185 Allen County Churches
Fort Wayne is often called the City of Churches even listed as such on Wikipedia. This page lists churches in Allen County prior to 1920. Some of these churches no longer exist, many have changed their names, and some have merged with other churches. There is a short history on each church, a list of what records the church keeps, and how you may obtain these records. Many churches records have been copied and are available at the Allen County Public Library. Church Burial Records Index is at the ACPL Genealogy Center
Many of these churches had their histories included in the 2006 publication History of Fort Wayne & Allen County, Indiana 1700-2005 Volume 2 starting on page 122. You can request Lookups from our Volunteers or purchase the $124..95 two volume set.
You can click the name of the township on the map, or in the list to go to the Township page, or click the name of the church in the list to go directly to the church history. Some churches have web pages and the link is their denomination in the list or church name on their Township page.
The 1889 book by Brant and Fuller Valley of the Upper Maumee discusses township churches beginning on page 456 of this Google book.
Wayne Township contains the most older churches so will have some information on local church denominations such as the Fort Wayne - South Bend Catholic Diocese links.
Click the Township to Go to Township Churches
Locations of Allen County, Indiana Municipalities and Townships
Abstracts of 185 Church Histories in Allen County, Indiana
Churches come and go over time, the first services where held in 1822 in the fort, and the first church was built in 1831. This is not an exhaustive list of churches in Allen County, Indiana. This is a brief overview of early churches with histories that start before 1920 in Allen County, Indiana. If the church has a web site its link is the denomination name in the list below, or the church name on the township page which has additional information. Some general church sites are Fort Wayne Associated Churches, FWChurches.com and USAChurch.com
Many churches have German origins and had German services in the Fort Wayne area until World War I, but was not completely changed to English until World War II according to the history of the Indiana District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
Click on colored names to go to that page. Records column shows: none - some churches never kept records, some were lost or destroyed. ACPL - the Allen County Public Library has many of the church records on microfilm such as births, baptisms, confirmations, marriages, deaths, etc, ACPL* indicates to click the specific church since ACPL may only have the history of the church, church indicates to contact the church for records, church* indicates early records may be at DePauw University Genealogy Collection, Greencastle, Indiana the official repository for the Methodist Church with newer records at the church, and FWHS is the Fort Wayne Historical Society. History refers to page number in the 2006 book Fort Wayne and Allen County, Indiana 1700-2005. Any updates to this information is greatly appreciated.