HARDIN COUNTY (WSIL) --Â A historic church, is no more.
The Richland Church in Elizabethtown caught fire Monday evening. That church has been a mainstay of the community since the 1880s.
Some residents say it's a tragedy that this fire happened as you can see it's completely destroyed. When News 3 got here, we could still see smoke coming out of the building.
The church's Facebook page operator, Lena Morsch tells News 3 this church has seen a lot of history including 2 World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War, as well storms and illnesses.
She says her great-great-grandmother was a founding member in 1887 and the lumber used to build the church came from her family's property.
She says losing this church is like a death in a family.
"Even if we ever decided to rebuild the church, I don't think it's ever going to replace the value of what we had there with the walls and the floors and everything that were made by our ancestors," she says, "It maybe didn't have a lot of monetary meaning to a lot of people, but since, that's the main thing is we're trying to get the word out and trying to get people to talking about it and having their ears open to see what we can find out."
Authorities are saying the cause of the fire is unknown at this time, but they would like anyone to come forward with any information.
There church hadn't held services for several years. There were plans to re-store the church and even re-open within the year.
