USA > Ohio > Clark County > New Carlisle > Bethel Baptist Church history, 1822-1972 > Part 1
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BETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH
HISTORY
1822 - 1972
BETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH
HISTORY
1822 - 1972
AS TOLD BY JEAN HARRIS
SOURCE
Minutes of Bethel Church from 1822-1968
Mad River Association Ministes 1850-1964 The Miller Book Women's Society Minutes Book 1900-1938
Yesteryear - from Clark County Historical Society
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014
https://archive.org/details/bethelbaptistchu00harr
Early in the nineteenth century the state of Ohio, Springfield and Clark County were organized. Soon after this time our church was organized. The War of 1812 with the Indians was over, the area was relatively safe for settlers to come. These early settlers were from pioneer stock, mostly farmers, who had migrated here from Virginia. The land was somewhat cleared off with cabins dotted here and there. It was a beautiful country with plenty of wooded area and good fert le land; some Indians still had their homes here and their children played and fished with the settler's children. The land was virgin territory, one family reported having killed 400 deer the first winter. The streams and creeks were full of fish and wild turkey was very plentiful.
In 1815 a family by the name of Miller had bought a quarter section (about 40 acres) along Donnels Creek. A son Henry, had come up earlier to look over the land and found it very favorable. They paid seven dollars an acre. A big home was built and the lane to that home goes past the Bethel Cemetery. Soon a primitive type schoolhouse was built and replaced later by two others. Fellowship Hall was formally the last schoolhouse used. Fred miller gave the land for the school, Hugh Wallace gave the lumber and J. P. Leffel erected the school. J. P. Leffel was a son-in-law of Fred Miller.
Five people led by the Holy Spirit and with a deep faith and trust in God, fulfilled a dream they had of having a house of worship. These five people contacted three Elders - Joseph Morris, Luke Byrd and William Sutton to come to help them organize a church. They willingly came and on Saturday, April 22 1822 our church was born. One record lists it as the first church in Bethel Township. The first five members were John and Jonathan Lorton, Jessie Lowe, Eliza Donovan and Sarah Stephens. As soon as the church was organized they opened their church to new members and two people came in for membership. On Sunday the two were baptized. Baptisms were held in the creek the year round until the the 1930's when churches in Springfield were used. Now Bethel has her own baptismal. Some of our present members remember the ice in the creek being broken so that their baptism. could be held.
In June these first members named their church Bethel and how appropriate since Bethel means house of worship, it was in Bethel Township and they met near Bethel school.
At first they met in homes and barns when the weather would not per- mit a service outdoors. When outdoors it was held in a woods or grove and it was probably the one across the road from our church. The Wallace woods was mentioned and that was known as the Wallace farm. How quiet it must have been to have a worship service outdoors. Today it would be almost impossible with all the noise of planes, cars, motor- cycles and even lawnmowers. A board was placed upon two logs for the preacher to stand on, a board put between two trees and an open Bible
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and song book laid upon it. The preacher came on horseback following the trails made by the Red Man and it was the members responsibility to invite him into their home to stay while he was conducting their services. I read that written sermons were an abomination and the people felt that any preacher who could not preach without reading his sermon had lost his calling. The service would start at 11 A.M. on Saturday and continue on Sunday and would be held once a month. At the service they would have devotions, singing and if no preacher, many tmes their own members would speak, then they would have prayer and severa! persons would be named as having prayer. This would be followed by a business session. Sunday was spent in a worship service and usually ended with a baptism in the creek. By the end of the year they had thirteen members. As the membership grew they met in the schoolhouse.
The members immediately wrote to the Mad River Association for membership and became members that same year. Mad River Association had been organized in 1812 by five churches so Bethel has been a part of that organization since its early history. Bethel asked the Association for for yearly meetings which meant that they would send them preachers to hold special services. This must have been similar to our evangelistic meetings. In 1823 Bethel sent word to the Association that they denounced the Mission system.
The Association was having trouble over the mission question. At first they took the stand that all churches must accept missions but many churches threatened to leave the Association so finally they voted that each church must decide among themselves what they wished to do as far as Missions was concerned.
Had you known there was a Regular Baptist Church at New Carlisle? It was a member of the Mad River Association. This church was organized in 1830, reported 23 baptisms in 1837, 68 in 1840 then in 1843 they reported 75 baptisms but 56 dismissals. It would be interesting to know what happened. The church entertained the 30th anniversary of the Mad River Association but in 1852 they asked to join the Dayton Association and at that time gave a membership of 67. I have not been able to find out when that church ceased to exist.
In June 1822 Bethel appointed Evan Stephens as a temporary Deacon and they planned their first Communion. When they took Communion it was taken from a common cup.
It must have been interesting to watch an early service. When families came to the church and entered, the family parted and the men would sit on one side of the church and the women would be seated on the other side.
In 1823 the church voted to renounce the Mission system. It is hard to imagine our church being against Missions for in 1964 our church ranked first in the state in per capita giving for Missions.
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In 1824 Hezekiah Smith a member of the church was licensed to preach and five years later he became one of Bethel's ministers - serving the church that had licensed him. That same year Jonathan Lorton, one of the organizers, asked the church to give him permission to speak in public whenever he might be asked. Later I read where he got into trouble over his speaking and finally I read where he was dismissed from the church when accused of Intemperance and frolick- ing. Three women were called to testify as witnesses to this accusation.
In 1827 John Tazwell was made a Deacon and Evan Stephens became a Deacon permanently. The record shows that Mr. Stephens had some trouble with another man over plants but when brought before the church he was acquitted of any wrongdoing.
In 1828 William Sutton, one of the Elders who had helped to organize the church was called to preach for one year at a salary of $24, a year. This was the first mention of what the ministers were paid. The church was meeting just six times a year or every other month.
About this time the Mad River Association minutes read that they waived reading a letter from the Meigs Co. Association because they were sure members of that Association were corresponding with slave holders. No mention was made of slaves being brought with the settlers- and I know from early history the people of Virginia were divided in their thinking on owning slaves.
In 1838 Thomas J. Price of Urbana was called to preach. He was their pastor for two years and five years later came back to preach thirty-three more years, making a total of thirty-five years he had served as pastor. During the last year he had a lingering illness and a Rev. Thomas came to assist him. He died while in the service of the church and from what mention was made, I am sure they had grown to dearly love this man of God.
I found this early church striving for a pure and almost perfect church. Most of their business meetings were taken up with discipline problems among their members. One member would report to the church that another member had committed a transgression and I am sure they had substantial proof before they brought it to the attention of the church. The accused person was asked to come before the church to answer the charges. This was known as being "called on the carpet." If they acknowledged the act, said they were sorry and asked the church to bear with them they were forgiven and welcomed back into the fellowship of the church. If they didn't come before the church they were presumed guilty and were expelled from the church.
Here are some of the transgressions that the people were accused of doing; intemperance of ardent spirits, intemperance and frolicking,
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unchristian language used, unseeming act of conversation with a female, libelous and slanderous words against another (this time it was a member who spoke against the preacher.) If you lied about your taxes, quarreling with each other, cheating another in a business transaction, immoral acts, fornication, not paying your subscription to the church and even irregular attendance. I found of the many members brought before the church, many did ask forgiveness and were welcomed back but many were excluded and expelled. I got the impression that some of their business meetings got very heated for one member was dropped because of his conduct at one of the meetings. The member that spoke against the preacher did not appear when they had the hearing and witnesses reported he had left the state. In speaking with a relative of his, she felt it had been unfair to have the hearing while he was absent. But this is the way the church handled their problems - if you did not defend yourself you were put out of the church. He became an embittered man as far as the church was concerned and never attended another. She said she felt he had become an atheist.
I found these words written behind the names on the church roll; expelled, excluded, dropped, dismissed, dismissed by letter and dis- missed and restored. I found that three of the original five members had been expelled. I also found eleven of the first fifty members had the word expelled behind their names and two or more had been expelled but restored.
The membership roll was evaluated every so often and members would call on those that had not been attending to find out their reasons for not being at church. I found some amusing and unusual incidents. One young girl wanted to come into the church but her father opposed it so the church decided because of her father's stern attitude they would not accept her as a member. Another member when asked why he had been absent so long he said he had never been converted and had only come forward in the excitement so his name was dropped. I found records were kept on both morning and evening attendance at the services. One man came into the church in February. The following March he was brought before the church and accused of making false statements - he too was dropped from membership. I thought it such a short membership. Another member said he had more enjoyment in the Methodist Church. One lady asked for a letter of dismission to join the Methodist Church. The church was reluctant to give a letter to a church of another denomination but she said she and her husband had a mutual agreement before they had married that after marriage they would attend the Methodist Church so to avoid any difficulty between them she was given her letter. One man was expelled for being unchaste and of an immoral character. At the next meeting three members by the same name asked for letters of dis- mission. I wondered whether they were displeased and peeved at the
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church because he had been expelled. One lady member had a quarrel with another lady member and had moved away to Illinois. She wrote back asking for her letter but the church was reluctant to give it to her because she had not settled the quarrel. The church discussed this case at business sessions for over four months. One group thought she should have settled her quarrel to get a letter of good standing, others thought they were being unfair in not giving it to her. At one time they voted 12-9 not to give her a letter. Then the lady she had quarreled with asked that her name be dropped saying they had not acted fairly. Finally they decided to give her the letter but not until hard feelings had been allowed to happen that did harm to the fellowship of the church.
Intemperance seemed to be a problem among some of the members. In reading the history of Bethel community I find that among the first businesses were distillers. At one time a family by the name of Lammes were considered the only tea-totalers in the whole townsheip. A Black Horse Tavern on the Donnelsville-North Hampton-Old Troy Road was run by a Quaker sort of couple. I thought it was unusual that someone taken for a Quaker would run a tavern. In the 1840's a Temperance man came through the community and many people signed the pledge not to take intoxicating liquor. Then in 1847 an epidemic of cholera was prevalent and brandy was used to cure it. This caused many to forget the pledge they had signed.
I mentioned the Frederick Miller family settling near Donnels Creek. They had come here from Virginia. In 1822 he built a new home and it was considered one of the finest in the area. It had an open stairway and a beautiful ornate mantle over the fireplace. He was the father of four sons and two daughters. He died the December after he built his home and the year Bethel was organized. I found an amusing incident in his will. He had said if his wife, Elizabeth, wished to stay in the family home she could have the room she desired and she chose the rooms with the ornate fireplace. He also said if she married she could no longer live there and she would be allowed her bed and bedding, one cow, one Dutch oven, one set of cups and saucers, one set of plates, one pot and one kettle. This lady was known for her pear trees. She had brought seed from Virginia with her to plant here.
This family must have appreciated the need of the church in this area for John, Henry and Daniel Miller approached the church group and offered several tracts to choose from but did say they must share it with other religious groups. A Universalists church group used the church when it was built. The site chosen was beside the land the family had set aside for a cemetery. It was also chosen because it was on the Springfield-New Carlisle turnpike and was also near the school. The Millers were not Baptists. Mrs. Miller was Lutheran and preferred to hear the sermon in German but among the lists of members at Bethel we find that three sons and a daughter have joined the Baptist
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Church. We find their names as well as their decendents, Paul Martin, Miriam Salyers, Martha Suver and Elno Hardacre. These folks are leaders of our church today. A daughter Deliliah married a Gordon and her descendents are Robert Gordon, Bill and David Gordon and Emma Gordon Potter. These, too, have served many offices in our church. You read the names of Ebersole, Detrick, Purcell, Hance, Leffel, Gaines, Noller, Martins, Gordon and Hardacre in Bethel history and they are all a part of the Miller family. At one time (1859) the Miller family owned over 800 acres of land circling the Bethel area and this did not include grandchildren of the Millers. So the family that gave the land for Bethel wove their lives into the building of our church and it is ironic that just several years ago history repeated itself when Robert Gordon and Elno Hardacre offered land to the church on which to build a parsonage.
In 1834, I read for the first time that Sunday School was brought up and it caused a division in the church. In the minutes of the Mad River Association, I read that the subject of Missionary, Temperance, Tracts or Sunday School, was not to be brought up as it possessed no ecclesiastical authority - then two years later they made a resolution that Bible and Mission Societies as moral institutions are useful in the promotion of the good of society.
This same year David Miller came into the church and subscriptions were circulated among members of the church and the community to support the gospel. They were trying to get financial support and interest in the building of a church.
The first church was planned and built in 1837. It was to be a log type, to be thirty feet by forty feet, one story and was built thirty feet east of the present church. Subscriptions were secured from the members and by the time the church was completed it was paid for at a cost of $700. That must have been quite an undertaking for so small a group. Cash was not easy to get but we find a very dedicated group who gave willingly of their money. They must have been a very happy group praising and thanking God for their blessings. One member marred their joy by refusing to pay his subscription and was expelled from the church (this was one of the original members). One record shows he took eleven members with him and formed the New Lite Group. It said he disagreed with the church accepting the mission plan as he was anti-mission. This anti-mission group built a house two miles northeast of Bethel on the old Troy Road. It was a plain log house and had no pulpit and for benches they had slabs with no backs. I read where it said Bethel had nice benches as well as a pulpit. I never did read where Bethel changed their feelings on Missions but they must have since a member has been asked to leave because he is anti-mission.
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In 1840 the church elected their first Treasurer. Before when money was needed a committee was appointed to go to the members and the money to pay the bills was always given.
In 1843 a lock was put on the church and a little later latches were put on the windows. As curious as our school children are today, 1 wondered if they ventured over to the church once too often. I read in the history of Bethel School that when it was built the boards of the floor were left loose so disobedient children could be put under it. Can you imagine such a mode of discipline?
In 1847 David Miller was chosen Singing Clerk, I guess we would call him Song Leader. It also said it was his duty to improve himself in the best possible manner. I thought this amusing but I guess we should all do this when we accept a new position.
It was also during this time that an epidemic of cholera caused sickness and death in many homes.
In 1853 the church started preaching twice a month instead of once a month and this still included Saturday and Sunday. The church also sent word to the Mad River Association that they disapproved of collections being taken up on the Sabbath. Since the money for bills in the past had been paid by the members when they requested it, the church seems to feel no need for collections.
It was also about this time the church decided to have Communion quarterly instead of every two months. Since some unbaptized visitors had come with members and had partaken of the Lord,s Supper it was voted to have Closed Communion. This meant only members of the church could partake. This is not true today but I did not read when they changed this practice. But because of the new ruling the number who had brought the visitors took offense and asked to be dismissed as a member of the church.
This year (1853) Bethel was asked to send a delegation to Myrtle Tree to settle a difficulty. I found many times, the church received requests to help start a church in other areas, or to help settle a problem in a church or among churches.
It was also at this time that Robert Hardacre, a school teacher was hired to rewrite the church minutes from 1822 to 1853 - thirty-one years. He recieved $3.50 for his work and was a beautiful writer. I cannot say that for all clerks. Some of their writing was very hard to read.
It was in the 1850's I read where they bought song books and each member bought their own at a cost of 30 cents. So when you went to church you carried your song book along with your Bible. I read where they bought their first organ and once I read where those who sang in the choir were appointed by the church.
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In 1854 Rev. Price told the congregation he felt called to preach the Gospel in a destitute region including the headwaters of the Little Miami and a part of Greene County. The church told him to go and preach in the name of Bethel. In 1855 seven members from Beavercreek and Bloomingburg churches who had been dismissed from their churches were received into the fellowship at Bethel. I wondered if these people were from the area that Rev. Price had gone to preach.
Bethel was host to the Mad River Association this year. She has been host many times - twelve in all but at this early date it must have been quite a task. Committees were appointed and there was a need for a grove to hold it in - I think the one across the road from the church was used. Homes were opened to welcome all the visitors for it would last three or four days. People had to be met at the railroad depot in Springfield and New Carlisle and that must have taken the better half of the day in a horse and buggy. I read where the railroad gave half fare rates to those coming to the Association and also read where the Association wrote their grateful thanks for their generosity. Dishes had to be borrowed from neighboring churches (Donnelville and Brethern). The New Carlisle Camp Grounds loaned benches and chairs and in later years George Trostel brought chairs. One early meeting mentioned buying 200 loaves of bread - now that would be easy today to have 200 loaves delivered but how did they do it then when delivery would have to be made from Springfield by horse and wagon. Another time they purchased meat and the bill was $8.68 and they had many to feed, it makes you wonder how much they paid per pound? Can't you just imagine how hard the ladies worked to make their homes spick and span for company and then spend hours cooking and baking their favorite dishes for the visitors?
The meetings were different too, if the preacher did not preach longer than an hour it was useless for him to get up to speak and many times they listened to three and four speakers. It was a grand time of fellowship with other Baptists to share experiences, blessings and to compare accomplishments.
In 1855 a plank fence was erected around the church. Again I "vondered about the curiosity of the school children nearby or maybe there were stray cattle to keep out. Soon after a picket fence was put up between the church and the cemetery. Then two years later they put a rail fence up to separate school and church.
In 1857 some members tried to get the Saturday service changed from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. but they could not get a unanimous vote so they continued at the early hour.
Sunday School was organized in 1857. It had been urged by the Association since 1850 but the church decided if they started Sunday School it would be kept separate from the church. I found the old
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Sunday School records very interesting. In 1883 with an average weekly attendance of 32 the collections only averaged 15 cents. In 1890 the average attendance was 45 and the average for collections was 24 cents. It is hard to imagine how a Sunday School could run on less than a dollar a month as they did in 1883. But teachers had little help and used their Bible for stories and memory verses. They must have been very dedicated as well as ingenious to keep the class attentive. There were Sunday School periodicals at 10 cents a copy. They would have contests to boost the attendance, (once it was the Blues and Reds) .. In the early secretary books people were counted by sex - so many females, so many males and then the total. Also a record was kept of each member's attendance at the evening service. I found some interesting notations on pages of a Sunday School record book for 1890. The secretary had jotted his thoughts down on the page but I am sure they were never read aloud.
Here are some: Feb. 2 - School very grippy this morning, both are trying to see who can cough the most. (Does both mean the women against the men)?
March 2 - We feel ourselves highly complimented by having two of our colored brethern present with us this pleasant Sunday morning. Our worthy secretary forgot to put on a fresh shirt but as he is a faithful officer we freely forgive him.
March 9 - School is in a very flourishing condition this morning despite the prevailing epidemic of sleep which has been lost from the exhibition of 0. B. Grange. Missionary meeting tonite - Come one and all. Dora says she is going to speak.
March 16 - Three teachers and one officer absent this morning. One party on a bum, I suppose.
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