History of Southminster Presbyterian Church

From Kentucky to Indiana: All the Way Back

The first land owner in south central Marion County was Jacob Smock who came to Indiana from Mercer County, Kentucky in 1823. He obtained a patent on 160 acres of land in Perry Township. In 1824 he moved to the vicinity and settled on the site that is now the Greenwood and Southport area. In July of 1825 the area was named Greenfield. On the date of its organization on December 31, 1825, and for two years thereafter, the Greenfield Presbyterian Church was constituted of nine members. The first log sanctuary was erected in the summer of 1826. A cemetery was on the property near the church. It was the first organized church of any denomination in the wilderness area south of Indianapolis. It was the only church in all of southern Marion County and northern Johnson County. In 1828 and 1829 more families came from Kentucky and joined the Greenfield Church. The families from Kentucky brought a Presbyterian heritage with them to Indiana. Most of them had been members of one of two Presbyterian churches in Mercer County, Kentucky near Harrodsburg. The Can Run Church or the New Providence Church (also known as Salt River Church).

In October, 1830 an Indianapolis Presbytery was first constituted by the Indiana Synod. In January, 1833, Presbytery gave consent for the formation of a Presbyterian Church in Perry Township in southern Marion County. By Presbytery’s order, twenty-three (23) members of the Greenfield Presbyterian Church were arbitrarily “set off” to become members of the new congregation. This new church was called the New Providence Church. The name was taken from the church in Kentucky. This church was officially organized on March 30, 1833. Little is known about the New Providence Church during the first thirty years (1833-1863) of its existence. Session minutes and records for this period were misplaced and have never been found. The March 30, 1833 date is the beginning of the roots of Southminster Presbyterian Church. It should be noted that Greenfield as a name was abandoned during the same month the New Providence Church was organized. It was then that the duplication with the Hancock County seat was discovered. The Greenfield Church became the Greenwood Presbyterian Church. It still exists by this name.

Throughout the early 1830s, an intense conflict of thought festered in the Church at the national level. The great absorbing event of this period was the fragmentation of the Church at large into two warring parties and eventually into two separate denominations. One was known as the Old School and the other as the New School. The controversy was partly doctrinal and partly administrative. The Old Schoolers were mostly conservative Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. They demanded a strict subscription to the Westminster Confession. They became suspicious of the theology and evangelistic practices of certain New England clergy they considered too liberal. The New Schoolers were ardent in their condemnation of slavery; the Old Schoolers largely ignored it. The issue most troublesome was a divergence of conviction on how missionary work in the frontier areas should be promoted and financed. The Old Schoolers felt their General Assembly should organize and govern this work as a Presbyterian project. The Old Schoolers concluded that the Presbyterian Church could only redeem its purity by severing itself from both the New Schoolers and the Congregationalists. The conflict came to a head in the General Assembly in 1837. An Old School faction had a majority in the Assembly that year. It was without warning and without formal hearing that the Assembly ousted from the Presbyterian family four Synods with New School leanings. This amounted to some 500 ministers, 600 churches and 60,000 church members. The Old Schoolers dominated the controversy and overwhelmed the New Schoolers in the state of Indiana. The result was the formation of separate synods and presbyteries. The two groups were to operate independently for the next thirty years and were not reconciled in Indiana until 1869.

For the most part, each local church remained intact, accepting the Old School or New School point of view of its pastor. The pastor of the New Providence Church (Rev. Kent/1837) subscribed to the New School cause. This caused the Congregation to split into two irreconcilable churches. Each church claimed the New Providence name; one becoming the New Providence-New School and the other the New Providence-Old School. They both used the same building, the “Old Mud Schoolhouse“, to worship in. In 1842, the Old School branch abandoned the meeting place and built its own sanctuary. Ten years later, in 1852, this building was moved to the village of Acton and became the Acton Presbyterian Church.

From Southport to Acton: The Beginning of Southminster

A Presbyterian Church was established in the Greenfield wilderness on December 31, 1825. The Greenfield wilderness was between and around what is now Southport and Greenwood. The Greenfield wilderness was not the Greenfield, Indiana located in Hancock County. This church later became the Greenwood Presbyterian Church. On March 30, 1833 twenty-four members were set apart by the Presbytery of Indianapolis from the Greenwood Presbyterian Church and relocated in an area now known as Southport. It was on this date that Southminster Presbyterian Church was born. This was known as the New Providence Church. In 1838 there was a division in the church. A group of members stayed at this branch and was called the New Providence-Old School Church and another group of members formed a new church called the New Providence-New School Church. In 1852 another division took place for the sake of convenience for the members. Some of the members formed a church on Bluff Road in Perry Township and named it Union Presbyterian Church. It was later known as the Presbyterian Church of Southport. Today it is know as the First Presbyterian Church of Southport. Another group of members went east to Acton, Indiana in Franklin Township and formed the Acton Presbyterian Church. The church was located on the Wallace farm and later moved to Acton in 1856. It was later known as the First Presbyterian Church of Acton. The “Old Acton Church” (First Presbyterian Church of Acton) was built in 1870 at a cost of $4,500.00. It still stands in Acton. On April 2, 1933 a Centennial Celebration was held at the church. The church in Acton was dissolved on October 23, 1960 and reestablished on the present site at 9950 Southeastern Avenue near Wanamaker, Indiana as Southminster United Presbyterian Church. The “Old Acton Church” was sold on the day it was dissolved. The new church had been built and services began immediately under the leadership of Rev. R. H. Duke, D. D.. The church was dedicated on April 8, 1962. The name was changed to Southminster Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1989.

Pastors: The Acton Presbyterian Church/First Presbyterian Church of Acton

1852-1855 Rev. William A. Holliday
1856 Rev. P. R. Vanetta
1857-1859 Rev. John Gilchrist
1859-1861 Rev. A. C. Allen
1862-1863 Rev. James Gilchrist
1864 Rev. L. G. Hay
1865-1867 Rev. James Gilchrist
1868-1870 Rev. L. G. Hay
1871-1882 Rev. James Williamson
1883 Rev. W. A. Patton
1884-1885 Rev. L. B. Schryuck
1886 Rev. W. A. Patton
1887-1891 Rev. F. W. Weatherwax
1892 Rev. W. I. Alexander
1893-1897 Rev. W. A. Hawley
1898-1899 Rev. A. B. VonderLippe
1900 Rev. James Gilchrist
1901-1906 Rev. J. R. Carver
1907-1909 Rev. J. R. Bardelmeier
1910-1911 Rev. William A. E. Campbell
1912-1914 Rev. Alvin C. Crowe
1914-1916 Rev. L. E. Mitchell
1916-1918 Rev. H. L. Todd
1919-1921 Rev. L. H. Shindledecker
1922-1923 Rev. J. L. Stevenson
1924-1926 Rev. L. E. Markin
1926-1927 Rev. Rev. Claude Ward
1928-1931 Rev. Rev. Perry O. Daniels
1931-1935 Rev. Rev. William McEwen
1936-1942 Rev. L. E. Markin
1943 Rev. Egon Hessel
1943 Rev. A. L. Duncan
1944-1948 Rev. A. L. Miyat
1948-1953 Rev. F. A. Pfleiderer
1953-1955 Rev. C. J. Watson
1955-1959 Rev. Kent Buser
1959-1960 Rev. R. H. Duke, D. D.

The First Presbyterian Church of Acton was dissolved on October 23, 1960 and Southminster United Presbyterian Church was established. The church is now called Southminster Presbyterian Church (USA).

Pastors: Southminster United Presbyterian Church/Southminster Presbyterian Church (USA)

1961-1976 Rev. R. H. Duke, D. D.
1974-1978 Assistant Pastor Rev. David Anderson
1977-1981 Rev. Charles E. Hoekstra
1981 Interim Pastor: Rev. Marcus S. Kendall (Ret. Presbyterian Pastor)
1982-1989 Rev. David Owen
1990-1992 Interim Pastor: Rev. Charles Lane (Retired Methodist Pastor)
1992-2000 Rev. Dr. James E. Rudiger
2001-2003 Interim Pastor: Rev. Frank Bean (Retired Presbyterian Pastor)
2003-Present Rev. Dr. Gregory L. Glover
2007-2008 Associate Pastor Rev. Katherine Rieder
2008-2009 Parish Associate Rev. Dr. James A. Capps

Clerks of Session at the Acton Presbyterian/First Presbyterian Church of Acton.

The following individuals have served as Clerk of Session:
Thomas L. Clark, W. A. Anderson, Milton E. Humphrey, Alfred H. Plymate, Clark S. Hutchinson, Tomas S. Pfendler, Homer Bassett, Ethel Belton, Raymond Giroud and Chesley White.

Clerks of Session at Southminster United Presbyterian Church/Southminster Presbyterian Church (USA).

The following individuals have served as Clerk of Session:
Chesley White, Harold Spurgeon, Bill Clark, Glenn Franklin, David Wheeler, M.D., John Arnold, Dennis Kamstra, Ron Rockey and Roger Walter.

Thanks to Bob and Eljean Mason, Gloria Beckley and Phil Hutchinson, members of the Congregational History Working Group, for reviewing the past Session Minutes for important historical information. Some of the information was documented by Russell Hutchinson. We are grateful to the First Presbyterian Church of Southport for sharing the early history of their church and how Southminster was established.

This document was assembled by Roger Walter, Clerk of Session.

This document was completed on March 30, 2008. This date marked our 175th Anniversary.