Puritan Congregational Church was located on the corner of Franklin Avenue and West 58th Street on the west side of Cleveland, Ohio, in the late 1890s-1914. The congregation was an independent church that included the consolidation of Franklin Avenue Congregational Church. While little is known about Puritan Congregational Church, it can be ascertained that some of the members of the congregation were of Norwegian and Danish descent. Pastors of the church included C. S. Mills, Samuel M. Johnson, and John Faris Berry. The church failed to meet its budget for several years in the 1910s and took on an increasing amount of debt. In the meantime, the neighborhood and community on the west side of Cleveland changed, and many church members moved out of the parish boundaries. With increasing debt and difficulties arising from a lack of members willing to take leadership roles with in the church, the congregation voted to disband in 1914. The church property was turned over to the Congregational Union of Cleveland, Ohio, and the proceeds were used to establish a permanent loan fund for the Union.
Franklin Avenue Congregational Church was an outgrowth of a Sunday School started on West 23rd Avenue (Washington Street) in 1857. The school came under the control of the First Congregational Church in 1866. As the population of the west side of Cleveland grew rapidly, the school purchased a lot on the corner of Franklin and Waverly (West 58th Street) avenues and moved the school there in 1876. By the end of 1876, Franklin Avenue Congregational Church was established on the site. A church building was erected in 1889 and the church had 148 members. By 1896, the church membership had grown to 267 members. By the late 1900s, Franklin Congregational Church merged with Puritan Congregational Church and the new Puritan congregation moved into the Franklin Avenue building.
The Puritan Congregational Church Records, 1889-1914 and undated, consist of certificates, correspondence, membership lists, minutes, newsletters, and reports.
This collection will be useful to researchers studying the history of religion and the congregational church on the west side of Cleveland, Ohio, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Genealogists might find the membership lists and certificates of transfer, withdrawal, dismission, and membership in good standing useful. Those studying the history of Franklin Avenue Congregational Church, Puritan Congregational Church, and, to a limited extent, Grace Congregational Church in Cleveland will find this collection useful.
The collection is arranged in two series.
Processed by Margaret Burzynski-Bays in 2014.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 5195 Puritan Congregational Church Records, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Gift of West Park United Church of Christ in 1995.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.