History Made: Church keeps history alive every Sunday

Augustus Conant was a man with a purpose even if it meant drifting away from the family business.

Conant was born Oct. 16, 1811, in Brandon, Vt., to Ebenezer Conant and Fanny Clifford. He later went on to help form the First Christian Congregation of Geneva, later known as the Unitarian Church in Geneva and now the Unitarian Universalist Society of Geneva. The church is part of the Central Geneva Historical District, which was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The Kane County Chronicle is taking a look at area buildings on the register this week.

The soon-to-be minister had aspirations of a liberal education and profession, wrote Robert Collyer in the 1905 biography Augustus Conant: Illinois Pioneer and Preacher. Conants father, Ebenezer, wanted him to stay as a farmer in Vermont. He left behind his family in Vermont in September 1832 for what was then called the far west the prairies of Illinois. He kept a daily journal of his travels that he continued writing in even after he came to live on his own in the state.

When Conant finally made it to Chicago, Collyer writes: [Conant] found nothing worth his notice except Fort Dearborn. He thought the town was so situated that it would eventually become a place of considerable importance. Conant spent only an hour in what is now the city limits of Chicago. After traveling throughout the state, he settled in Des Plaines.

He actually went back to farming, the family business, once he the found the perfect land parcel. His family joined him shortly thereafter after Conant discovered that the soil was great for farming.

Conants diary entries, obtained through the Geneva History Center, continued, including this one dated Feb. 25, 1840: Preached at Geneva. Read Norton on the Trinity. Made soap. Boiled sugar. Wrote a sermon on the Aim of Life.

A couple short years and a Harvard ordination later, he began preaching in Geneva full time. On May 8, 1842, he wrote, We had our first meeting to day [sic] on the subject of forming a religious society in Geneva but there was a doubt as to whether the right time had come to begin and a declaration of principles that had been circulated and signed by twenty persons was reserved for further consideration.

That day was the first preliminary meeting to plan what is now the Unitarian Universalist Society of Geneva. On June 12, 1842, the First Christian Congregation of Geneva was formed, according to a church document obtained at the Geneva History Center through the Des Plaines Historical Society.

The name was chosen because Conant teamed up with other denominations, including Unitarians, Presbyterians and Episcopalians, according to church records. The congregations members met in various locations throughout Geneva, including the old courthouse.

In a letter to the Christian Register dated March 18, 1843, Conant said, The Court House, in which we have held meetings in the summer, is out of repair and without a stove. He also noted how the church needed its own building. A fair was later held in May 1843 with the help of one of Genevas leading merchants at the time, Polly Patten, and her brother, Charles Patten, to raise money to build the church.

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History Made: Church keeps history alive every Sunday