The Rise of The Protestant Middle Class In 19th Century Indiana

Indianapolis Churches Before 1860

John Parsons of a family of good repute in old Virginia went to visit family in then still pioneer Indiana John Parson's undertook a journey across Indiana in the 1840's giving the reader at least a glimpse into the Hoosier states 'genteel" class in many of the early settlements of the state. Mr. Parson often made note of the "pioneer class", but his diary centrally concerned the small middle class and even smaller upper class of professional men and old families of note from the east that settled the state. These men and women were concerned about bringing solid mainstream Protestantism to the a state that was mostly lower class southern in culture and inclined to prefer local isolation over broader community participation.

The lower classes of rough and persevering southern transplants were inclined to an evangelical disorganized religion and the social hazard of the consumption of too much grain alcohol. They as a group were not inclined to want to establish free schools or other internal improvements on a public level because of their distrust of organized government. For many years the isolation of many of these 'pioneer communities" had left the average Hoosier who farmed or traded furs  were left to their own devices. Those professional men and younger son's of the wealthy from the east came to Indiana in a time of transition when the state was struggling with its citizens to pay taxes to establish communities that would in a least someway reflect the refinements of the older east.

The mainline protestant churches worked many times in great frustration with the locals in many communities to get them to adopt temperance and be willing to support local education. In some counties in Indiana the rate of literate people was below fifty percent. Presbyterians played a very important role in establishing schools in both Indianapolis and Lafayette in a general public environment that did not value them. The Presbyterian Church is also the oldest establish church in Logansport and along with the Roman Catholics did much to further education in a community that may have remained disinterested if left to their own devices.

Mr. Parsons arrived in Lafayette Indiana in early July 1840. One of his great pleasures that reminded him of his home of Virginal was him finding an Episcopal Church. It was the Episcopal Church of St. John's. He had lamented the fact that there were few Episcopal churches established in what he called the ,"Western Country". Mr. Parson's wrote of the Reverend S.R. Johnson who gave the lot on which his parish was built and did not accept a salary for many years.

St. John's Episcopal Church Lafayette

Of the church Mr. Parson's wrote, " A most handsome structure of frame , erected at a cost of $3,500. In the high , the reading desk , the communion table, all painted white , and the square topped pews with doors, I found a stuffiest suggestion of home barring the antiquity of our buildings of worship , to put me at ease." By the end of the 19th century many prosperous protestant and Catholic churches would replace there modest frame churches with Gothic revival structures that would rival churches in the east. These new churches reflected the coming of the Victorian middle class in to even smaller communities and were proof that Indiana had become a "civilized" and prosperous Midwestern state.

Source: A Tour Through Indiana 1840: The Diary of John Parsons of Petersburg Virginia ; editor Kate Milner Rabb, Robert M. McBride & Company, New York, New York; June 1920.(pages:193-214).

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