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Empire Township
Religion
McLean County, Illinois

(Transcribed by: Teri Moncelle Colglazier)

Church services also were held in Clearwater School. The first services ever held were in the William Conaway home by the Rev James Latta, a missionary. In 1831 Rev. S. R. Begg came and made Buckles Grove a part of the Methodist Circuit. Silas Watters headed that group and was very active in the religious life of the settlement. In 1850 he met with other prominent Methodists, including Peter Cartwright, in Bloomington to establish Wesleyan University. The Presbyterians in 1832 started holding services in the home of Peter Buckles and were called the "Salt Creek Congregation," a name given to it by Abraham Lincoln who surveyed this area. They met in the homes and Clearwater School until the town of LeRoy was started. Then Mr. Buckles donated the land for a church, the same site the present church stands on. The Rutledge family also were very active in establishing this church. [Heritage of the prairie : a history of LeRoy and of Empire and West townships, McLean County, Illinois (1976) LeRoy Historical Society; LeRoy Bi-Centennial Commission]

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