Hopewell Presbyterian Church
On June 17, 1837, the Hopewell Presbyterian Church was founded. It was located in north central Boone County, at the corner of Rt 47 and Elm Swamp Rd. It was founded under the authority of the Crawfordsville Presbytery. Early in its existence, its congregation worshiped in a log building until a frame church was built in 1852. The latter was succeeded by the third and last structure erected in 1904 and pictured here.
The 1904 Hopewell Church Building
The plaque at the Hopewell Cemetery
1965 Hopewell and FPC history - Stark.pdfThis PDF gives a history of Hopewell written by Ralph Stark in 1965.
HW20240626_101906-merged.pdfHopewell United Presbyterian Church, South, merged with the First United Presbyterian Church of Lebanon, Indiana, on December 31, 1965, following action on a joint petition of the two churches at a special meeting of the Crawfordsville Presbytery on December 21, 1965. Note that both church names included the "United" nomenclature as this was the "UPCUSA" era between 1958 and 1983 described in the second post in this series on Presbyterianism in America.
The "South" in the above name of "Hopewell United Presbyterian Church, South" reflects the fact that a second Presbyterian church a bit further north in Boone County had existed at least briefly at one time, and the church had adopted the suffix "South" to differentiate it from the other.
The church pictured earlier on this page was abandoned in 1965 after the merger. The Hopewell Cemetery still stands on that site, but the building was torn down in 1968.Â
Among the families that joined FPC after the close of Hopewell are the George and John Morton families.
Hopewell cemetery 2024.mp4A 2024 video of the cemetery and former church site.