The Lake Gage Congregational Church was organized November
19, 1889. At that time several churches from the vicinity met at
the
Lake Gage School as a council; the question at hand was whether or not
to
declare it expedient for the Lake Gage organization to conduct public
services.
The churches sent delegates to this council; they were as follows:
Deacon
S. A. Moss from Angola; Rev. T. T. Egerton, and Charles Cook from East
Gilead;
Rev. J. R. Preston and C. L. Dewey from Fremont; A. Partridge, S. V.
Scott
and M. T. Rose from Orland; Rev. J. R. Preston from Ontario.
The Church had a meeting to elect three trustees for the
Congregation.
Elected were Fremont Bachelor, Joseph Butler and Melvin Van
Wagner.
The charter members of the Church were J. Fremont Bachelor, Mrs. Nattie
Bachelor,
Mr. J. Van Wagner, Mrs. Mary Van Wagner, Mrs. Abner Shipe, Miss Etta
Morse,
Mrs. Lyman Pierson, Mrs. Will Johnson, Mrs. Oliver Miller, Mr. Frank
Brown,
and Mrs. Frank Brown. A. A. Luce acted as moderator at this
meeting
and Rev. J. R. Preston as scribe. The records of the founding of
the
Church were notarized by Thompson Terry, Justice of the Peace and were
filed
in the records of Deeds Office in Angola.
The present Church building was erected in the year 1890
and
was dedicated January 1, 1891. Mr. and Mrs. Samuel H. Clark sold
the
ground to the trustees for $20.00, which is located about one-half mile
east
of Lake Gage on the first four corners. Rev. D. L. Travis was
pastor
at the time the church was built and was instrumental in making the
building
program a success.
The church was active until 1941, when the doors were
closed.
In 1947, a group of people from the neighborhood met at
the
home of Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Terry, which is across the road from the
church
to discuss the opening of the doors again. Rev. John Arnot,
pastor
of the Orland church helped get the church going again. After
fixing
some broken windows, rebuilding the chimney and getting a new heater,
the
church was going again.
In 1954, it was decided to build a basement under the
church.
The basement was dug and the church was moved back onto the new
basement.
Extensive repairs were made at that time. Several public suppers
were
held to defray the cost of moving.
In the year 1961, more work was done on the church, new
windows
were installed, storm windows added and tile put down on the floors.
Over the years, many projects such as putting carpet,
remodeling
the kitchen, painting the outside and acquiring more land for a parking
lot.
Just recently vinyl siding was put on the church.
Many bake sales, public suppers, donations and volunteer
work
have made it possible to preserve the church.
Many of our members are either deceased or moved away, but
from time to time the church has new people in to help keep the work of
the
church going.
The pastors over the years that have served the church
were,
Rev. John Arnot, Rev. J. Morgan Reese, Rev. Charles Rix, Rev. Bixler,
Rev.
Gerry Bright, Rev. Boyd Grove, Rev. Orlo Munger, Rev. Davies, Rev. John
Long
and the present pastor, Steve Altman.
The early ministers were Rev. Spear, Bonney, Preston, Glen
Simpson Swambough and Elder Stewart.
Source: Article in the filing cabinet, Steuben County Library, no date or author given.
Submitted By: Jean Ann Childers
E-mail: jeanannchilders@gmail.com