Germans were Lutherans, but each nationality was of a different
synod and had little agreement or fellowship. The Irishmen were Roman
Catholics, while the Americans were divided up among the different
denominations. No sooner had these settlers built themselves homes
than they started to build chapels and churches; it was a chapel if
its builders rebelled at calling a building a church, and it was a
church if its builders had no such scruples. No survey was made as
an effort to find out how many churches were needed; indeed, each
denomination erected a place of worship even if there was only
a handful represented in its membership. Those were the days of
unleavened bread and bitter herbs, when every denomination was full of
sectarian rivalry, and each of them claimed more or less of a monopoly
upon the love and power of God. Revival-meetings were held frequently,
sometimes contemporaneously, and the "doors of the church" were swung
open every Sunday for the admission of new members.

The center of this settlement was Bethany, consisting of a few
straggling huts on the north side of the railroad, and the business
section and the more pretentious homes of the well-to-do on the south
side. There was the usual run of stores. Most of them, however,
were what were called "general stores," which meant that they sold
everything from toothpicks to farm wagons and from handkerchiefs to
cloaks and suits, besides groceries, shoes, and tinware. And it must
be said also, for the sake of telling the truth, that they erected
more church-buildings than they needed, because the same sectarian
rivalry obtained there as in the country round about. It was common
for members of one denomination to tell members of another that the
others' church was a thousand miles farther away from God than was
theirs.