ANGOLA'S FIRST CHURCH

ANGOLA'S FIRST CHURCH

By A. W. Long

Among the many eminent pioneer preachers of Steuben county, the name of Brother Hutchinson stands preeminent! He was a large strong, powerful man, filled with the spirit and inspiration of his Divine Master!  He rallied to his support the best people of Angola and Steuben county.  Under his inspiring leadership the first church was erected during the year 1856.  The rough materials necessary for the construction of the church was largely contributed by the pioneer sawmills around Angola.  In the old sawmills on our farm I helped my father  saw the studding, joists, and rafters for this church.  On the same stream, flowing southward from Fox Lake, situated a half-mile north of our mill, stood the mill of Enoch Ayers, who was a contemporary of my father in building up a powerful Methodist class in Steuben Township.  Brother Ayers also contributed much material for the new church.  Other similar saw mills around Angola contributed rough lumber.  The church was shingled with white ash shingles from the Chard shingle mill, southeast of Angola, for pine shingles were still unknown.  Thus this church, fifty feel in length bu about thirty feet wide was built with only a cash expenditure of $1400.00.

 It stood on a hill west of the present home of John B. Parsell, fronting the to the southward, where one big big door was the only means for ingress or egress.  Entering at this door you found yourself in a hall about ten feet wide and extending across the building from east to west. with smaller doors at each end of the hallway entering the auditorium.  Inside these entrances stood the two big box stoves that warmed the building, fed with beech and maple wood furnished by surrounding Methodist farmers.  The stove pipes soared upward and then turned to the northward, finally entering the chimney above the minister's head.  A gallery was built above the hallway to accommodate the church choir and for many years this was the only church building in Angola.  Devout men and women of various denominations have since built several beautiful churches of brick and stone but I doubt whether the dedication of these later churches could possible equal the enthusiasm with which we dedicated to this pioneer church to worship God!  I was only ten years old at the time, but I can still feel the thrill and the exaltation of that hour.  The auditorium was filled to the doors,  Even the aisles were filled with chairs all the standing room was taken. 

A choir of the best pioneer singers of Angola filled the gallery and were led by Miss Angeline Killinger, eldest daughter of a pioneer German family.  Miss Killinger possessed the finest soprano voice that I have ever heard in Angola!  Clear, powerful yet as sweet as the chime of silver bells!  Dear girl; I have no doubt that she is now singing in the angel choir above.  Other members of the choir were: Mr and Mrs Jesse M. Gale.  Mrs Gale was Elizabeth Metzger from a pioneer Methodist family of Angola.  Also Elizabeth Freypang and her sister, Mrs Freypang Carpenter, both cousins of Miss Killinger. Mr and Mrs Eldridge, Anna Eldridge, Edward Fitch, George W. and Mrs McConnell, both staunch Presbyterians were in that choir with the splendid tenor voices of Jacob Stealey and Mr Day, father of the large Day family.  Among the bass singers were: Gilbert and Jesse Mugg and William Kirchoff and many other singers for that gallery was full and all distinctive denominations of that time were represented in choir and congregation.

Than when all was ready Brother Hutchinson arose and read the dedicatory hymn, selected for the occasion adding at the close of the reading "Now brethren and sisters when the choir rises to sing this beautiful hymn, please rise also and turn halfway round to face the singers and sing also"  aAnd this is what that first Angola choir sang, for after seventy-three years I am writing from memory and humming the beautiful music as I write:

"Come thou, almighty king,

Teach us thy fame to sing,

Help us to praise, 

Father all glorious,

O'er all victorious,

Come and righn over us,

Ancient of Days.

Then followed the wonderful impassioned prayer of dedication and the sermon based on "And God said let there be light, and there was light.  It was a very eloquent and forceful development of the  theme: Light versus Darkness!  A beautiful custom sprang from this service in the new church and for many years the entire congregation arose and turned to face the choir in the gallery and sang with them.  It was an inspiration as well as a compliment to the choir.

Steuben Republican April 17, 1929

THE MYSTERY OF STEUBENVILLE

 Early Steuben County history tells us that in 1837 there was a competition between Steubenville and Angola to become the county seat.  Why would Steubenville be chosen for the county seat when it was nearly in Dekalb County, certainly not central to most of Steuben County?  The answer to this lies in the early county history.

Steuben, commonly called Steubenville was the first village in Steuben Township. It was located in the area of today's 400 South and 150 West, north of Pleasant Lake.  A dam was constructed and several mills.  A number of business places were constructed and in all,dwellings and business places, there were about thirty buildings. (1)
Steubenville, which was platted in November, 1835, was the competitor of Angola for the location of the county seat, early in 1837,  Isaac Glover, Abner Winsor, and others endeavoring unsuccessfully to have the county buildings in their town.  Steubenville was situated not far from the present village of Pleasant Lake.  When the county seat was located at Angola, in 1837, Steubenville commenced declining, and was never destined to fulfill expectations of its pioneer proprietors. (2)

Another Steubenville was laid out March 10, 1873, on section 34, township 36, range 13, by Daniel Till and Samuel Teeters.  It was started when the Canada Southern Railroad was surveyed, and was located at the crossing of that road and the Fort Wayne & Jackson Railroad, but since the former road failed to be built it has rapidly declined.(2)

 The first schoolhouse in Steuben Township was built in the village of Steubenville, which was located about one mile north of Pleasant Lake on land later settled by Dr. A.P.Clark and now owned by Allan Landis.  Lucy Avery was the first teacher.  The landowners on this locality desired very much to have the County Seat at this place but others outbid them and Angola was chosen, and soon thereafter Steubenville was abandoned.
In March, 1873 another town by the name of Steubenville was platted by Daniel Till and Samuel Teeters where the survey for the Canada Southern Railroad crossed the Fort Wayne and Jackson branch of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, now (1955) known as the New York Central.  As the Canada Southern was never built the town failed to grow and when the Wabash Railroad later built along this route and established a round house and shop about 4 or 5 miles west of the crossing, they platted the town of Ashley.  Steubenville gradually grew smaller until now there are only a few houses remaining. (3)


The original Steubenville was located near the intersection of 400 S. and 150 W. south of the Clark Matson Cemetery.

1. Centennial of Pleasant Lake and Steuben Township Indiana, pg 8
2. The History of Steuben County 1885,  pg 767   
3. 1955 History of Steuben County, pg 81
Pictures from the Carnegie Library Collection

ANGOLA, ORIGIN OF A TOWN'S NAME

 How Angola Received It's Name

Angola received it's name about the time the place was chosen as the county seat and it is said, before there was no other known place called Angola in this country or anywhere else, save in Africa.  The name is supposed to have been chosen simply as being new and uncommon and one that pleased the chooser of it.

The late Dr. G.W. McConnell is authority for the statement that Judge Thomas Gale selected the name, while the late Jacob Stealy contended that it was Mrs. Cornelius Gilmore who first suggested Angola as the name of the town as his (Mr Stealy's) mother did that of the township, Pleasant.

By an act of the General Assembly of Indiana dated Jan 18, 1837, Steuben was to "enjoy all the rights and jurisdictions which belong to separate and independent counties,"after the first day of May of that year.  Those were times when men entertained strong feelings pro and con and sometimes used strong expressions on the subject of "abolitionism."  There were those who did not exactly like this name, Angola, perhaps thinking that it had too much the appearance of giving an African name to a white community.

Steuben Republican  June 24, 1931

I look back to the time I arrived in Lima (Howe), October 14, 1835.  The winter after I came, Thomas Gale, then living in Lima, conceived the idea of starting a town in Steuben county.  Angola was the name selected, and some of the old settlers in Lima remarked the the name would be a good one for a dog.

J. M. Keith Ontario Indiana Aug 4, 1890 ---- taken from minutes from The Steuben County Old Settlers Meeting.

There has been much discussion about where the name of Angola came from, the most popular being that it was named for Angola, New York, because the people who founded it came from there.  The two men who founded Angola, Cornelius Gilmore and Thomas Gale were both from New York, but they came from eastern New York state, near the Hudson River.  They both lived in Ohio before coming to Indiana.  Interesting enough at the time Angola was platted Angola, New York was called Evans Station.  The following quote is from the Angola, New York village website.
 "Many years ago when the trains came through this area, it was called Evans Station. The people applied to the Federal Government to put a post office in this area. The Quakers had started a Colony this side of Gowanda in the Collins area and were known to help many in need. The same Quakers also helped people of Angola, Africa. In 1855, when the Angola Post Office located in Taylor Hollow (used by the Quakers) closed, the Federal Government offered it to this area and said “here is your post office” and authorities thought it best to move the post office to this area… hence the name “Angola” 

It seems highly unlikely that Angola was named for Angola, New York but than why was it named that?  It is commonly known that Thomas Gale was an abolitionist.  Could he have named the town after Angola, Africa?  We may never know for sure but the old story that Angola was named after Angola, New York seems to be just that, a story.   

Local History Dept  
 






    

DR JAMES MCCONNELL

Among the men who took an active and prominent part in the early history of Steuben County, few are more worthy of mention than Dr. James McConnell.  He was born in Morefield, VA., September 17, 1810, and was the second in the family of James and Elizabeth McConnell.  He received his education at Lovingston, New Glasgow and New London, VA., under his father's watchful care, and soon after, entered the office of Dr. Lamb, of  Brownsville, Fayette Co., Penn, completing his medical studies with Dr. Porter, formerly Professor of Anatomy in Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia.He began practice at Brownsville, Penn, and about 1833, moved to McConnellsville, Ohio and in May, 1835 came to Lima, La Grange County Ind. The territory of which Steuben County, Ind., now consists, was then a part of La Grange County, and it will thus be seen that he was identified with Steuben County from the very commencement of his career in Indiana.  He remained at Lima until November 1, 1836, when he moved to the "Vermont settlement," now Orland, where he continued the extensive practice he had enjoyed in Lima.  He was the first physician of Steuben County, and a man of fine education and undoubted ability. In April, 1837, he was elected Clerk and Recorder of Steuben County for the term of seven years, and located his office int he log cabin of Jacob Stayner, on Jackson Prairie, removing to Angola in the fall of 1837, where the county seat had been located and a frame office erected for his occupancy.

He was married in Angola, in January, 1841, to Mrs Julia Whitaker, sister of Judge Thomas Gale, one of the pioneers of Angola.

In 1843, Dr McConnell resigned his office and began practice as an attorney, but death cut short his labors, he dying October 9, 1844.  Most of the old settlers remember him as a man of integrity and true worth; energetic, obliging and capable; possessed of the finer attributes of manhood and endowed with a strong, logical brain.  Although first settling in Lima, he was from the beginning, intimately associated with the early, sturdy pioneers of "Old Steuben," of whom their descendants may well feel proud.  De James McConnell, though dead nearly forty years, is still spoken of in words of kindness and honor.

Atlas of Steuben County 1880

JOLLY BROTHER'S FISHING CLUB

The first excursion of the "Jolly Brothers Fishing Club" of this place consisted of a trip last Thursday, to the beautiful body of water eight miles northeast of Angola, known as Lake Gage.  By a singular, and we must say rather sel-fish arrangement, none but the officers were allowed to participate in the inaugural fishing party of the club.  Every one of the grand Moguls, however, took particular pains to be present at the inaugural ceremonies on the south bank of the lake, as the following list of attendants, which we glean from the secretary's book, show: T. B. Williams, president; O. Carver, vice-president; J. Tooley, 2nd vice-president; J. Gale, treasurer; M. Stiefel, secretary; L. M. Sowle, night-watch.  Leaving business cares behind, the party started at one o'clock P.M., and, after a pleasant ride through a fine country, at 3:30 the boys neared the lake.  With hearts light and pockets filled with straggling poles, and with long worms on their shoulders, the "Jolly Brother's Fishing Club" hopped out of the three-seated carriage, to the great relief of its springs, and to the complete joy of about a million hungry mosquitoes.  After the battle with the insects had opened, and while busy rigging up the boats, Mr. O Leas put in an appearance with commissary stores which consisted of eatables, ___ables, tenting, etc.  After partaking of a hearty supper and indulging in a fine smoke, the next thing in order was a row on the lake, ending up with a healthy bathe.  Before retiring, a social game of pedre was engaged in by all except Moses, who laid his weary bones away in his hammock for the purpose of courting "tired nature's sweet restorer - balmy sleep"  On being called at regular intervals of fifteen minutes, he gave up in despair and joined in shuffling the pictures.  Just here the party received a pleasant visit from Joseph Butler and his friend, Mr. Gilliad.  The club dished up the best in the shop and in return were tendered the hospitality of his house.  At midnight  all retired except, of course, the night watch, Sowle.  The boys slept probably fifteen minutes, when they were awakened by a slight noise right over them, about as loud as could possibly come from a heavily loaded shot gun.  The gun was expressly fired, as Lee afterward stated,while President rubbed down his shoulder with arnica, for the purpose of keeping away the howling beasts, but the old thing suddenly rewarded him for his pains by kicking him down the bank into the lake to bathe.
All sleep soundly, even to the night watch until three o'clock, when the fishermen were awakened by the patter of rain upon the tent.  Shortly after, "Mose" astonished the club by paddling out to the President's floating bladder and hauling in an immense "pickeral."  The Club, however, afterward, with only one dissenting voice, (that of Moses) decided to call the curious specimen of the finny tribe a regular dog fish. The worthy secretary of the club was sorely disappointed that morning in not having pickerel for breakfast.  The boys, however, took in some fine fish that Friday and after exhausting their eatables and particularly their ____ables, the party returned home, we learn, for the express purpose of getting ready for another trip.

Steuben Republican July 21,1875

The Indians and Steuben County

The Indians and Steuben County

By Hon. Stephen A. Powers

I quote from a letter written by my uncle, Stephen Powers, to his mother, July 12, 1837:

    "On May 23rd, Winn and Calvin  and I with our families started from Ontario county N.Y., with our ox teams.  Winn and I arrived in the state if Indiana July 3rd, and we reached brother Clark's place July 8, 1837.  Clark had a double shanty nearly done and we all moved in with him.  We were seven weeks lacking two days on the way and Calvin has not arrived yet.

    In my uncle's family at that time was his little daughter, Dolly Jane, who is now Jane Stayner, and is the only survivor of the Powers family that settled in York Township over 75 years ago.

    My Uncle Steve soon moved two miles west, on the Maumee road (US 20), where he located in a log cabin.  Just south of them was an Indian village of which my cousin Jane has told me some incidents.  

    Here lived forty Indians presided over by a chief.  In the thick of the woods they had a large low log wigwam, built up on three sides of logs, chinked with moss and covered in bark.  The east side was open except as they hung up blankets and hides as curtains.  In winter they cooked inside this wig-wam and in summer outside.  They piled up leaves and covered them with bear and wolf skins for beds.  When the weather was unfit to live outside, all of these Indians lived in this big wig-wam.

    There were friendly to the whites.

    The old chief had a little papoose of which all were proud.  He would bring it to my uncle's house to the delight of the whole family.  It was not strong: was taken sick and died.  Then these Indians exhibited their grief by physical demonstrations and loud lamentations.  My uncle's folks went over to assist them in the time of their bereavement, which they seemed to appreciate.  After a day of mourning and moaning, they wrapped the papoose in a cloth and then placed it in it's mother's arms.  With the chief at the head and the mother following with the little papoose, in a single file, all went down the trail through the great forest to the southwest and came back the way they went, without the little baby, and they never told where they buried the child, but it was supposed they laid it to rest in a mound just north of Pleasant Lake.

   They always wanted to swap, pailful for pailful.  One day they came to Aunt Mary Ann's to swap a pail of strained honey for a pail of ears of corn, which for some reason Aunt would not do.  This angered the squaws, so they hunted up Uncle Steve; cut some big whips and gave  them to him with which to whip his squaw.  The next day they came and pointed fingers at my aunt and laughed like fiends, and said: "Smokeman whip squaw." After this they were friendly.  Then the old chief came over and wanted three bullets and three charges of powder, which aunt gave him, and in an hour he brought her a big wild turkey, and to still show his desire to make up for the disrespect of the squaws, he came again and called for three charges of powder and three bullets, which she gave him. He soon brought her the hind quarters of a deer, and said: "Take hide Fort Wayne--bring papoose beads" and this he did.

    In 1840 the government officers and soldiers rounded up 500 Indians in a bunch near Powers settlement in York Township. They came along their familiar trails, from their wig-wams, from their native they came, leaving the graves of their forefather's unmarked; their history unrecorded and their eloquence unsung. The squaw's came out of the deep woods to the meeting place, carrying the burdens.  Their papooses, strapped to sheets of basswood bark, were fastened upon their backs.  They would stand these precious loads against the great forest trees while they patiently waited the final order which was to part them from their familiar haunts and hunting grounds, forever. 

    Samuel Brooks says it was a sad scene.  The braves came with many ponies, which attracted the boyhood curiosity of young Brooks and impressed the event upon his memory.

    It was the old story; they were steadily driven away from their ancient homes, until now we can find only a sorry remnant of a once mighty people.

Steuben Republican - January 15, 1913

   

   

HIRAM TOWNSEND - CIVIL WAR SOLDIER

Hiram L. Townsend

Post. No. 405., G.A.R.

Located at Metz, Indiana

At the outbreak of the war in 1861 there lived with his parents in the vicinity of Metz, a quiet thoughtful youth about 15 years of age, who was born in Mahoning county, Ohio, Nov. 26, 1846.  Intense patriotism burned in the breast of this boy, Hiram L. Townsend, who longed for more years and strength that he might become a union soldier.  HE waited impatiently until Jan., 1864, and being about 17 years of age, he enlisted in Company A 129th Ind. in company with many of his acquaintances and play-mates.  From the entrance of his regiment into the service, he was constantly with his command participating in all of its engagements, marches, and flank movements as Hovey's Babies until after the evacuation of Atlanta.  He, being a youth of ability was detailed as clerk at the A.A. Gen. Office in Decatur, but when the regiment marched in pursuit of Hood he insisted on rejoining his command and did active duty during the campaign that terminated in the total destruction of Hood's army at Franklin Nov. 30 and at Nashville Dec 15 and 16, 1864.  Shortly after he was again detailed as clerk at regimental headquarters and in Feb., 1865, transferred to Brigade headquarters as clerk and retained that position until the regiment was mustered out of the service.  Comrade Townsend was  generous quiet and sincere in all work before him, with a smile a pleasant word and greeting for all.  As a gentlemanly courteous citizen and business man, was well known in a large territory, especially near Metz where he married, lived and on Nov 26, 1882 died, just 36 years old, the resulting cause, his army and campaign service.  He was buried with Masonic honor, of which order he was a prominent and worthy member.

At the formation of a G.A.R. post at Metz, in the selection of a representative name from deceased comrades, among others the name of Hiram L Townsend was proposed. Capt W. H. Cole being present gave a historic and fitting tribute of the soldier life and soldier qualities of comrade Townsend.  The result was a post being chartered Aug. 8, 1885 with 16 charter members, known as the Hiram L. Townsend Post G.A.R. No 405.

Taken from : 

War For The Union 1861-1865, A Record of its Defenders Living and Dead From Steuben County, Indiana and History of Veteran Organizations and Kindred Associations

by Jesse Carpenter 1888