This was an early figure in Warsaw’s history, fourteen years before the town of Warsaw, Indiana was incorporated, this organization started on November 7, 1840.
By the middle of the 1840′s, Daniel and Mary Pittenger had come to Warsaw from Ohio and had begun operating a saw mill in the Walnut Creek area south of Warsaw. In 1851, there were no public schools in Warsaw, but only three so-called “subscription” schools, at that time Robert and Jane Cowen, moved here from Michigan. The historical records show that Jane was an excellent teacher and that many of the Warsaw town leaders were her students. The Cowen daughters, Martha and Semerimis, were also teachers and their father was a carpenter by trade. The Cowens, along with others, decided that it was time to build a small frame church, which was primarily built by Robert Cowen, using lumber from Daniel & Nancy Pittenger’s sawmill. By 1865, a two-manual organ was purchased, as well as a deep-toned bell. By 1877, the small frame church soon became too small to house the growing congregation. In 1881 The Cornerstone was laid for a new brick church just east of the old building, which took two years to build and was dedicated on July 1, 1883. In 1914, an extensive remodeling of the church building was initiated. A large education wing and a narthex were added, yet the original architecture of the church was preserved. The work was completed in 1915.