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CITY OF DUBOIS Page 57
day School was organized and carried on in the summer time for
several years.
The first church building was erected in 1874 or 1875 at the corner
of East Long Avenue and Church Street. Reverend Dunlap, of
Brookville, a minister of the Evangelical Church, held meetings, and
out of those meetings came the church. This building was a one-story
structure probably twenty feet wide by thirty feet long, set on
posts for a foundation, the lower side of which was over two feet
from the ground. It is related that in the summertime the sheep from
the neighborhood, in the heat of the day, to avoid flies, gathered
under the church, and these sheep in shaking their heads and bumping
around to get rid of flies, bumped the floor of the church and
greatly interfered with the services. This church acquired two lots,
one on the east side of Church Street, upon which a parsonage was
built, and one upon the west side, upon which the church stood.
This church was turned into a dwelling house, and thus remained for
years after it was abandoned as a church.
Later the Evangelical Church acquired its present location on East
Long Avenue. Mr. John Rumbarger donated two lots at the corner of
West Long Avenue and Franklin Street, upon which a Methodist
Episcopal Church was erected between 1870 and 1880. This building
was destroyed by the fire of 1888. TheFirst Presbyterian Church was
organized on the 9th of May 1876 in a barn standing at the rear of
the Rumbarger house. From that time on, various other religious
denominations entered the city and erected their church buildings
until, at this date, there are more than seventeen denominations
represented within the city limits.
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