Kalamazoo Co brief history page 4

KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MI

GENEALOGY & LOCAL HISTORY

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First Presbyterian Church, Bronson Park, 1963

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THE FIRST CHURCHES

the first churches

First Churches in Kalamazoo
"Here I saw churches with steeples like hatpins"
Carl Sandburg, The Sins of Kalamazoo

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First Congregational Church, Bronson Park

The Baptist Church in Kalamazoo was founded by a mission for the Ottawa Indians in charge of the Reverend L. Slater, a Baptist missionary who arrived in the Kalamazoo area in the early 1830's as noted in a historical marker next to the First Baptist Church next to Bronson Park:

First Baptist Church "Constructed in 1853, this is the oldest church building in Kalamazoo. Titus Bronson, the city's founder, donated this site on Church Square. The Baptist faith reached the Kalamazoo River Valley in 1826 when missionary Leonard Slater preached to the Indians. In 1836 fourteen settlers led by Jerimiah Hall, a Baptist minister from Vermont, met in the home of Ezekiel Ransom to organize the First Baptist Church.

opposite side

First The history of the First Baptist Church and Kalamazoo College are closely interwoven. The same year that the church was organized, the Reverend Jerimiah Hall persuaded the Michigan and Huron Institute, now kalamazoo college to settle in this city. The second pastor, Dr. James H. B. Stone, was an early president of the college and many of his successors in that office have been active in this congregation. Over the years the First Baptist Church has served as the parent church of several parishes in outlying areas.

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First Baptist Church, Bronson Park, 1911

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First Baptist Church as it is today (2004) without the former steeple, but with its Létourneau pipe organ.

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First Presbyterian Church, Bronson Park, 1963

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See the Dutch in Kalamazoo page

First Reformed Church, Bronson Park

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St. Augustine 1907

St. Augustine 1910 - Deanery and Le Fevre Institute also shown.

St. Augustine Catholic Church

"The first Catholic settlers in 1844 used a log cabin mission. In 1852 a larger church was built, but by 1865 that too was outgrown In 1865, Father Anthony Tabel began construction of St. Augustine's Kalamazoo Avenue Church. Dedication took place on July 4,1969. It served as the center of Catholic life for 82 years.

In 1923, Father H. J. Hackett came to St. Augustine's. As a Monsignor he supervised the construction of the Michigan Ave. Church, dedicated December 4, 1951."

St. Augustine became a Cathedral in 1971. In 1980 the Cathedral school was struck by a tornado - see 1980 Tornado page

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