Our County History
by County Historian Marion W. Coplen

The new church home of the St. Anne's Episcopal church in which they held services last Sunday was originally built by Dr. John K. Leedy, a physician in Warsaw some 80 years ago. This home is pictured on page 81 of the 1879 Historical Atlas of Kosciusko county.

The St. Anne's church is not the first Episcopal church is our locality. In 1861 a local group was organized known as St. Andrews Parish. the first Episcopal services in Warsaw were held at the Methodist church on Monday evening, April 22, 1861. Until they erected a building of their own this group held services in the Presbyterian church, the Union School on Market street, the Baptist church at Center and Indiana and in the court room.

In the spring of 1866 they began the construction of a frame building on a lot donated to them by William Williams. The building had been erected and was being lathed when--June 21, 1866--a tornado swept over Warsaw and laid the church in ruins with a lose of one thousand dollars. The church organization then decided to build more substantially, beginning the construction of a brick church the following September.

In 1869 the church was completed and the records indicate that the ladies played an important part in paying off the indebtedness. In 1879 the church had forty-two communicants and an average Sunday school attendance of seventy.

When the St. Andrews Parish disbanded, the church became a residence and is still standing at the northeast corner of Market and Detroit streets.

Warsaw Times-Union Sat. Sept. 27, 1952