Churches Page

Churches [updated January 2010]
Images of churches where the PORTEOUSes and VAMPLEWs were married, or christened. Other churches: Lake County | Kansas

Most images of the churches in Lincolnshire show the graveyard surrounding the church. I found few if any headstones belonging to my ancestors. Since they were mostly farm labourers or farm servants, they may not have had the money to buy a headstone. Or the fact that most of the Lincolnshire headstones were made out of sandstone, over the years the inscriptions had succumbed to weathering. Another reason could be, since they were farmers, the markers were made of wood and hadn't survived over the decades.

I am sure there are churches I haven't found furing our travels. On this page, a few church images are from the Lincolnshire Church Photographs site compiled by Wendy Parkinson (photo credits and copyright to Wendy Parkinson and Paul Fenwick). These pictures will be replaced with my own images as they become available.

From the menu below, choose a Lincolnshire church associated with my family research. The caption under the church image gives the family name of the ancestors who were baptized, married, or buried out of that church.

This is the Congregational church in Garfield, Kansas —
the church William Dennis and Elizabeth Porteous family attended.

"The people who founded Garfield came from his [President Garfield's] congressional district in Ohio, and the town was accordingly named in his honor. President Garfield in turn presented to the Congregational church of Garfield a bell, which was placed in the original church building on the townsite. This Congregational church was the first church building in this part of Kansas. It was built in the early 1870s, and was widely attended for many years, because it stood alone, a sentinel of the prairies. This building afterwards was sold and became a residence. A picture of the building is shown here, together with the fine new building which replace it, and in which the bell, the gift of President Garfield still calls its membership to worship."*

The brick building was demolished and the congregation moved to Kinsley, Kansas a few miles down the "trail."

*The image of a partial page was extracted from "A Collection of Articles and Stories Pertaining to the History of Garfield, Kansas" Second Edition, compiled and edited by Howard Losey.

First Congregational Church, at the corner of what is now Prairie & Hawley, Mundelein, IL. This church was built in the late 1940s. I attended Sunday School in the attic room near the steeple - Mrs. Rouse was my teacher. In the basement of the church is where my kindergarten was located - Mrs. Poulton was my teacher. My sunday school class was held in the attic...I remember climbing up narrow stairs to a little room with slanted ceilings.

First Congregational Church, at the corner of what is now Routes 45 & 176, Mundelein, IL. This building no longer exists. The congregation built the newer brick building above. I remember going to see movies in the basement and there was a candy store there also. It was moved to a proposed park near the Catholic church on Seymour sometime in the 1950s. An old cannon was placed in front of it in that park. I think the cannon was owned by the American Legion Post. The corner of Rts. 45 & 176 spot was sold to a drive in restaurant.

Image on left was taken by an unknown photographer. It must be very early and taken from the old hotel porch on a Sunday morning because there are people walking into church. Route 45 is a dirt road and doesn't seem to go further north. Maple Ave is dirt, too; it crosses Rt. 45. Sidewalks are wooden. Image on right is from old postcard.