2025 Journal-Yearbook

Illinois Great Rivers Conference 2025 Journal-Yearbook

taken to approve the designated sites as United Methodist Historical Sites for the Illi- nois Great Rivers Conference; and, WHEREAS, such Historical Site designation is a pre-requisite for any consideration by the General Commission of Archives and History to recommend to future General Conferences any of these sites as Heritage Landmarks, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the following sites be re-affirmed as United Methodist Historical Sites in the Illinois Great Rivers Conference: 1. The former Shiloh United Methodist Church, Shiloh, IL – site of the first camp meeting held in Illinois. Church was erected in 1807, becoming the first house of worship used by Methodists in Illinois. 2. Cynthia Cartwright Grave in Hamilton County, IL. In 1824, as the Cartwrights were making their way along the Goshen Road to the first session of the Illinois Conference, a tree fell on the 10-year-old daughter of Peter Cartwright as she slept. Although buried in an unmarked grave, a cenotaph has been erected near the former Cartwright Chapel (the Mt. Pleasant ME Church which has been was destroyed by fire in 1978). 3. Bothwell Chapel, McKendree University. McKendree is the oldest Methodist- related institution west of the Appalachian mountains. Founded in 1830 by Methodist clergy and laypersons, McKendree has provided higher education for the Midwest for 195 years. Bothwell Chapel was the site of many of the early sessions of the former Southern Illinois Annual Conference. Since 1859, the Bothwell Chapel bell has rung. Cast in Spain in the eighth century, it was brought to the U.S.,and later purchased for McKendree in 1855 by President Nelson Cobleigh and Risdon Moore, an 1850 graduate, mathematics professor and Army colonel in the Civil War. 4. Bethel Meeting House site, located north of Glen Carbon outside of Edwardsville. Organized in 1805, Bethel was the first organized congregation of Methodists in Illinois. 5. Lexington United Brethren Center, Lexington, where Bishop John Russell organized the Illinois United Brethren in Christ in 1845, that included 15 circuits from which six different conferences were formed. A bishop’s residence was built at 402 N. Oak. 6. Ebenezer Manual Labor School, located four miles northwest of Jacksonville. The church that was built in 1836 consisted of two rooms – one for worship and the other for training young men for ministry. The school, founded and directed by Dr. Peter Akers, became the first Methodist theological school west of the Alleghanies. The school trained many of the early leaders of the conference. A team of six men (three Caucasian and three Native Americans) were sent as missionaries to the Chippewa nation in Minnesota. The school closed in the mid to late 1800’s but the 1866 church remained an active church until 1995. 7. The former Living Springs/Epworth Springs Camp near Lewistown. Originally known as Depler Springs, the camp was a popular summer resort

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