2025 Journal-Yearbook

Illinois Great Rivers Conference 2025 Journal-Yearbook

in the 1920’s. Purchased by the Methodist Protestant Church in Illinois in 1928, the camp was used as a conference grounds and MPC annual conference sessions were held there from 1929 to 1939. The name changed to Epworth Springs in 1945 and later Living Springs after the 1996 uniting of the former Central and Southern Illinos conferences. 8. Verla Ewing Retreat Center, now Camp Milan Meeting and Retreat Center near the Quad Cities, was for many years a conference-owned summer camp until it was sold to Rock Island First UMC (now Rock Island Two Rivers UMC) in the 1980’s and a retreat center was built. The site was originally used for camp meetings, one of which Abraham Lincoln attended in 1847 while Peter Cartwright was preaching there. 9. Grand Prairie Camp Meeting, outside Bonfield, was the site of a camp meeting where several Evangelical Association churches banded together and held camp meetings in Hertz’s Grove for 135 years. The last encampment was in 1988. 10. Victoria Swedish Methodist Church, the oldest Swedish Methodist Church in America, established in 1841 and merged with the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1926. 11. Bishop Hill Church, the birthplace of Swedish Methodism. A group of immigrants from Sweden settled in that area in 1846, having fled religious persecution in Sweden due to their dissent from the state (Lutheran) church of Sweden. They came to form a commune under the leadership of Erik Jansson, bringing their Swedish language and culture with them. Jansson was subsequently murdered and the colony eventually broke up. In the meantime the colony came into contact with Methodist circuit riders and class leaders. They established a Swedish Methodist Church, which is now the Bishop Hill Community United Methodist Church. As the Swedes moved away from the colony, Methodism went with them, and a Swedish conference was formed. Some former colonists from Bishop Hill returned to Sweden and took Methodism to that part of the world as well. 12. First church in Central Illinois was established by pioneers from St. Clair County who settled near the present site of Athens in 1818. Lay preacher James Stringfield organized the first class in 1819. A circuit was formed in 1820 and became known as the Athens Circuit in 1833. The first church building was built in 1826. 13. First church in Eastern Illinois was established in 1819 in Col. Jonathan Mayo’s home at North Arm, located north of Paris. North Arm Chapel was built in the 1840’s, a second in 1876. The church was closed in 1954 but was used as a community center for several years. 14. Hennepin Church House, built in 1839, is the oldest structure still in use for church purposes in Hennepin. The little white building, located at First and Court streets is still used for classes and office space. It served as the church for 20 years, was sold and the church moved next door. The church repurchased the building in 1968. 15. MacMurray College was organized in 1846. Peter Akers was its planner and

72 Legislative Items