Pennville

Samuel Grisell, a Hicksite Friend from Columbiana County, Ohio, received a Land Patent in 1835 in Fort Wayne “for the North East quarter of Section thirty-five, in Township twenty-four of Range twelve,” which contained 160 acres. It is believed that he platted the land and called the community New Lisbon. The name of the town was changed to Camden, then to Penn, and finally, in 1905, to Pennville.

Camden Monthly Meeting - a Hicksite meeting -  lasted until the early 1970s. There is a Hicksite cemetery just north of Pennville. 

Pennville Monthly Meeting has its roots in Orthodox Friends meetings in Blackford and Jay counties. Blackford Preparative Meeting, in Blackford County, was set up under Portland Monthly Meeting in 1882. On June 6, 1891 it became Olive Branch Monthly Meeting, under Winchester Quarterly Meeting.

Penn Worship Group, in what we now know as Pennville, in Jay County, had been set up under Jericho Monthly Meeting in 1878. 

The discovery of natural gas and petroleum in this largely agricultural area brought a brief period of prosperity to the town. Maria Grisell Merideth, daughter of Samuel Grisell, donated a piece of land on which the present Friends Church was built in 1911.

Penn Worship Group merged with Olive Branch Monthly Meeting and in September 1912 Olive Branch Monthly Meeting changed its name to Pennville Monthly Meeting.