Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on November 15, 1985.
Kouts church to celebrate 100th anniversary
by Carolyn Matthews
Staff writer
KOUTS ー A Founder’s Day will be observed Sunday when the Kouts Christian Church celebrates its 100th anniversary.
A Founders’ Day coffee hour with a slide presentation will be held at 9 a.m. Sunday followed by a special worship service at 10 a.m. Members will be dressed in the 1885-era clothing and a Founders’ Day dinner will follow.
Dr. Kingery Clingenpeel, who has served as pastor for the past 11 years, said the Christian Church finds its heritage as the “melting pot” of many other denominations.
A significant portion of the membership claims little or no church background, he said. Baptists, Catholics, independent Christians, Mennonites, Disciples of Christ, Nazarenes, Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians worship at his church.
According to church history, in the spring of 1885 the Lyman Adkins family and a night marshal, turned evangelist, helped to start the church.
Adkins was the town physician and druggist. Ellis B. Cross was a young night marshal in the mining town of Leadville, Colo. during the years of the lawless West.
Since there were no ministers in Leadville when Cross served as marshal, it was his duty to notify the next of kin when someone was killed in a gunfight. It was also his responsibility to arrange and conduct funeral services. As a result of this experience Scott decided he wanted to become a minister.
A native of Lowell, Scott, 20 years old, returned to Indiana where he attended Garrett Biblical Institute and Valparaiso University. According to VU records he was enrolled in the department of elocution and orator.
It was during Scott’s student days that he teamed with Adkins to launch the Kouts Church. The population of Kouts at that time was 215.
In June of 1885 the first baptismal services for what was to become the Christian Church was held in the waters of the Kankakee River.
The first church was constructed and dedicated in 1887 on land donated by Mrs. Rose Yoder.
In May of 1917 a tornado hit Kouts and the little church, along with the Kouts Catholic church, was destroyed.
Members salvaged what materials they could and built a new building, completed in March of 1919.
A few years later a belfry was added and the bell from the original 1887 frame church was installed. The same bell is mounted in a tower in front of the present church on Poland Street.
The Rev. John Whitt served as pastor for the next nine years until his death in the summer of 1928. Following Whitt’s death, the Christian Church suffered a period of decline and was forced to close its doors for 14 years.
The building was rented to the Kouts School for graduation services in 1936. The Reformed Mennonite congregation also rented the church for portions of the next several years.
In 1943, with less than $250 in the treasury, the Christian Church reopened its doors. Arthur Brewer was paid $5 per week for his sermons.
A decade later, Mrs. Loey Unruh willed the current parsonage to the church.
A new church was completed and dedicated in April of 1971.
