CHRISTIAN CHURCH

The Christian Church at Gerlaw was organized June 20, 1859, at Mauck's Grove, by Elder L. S. Wallace, with twenty-nine members. They were W. L. Hopper, William Hopper, Edith M. Hopper, C. M. Mills, Caroline Mills, John Stew­ art, Mrs. Stewart, Letty Stewart, William Lair, Sr., Mrs. Lair, Robert Lair, Mary Lair, Fielding Lair, Harriet Lair, Helen Lair, James F. Owens, Mary T. Owens, John Miller, Ben­ jamin Gardner, Jemima Gardner, Nancy Gardner, David Petit, Mrs. Petit, John Carson, Mary Carson, Walter Carson, Harriet Carson, Mrs. Coddington, and Mrs. Elizabeth R. Smith. Seven of these are known to be still living.

A neat frame building had been erected prior to the organization, at a cost of $1,100, which, in September, 1873, was moved to Gerlaw, was repaired, and served the congregation to worship in until 1894, when the present beautiful and convenient house was erected at a cost of $3,630. Elder L. Smith Wallace was the first pastor, and was followed by Elders George W. Lucy, James Gaston, Henry Murphy, H. R. Trickett, J. B. Boyer, Leander MePherson, Charles Laycock, T. B. Stanley, M. Jones, T. B. Stanley, J. A. Mavity, A. M. Hale, H. E. Tucker, and L. F. Davis, the present pastor. The mem­ bership of the church at present is 117.

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN

The congregation now known as the United Presbyterian congregation of Gerlaw, was organized June 22, 1855, as the Associate Re­formed Presbyterian congregation of Center, under the inspection of the Second A. R. Presbytery of Illinois. Rev. Matthew Bigger presided in the organization. Its territory lay northwest of Monmouth, centering In Spring Grove. Fifty-one members entered the organization. Of these less than half a dozen now (April, 1902) survive, and none of them in the congregation or neighborhood.

A year after the organization of the congregation, eighteen of the members of the extreme north part were granted a separate organization, which subsequently became a part of the United Presbyterian congregation of North Henderson, near Norwood. About the same time the name of the congregation, thus reduced in size, was changed to Spring Grove. As a result of the Union which formed the United Presbyterian denomination in May, 1858, the name of the congregation was changed accordingly to the United Presbyterian congregation of Spring Grove.

About the year 1880 the church building was moved nearly three miles southeast into the then new railroad village of Gerlaw, When its name changed to Gerlaw. Soon afterwards the building was blown down, and another, quite commodious, was erected in its place, costing about |3,500. The congregation also has a parsonage. In the forty-seven years of its history the congregation has had nine pastors, in order as follows: Revs. James C. McKnight, William M. Graham, Thomas P. Patter­son, David Inches, Rufus Johnson, William J. McCrory, A. W. Jamieson, Thomas G. Morrow, and .John M. Henderson, the present pastor. President McMichael, D. D., of Monmouth College, also, was stated supply about a year, 1882.

Of the pastors, the first three have passed away, all of them leaving kindred well known in Monmouth and northward; and another, Rev. David Inches, retired, at Sterling, Kansas, suffers great bodily affliction. None of the pastorates have been long ones, the longest being that of Rev. T. G. Morrow, between eight and nine years; and the shortest, that of Rev. W. J. McCrory, between one and two years. The congregation has never been large. After various vicissitudes its present membership is about seventy