William W. Elder 11 Jan 1757-1822

BIOGRAPHY: William was born prior to the Revolution and became a noted orator advancing the cause of the American Revolution. He fought in the War as a Corporal in the Flying Camp Militia. William married Ann McAtee and the family moved to Nelson Co., Virginia which the following year became Washington County, Kentucky. On 25 Sep 1812, William and Ann were living in Breckenridge Co., Kentucky. In Breckenridge Co., Williams home served as a Church Station for the Catholics of the area until the erection of St. Theresa's. Rev. John Lyons refers to him in his booklet 'Old St. Theresa's in Meade Co., Kentucky', and says: "The Old Patriarch, William Elder, determined the site of the Church by staking off part of his farm, and the abled bodied men of the parish immediately set to work. The woods rang out with the stroke of the ax and the crash of timber. Heavy logs were prepared and placed in position, and before the end of the year, 1818, the first church of the congregation of St. Theresa was opened to divine services."

This church stood on the lowlands by the river at Chenaultt, and served the Catholics in the area of Derby, Indiana, across the Ohio, as well as those on the Kentucky side. The history of the church is brief, for it soon became too far removed from the greater number of parishioners , who settled more and more to the East and in 1826 it was abandoned when the more centrally located second church was erected. Attached to the Church was a little Cemetery, and here William Elder and others, who died at that period, were laid to rest. Later, floods from the river swept over the land, wrecking the building and covering the Cemetery with silt and debris, and today nothing remains to mark the site of St. Theresa's first Church and Cemetery.