HISTORY OF GETHSEMANE CHURCH

112 YEARS AGO, ON OCTOBER 4, 1890, THE PRESENT CHURCH OPENED FOR WORSHIP

The  first service of the Episcopal Church was held in June of 1850 or 1851 in Marion. It was the second Sunday of the month and the Rev. Joseph L. Large of Trinity, Ft. Wayne, officiated at what was most likely Evening Prayer. The next Anglican worship to take place was 24 years later in 1874. Evening Prayer was conducted  in the Court House for seven Episcopal families. Marion was a town of 4,000 at the time.

The next services of record were in 1881 for congregational worship:  once in the summer and once in the fall - October 7, 1881. Evening  prayer was held at the John N. Turner residence. The Turner  home was on the northwest corner of what is now Tenth and Gallatin Streets, now a parking lot for Bethel A.M.E. Church.

The first celebration of the Eucharist took place at the Turner residence appropriately enough on Maundy Thursday, April 10, 1884. Five communicants attended on that day commemorating Christ’s institution of the Sacrament of His Body and Blood.

On May 23rd  of  that year the Bishop of Indiana, the Rt. Rev. David B. Knickerbacker, called a meeting of churchmen and a mission was organized and named Gethsemane after the Bishop’s former parish in Minneapolis.  Occasional services were held at the Court House.

The first Sacrament of Holy Baptism was administered June 8,1884. The first Confirmation was administered January 28, 1886 by Bishop Knickerbacker.

The  present Episcopal Church Women took shape in Marion when Ladies Aid was organized on November 19, 1884.  Work has been continuous by the E.C.W. since that time.

From 1886 until 1891 a business room on what is now the 500 block of Washington Street was used as the Church. It was known as Webster’s Chapel, although the mission retained its name as Gethsemane.  Formation of Church School took place at Webster Chapel in 1886.  The font which now stands in the Church was part of the furnishings of the old Webster Chapel.

In 1887 the lot on which our Church now stands was purchased for $1,000 and from 1887 to 1890, $2,900 was subscribed for a building fund.

The population of Marion rose rapidly with the “Gas Boom” of that era. By 1890 the Mission received parochial status and the first Rector was Father Lewis F. Cole, grandfather of our former long-time Senior Warden, Lewis F. Cole, and his sisters, Mabel and Mary Cole. In two weeks Father Cole raised $1,600 for building the new Church. Ground was broken June 2,1890.  On July 23,1890, Bishop Knickerbacker laid the cornerstone and the Church opened for worship on Oct. 4, 1890.  Parishioners filled the Church and gave $600 toward the indebtedness that Sunday.  The stonework cost $2,425.80 and the carpentry was $3,741.00.

Father Cole’s tenure at Gethsemane marked the commencement of full parish life for Gethsemane Church and the end of the first sporadic attempts to establish a parish in Marion in which God could be worshiped according to Anglican tradition.

Submitted by Loren Weaver with contributions from Dory Brunner, Mabel Cole, Mary Cole, Frances Spurgeon, Jim Stankey, Deacon Taylor and Terri Webb.