Margarette, In a book I have called Life on Sugar Creek, there is a map which shows Island Grove as a settlement west of Springfield near Spring Creek, north of Lick Creek. It may well be far enough west to match the location you describe. However, I believe Island Grove Church was organized in about 1824. The first Baptist church in the county was called Sangamo, which was organized in 1820, and joined the Illinois Association that year. A church called Lick Creek was organized in about 1822-23. A church called Springfield (not in the city, however, but on the bank of Howell's Spring Branch near what is now New City - southeast of Springfield) was organized in about 1824, and also Island Grove. A church called Sugar Creek was also organized in about 1824. In 1826, a church called Spring Creek was organized west of Springfield. The minutes of the Sangamon Association for 1828 record the fact that Island Grove Church is desolved in fellowship. Minutes of Union church in Morgan Co. reveal that Island Grove church had requested help from them to settle a difficulty in May 1827. The Island Grove Church at Berlin was organized in 1833, according to the history of the Springfield (Missionary) Baptist association, and was a "Friends to Humanity" church - meaning it was organized by Baptists who had divided over being willing to fellowship their Baptists forebears in Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, who had slaves. It was a different church than the one I was referring to. John Crowder was a member of the "Springfield" church in Cotton HIll township, near New City, before 1830. He was one of the founding members of the Springfield church in August 1830, which was a Primitive Baptist church originally and bought property at the present site of the Central Baptist Church near downtown Springfield, in 1834. Elder Aaron Vandeveer was the first pastor, and he was a staunch Primitive Baptist. The church grew to 80 members under his care, but was then influenced to turn to the mission system when the division arose. I noticed in the history of the Springfield Association that they refer to the Sangamon Association as a small body of five or six small churches. But the fact is that the Sangamon Association had 39 churches and 1100 members in 1830, and during the remainder of the 19th century it had between 15 and 20 churches all the time. I haven't found anything on Philip Crowder yet, but will keep my eyes open. Robert Webb On Wed, 22 Nov 2000 22:56:24 EST MaggeD@aol.com writes: > I think the Baptist Church that was in Island Grove was later moved > to New > Berlin. I have tried to find out about that church myself as I > think it is > possible that some of my ancestors could have been members. I > cannot find > any information on it at all. Island Grove is a TWP but the town of > Berlin > called "Old" Berlin may have been called Island Grove earlier on. I > believe > the church in New Berlin is Missionary Baptist though but it may > have been > Primitive Baptist originally. I thought I had some notes on this > but haven't > been able to locate them. > > Margarette Davis > > > ==== ILSANGAM Mailing List ==== > The RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative is supported by its > users: > RootsWeb would cease to exist if not for the support of folks like > you. > By becoming a Member, Sponsor, or Donor, you help RootsWeb provide > Web > and FTP space on thousands of genealogical topics, mailing > lists for thousands of groups of genealogists with shared interests, > and > search engines to make huge amounts of genealogical data freely > available to Internet genealogists.Become A Rootsweb Sponser Today! > http://www.rootsweb.com/ > ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.