The small Sparta congregation is one of two current RPCNA churches in Illinois. Like many of our small-town churches, it has a long history: more than 200 years! This month, we look at its history until 1975.

Like southern Indiana, southern Illinois was a popular destination for Covenanters escaping slavery in South Carolina and Tennessee. Most of them settled in the vicinity of the first state capital, Kaskaskia, on the Mississippi River.

Theological student Samuel Wylie visited the wilderness of southern Illinois in 1816. After his ordination in 1818, he was sent back as a missionary. Upon arriving, he began preaching in the “Irish Settlement” between Kaskaskia and Sparta, and to small groups of Associate Reformed Presbyterians. He was able to gather enough members that a congregation was organized in 1821 with two names, Bethel and Eden. In 1823, a wooden church was built at the location now known as Eden, outside Sparta. However, Carolinians kept flooding north, membership in the congregation’s societies approached 350, and the little wooden church could no longer hold everyone.

As in other frontier congregations, Bethel comprised several societies, which worshiped separately. With the Eden building needing to be replaced, open strife arose as the members could not agree on a new location. Western Presbytery resolved the situation in 1832 by organizing the northern Hill Prairie society as a separate congregation, “Old Bethel.” Four of the ten ruling elders formed the new session, while the others and Pastor Wylie remained at Bethel.

Just one year later, the nationwide New Light split affected both congregations; Wylie and five of the ten elders adhered to the New Light side. Both Old Light congregations were vacant—a common situation at the time, when congregations vastly outnumbered ministers—and obtained pastors only in 1840. Today, the Bethel New Light congregation remains, along with daughter congregations in several nearby towns. Most of the New Light denomination declined severely through the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, leaving only scattered congregations outside the Philadelphia area. By the time it merged with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in 1965, southern Illinois was one of the denomination’s strongest regions.

The Old Light congregations lost many members in 1833, but they quickly rebuilt and were sustained by long-term pastorates. Although 90 members left in 1854 to found the Church Hill congregation in nearby Coulterville, both Bethel churches continued to grow. By the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, there were 128 members at Old Bethel and 138 at Bethel. Membership peaked after the war’s end, as Old Bethel had 226 members in 1868, and Bethel reached 170 by 1879.

After the Hill Prairie members left in 1832, the old Eden church was large enough to hold the remaining members, but as the nearby city of Sparta grew, it became a more attractive location. Finally, the members constructed a new Gothic Revival brick church on Vine Street in Sparta in 1875. The cemetery around the old building remained in use, but the building was destroyed or abandoned; all that remains is an empty area surrounding the original foundation. Meanwhile, by the end of the century, Old Bethel had moved to a spacious, brick building in the tiny community of Houston, west of Sparta.

After the Synod of 1890, a number of prominent young ministers held a meeting calling for an end to the church’s practice of political dissent. By calling for members to be permitted to vote, serve on juries, and seek political office, they publicly opposed the most prominent of RPCNA teachings. Their presbyteries disciplined them as a result, and Synod agreed with the presbyteries’ rulings in 1891, resulting in these men and about 1,000 members leaving for the United Presbyterian Church. Until then, the church grew consistently, but it then began shrinking consistently. Membership grew almost every year from 1851 to 1891 but shrank in almost every year from 1891 to 1931. Bethel and Old Bethel weathered 1891 safely, but they then shrank with the rest of the church. Old Bethel shrank rapidly, falling below 70 members by 1921; and Bethel remained steady, probably through transfers from Old Bethel.

By the end of World War II, it had become common for a single pastor to serve both churches; there were only about 80 members between the two, and good roads made it easy to serve both. Despite the faithful efforts of pastors such as Ralph Joseph and John McMillan, the trend continued. Finally, in 1975, the Ohio-Illinois Presbytery decided to merge the congregations, and the name “Sparta” was chosen for the merger—thus ending nearly 150 years of confusion between the Old and New Light congregations. The merged church occupied the Bethel building. The Old Bethel building was sold; it was later destroyed in an accidental fire while being converted into apartments.