Huntsburg Congregational Church
Huntsburg Congregational Church members, friends and the community celebrated their 200th anniversary in 2018 with a picnic in the township park.
For the 175th anniversary in 1993, we celebrated Pioneer Sunday, planned after a typical 1818 worship service, including pump organ music by Dan Tucker and the reading of an 1818 sermon by Deacon David Strong.
The first settlers of Huntsburg were Christian people and were accustomed to meeting in each other’s log cabins. The first religious meeting was held on August 22, 1808. The first sermon was preached in 1809.
Ten years later in 1818 our church was formally organized in a schoolhouse that burned down in 1821. The first regularly organized Sunday School was in 1827. As population grew in 1829, they met in the new frame school built in the town center. In 1831 the Congregationalists erected the building we now occupy.
The church that burned in 1837 was erected and enclosed in 1838 and finished and furnished in 1841 at a cost of $2,000. It was dedicated in 1842. The church bell was purchased in 1854 at a cost of $400. For over 60 years this was the only church bell in town.
The church has gone through many changes over the years. One of the major changes being the re-positioning of the steeple and entrance way in the early 1900’s. In January 1992, the stained-glass windows in the sanctuary were cut and reassembled into new stained-glass windows completed in June 1992. The kitchen move from upstairs to downstairs was completed in October 1992.
More recently the sanctuary was remodeled, and the front entry enclosed with a handicap ramp. The well was moved, two storage building have been erected, the parking lot has been paved, a new lighted sign replaced the brick sign in front of the church, the church memorial garden was designed and planted, a new furnace was installed, the deck was replaced outside the Pastor’s Study, and the study was painted and refurnished. Our future projects will be remodeling of the Visser Room for meetings and adult Sunday School.
Source: HCC Clerk’s Records compiled by Helen Sudyk
