Editor’s note: This is the first of three articles looking at renovation projects at Richland Township churches.
If you check out the number of churches in Richland Township on the Whitley County Historical Museum website, there are only three listed: The Larwill Wesleyan Church, the Larwill Methodist Church and the New Hope Wesleyan Church.
All three churches are located in one of the least populous townships of Whitley County and, according to census records, had more citizens in 1890, than any year since.
If Whitley County residents needed any more assurance of the need for a county-wide ban on open burning, this past weekend’s activity of the county’s fire departments provided all the evidence necessary.
At least nine non-structural fires involving grass, crops, trees and brush were reported to the Whitley County Sheriff’s Department from Friday through Sunday.
Smith Township firefighters responded to a fire in a harvested cornfield at about 5:45 p.m. Sunday when a resident burning debris had embers catch the dry cornstalks ablaze.
