Source: News-Journal, August 16, 1973, Centennial Section

Servia United Church Of Christ Organized During Year 1849
By Herman W. Meyer, Ordained Deacon of Servia United Church of Christ

On the front of the Servia United Church of Christ it says "Christian Church-1875".

However the congregation was organized in 1849 under the leadership of Rev. James Atkinson as the New Madison Christian Church.

In 1908 the name of the village was changed to Servia. In 1931 the Congregational and the Christian Denominations merged and then on April 26, 1959, following the merger of the Congregational Christian Churches with the Evangelical and Reformed Denomination, the congregation officially became "The Servia United Church of Christ".

According to "Tales of the Old Days" by W.E. Billings and also Wabash County Histories of 1884 and 1914, this church has a better claim than any other as being the oldest church in the Manchester community.

In the fall of 1835 Rev. Bryant Fannin held services in the Peter Ogan Cabin on the south side of what is now Main Street of North Manchester. He and his neighbor, John Spenser, formed an organization of the Christians or Disciples of Christ faith about 1841. They met in the Fannin cabin, then in the Walters school house on Gospel Hill, the southwest corner of the intersection of the Singer Road with Road 1000 north.

This group then moved to the building on the west side of Main Street in Servia, just north of the former Village Store. This building was moved across the street and now forms the main part of Mrs. Luella Felabom's home. For a time meetings were held in the Servia school house. In 1875 the present red-brick church was built.

Thus in 1974 the Servia United Church of Christ will celebrate the 125 anniversary of the founding of the congregation and in 1975 the centennial of the building of the church will be celebrated. This building was remodeled rather extensively in 1931-2, the Fellowship Hall and vestibule were added in 1959, and the parsonage was built in 1965. This forms the physical plant of our "Community Church" as we are trying to make it.

The church is a part of the Indiana Kentucky Conference of the United Church of Christ and of the Northeast Association of that conference. Presently the church is yoked with Bippus United church, both churches having the Rev. Starling Wamsley as pastor, although he is leaving on 7-8-73. The new pastor has not yet been chosen. Worship services are at 9 a.m. at Servia and 10:30 a.m. at Bippus.

Some of the ministers who have served the church since 1875 are as follows--Rev. James Atkinson, organizer; Rev. George Abbott, a circuit-rider; Rev. David Hidy, an able pulpit preacher; Rev. W.D. Samuel, father of Medea Samuel Sexton Wright, an outstanding Music and Art teacher of both North Manchester and Chester Township schools; Rev. Samuel Frantz, he lived on Mill street and later on Market St.; Rev. Jacob J. Beisiegel, he formerly had been pastor of the N. Manchester Christian Church; Rev. M.M. Greeley; Rev. Howard Warner; Rev. William A. McCoy; Rev. James J. Overholt.