Our History
The beginning of the Church of the Good Shepherd is a story of hard work and determination. From the first visits of a pioneering bishop to the devout acts of a laity without a church building to call home, it is a story that is rich in detail and a source of pride.
Our Michigan State Historical Marker, D. 1979
In October of 1859, the Rev. J. Rice Taylor was assigned to Allegan, holding services twice weekly on Sundays at the Courthouse, reporting nineteen communicants, alongside a large Sunday School with six parishioners serving as teachers to nearly forty students. He believed that "by patient continuance in well-doing on part of pastor and people, the time will not be far distant when a church will be built, and the services of our church permanently establish." His wish would be granted some years later; but not before Rev. Taylor like a good many men from Allegan would play their part in our Civil War.
Rev. J. Rice Taylor, our first Rector
The Church of the Good Shepherd, Allegan, was incorporated into the records of the then Diocese of Michigan on July 25, 1858. It was initially organized by the Rev. L.N. Freeman, sometime rector of St. Luke's, Kalamazoo. Giving us a history stretching beyond the Civil War. After being summoned to the area to conduct occasional services earlier in the year, including a funeral for the child of a Mrs. E.B. Basset. Basset, Freeman, and a Ms. Stockbridge then gathered a number of locals together to organize the first meetings of the parish, which were held in the county courthouse across the street.
Rev. Freeman visited the burgeoning parish six times between the summer of 1858 and the early autumn of 1859; with a visit by the Rt. Rev. Samuel Allen McCorsky, Bishop of the Diocese of Michigan (1836-78), who confirmed and received an additional fourteen members to the initial list of eighteen on May 10, 1859. The Bishop then invested Mr. E.B. Basset and Mr. William B. Williams to serve as lay readers for the parish.
The old Allegan County Courthouse
Serving throughout the period of 1862-65, Taylor would hold a post as a Chaplain for the Union Army and be stationed to St. Louis with one of the US Army's Black Regiments from our state. After the war he would spend some time in his native Ohio before returning to the area and becoming our first rector. Taylor would also be credited with helping to establish another three nearby parishes before his passing at the end of the nineteenth century: All Saints Saugatuck, Grace Episcopal in Holland, and St. John's, Grand Haven.
Between the years of 1866-69 our building would be erected in the "Carpenter Gothic" style popularized by many early Arts and Crafts designers. With the final designs drafted by English architect Gordon Lloyd (then resident in Windsor Ontario), incorporating influences from the works of John Ruskin and William Morris.