New California Church was organized in 1826, when the congregation was known as the Associate Congregation of Darby and represented Presbyterians descended from Scotland’s Seceder tradition, which had broken from the mainstream Presbyterian Church over the English Crown’s claim to appoint ministers. Seeking religious freedom, these Presbyterians came to America and became one of the earliest denominations to condemn slavery. The congregation met in members’ homes until it built its first church, a log structure, in 1833. Its first minister, the Reverend James Wallace, who served from 1832 to 1841, was an outspoken opponent of slavery, and the congregation maintained that anti-slavery position under later ministers. The present church was built in 1904. On April 24, 1861, in the sanctuary of the second Presbyterian church on this site, the congregation met to answer President Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers to defend the Union. The Reverend B.D. Evans delivered a patriotic address and sermon as a Bible and munitions for war lay on the pulpit, and more than forty men volunteered for military service. David Taylor was the first to enlist; he served for three years and was killed on a battlefield in Georgia. Before the Civil War ended, more than 367 men from Jerome Township had served the Union cause, one of the highest per capita rates of military service in the nation, and seventeen Civil War veterans are buried in the New California cemetery.