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HISTORICAL SKETCH
The
First Presbyterian Church of Chicago Heights, Illinois, was organized
December 4, 1843, as the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Thorn Grove.
Later the area was known as Bloom and then as Chicago Heights. The founding
took place in a log cabin home of Joseph Caldwell a short distance north
of Sauk Trail which crossed Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Twenty-five
people founded the church, twenty-two of them from four related families.
Several descendants of these charter members are members of the church
today. The
first Church Session of three men was installed December 7, 1843. Reverend
John W Morrison, a traveling evangelist from Kentucky, was installed
as the first pastor May 3, 1845, and served this church for twenty-two
years. In honor of his son a bell was presented to the congregation.
It is housed in the church steeple and is heard before each worship
service as it has been through the entire history of the congregation.
Construction of the first church building began in 1846 on Chicago Road on the site of the present Presbyterian Cemetery. The white frame building had forty pews. A small gate fastened the end of each pew. A second and larger building was constructed in 1856 just south of the first building. The third building, located at 16th Place and School Street, was dedicated in 1913. The present building at 900 Thomas Street was dedicated October 3, 1965.
Click
below to view some early members of the church
THE CHURCH TODAY The
church is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Synod
of Lincoln Trails, and the Presbytery of Chicago. The congregation has
about 400 members. Men and women are nominated and elected by the congregation
to serve three-year terms as ordained elders and deacons and as trustees.
The Church Session welcomes all who desire to witness to their faith by uniting with the church by profession of faith, reaffirmation of faith, or transfer by letter from another church. |
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In
1874 the church withdrew from the Reformed body and was named the First
Presbyterian Church of Chicago Heights in 1894. The church was instrumental
in establishing Jones Memorial Community Center in 1907 and the Presbyterian
Church of Our Savior in 1912. In 1911 the first Boy Scout Troop in Chicago
Heights was founded by the church in cooperation with local citizens.
