White Church ... aka Dunkard, Dunker or the German Baptist

White Church, July 4, 1915

Around 1856 this church began organized meetings and would incorporate attendees from Montgomery, Tippecanoe, and Clinton Counties. At the time members (10) would meet in homes or in the school house. Records indicate the first people to be baptized (full-immersion) as "Dunkers" were Martin Bowers Sr., Edward Bowers, Eva Lowry, Martin Campbell, Esther Dunbar, Jesse Anderson, Ann McCarting, and Martin Bowers Jr.  A frame building 42' x 46' was erected in 1876 at the cost of $800.  The 1878 atlas shows the German Baptist Church on Martin Bowers' (the first minister) land, and by 1881 there were 35 members. Later, a brick structure (which cost $3,396.81) was built due to a fire (on April 20, 1893 which runied the old frame structure). By the early 1950s the German Baptist Church was no longer used. The church would have been located near the bend in 850 East and 1050 North in Sugar Creek Township.