Dexter Meeting Room, MI

Charles Eplum Bascum Armstrong was a Baptist pastor who was in fellowship with the exclusive Brethren from prior to 1878 thru at least 1880 while living in Dexter, Michigan.

He was born in 1822 in Lima, Ohio to Abel D. Armstrong and his second wife Eliza Downs Armstrong. Abel was born 1758 in Augusta, Virginia, and Eliza was born in 1802 in New Jersey. Abel died in 1837 in Champaign, Ohio, and Eliza in Lima in 1881.

As early as 1851 thru 1854, Charles served as a vocal music instructor at the Henry Female College, a Baptist school in New Castle, Kentucky. There was a concert given under his direction on May 23, 1854 in Louisville.

On Jan. 5, 1856 in Breckinridge, Kentucky, Charles married Ottie Alwaanna Allen Armstrong, who was born on a Cherokee Reservation in Texas.

Charles served a number of Baptist pastorates and other ministry positions before being introduced to the exclusive Plymouth Brethren. The earliest reference was a pastorate he held +1858-1860+ at Bank Street Baptist in New Albany, Indiana. He and his wife Ottie had two children while living in New Albany:

Then he did pastoral work in 1863 at Saline, Michigan. From 1867-1868, he served as a chaplain at Michigan State Prison, making numerous improvements to their library and other ways. In 1869, he served as a pastor in Jackson, Michigan. Then from 1870-1874 at the First Baptist Church of Greenville, Michigan. While in this role, he also preached occasionally in the early 1870's for the First Baptist Society of Wheatfield Township.

In 1874 he officiated a wedding for the postmaster of Brainerd, Michigan, W.W. Hartley (1849-1931) in the parents' home of his bride, Mary E. Moorman (1848-1922) in Eureka. All of their children were still living at home when Charles & Ottie became Brethren, presumably in the late 1870's. In 1900, he and his wife were living in Grand Rapids. In 1916, Ottie was living in Seattle, Washington as a widow, so Charles died prior to that. He may have died in 1912 in Paine.

Children

• Allen H. Armstrong (b. 1858 New Albany, IN - d. 1929 Seattle, WA); m. Harriett Frances Morton (b. 1871 - d. 1955 Seattle, WA)
• Emma W. Armstrong (b. 1860 New Albany, IN - d. 1890 California, Kent, MI), schoolteacher;
• Carey Clarence Armstrong (b. 1862 MI - d. 1947 Sedro-Woolley, Skagit, WA); m. Susanna Brugge (b. 1867 N.Y. - d. 1925 Seattle, WA), dau. of John Brugge;
• Arthur Armstrong (b. 1866 Saline, MI - d. 1951)
• Charles Ernest Armstrong (b. 1869 Jackson, MI - d. 1949 Seattle, WA); m. Adelaide J.L. Wildberger (b. 1877 Grand Rapids, MI - d. 1961 Seattle, WA)
• Alice Armstrong (b. 1875 MI)
• Lyman Herbert Lyman Armstrong II (b. 1876 MI - d. 1939 Ogden, UT)

Sources

• Ancestry.com
  • C.E.B.'s middle names are credited to Jacky Leathem's research.
• EB AAB's 1878-1879
• History of Washtenaw County, MI
• 1868 MI State Docs, p. 14
• History of Montcalm County, MI, p. 331
• History of Williamstown
• 1854 Henry Female College roster
• 1851 Henry Female College promo
• Louisville Courier 1851-5-26