el paso church history

Ministers preached on alternate Sundays in Panola and Kappa, beginning with the Reverend Frost in 1856. In March of 1857 he held the first Presbyterian worship service in El Paso in a passenger car temporarily located on the east Y. During the three months he worked here he organized a union Sunday school with James North as superintendent that continued for some years.

There were only a dozen houses in El Paso when a small group met on May 11, 1857 in a carpenter shop on East Front Street and sat on nail kegs in lieu of chairs.

The church disbanded in 1937 and became part of The Federated Church.

Was organized on January 21, 1858, when the following persons met at the home of Mr. and Mrs. James H. Crawford located where Miss Olive Engle now lives: Reverend and Mrs. William Branch, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis B. McOmber, Anthony and Sarah Daffern, Harriett McOmber, James Hewitt, Elizabeth McClellan and Henry H. Hewitt. Mr. Hewitt's letter from his previous church had not been received, but he was accepted as a charter member on the group's knowledge of him. Israel D. McOmber who was critically ill and died within ten days, was not present but was accepted as a charter member as were Alice and Deborah Whittaker. L. B. McOmber and A. Daffern were the first deacons; H. H. Hewitt was the first clerk

The group first held services in various homes, with members being admitted. The church record states for December 1858 that "Brethern John and Henry North and wives were received on experience, the church at Kappa, with which they were connected, having disbanded." The February 12, 1859 record reads: "It was voted to receive the communion service used by the Kappa church if it can be donated without reservation." These are the only records we find of a Baptist Church having been organized at Kappa. 

Organized in 1859 and at once built a small church building. It was the first one erected in El Paso. However, the membership did not increase and the organization disbanded. The building passed to the Evangelical United Brethern group in 1872.  

The second church building on this site was the first bilding purchased by Harvest Fellowship.

Was organized July 3, 1864 by Uncle Jimmy Robeson and Elder John Lindsey with forty charter members. The meeting was held in the schoolhouse. When the group could secure a minister, they held worship services in Strathman's Hall for a year or more ; they were then able to erect a small church on Elm Street, the second building south of Second Street in 1865. They built an addition in 1877 which doubled its capacity, but services were held irregularly until 1881, when they were discontinued. 

 In December, 1886 E. J. Lampton reorganized the congregation and held a protracted meeting which added twenty-eight to the thirty-four members who reported at the reorganization session. J. E. Jewett preached for the group the next year, and J. D. Dabney, the first regular pastor, came in August, 1888. During his four years ministry the membership increased by fifty-one; C. S. Medbury became pastor January 1, 1893 and added another hundred members to make the church one of the largest in El Paso.

At one point The Christian Church occupied the former Harvest Fellowship building but have since disbanded.

Had its beginning in 1857 when it was listed as one of the seven appointments in the El Paso Circuit, which included El Paso, Panola, Chenoa, Willow Tree School, Bunch Grove School, Potter's School and Secor. Though it was a large circuit, going almost to Roanoke, there was no church edifice, so the first quarterly conference was held in the freight house in Panola on November 6 and 7, 1857. Zadock Hall, pioneer Methodist minister, presided; R. Smithson was the preacher in charge and Franklin R. Tobias the local preacher. 

Had a congregation in El Paso long before their church was built. Sometime in 1860 the Reverend Samuel Chase, D. D., an Episcopal clergyman, stopped in El Paso between trains, and during his brief visit baptized a baby of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Hazlett who lived in or near the old depot. One source says this occurred in 1856, and this may be correct, since the William Ostler diary states that Ben Hazlett ran El Paso's first restaurant in 1855, which would make him El Paso's first resident. A child of William M. Jenkins was baptized in the Episcopal faith in August, 1861, and in July, 1865 the Reverend Chamberlayn held Episcopal services in the Presbyterian church building as he was returning from Civil War service. 

The church has since disbanded.

Was granted to conduct services under the Missouri Synod in May, 1947. The congregation organized December 7, 1947 with thirty-five communicant members and a total membership of fifty-eight. The Reverend Walter E. Lichtsinn of Wenona and various students from Concordia Seminary conducted the services the first year, using the building of the St. Andrew's Episcopal Church with Sunday School rooms over the Woodford County National Bank.  

Located at 135 E Second Street on the north side of Franklin Park.  It was the first church to be organized in El Paso but was not the first to erect a house of worship.  It was torn down and in 1903 and a brick and stone building was erected at the same location, 135 E. Second Street.  The congregation later took the name of United Church of Christ.  On December 21, 1986, the brick and stone building burned, and a one-story brick building was built at the same location.  

The congregation of Good Shepherd has since disbanded. The building is now the home of Harvest Fellowship.

Community Bible Fellowship stems from humble beginnings over twenty five years ago, when six local families began meeting in homes together with Pastor Wes Ooms and his young family from Texas. The Ooms family had migrated to central Illinois, specifically to East White Oak church in rural Carlock, with the express intent of planting a church. East White Oak Bible Church acted as our “mother church” for the first years of our existence until we were able to support the church and our Pastor financially.

From its early beginnings in January 1990, God has been very generous in providing CBF a place to worship, in growing our ministries, and in supplying financial sustenance.

Began to grow in July of 1999 at the Secor, IL home of Tom and Gladys Carr. The first services were held under a grand oak tree in their yard on Saturday nights. Rather quickly, it became apparent that God was gathering a group of believers to start a church that would minister to the needs of the El Paso area community. As the congregation grew, they moved to the old El Paso City Hall building and began to host services as they made plans for a building to house the congregation permanently.

Harvest Fellowship was part of a church plant movement initiative of The Illinois District of The Assemblies of God in 1990 called "The Decade of Harvest." Then called Harvest Chapel, Harvest was the first group of this movement to be established. The name was later changed to Harvest Family Fellowship and recently to Harvest Fellowship. Harvest purchased this location in 1996. It was previously the El Paso Christian Church and prior to that Emanuel Evangelical United Brethren. Historically, The Congregational Church organized in 1859 built the first church building in El Paso on this site. It was later raised and the current building was built in 1927 by Emanuel Evangelical United Brethren. With the history of this property and intentions of this movement, it is our mission to uncap those ancient wells... We have made another stride in uncapping these ancient wells with the purchase of the church building located at 135 E. Second St. This is where the first incorporated church in El Paso built. Harvest started on the location of the first church building in town and is now on the property that belonged to the first incorporated church in El Paso. It has become somewhat of a coming together of two firsts.