late 1800s and the Crown Point Assembly began at that time. A Mr. Turner and was in the fellowship there. In 1949, the assembly built a chapel seating over 100.

Mr. Ross also visited Lowell and saw the Lowell Assembly started in that little town. The Lowell and Crown Point assemblies disbanded many years ago.

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T.B. Gilbert was led to the rural area south of South Bend to serve the Lord in 1917-18. His going was in response to the prayers of a few people who had formerly been linked with assemblies in various places but were strangers to each other. Mr. Gilbert helped them to establish assemblies in their various communities. The first of these began at Bass Lake. Three others were formed at Knox, Aldine, and Ora, all in happy fellowship with each other, and choosing “Meeting House” as their common name. The Gospel Meeting House in Knox continues today. The Meeting House in Aldine continued until the late 1970s.

The situation at Ora was a remarkable example of the power of the true gospel. Some cultish groups were already established there, when in 1918 and 1919, Mr. Gilbert visited this town of 150 people. On both occasions he held three weeks of meetings. He found it useless to preach on texts, as the people were skeptical that he was going to bring them his personal ideas. So, he preached on the Gospel of John and the Acts, chapter by chapter. Several were saved in these campaigns, one old man saying that he had been praying that God would send someone to clear up his confusion, resulting from the cultish preaching in the town. The Ora assembly was started in about 1930, and probably called its meeting place the Ora Gospel Meeting House at that time. Charles Malott, James Stephenson, and Oliver Schwartz are remembered as being involved in the start-up.

From 1930 to 1942, the Christians met in a small hall. Then in 1942, through the Lawrence Bennett family, the assembly moved to its present building, now called the Ora Gospel Chapel. In 1945, about 25 were gathering to Break Bread regularly, and 50 to 60 came out to the Gospel meeting when Mr. Gilbert spoke, a remarkable number for a town of 150.

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In 1930, C.E. Bulander, then pastor of a church at Royal Center about 30 miles from Knox, invited T.B. Gilbert to come there for a series of meetings, which resulted in Mr. Bulander’s identification with the assemblies. Mr. Bulander soon began work around Logansport, 70 miles north of Indianapolis, and Mr. Gilbert held Bible classes at the city hall. The Logansport Gospel Chapel, also known as Bethany Gospel Chapel, was established in about 1934 as a result of these efforts. The assembly first met in the home of Byron Flory in the country; and from there in a succession of homes and storefronts until 1992, when the assembly acquired its own chapel at 321 Cliff Drive. Leaders in the assembly have been Byron Flory, Floyd Swigert, Fred Stout, Milsted and George Hammon, Clarence Rude, Bert Hostetler, and Bob Galinger. About 15 people are now in the assembly.

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Many of the adjoining towns were visited with gospel tent efforts. T.B. Gilbert held Bible classes at Mishawaka, near South Bend, and the Mishawaka Assembly was planted there. Its derivative today is Grace Bible Chapel.

In about 1934, C.E. Bulander and John Farquharson pitched a gospel tent near Brookston, and the Brookston Assembly was formed there as the result of this effort. It disbanded long ago.

At the beginning of World War II, an assembly was formed in Ripley when gasoline rationing prohibited travel. It continued at the Ripley Gospel Chapel until the early 1990s.

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Bethany Fellowship in Warsaw, southeast of South Bend began in 1977 as Bethany Bible Chapel. Ron Moore, Ron Scantlen, and Abraham Thomas were the principal initiators of the assembly. The Chapel was first located in the nearby small town of Winona Lake. Abraham Thomas, Ray Moore, Wayne Taylor, Dick Lehman, Irv Lindemuth, Ben Scripture, and Leo Belanger have been active in leadership over the years. Bethany Fellowship has commended several to the Lord’s work. About 45 adults and children are in the assembly.

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A. R. Cole, whose work was largely caring for orphan children, lived for many years at Kendallville in the northeast corner of the state. He was instrumental in initiating the Kendallville Assembly, which disbanded long ago.

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Grace Chapel at Frankfort, between Lafayette and Indianapolis, was underway in the 1950s under the leadership of John Freeland. They acquired and remodeled a small building at that time to provide facilities for Sunday school and adult meetings. It has since disbanded.

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The Round Grove Assembly, which had been in existence for years in the west central part of the state, moved in 1949 to the home of Bert Hostetler in West Lafayette. It disbanded many years ago, but the Westside Bible Fellowship meets today in West Lafayette.

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Muncie Bible Fellowship in Muncie, northeast of Indianapolis, began in 1985 as a Bible study in the home of Richard and Sharon Rawson, who were from an independent Baptist church. The group included Paul and Debbie McCollum and Gene and Reva Mussick. In 1986, Garlord and Barbara Kramer and family, from an assembly background, joined the group, and were followed in 1987 by David and Felicia Dixon, and the Anderson family, also from assembly backgrounds. At that time, the fellowship first began Breaking Bread.

In 1988, the group relocated to a hotel, and in 1990 to a store front at 4006 W. Jackson; in 1993 they rented and remodeled a 2400 square foot building at 3800 W. Jackson Street, where they stayed until the landlord sold the building, at which time they moved back into the Rawson home at 116 Winthrop, and continue there to the present. David Dixon and Richard Rawson are the leaders of the assembly.

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The assembly now known as Bethany Bible Chapel in Carmel on the north edge of Indianapolis, started in about 1915. In that year, Emile Carboz, an immigrant from Switzerland, moved his family to Indianapolis. They met Dan and Bonnie Robertson, and the two families began Remembering the Lord in one of their homes, since there was no meeting of ‘open’ brethren there. They were soon joined by the Butlers and Friebergs. In the 1920s, the growing group moved into a storefront building on North Tacoma Avenue for a meeting place. From there they moved to a YMCA on North Pennsylvania Avenue, and from there to a Youth for Christ building.

During the late 1930s, the Dave and Jean Sheele family moved from New York and came into fellowship. In the 1940s, Richard and Frances Hill started coming to the meeting with their family. In 1949 William M. Brown moved to Indianapolis to devote most of his time to the work there. The assembly had been meeting in a public building and in various homes and needed its own chapel. The brethren secured a lot and Mr. Brown drew up some plans, but the neighborhood selected objected to the chapel being built. The lot was sold and another one bought in a new location outside the city limits. Jack Davies, of California, was asked to give a bit of architectural treatment to the plans and in 1950 and 1951 the Indianapolis brethren built a functional and attractive chapel. Messrs. Carboz, Sheele, and Hill were the principal men involved in building the chapel at North Grand Avenue (now North Leland Avenue) in northeast Indianapolis. It was called Bethany Chapel at that time, and later changed to Bethany Bible Chapel.

During this period, many were saved and added to the assembly. But in the early 1950s, some of the elders moved or were transferred, and the assembly decreased. Then Leonard Sheldrake, son of the well-known full-time servant of the Lord, moved to the area and began coming to the chapel. Soon he was one of the stalwarts of the assembly. Ray Morgan became another elder of the assembly at about the same time. William and Mabel Burrows came in 1961, and William became a real shepherd. The chapel was enlarged in the 1960s.

In 1971 the Christians sold their building and began to meet in the Jordan YMCA until 1973 at which time they bought an older house at 4312 East 116th Street, Carmel, and renovated it for their meeting place. The assembly commended, among others, Mark and Carol Kieft to serve in the foreign field. The Kiefts have since returned and helped start Faith Bible Chapel in Farmington Hills, MI, where they serve the Lord full time.

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At Bicknell in the southwest part of the state, a large assembly arose through the efforts of saved miners from Scotland, but after the mines closed, probably in the early 1900s, the Bicknell Assembly ceased.

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Sources

• Questionnaire Responses
• Letters of Interest, June 1944, p. 37; November 1953, p. 3; June 1959, p. 11; July 1961, p. 8
• The History of Bethany Bible Chapel, Carmel, Indiana, by Ray Morgan, undated