USA > Ohio > Butler County > Middletown > A history of the life and work of the First Presbyterian Church of Middletown, Ohio (Dayton Presbytery) from its foundation in 1819 to 1919 > Part 7
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O UR Church very early in its history began to give to missions. On July 21, 1822, a special missionary col- lection amounted to $5.411%. This amount seems small but when we compare it with the items of expense even for a date twenty years later as given elsewhere herein, we see that it would enable some mission church to hold several services.
TN a "Trustees' Record" which has been preserved we find that the pledges made in 1828 "for the purpose of erect- ing a Presbyterian Meetinghouse on a lot of ground on the lower or south end of the town of Middletown, purchased from Daniel Doty for that purpose, between Main and Broad streets," amounted to $868.371%. There were forty-nine contributors. Several persons pledged fifty dollars, this amount being the largest sum subscribed. One subscription of fifty dollars was "to be paid for in work." There was one pledge for seven dollars and twelve and one half cents.
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Among the list of subscribers are found several names which from that day have been prominent in Middletown history and progress: Lefferson, Dubois, Barcalow, Caldwell, Dickey, Wycoff, Banker and Doty.
W HEN the first church building was nearly completed,
in 1833, "it was agreed upon that the pews be sold upon draft for the purpose of paying the expense of erect- ing them, and that John M. Barnett, Peter Vanderveer and Moses W. Karr be a committee to draw a draft of the pews and number them." This was done and the sale made at once. William Bates called the sale. Two hundred and six- teen dollars was realized from this sale and twenty pews were sold. The highest price paid for a pew was twenty-five dollars and the lowest was three dollars.
A T a meeting of the Congregation of the Church, Febru- ary 16, 1833, "it was agreed upon to enter into a con- tract with David L. Murry and James A. Walker for the erection of the pews in the Presbyterian Church and that an article of agreement be entered into immediately for the faithful performance of the same." This article of agree- ment has been preserved and is considered of sufficient in- terest and historical value to justify its reproduction herein. A fac-simile of a part of this contract is shown on another page. The contract in full follows :
Articles of agreement made, concluded upon and en- tered into on the twenty-sixth day of February one thou- sand eight hundred and thirty-three, between David L. Murry and James A. Walker, of the town of Middletown, County of Butler, and State of Ohio, of the one part, and the trustees of the Presbyterian Meetinghouse in Middle- town, Butler County, of the other part, in the words follow- ing, that is to say : The said David L. Murry and James A. Walker, for and in consideration of the promises, provi- sions and conditions hereinafter contained and stipulated to be done and performed on the part and behalf of the said trustees aforesaid, have and do hereby for themselves, their heirs, executors, and administrators jointly and severally covenant and grant unto and with the said trustees of the Presbyterian Meetinghouse that the said David L. Murry
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and James A. Walker shall find and provide all manner of suitable materials and build and erect, or cause to be erected, a good and sufficient set of pews and box seats in the Presbyterian Meetinghouse in Middletown, in manner and form hereinafter specified and within the time herein lim- ited, that is to say, the whole work is to be completed on or before the first day of June next ensuing this date. There is to be eighteen pews in front of the pulpit occupying the center of the house. Each pew is to be eight feet six inches
in length, two feet six inches in width, three feet one inch in hight. A partition is to be made between the center block of pews. Each pew is to have a door to open into the aisles running on each side of said block of pews. The doors are to be made with panneled work, also the front next the pulpit to be panneled work and the rear side next the front door to be panneled. The seats, heel board and back part of said pews are to be of the best of yellow poplar. The caps, book shelf end of the pews, doors, moldings around the doors and anything else than the seats, heel board and back part of the pews are to be of white pine of a good qual- ity. In the pews of this block fronting and next to the pul- pit one foot of the front part of the pew is to be made and hung on hinges to let down for the purpose of forming a table to accommodate in time of communion. On each side of the pulpit there is to be four pews of eight feet in length and as wide as the space will admit, to be of the same kind of materials and made in the same manner of the other pews except that they join the wall at the back end. On the north side of the house there is to be five box pews between the side door and stairway to the gallery, each to be five feet and about five inches long at the side next the wall and ex- tending five feet from the wall, seats and back of the box pews of poplar as in the other pews, the balance compris- ing the front to be of suitable white pine, the front of the boxes to be panneled work of the best approved kind. On the south side of the house there is to be six box pews be- tween the side door and east end of the house extending five feet from the wall to be of the same kind of materials and the same kind of work of the other box pews, the doors to be set in the center of the front of the box pews and finished off
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Fac-simile of the first page of the contract to erect the pews in our first Church Building.
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round the doors of the whole of the pews as the trustees shall approve, the doors to be hung on good substantial hinges made for that purpose and approved by the trustees. The doors of the box pews are also to be panneled work. There is to be a loose bench made to sit in front of the center block of pews and one in the center space. The wall pews on each side of the pulpit, Nos. 30 and 37, are to be raised eight inches higher from the floor than the other pews. And the said trustees of the said Presbyterian Meeting- house in Middletown do covenant and grant unto and with the said David L. Murry and James A. Walker that they will pay or cause to be paid to the said David L. Murry, his heirs or assigns for finding the materials and erecting said pews in the manner hereinbefore specified the sum of fifty dollars about the 10th day of March next ensuing this date for the purpose of furnishing the materials with, and fifty dollars on the first day of May provided the work shall be progress- ing to the satisfaction of the trustees, and forty-three dollars on the first day of June if the work shall be completed ac- cording to contract and the balance which is forty-three dol- lars in two months from the time the work is entirely com- pleted and accepted by the trustees. The words (in two months) are interlined before signing.
In testimony whereof the said David L. Murry and James Walker, of the first part, and Arthur Lefferson, Wil- liam Bates and George Yager trustees of said Presbyterian Meetinghouse in behalf of the congregation of Presbyte- rians of the other part, do hereby agree to bind themselves, their heirs executors or administrators, in the penal sum of two hundred and fifty dollars, lawful money, for the true and faithful performance of said articles of agreement, whereof we have hereunto interchangeably set our hands and seals at Middletown the day and year first above written.
Signed, sealed and acknowledged in the presence of us, MOSES W. KARR,
JOHN M. BARNETT, clerk for the trustees. DAVID L. MURRY JAMES A. WALKER, ARTHUR LEFFERSON (Seal) WILLIAM BATES GEORGE YAGER
T HERE has come into the hands of the Committee a small book marked as follows: "Middletown, 1841. Receipts and expenditures of The Presbyterian Church." Following are some of the items of expense noted : Candles, 50 cents ; wood, 871% cents; splitting and cutting wood, 621/2 cents ; oil pot, 1834 cents; two brooms, 371/2 cents; wicking for lamp, 61/4 cents ; "sexton's salary from August 1st. up to the 20th. of December", $9.00 ; candles for school house meeting, 121% cents ; pair of lamp snuffers, 45 cents; "cash paid to preacher", $1.00. It would seem from this record that one of the collections taken amounted to 25 cents and another to $2.0614.
T HE Church has always had its problems some of which are "always new but ever old."
We find the following record in the minutes of the Con- gregational Meeting held April 2, 1883: "Some of our peo- ple are too much absorbed in business for their spiritual good and growth in grace." Was it ever thus?
In the minutes of the meeting held on April 1, 1890, the following is recorded: "Perhaps the greatest clog at this time to Christian consecration and growth is what has been fitly termed the dancing craze. And we fear that some of our people have been beguiled by its supposed seductive charms into a forgetfulness or neglect of the vows volun- tarily assumed by them when they covenanted to be the Lord's and to labor for the growth and upbuilding of His Kingdom in the world, but we have reason to hope and be- lieve that this form of worldliness has reached its acme and that the sober second thought of those engaged in it will prevail."
Mrs. Anna L. Barnitz, who bears the distinction not only of being one of the oldest members of our congregation at this time, but also of being one of the most regular in attend- ance at the services of our Church, and who for many years has been actively interested in the work of the Church, at the request of the Committee prepared the following remi- niscences which we are much pleased to be able to present.
T HE writer has been a member of The First Presbyterian Church since 1853. She was baptized in that year by Rev. John B. Morton, who was then nearing the end of his
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long pastorate in this Church. The Church, which was the first Presbyterian Church building to be erected in Middle- town, at that time was situated near where the present Lu- theran Church stands, on South Broadway, near the junc- tion with Vanderveer Street. This building was a small brick structure with but a single story and was erected in 1833. Later, in 1846, a bell was purchased and a cupola added to the building. This bell was afterward moved to the church erected in 1854 at Main and Fourth Streets and still later moved to the Oakland Church where it is now in use.
In 1853 the church owned a large tract of land surround- ing the church edifice and extending from Broad Street to Yankee Road and almost to Fifth Street. All this tract was sold to the Lutheran Church Association and the greater part of it has long since been divided up into building lots and sold. Had this tract been held until the present time and sold, the Church could have had a large endowment fund for some worthy cause.
When the writer was quite young Mr. Morton was mar- ried, the wedding taking place in the house that is now my home but at that time the home of Dr. Peter Vanderveer, whose daughter Mr. Morton married. The ceremony took place in the northwest room and was witnessed by a goodly number of the Presbyterian congregation of that day.
After the death of Dr. Vanderveer, this house, now known as number 505 South Broad street, became the Pres- byterian manse and served for this purpose until in 1864 when it came into the hands of the writer's family. It is one of the oldest homes of Middletown and is said to be of pure colonial design patterned after some of the houses in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. This house has known many a gay and many a sad scene. When I was a small girl, the son of Dr. Peter Vanderveer, Ferdinand, later in the civil war to become the great General Vanderveer who led the 35th. Ohio Infantry all through the rebellion, came home from his campaign in Mexico. How well I remember that day. At that time there was not a house between our home and the canal. Each afternoon the passenger packet from Cincinnati arrived about four o'clock. As the packet ap-
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proached the town the buglers on board would sound a fan- fare and the whole town would turn out to the docks to see the boat come in and meet the passengers. This day the bugles played very sadly. Ferd Vanderveer was on board and with him a comrade dead. The cortege formed at the wharves and slowly wound its way to this hill. The young man was buried out near West Elkton.
The next time Ferdinand Vanderveer came home he was a General promoted on the field for gallantry in action.
During the Reverend Mr. Morton's pastorate the minis- ter's salary was very meagre. Four hundred dollars was all that he was paid. Of course four hundred dollars in 1850 was a great deal more money than it is in 1919, but still had it, not been for the donation parties given in the parsonage to which the members of the church brought an abundance of supplies such as wagon loads of wood, apples and potatoes sufficient to last the whole winter, and groceries to stock the pantry, the pastor would have found it difficult with his sal- ary to make both ends meet.
Our new church, erected in 1854, was then the finest in the city. It was a two story building and could accommo- date in its audience room about five hundred people. In 1866 a pipe organ was purchased and set up. At that time the choir gave two concerts and Professor Gale, of Christ Church, Cincinnati, played the organ. An admittance fee of twenty-five cents was charged and the auditorium was crowded for both programs.
For several years after the church was erected on the Main Street site, the house now used by Dr. T. E. Reed as an office was the Presbyterian manse. Our church once owned this property but sold it.
In connection with the pastorate of the Reverend Mr. Russell, I have a vivid recollection of his marriage to Miss Wilson. Mr. Russell invited Dr. Barnitz and myself to go to Cincinnati to witness the ceremony. The General Assem- bly of the Presbyterian church was sitting in the First Church of Cincinnati, and at the close of one session, at five o'clock in the afternoon, there was a double wedding cere- mony. The Reverend Joshua L. Russell and Miss Wilson, and Moses Wilson, brother of the bride, and a Miss Thorpe
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were married. The great edifice was packed with witnesses and the ceremony itself was most impressive. As the newly wedded couples passed down the aisle, some one loosed a dove which hovered over the bridal party as a delightful symbol until it reached the vestry door. Mrs. Russell still is living at Lansdowne, Pa., at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Edward Symonds, and Judge Moses Wilson is a prominent barrister and now resides in Mt. Auburn, Cincinnati.
During the writer's membership in the First Presbyte- rian Church thirteen ministers have presided over the pas- torate of the First Church. The Reverend Mr. Morton, who was the pastor when I united with the Church, is buried in Middletown. With his first and second wives, he lies buried in Middletown cemetery. The other ministers all left Mid- dletown for other fields before their death.
For eighteen years it was the writer's precious privilege to teach the primary class in the Sunday School. At that time it was the custom to hold an annual picnic on our lawn. The children and all the mothers were invited.
Another part of the Church work in which the writer has taken a special interest and which she has enjoyed so much is the work of the Woman's Society. It would not be possible to give the names of the many fine co-workers in this Society. Good officers have always been in charge and the Society has always kept a bank account. Reports of the work have been read at annual congregational meetings and the balance sheet has always showed the balance on the proper side.
That our church may continue to grow in power and in- fluence and good deeds and more and more be blessed of God is the prayer of the writer.
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Butter county Chop
Middle tower April 14# 1819
According to previous appointment publikby *
the purpose of being organised, and cheaving given the congregation of Middle town met for
their officers. Ezeket Ball was calda to the Chair and Nofes Welfare black.
The following cheers ware clectic
bysteel Ball bsd
r
Archibald Campbell Y Trustees.
Ezekiel Pace Strekelias Campicity beliset,
Juddla tourno july 24h 1820 recording to pesteand a jour lement pristicking given the Ganongation of indiatound mal for the progress oforganising a Church For which propres the end of the Next finances Manfort and the bikers or sau Jersey church was aquested- after sermon by Mr. Hunfort. he with the bolders from for jersey prevent (is) Zebulon Baird Jumis D. Landevier Handlerich
Fac-simile of the First Page of the First Minute Book of the Ses- sion of our Church. This book is today in a well preserved condition.
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Mr. Charles E. Margerum, a member of the Board of Deacons since 1887, who has kept in close touch with all the Church activities since that time, at the request of the Com- mittee prepared the following account of the building of our present Church home.
IF N a review of the history of the Church for the last three decades the one outstanding event that has left its im- pression on my memory is that of the erection of our present church building, not only because of the fact that this was done but also because of the conditions existing at that time, the persons who were identified with the undertaking and the spirit actuating them, and the generous support that carried the work to completion.
The majority of the older members then active in church work have since passed to their reward, but many who took a part in the work are still with us and can remember with what indomitable courage every obstacle was overcome by the noble men and women who gave to it their generous co- operation and support. We are prone to look upon this building with its appointments and furnishings as common- place or as a matter of sequence or sometimes with criticism, forgetful of the sacrifices made and without knowledge to whom we are indebted for that which we now enjoy in this beautiful temple.
To have a proper conception of the magnitude of the ac- complishment we should not judge by present day standards of "frenzied finance" for it was carried out under very dif- ferent conditions.
Let us, then, as we erect the tablet in the Church to the memory of the Pastors during the century, also cherish the memory of those to whom we are indebted for the building which enshrines it.
For a long time prior to 1891 there was manifest a grow- ing desire and fond hope to have a larger building better suited to accommodate the increasing activities of the church and Sabbath School. At the regular congregational meeting of the Church, Saturday afternoon, April 4th. of that year, a committee of fifteen was appointed from the congregation to be called the Presbyterian Church Building
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Committee whose duty it was to select a site for the new Church, to increase the subscription list that had already been started, to select plans and specifications, and to secure a proper building for church services during the erection of the new church edifice. The committee of fifteen as ap- pointed was :
Theo. Marston, Wm. Caldwell, P. P. LaTourrette, J. B. Hartley, C. S. Barnitz, J. K. Thomas, C. B. Johnson, C. B. Oglesby, Murray Schenck, H. P. Leibee, E. L. McCallay, Dr. Samuel McClellan, Geo. Jacoby, J. M. Iseminger, Chas. E. Margerum.
On the evening of the same day, April 4, 1891, the com- mittee of fifteen met and organized by the election of P. P. LaTourrette Permanent President and E. L. McCallay Per- manent Secretary, and adopted as a rule of order that eight members should constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. A Finance Committee was elected consisting of C. B. Oglesby, Wm. Caldwell, Theo. Marston and J. B. Hart- ley. C. B. Johnson was chosen Treasurer and a Sub-Com- mittee of three consisting of C. B. Johnson, Joseph Isemin- ger and Chas. E. Margerum was selected whose duty it was to invite plans and submit same to the general committee, and to have full charge of superintending the construction of the proposed new building. This committee of fifteen also selected the first and third Friday evenings of each month at 7:30 for regular meetings and resolved to build the new Church of stone. Thus was launched the greatest movement of that character that the Church has ever under- taken and one which was to call for the earnest and united effort of the whole membership and a work that was to try to the fullest extent the financial ability of the Church.
Differing views upon the question of location immedi- ately prompted resolutions to build on the old site followed by resolutions to secure a new site and options were secured on other locations but it remained an open question until at a meeting on November 24, 1891, at which time Wm. Cald- well and C. B. Oglesby were appointed a committee to select plans and specifications and it was decided to build on the old site. May 25, 1892, bids were presented for the building as follows: Wm. Caldwell, $30,675.00; Chas. E. Margerum,
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Interior view of the auditorium of our present church.
$33,727.00; Jacoby & Denny, $34,859.00. The bid of Wm. Caldwell being the lowest was accepted and a contract was closed with him to build the church.
An estimate including the items not in Mr. Caldwell's contract was submitted consisting of heating, plumbing, stone carving, frescoing, art glass, pulpit furniture, pews, carpets, architect's services and other items amounting in all to $9,325.00, making the estimated total cost of the build- ing $40,000.00.
A committee of two was appointed to tear down and take care of all material of the old church except that part that would be needed for building a new church in Oakland. At this meeting the resignation of C. B. Johnson was accepted and on motion Theo. Marston was unanimously elected Treasurer of the Building Committee.
The removal of the old and building of the new church progressed. Providing funds to satisfy the claims of the contractor now engaged our attention.
At a called meeting January 17, 1895, the new Church building was received from the contractor as complete ac- cording to agreement, and a vote of thanks was extended for faithful performance of the contract. The cost of the build- ing had exceeded the amount first estimated and the total cost was reported by the committee to be $45,000.00, leaving a balance of about $18,000.00 unprovided for.
Various plans were suggested to meet this deficit but all to no purpose until a call was issued "To the Individual Mem- bers" for a meeting February 13, 1895, from which I take the following :
"We have been worshiping for eighteen months past in the Lecture or Sabbath School Department. The main audi- ence room is now completed, but our new church can not be dedicated and occupied with the existing debt unprovided for. Something must be done by which our cred- itors can obtain their dues. Your committee has thought best to make one final and united effort to pay the debt and be done with it at once and forever. We know our indebtedness is considerably larger than we anticipated it would be when our church was finished. We could not fore- see the depression of the times that has occurred since we
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commenced to build. Yet we believe there is enough wealth, combined with enough love for God and His church, existing among the members of the Presbyterian Church in Middle- town, with some additional aid we hope to obtain from others than members, to lift the debt which now hangs over us like a pall. But it will take a united effort. The gift of the wealthy, the middle class, the poor and even down to the widow's mite, will all be required to lift the $18,000.00 debt. Come out to the meeting. . It is for the mem- bers and congregation that will be there assembled to say whether the debt now resting upon the church shall be paid, the church dedicated and we continue to worship in our new and beautiful audience room. The subscriptions to clear the church building from debt, as shall be made upon that even- ing, will be conditioned that the whole amount of indebted- ness is raised, then the whole of the subscription must be paid."
This meeting was under the management of Dr. W. O. Thompson, Oxford, Ohio, but failed to raise the amount de- sired. Another meeting was called for February 27th, at which greater success was obtained as the debt was reduced to $5,000.00 which was afterward provided for.
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