Indiana historic church's missing steeple to be replaced

NEW ALBANY, Ind. (AP) - A historic southern Indiana church is getting a new steeple more than a century after a lightning strike destroyed its original spire.

Crews will lift the 65-foot steeple into place Thursday atop the Town Clock Church in New Albany and top it with a gold finial.

The News and Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/244AwzQ ) the steeple was paid for with donations and built by volunteers. It will replace one destroyed by a 1915 lightning strike.

The original steeple was visible in Kentucky, across the Ohio River, and was a beacon of hope for slaves seeking freedom before and during the Civil War period.

The 1850s-era church was built by an abolitionist Presbyterian congregation that aided fugitive slaves along the Underground Railroad.

It's now used by the predominantly black Second Baptist Church.

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Information from: News and Tribune, Jeffersonville, Ind., http://www.newsandtribune.com