The Beech Church near Carthage is on Indiana Landmark’s 10 Most Endangered list. The church was established by former slaves. (Photo from the Rush County Genealogical Society Facebook page)
RUSH COUNTY — A Rush County worship center for former African-American slaves is on the state’s 10 Most Endangered list.
Indiana Landmarks has announced its 10 Most Endangered, its annual list of Hoosier landmarks in jeopardy.
“Places that land on the 10 Most Endangered often face a combination of problems rather than a single threat,” said Marsh Davis, president of Indiana Landmarks, a nonprofit preservation organization. “A bid for demolition is a loud signal, of course, but many of these sites suffer abandonment, neglect, dilapidation, obsolete use, unreasonable above-market sale price, sympathetic owners who simply lack money for repairs, an out-of-the-way location – or its opposite, encroaching sprawl that makes the land more valuable without the landmark.”
Indiana Landmarks populates the 10 Most list with important structures that have reached a dire point.
“Calling attention helps,” says Davis. “These places are not lost causes. All have the potential for revival and reuse.
“These landmarks preserve connections to community heritage. Time and again, we find that restoring one important place spurs broader revitalization in a community,” Davis adds. Indiana Landmarks uses the Most Endangered list to bring attention to the imperiled sites and find solutions that will ensure their preservation.
Indiana Landmarks announced the first 10 Most Endangered in 1991. Since then, 112 historic places in severe jeopardy have appeared on the list, with only 13 lost to demolition.
This year’s list includes eight new entries and two landmarks making repeat appearances.
The Rush County site is on the list for the first time.
The Beech Church is located in the Carthage vicinity of northwest Rush County.
Free blacks made their way from North Carolina to Rush County long before the Civil War, drawn by the presence of a large antislavery Quaker population.
They established the Beech Settlement near Carthage in 1828 and in 1832 created the African Methodist Episcopal Church, believed to be first A.M.E. church in Indiana. They built the surviving white frame church around 1865.
The congregation advanced the fortunes of its settlement by establishing a library in the simple Greek Revival church. The original subscribers pledged 12 1/2 to 25 cents to buy books for the lending library at a time when less than a quarter of the adult population of the settlement could read.
Many of the descendants of the original Beech Church families achieved prominence in education, medicine, politics and the A.M. E. church. Beech Church alone remains to represent the Beech Settlement, one of Indiana’s 19th Century African American farming communities and a significant chapter in Indiana history.
The descendants still gather for a reunion at “The Beech” every August, but the structure is otherwise seldom used. The landmark needs a new foundation and other repairs – and a long-term preservation strategy.
Copyright © 2024 The Connersville News-Examiner