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Jefferson Township Churches

Organized in 1840

Maples United Methodist Church

13240 Church Street, Fort Wayne, IN 46816

Organized in 1871 as Maples Protestant Church at the present location. Records before 1920 are at DePauw University Library, Greencastle, IN. Contact church for information on records after 1920.

Saint Louis Besancon Catholic Church and Cemetery

15535 East Lincoln Highway, Besancon
Website: https://stlouisb.org/, Facebook: www.facebook.com/stlouisb.org

Several aerial drone photos of the church were posted February 1, 2020 by Above the Land on Facebooks

St. Louis Church 1848 on page 239 of The Diocese of Fort Wayne by Alerding, Herman Joseph, 1845-1924; Noll, John Francis, Abp., 1875-1956, Publication date 1907, on Archive.org

Established in 1846 on the banks of the freshly drained Black Swamp by French immigrants who came from Besancon, a town in eastern France and settled in Jefferson Township about 1840. The first church was built the same year. By 1870 the present Gothic Revival-style church was built at the same location. See A faith-filled Catholic community with a strong French heritage by Bonnie Elberson published August 25, 2017 on TodaysCatholic.org. Birth, baptism, marriage and death records since 1865 are available. Confirmation records are available from 1923. Records are in Latin and English. Records have been microfilmed and are available along with a history of the church at the Allen County Public Library. French heritage and St. Louis in Besancon, Indiana published July 10, 2012 on Midwest Guest ... mostly Midwestern meanderings blog. Short video history inside and out including a cemetery shot of the classic sanctuary restored to its nearly original appearance in 2014 with the stained glass windows repaired and sealed, the 1915 pipe organ with original manual bellows, rebuilt. Some information copied from The French Faithful by Eric Olson, 21Country Featured Reporter published April 9, 2020 on 21AliveNews.com. Index to the Records of St. Louis Church at Besancon, Indiana, 1865-1907 : containing aditional notes and annotations copied from The Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana by Internet Archive.

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Page updated: January 12, 2024