The Second Church Building of First Baptist Church, Muncie, Indiana (build 1890)
Today the war momentarily fades to the background as Baptists of Muncie, Indiana celebrate a milestone.
Founded at the courthouse on September 11, 1859, the First Baptist Church of Muncie met for weekly worship at the courthouse for the following two-plus years.
On January 12, 1861, the congregation voted to build a meeting house, and today the edifice is dedicated by Silas Bailey, a leading Baptist minister of the state and the president of Franklin College, a Baptist institution.
The church building is a frame structure, 48 feet by 34 feet, located at the corner of Jackson and Jefferson streets. Construction costs total $2,131.80.
Typical of that era, the people went to church in wagons drawn by oxen, on horseback, or by foot. They normally dressed in their home-made attire, which was flannel and jeans in winter and home-made linens in summer. Ladies wore sunbonnets which in the summer they doubled and used for fans during the service. Men went in their shirt-sleeves, and children often came bare-footed. Small churches like the one in Muncie had no electric lights, natural gas, or even kerosene lamps to furnish light. What they had was the dim light of the candle. Growth was slow and somewhat painful during the first two decades. The largest expense for the church was the salary of the minister.
The war years are hard times, and the American Baptist Home Mission Society provides financial assistance for the struggling congregation. Political tensions characterize the congregation into the 1870s, but the church survives the war and Reconstruction, building a second meeting house in 1890.
Sources: B.J. P. Miller, “History of First Baptist Church, Muncie, Indiana” (link); History of FBC Muncie, FBC website (link); Franklin College (link)
