On July 30, 1839, Jacob and Chatherine Van Houten deeded one-quarter acre here on the northeast corner to the Methodist Episcopal Church for a house of worship named Concord, the first church site in Whitley County. A log church served until it was replaced by a frame structure about 1851. In 1840 Samuel and Rebecca Smith, for whom this township was named, gave land for a cemetery on the southeast corner and in 1850 the southwest corner for the United Brethren in Christ Church.