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    The History of the Willow United Methodist Church: 150 Years in the Service of Christ, 1860 to 2010
    The History of the Willow United Methodist Church: 150 Years in the Service of Christ, 1860 to 2010
    The History of the Willow United Methodist Church: 150 Years in the Service of Christ, 1860 to 2010
    Ebook199 pages1 hour

    The History of the Willow United Methodist Church: 150 Years in the Service of Christ, 1860 to 2010

    By Alan J. Heath

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    An early history of the foundation and growth of the Willow United Methodist church. Beginning just after the conclusion of the Black Hawk Indian War and continuing to the present day, this book follows the settlement of Willow in 1833 and the building of the church that served its people.

    With thumbnail histories of the founding families and those who came after, it seeks to preserve the story of a frontier church.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateJul 16, 2010
    ISBN9781450242158
    The History of the Willow United Methodist Church: 150 Years in the Service of Christ, 1860 to 2010
    Author

    Alan J. Heath

    The creation of this book has been a labor of love not of one individual, but of many. A History Committee, formed nearly twenty years ago from among the ladies of the Willow Methodist church, gathered information from church archives, cemetery records, newspaper clippings, journals, and personal memories recalling the early establishment and later development of the church and the Willow community. This information, once gathered, was faithfully preserved by Lila (Haeft) Heath, church archivist and historian. Years passed, until the 150th anniversary celebration of the church finally gave cause to the organization and publication of this work. Most of the women whose efforts and memories form this volume have since passed away, and it is in their memory that Lila Heath and Alan Heath, both themselves members of the church since childhood, have organized and had published this History of the Willow United Methodist Church.

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      Book preview

      The History of the Willow United Methodist Church - Alan J. Heath

      Contents

      Dedication

      The Country Church

      A Message from Pastor Mike Jones, A.D. 2010

      The Settlement

      Building the Church

      The Church in the Twentieth Century

      Sunday School

      Groups and Organizations

      Fund Raisers

      Pastors

      Family Histories

      Willow War Veterans

      Maps and Land Plats

      About the Author(s)

      Dedication

      In loving memory of the women of the Willow valley who, throughout the years, have kept the Church and the community vital, alive, and connected.

      Many of the pieces in this history were compiled twenty years ago and more, by women who have long since passed away themselves. Their efforts and their spirit continue to live in this book and in the Church they loved.

      Dedicated to:

      June Bergeman, Nora Bergeman, Lucille Broshous, Phyllis and Ralpha Buss, Evelyn Calhoun, Francis Clark, Hazel Clark, Thelma Frederick, Lois Gates, Claribel Haeft, Lila Heath, Virginia Heath, Anna Kaufman, Betty Koeller, Dorothy Krise, Evelyn Schlafer, and Mary Smital

      With special thanks to:

      Lila Heath, for her untiring efforts in the final completion of this project, and to Virginia Heath for the guidance and inspiration of her memory.

      The Country Church

      Nowhere on earth does God’s tongue tell

      His love as when a small church bell

      Rings across a lonely sweep of hills,

      Calling folks to keep a Sunday tryst with him.

      Nowhere is he so close, as when a prayer

      Goes winging heavenward, as do petitions

      From a wooden pew.

      And when the minister is preaching,

      God stands in the pulpit,

      Reaching out His hands to bless his people.

      Oh, hungry hearts, look for a steeple

      By a roadside, in your search for God—

      A steeple and a small white church.

      This poem, spoken by Betty Gates (the late Mrs. Glenn Koeller) at a Sunday school Convention held in the Willow Church in 1932 when she was only five years old, was most likely penned by Betty’s aunt, Nora Gates Bergeman. Mrs. Koeller and Mrs. Bergeman were both direct descendents of John Gates, the first permanent settler in the Willow area. Betty (Gates) Koeller passed away on November 23, 2009.

      A Message from Pastor Mike Jones, A.D. 2010

      The Willow United Methodist Church has been firmly planted in this Willow valley so that its people might fulfill the mission of God. God has chosen the generations who have worshipped together in this place to be the bearers of the Good News of Jesus Christ so that hope might always abound in peoples’ lives. God gathered together a handful of people that began meeting together in 1860 that would one day become the Willow United Methodist Church. Through these faithful people, God foreknew the generations of people whose lives would be touched and changed by the gospel through the ministry of this church.

      God has used the Willow Church to speak love and hope into people’s lives both during difficult times and good times. The people of God have stood together and with others in the community as their children have gone to war, as families have grieved the deaths of loved ones, and as they harvested crops that were sparse. In these difficult seasons of life, God has been faithful in sustaining this community through the living presence of Christ in the people of the Willow Church. These saints have also testified to the faithfulness and love of God in good times as people gathered to celebrate the birth of a child, baptisms, marriages of loved ones, the return of loved ones from war, and harvests that were plentiful. Throughout the years, the people of the Willow United Methodist Church have been the body of Christ to the Willow community and surrounding area.

      As the people of the Willow Church celebrate what God has done here for the past 150 years, we look together to the future knowing that God still has a plan and a mission for His people in this place. We are thankful for all those saints who have gone before us preparing fertile soil for ministry today. May we continue to be a faithful people of God as we live out our calling tending the soil of ministry so that future generations will find God in this Willow Valley.

      Life Together in Christ,

      Pastor Michael Jones

      The Settlement

      There has never been anything awe inspiring about the community of Willow. At its most grandiose, it was what farm folk call a wide spot in the road, never able to lay claim to the title of city or even town. And yet, there is something—a connection between people and place—that has always made Willow a special place to live.

      Just as the roots of the willow tree weave deeply into the soil, and when the wind catches its leaves, lifting and tearing at its branches, the roots remain firmly embedded, so has the community of Willow faced the winds of time, growing and trusting in the hand of God, confident that the roots it has laid will be sufficient to weather any storm.

      Settled in the 1830’s, Willow lay in a beautiful valley along a small branch of the Plum River, south of the Chicago-Galena stage route and northeast of the Dixon-Galena route in northwestern Illinois.

      Before the settlers arrived, Sauk and Fox Indians occupied the land for over one hundred years, and before them, the Winnebago, Illinois, and other tribes. Willow was a part of the Indian summer lands that extended from the Mississippi River to the Great Lakes.

      In 1804, this land, some 50 million acres, was ceded by treaty to the United States by four Indian spokesmen who agreed to give up all rights to their lands east of the Mississippi in exchange for one thousand dollars of goods given by the U.S. government.

      Chief Black Hawk, a Sauk War Chief antagonistic to the encroaching tide of white settlers, disputed the treaty and resisted displacement for the next twenty-seven years, until finally, in 1831, he too signed a treaty, received a settlement of goods and supplies, and retreated across the Mississippi into what is now Iowa.

      On the sixth day of April in 1832, Chief Black Hawk returned. Accompanied by one thousand tribesmen—braves, women, and children—he re-crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois. He brought his people to the banks of the Rock River, to the site of the sacred village of Saukenuk, where he had been born and his ancestors lay buried, and from there he began a slow march north.

      On the twelfth day of May, Black Hawk encountered troops of the Illinois Militia, sent to respond to his incursion and led by Major Stillman. Several Indians were killed in the initial skirmish, and Black Hawk’s warriors responded with a vengeance, routing Stillman’s troops and continuing to take their revenge on the white settlers of the area.

      Panicked settlers over the entirety of northern Illinois fled their farms to the safety of larger cities or lands further east as the engagement escalated into what became known as the Black Hawk War.

      Over the course of the next four months, Black Hawk and his band were pursued northward, fighting one battle just miles from the present-day location of Willow. As it became clear that his position was desperate, Black Hawk tried, more than once, to surrender his forces, but lack of an interpreter among the Militia led to misunderstandings and renewed fighting.

      Black Hawk’s band was finally defeated, slaughtered to nearly the last man, woman, and child, at a climactic battle at the Bad Axe River in southwestern Wisconsin.

      The general reaction of the nation’s white population to the Black Hawk War was violently anti-Indian, so much so that by 1837 not only Black Hawk and his people, but all of the Indian tribes in the territory had fled into the far west, opening Illinois and the rest of the Northwest Territories to rapid and unimpeded settlement.

      It was during this wave of immigration following the Black Hawk War that the first settlers came upon the sheltered valley beside a small branch of the Plum River. They named their new home Dutch Hollow, but soon renamed it Willow for the many willow trees that lined the creek winding through the valley.

      According to The History of Jo Daviess County, Illinois, published in 1878, Thomas and John Deeds probably made the first land claim, broke the first ground, and built the first cabin in Berreman Township. The Deeds came from Tennessee in 1833, and after settling in Berreman Township for a number of years moved on to nearby Pleasant Valley. In 1878, land records show that Thomas Deeds’ widow owned 1,264 acres of land—a very wealthy woman.

      The next settler to arrive was Nathan Tenny, who purchased his claim in October of 1836 and remained in the valley until 1842. At that time he sold his claims and moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, later following Brigham Young to Utah, where he became a Bishop in the Mormon Church.

      In September of 1837, John Gates, the stepfather of Nathan Tenny, settled here with his wife and their son Samuel, becoming the area’s first permanent settlers. For eighteen months, Mrs. Gates was the only woman in the section.

      Dr. Peckham followed in 1839, arriving with his wife and stepson Delson Tiffany. Also in 1839, James Parkinson, with his family and brother Isaac, arrived and purchased 640 acres from Thomas Deeds; property that included the land the church now stands on. The last arrival of 1839 was Jacob Troxel, who settled land straddling what later became the boundary between Berreman and Pleasant Valley Townships. He built the area’s first school house on that property.

      Arriving between 1840 and 1850 were the Briningers, Broshouses, Machamers, Solts, Clays, and Wises. Later arrivals were the Schmecks in 1854, the McPeeks in 1856, and the Calhouns in 1860. These families, by homesteading, could become owners of government land at $1.25 per acre after Proving Up.

      Proving Up involved completing a government form, which had to be signed by two neighbors after the land had been occupied for five years. It validated that the land-owner in question was the head of household and a U.S. citizen,

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