Scope and Contents:
The Hampshire Colony Church was the first Congregational church in Illinois, established in Princeton, Illinois, in 1831. This collection contains the record book of the Board of Trustees for the church.
The church record begins January 18, 1847, and has three main sections. The first section of the record book contains Board meeting minutes from 1847 to 1863. Topics discussed during these meetings primarily focused on potential improvements to be made to the church infrastructure. Other important topics include votes on Board elections, payments due, and potential acquisition of land.
The second section of the record consists of expense logs. These expenses were either improvements made to the building or items bought for the church.
The third section contains a record of purchasers' names and amounts paid for burial spaces on church property in 1849.
The Library purchased this collection in the spring of 2016. It was acquired with printed ephemera purchased for the Van Norman, Clarendon, Jr., Collection of Lincoln and Illinois Ephemera (MS 852).