A New Minister at Kingston Methodist Church, 1906

I recently came across this postcard on eBay from 1906, showing the Kingston Methodist Church. It is a wonderful piece of local history! The Real Photo Postcard (RPPC) shows the parsonage on the right, and the church on the left. The Methodist Church is in its present-day location on First Street in Kingston. The building was originally built in 1861 near Pleasant Hill Farm, along Baseline Road on the southern edge of Kingston Township. It was moved to this location in 1875. The parsonage was built in 1878. Notice the dirt road, hitching posts, and narrow sidewalk! Today, the church has a basement and a new entrance, and the trees and hitching post has been replaced by paved street parking! The parsonage has also lost part of its covered porch, but otherwise looks very similar!

This postcard was sent by the pastor’s wife, to her friend in Dundee, IL. It was mailed on Nov. 1, 1906, and arrived in Dundee that evening (such quick service!). The message reads,

This is our church & home. We have just got settled. Come down and see us. You can come down on Saturday. & return Sunday if you must. Mrs. T.

“Mrs. T.” was Mrs. Ellen Francis Tuttle, who was the wife of Rev. William H. Tuttle. Ellen was about 56 years old at the time, and was the daughter of William and Catherine Caldwell. She had married William Tuttle in about 1872. Their daughter, Hattie, lived with Ellen and William in Kingston, and was a music teacher. Perhaps she taught lessons on the piano at the church!

Rev. Tuttle came to Kingston from Dundee to be the pastor of the Methodist Church in October of 1906. Kingston was a small farm town, and probably quite a change from Dundee! He took over the post that was left by Rev. C.S. Clay, who had been minister there for the previous four years. Rev. Tuttle was the minister at Kingston Methodist until October 1911, when they moved to Winnebago, IL.

The postcard was sent to her friend, Miss Carrie Emery in Dundee, Ill. Carrie must have been a member of the previous congregation that Rev. Tuttle presided over, and must have been especially close to Ellen. Carrie was the daughter of Eleazer and Katherine Emery, and was about 30 years old when she received this postcard. She was a schoolteacher in Dundee by the 1910 census, and then she married John Burkman in 1911. She seems to have lived in Dundee or Elgin for the rest of her life.

I wonder if Carrie went to go visit her friend in Kingston on that Saturday, what they did, and if they remained friends throughout their lives?

This postcard has returned to its first home, and is now part of the archives at the Kingston United Methodist Church. Images used with permission. 

Sources:

• Kingston United Methodist Church (Kingston, Illinois), Church Record Set, 1900-present; Kingston United Methodist Church, Kingston, Illinois.
• 1910 United States Federal Census, Kane County, Illinois, Population Schedule, Elgin Ward 1, p. 11A, house 376, dwelling 201, family 229, Eleaser, Katherine and Carrie L. Emery, image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 2 Jun 2018); citing FHL microfilm: 1374310.
• 1910 United States Federal Census, DeKalb County, Illinois, Population Schedule, Kingston Village, p. 2B, dwelling 59, family 60, William H., Ellen F., and Hattie L. Tuttle, image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 4 Jun 2018); citing FHL microfilm: 1374297.
• “Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index, 1871-1920,” database, Ancestry.com
  (www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 4 Jun 2018), entry for Carrie L. Emery, 19 Jul 1911; citing “Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871–1920. [Index]” Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2010.
• “Near-By Towns. Kingston,” True Republican (Sycamore, IL), 6 Oct 1906, image copy (http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/ : accessed 3 Jun 2018), page 3; Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections.
• “History of our Methodist Church,” True Republican (Sycamore, IL), 26 Sep 1914, image copy (http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/ : accessed 3 Jun 2018), page 7; Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections.