Contributed by Teresa Douglass, Genealogy Specialist
In celebration of African American History Month, we take a look back at the lives and contributions of African American citizens throughout Harrison County’s history.
African Americans have been part of Harrison County’s history from its beginning, and as Black communities developed, residents soon organized church congregations. One of the first to be established was St. Paul’s African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church in Corydon. Free African Americans and former enslaved persons organized the St. Paul congregation around 1843. In April 1851, church trustees acquired a lot in Corydon for the purpose of erecting a house of worship and a school. In the late 1870s, the congregation erected a frame, gable-front church at the corner of Maple and High Streets. The building, pictured below, served the St. Paul A.M.E. congregation until 1975, at which time a new brick church was built on an adjacent lot. This brick building continues to serve the congregation today.
Other early African American churches in Harrison County include Collins ’ Chapel in northern Boone Township and Zion Church in southern Harrison Township.
St. Paul’s African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church in Corydon, ca. 1958.
The above image is part of the Walter and Mina Fried Slide Collection, available in HCPL’s digital archives.
This March 15, 1939, article from The Corydon Democrat announces a program sponsored by St. Paul’s in order to raise funds for needed repairs to the church.
