History of the West Baden United Methodist Church
By Mrs. J. A. Ritter
From records placed in the Orange County Museum
The first religious service that was held in the town of West Baden was a union Sunday School organized in the Odd fellows Hall in the Ritter Hotel in 1892
. There were not enough members of any one denomination to organize any other than a Union Sunday School. Mr. Cramer of Kokomo, Indiana was our Sunday School Superintendent. We held our Sunday School in the lodge hall for six or seven months, then Mr. L. W. St. Clair was kind enough to let us have the opera house. We stayed there until the schoolhouse was built, then we moved into it, remaining there for about two years.Mr. L. W. St. Clair made a proposition to the members of the church that if they could raise a certain amount of money he would build the church, which he did, but we were all disappointed. We thought the church should be located in town, but Mr. St. Clair preferred to build it over on the hill beyond the hotel. As he had put much more funds in the church than we did, we let him have his way. We couldn't have it dedicated because of some restrictions on it. The restrictions were that if we ceased to hold services in the church it would revert back to the Hotel Company. We spent many happy hours in the dear old church on the hill.
I am sure Dr. Walker well remembers the church on the hill, when on one dark night two of his members presented him with a beautiful nickel plated lantern, telling him to let his light shine that others might see. He was as well pleased with this lantern as a little boy would have been with a new toy. At the time there weren't any streetlights, therefore we carried our lanterns.
In 1914 the church burned. We lost everything. Then we had to secure another place. We secured the restaurant known as the Big Four Restaurant from Dr. J. A. Ritter. We occupied this place for quite a while then we had to make another move to rooms upstairs over the Ritter Store.
The last move was into the new building. Some ten years before the church burned the Ladies Aid Society had the Church insured for $2,000. As soon as we received the insurance money we purchased this lot on which this church now stands. That took all of our $2,000, so we had nothing left to start on. Rev. G. W. Holmes was our pastor at that time. He called a business meeting and appointed a building committee of four: Mr. A. B. Dickey, W. V. Troth, Mrs. J. A. Ritter and W. F. Moore and Dr. Ritter superintended the work. In 1916 the corner stone was laid. When we had the basement finished we held services there for about two years.
Rev. C. F. Glick was sent to us in 1918. On seeing the situation, he began at once to see what could be done. Bro. Glick didn't hardly rest day or night until the church was finished and dedicated on Easter Sunday, April 4, 1920 with everything complete. Then the next step was to build a parsonage. We raised all the funds that we could at that time and borrowed $2,000 from the National Bank and finished the building. This cost us $8,000. In September 1931 the church members celebrated the paying off of the indebtedness of the church and parsonage.
During the jubilee service an orchestra, composed of Misses Frances and Mary Ritter, Helen Trueblood and Helen Felknor gave two numbers, Mrs. Ross Atkinson of Ames Chapel, Miss Glendora Charles Of West Baden and Mr. Tabor of French Lick rendered solos. A duet by Mrs. Ed Underwood and Mrs. Lawerence Love of Ames, a history of the church by Mrs. J. A. Ritter, sermon by Dr. J. M. Walker former pastor, now District Superintendent of Bloomington District of Indiana Conference and the burning of the note by Mrs. J. A. Ritter.
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