The story of the Episcopal Church in Illinois relates the struggle of formal churchmanship as opposed to well-established sectarianism. By 1835, denominations such as the Methodist, Church of Christ (Campbellites), and Baptist already had flourishing centers of work. The Roman Catholics were largely confined to those areas around St. Louis where the French had settled much earlier.

A handicap to the growth of the Episcopal Church in pioneer territory was the type of clergyman who sought his future in the West. Too often he was incompetent, having failed to make a success of his ministry in the East. He viewed the broad horizons westward as an opportunity to make his fortune, rather than planting the seeds of Faith.

It is possible that the Rev. Amos Baldwin was one of these Christian adventurers. He had been sent out to the west by the General Board of Missions to propagate the Faith. It is known that he stayed for six weeks in Albion, about 1821, and reportedly organized a congregation. Records, if there were any, disappeared as well as the congregation.

Illinois was not, however, without priests of the Episcopal Church. The Rev. John Batchelder was active in Jacksonville. The parish of Trinity in that city had been organized in 1832, and he had come as its Rector in 1833. The Rev. Palmer Dyer, filled with missionary spirit, had come out from Syracuse, New York, to establish a congregation in Peoria, to be known as St. Jude's. He arrived in 1834 to find no organized religious society in Peoria County. That same year, the Rev. James C. Richmond had begun work in Rushville (Schuyler County), and Beardstown (Morgan County). On his way to Peoria, the Rev. Mr. Dyer had held a service in Chicago. Now the Rev. Isaac Hallem was settled as Rector of a congregation of 12 communicants, called St. James' Church.

According to a report from Dyer, there were “friends of the Church” in Springfield and Alton, and in certain southern and western parts of the state, desiring Episcopal services.

So it was that on March 9, 1835, the Rev. Messrs. Batchelder, Dyer, and Richmond with six laymen from Peoria, Rushville, and Beardstown, met in Peoria to organize a new Diocese. The Minutes of this Convention place the session in the “Episcopal House of Worship”. In reality, these men gathered in an upper room of a tavern, or hotel.

The Diocese began with a total of 28 communicants in congregations in Jacksonville, Peoria, Rushville, Beardstown, Chicago, and Galena.

The Rev. Mr. Dyer was intimately acquainted with Philander Chase, the retired Bishop of Ohio, who had settled himself as a farmer in Gilead, Michigan. He had faced frontier problems in Ohio, living with his family in a log cabin. This was the man chosen to be the Bishop of the fledgling Diocese. He made the journey, establishing his home some miles northwest of Peoria. He did make some visitations, in one of which he organized St. Paul's, Springfield.

Bishop Chase had decided to establish a seminary to train young men for ministry in the West. After his brief stop in his new Diocese, he journeyed to England to raise funds to build a college that he called “Jubilee”.

He asked Bishop Jackson Kemper, whose missionary jurisdiction included Missouri, to visit the southern parts of the State, while he was in England. Through Kemper's efforts, the Rev. Joseph L. Darrow was appointed missionary in Madison and St. Clair counties. He established a parish in Marine, and held services in Collinsville. The Rev. Samuel Chase, a son of the Bishop, was busy in Springfield.

Not until 1841 was there an “Abstract of Parochial Reports”. By that time congregations were listed in Springfield, Collinsville, Alton, Mt. Carmel, and Albion. In the whole Diocese there were 257 communicants.

Bishop Chase was past 50 years of age when he undertook the enormous task of spreading the Episcopal Faith throughout the vast State of Illinois. By 1851 he found his labors so great, and his health so poor, that he asked for assistance. Henry J. Whitehouse, a priest from New York, was elected as Coadjutor, and upon Chase's death in 1852 succeeded him. The Diocese grew under his leadership, but in 1874 a second Bishop was needed, resulting in the election of Edward M. McLaren, elected in 1875. Bishop Whitehouse had died.

The Convention of 1876 set up the mechanics by which a division of the State into three Dioceses was to be accomplished. As early as 1872 there had been talk of such a division, and attempts made to bring it about, all of which seem to have failed.

On April 23, 1877, the Primary Convention of one of the new Dioceses, Quincy, met in the city of that name. There was dissension over the geographical distribution of parishes, so Bishop McLaren could not give his immediate consent to Diocesan formation.

On July 24, 1877, a number of clergy and laity in the southern part of Illinois, who had been at the Convention setting three Dioceses apart, met at St. Paul's Church, Alton to consider the question of division.

Meanwhile, Bishop McLaren had been busy. He wrote to the Rev. David W. Dresser, Rector of St. Paul's Church, Carlinville, and chairman of the Alton meeting, that he would consent to the establishment of a Diocese of Springfield, provided there was agreement on boundary lines. The McLaren plan embraced the territory lying south of the Counties of Woodford, Livingston, Ford, and Iroquois, and east of the Illinois River. Sufficient funds to support a Bishop would be necessary.

The General Convention, which met in October, 1877, in Boston, approved of the division. The Diocesan Convention also approved.

On December 18, 1877, the Primary Convention of the new Diocese of Springfield met in that city.

It was attended by 13 clergymen and 31 laymen. Bishop McLaren presided. The necessary Diocesan officers were elected.

On the first ballot, the Very Rev. George Franklin Seymour, Dean of General Theological Seminary, New York, was elected the Bishop of Springfield.