On October 28, 1874, a little company of Presbyterians met at the home of Mr. D. T. Robinson to consider the advisability of organizing a Presbyterian Church in the eastern part of the city. The conclusion was. “we deem it expedient too organize.” A petition to the Presbytery of Rock River, presented at Princeton, Illinois, on April 13, 1875, by a committee consisting of Mr. C. C. More and Doctor J. W. Stewart, was favor-ably heard, and, the Presbytery sent Reverend Josiah Milligan, Reverend J. H. Moore and Elder Snyder to Rock Island to canvass the field and organize the church. The new church was organized April 29, 1875, and the following officers elected: Elders, D. F. More, C. C. More, H. Lee Mitchell and J. W. Stewart; Deacons, Doctor S. C. Plummer, H. A. Smythe, W. C. Welch and H. E. Woods; Trustees, D. T. Robinson, Alexander Steel, S. J. Keator, C. C. More, W. C. Welch, A. F. Fleming, T. J. Rodman, W. H. Truesdale and Spencer Gregg. Fifty members were received by letter from the mother Presbyterian church, now known as the Central, and seven united upon profession of faith. These organization services were held in the basement of the Central Church, the auditorium of which was in the hands of workmen repairing the damages wrought by the tornado of September 18, 1875. Lots were purchased for the new church at the corner of Broadway and Spencer Streets, now Seventh Avenue and Twenty-third Street, and the name Broadway chosen. On May 9, 1875, a Sunday school was organized, with sixty-one scholars, in what was known as Greenbush Chapel, at the corner of Twenty-eighth Street and Ninth Avenue. Doctor C. D. Nott, of the First Presbyterian Church, Davenport, preached on Sunday afternoons until the coming in November, 1875, of Reverend T. H. Hench, who had been called as the first pastor. May 2, 1876, the corner-stone of the new church ‘building was laid. The Sunday school room of the new building was ready for occupancy February 11, 1877. Here the congregation worshiped until the auditorium was completed, in 1878. Reverend W. S. Marquis, who was called in March, 1884, and installed as pastor on June 15, 1884, and who, up to the present time (1908) is still serving the church. Among the more interesting and important facts in the history of this church, the following may be mentioned: The dedication of the auditorium, November 3, 1878; South Park Mission, organized July 15, 1888; South Park Chapel, dedicated October 7, 1888; plans for enlargement of church and new Sunday school room adopted September 3, 1894; corner store of same laid and Twentieth anniversary celebrated April 29, 1895; Sunday school room dedicated December 8, 1895; Reverend Graham Lee, a member of the church, ordained to the Gospel ministry and sent forth to Korea in 1894, now supported as the foreign mission pastor of Broadway church; Sunday school room used by the High school for one year after the burning of the High school building, February 15, 1901; Synod of Illinois entertained October, 1904.
Source: Historic Rock Island County, pub. Kramer & Company, Rock Island, Illinois, 1908