For this year’s A to Z Challenge, I will be posting an event for that date involving someone in my family tree. Of course it will also involve the letter of the day. It may be a birth, a death, a christening, a journal entry, a letter or a newspaper article. If the entry is a news item, it will be transcribed immediately below. Click on photographs to enlarge in another window.

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The Founding of Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church

Begins With 31 Members
Prof. David Graham of Rushville was moderator and Rev. W. W. McCall of Greensburg was secretary. Other members present were Rev. Fred W. Schmuch of Milroy, Rev. N. B. McClung of Vevay, Rev. Mr. McDill of Madison, and Dr. Cowan of Indianapolis.
The petition was discussed at some length. By unanimous vote an organization was decided upon. The 31 members who signed the petition were as follows: Henry W. Cleage, Mrs. Carrie Perkins, Mrs. Emma Moore, A. T. Roney, Mrs. Cora Donann, Mrs. Cathern Crenshaw, Mrs. Daisy L. Brabham, Albert Cleage, Mrs. Gertrude Cleage, James Myers, Mrs. A. L. McElrath, O. F. Dennis, Mrs. Hattie  Mitchell, H. M. Mitchell, Mrs. Theresa Finley, Othello Finley, Miss Edith Finley, Miss Luell E. Hibbett, Mrs. Mary Peterson, Mrs. Anna Bowman, John T. Fox, Miss Pearl Reed, Thomas H. Bransford, Mrs. O. F. Dennis, Miss Alice Mathews, Miss Hilda Reeder, W. J. Perkins, Henry Moore and H. L. Hummons.
April 30, 1907 • Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, USA
This is from a history of Witherspoon church that used to be on the church website, but no longer is there.

A called meeting of the Presbytery of Indiana of the United Presbyterian church met in this city at Realty hall Tuesday night and organized a colored organization with thirty one members. Dr. H. L. Hummons, Henry W. Cleage and Thomas H. Bransford were elected Elders. Dr. J. Pl Cowan of the Woodruff Place United Presbyterian church was elected moderator of the session and will have charge of the organization until a minister can be secured. There will be preaching at Realty hall Sunday afternoon at 4:00 p.m.

Members of the Presbytery present were Prof. David Graham, of Rushville, moderator, W. W. McCall of Greensburg.

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I didn’t realize until I was working on this post that Henry W. Cleage’s two year old daughter died of broncho pneumonia one day after he was involved in the founding of Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church. Martha Christina Cleage had been born in Indianapolis, Indiana October 10, 1904. She was named for her maternal grandmother Martha Loving .

Henry’s wife Minnie Loving Cleage, died sometime after the daughter was born and before her death. The only evidence I have found of her in Indianapolis, aside from her daughter being born there, is an unclaimed letter in the post office in 1905.

Special ordination exercises were held at the Witherspoon United Presbyterian church Sunday evening. The Rev. J. P. Cowan assisted the Rev. C. W. McCall, pastor, in the services in which Henry W. Cleage was ordained a ruling elder of the church. The following have been elected trustees: Philip Tasch, James Meyers and O. Finley.

Witherspoon History – Witherspoon Presbyterian Church webpage
H is for Henry William Cleage
H is for Henry Hummons