USA > Ohio > The Church of the Brethren in northeastern Ohio > Part 4
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Sugarcreek was the home of the late Elder Edward Shepfer. He was ordained to the ministry in the Baltic church in 1893 and served that congregation for fifty-five
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years. He was influential in the organizing of the new Sugarcreek congregation, which is the offspring of the Baltic congregation.
Ministers who lived in the Baltic church at the time of organization were M. H. Shutt and Samuel J. Burger. In June 1875, Josiah Hostetler was elected to the ministry.
Other ministers who resided in the congregation include Peter Showalter, John Nicholson, George Long, Jacob Keim, John Neff, Peter Long, Josiah Hostetler, Edward Shepfer, Jacob Summers, Jacob Domer, Jr., Eli Steele, Jacob Snyder, Jacob Kaub, Eli Holmes, John Yoder, W. D. Fisher, Albert Krieger, Martin Krieger, and H. Spenser Minnich. Those who held membership in the Baltic church and served in the free ministry were William Johnson, M. H. Shutts, Samuel S. Burger, Edward Shepfer, W. D. Fisher, Martin Krieger, and H. Spenser Minnich. Others elected to the ministry here were W. D. Fisher, Albert Krieger, Martin Krieger, and H. Spenser Minnich.
W. D. Keller, John McCormick, Paul Shrider, and Guy Fern have served the Baltic church as pastors. The present pastor (1962) is Robert P. Fryman.
THE BETHEL CHURCH
In 1808, five years after Ohio was made a state and four years before the last Indians moved to the undeveloped territories farther west, several families of Brethren moved into Beaver and Springfield townships, Mahoning County, from western Pennsylvania.
Visiting ministers occasionally conducted meetings for these Brethren. However, their numbers increased, and in a few years they organized the Mill Creek church. Among the first Brethren settlers were Abraham Myers, Philip Shoemaker, John Myers, John Summer, and John Shoemaker.
George Hope and Joseph Mellinger were elected to the ministry and John Collar and Abraham Hiestand were elected deacons. The congregation grew until, in a few years, there were four ministers and an organized church.
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For a number of years, meetings were held in the homes of members. In 1822, John and Susanna Myers donated two acres of land to the church as a site for a church house.
Between 1826 and 1835 a number of members moved to North Georgetown, in Columbiana County, where they founded the Sandy church. This church later developed into the Reading and Freeburg churches.
In 1842, Mill Creek was reorganized into the Mahoning church. Two church houses were erected, one at Zion Hill and the other at Bethel. Henry Kurtz was ordained as an elder in 1844, at which time the membership was fifty-five. The church prospered under his care.
In 1856, James Quinter moved from Pennsylvania and joined forces with Elder Kurtz in his new publishing enterprise. In the loft of the springhouse on his farm, Elder Kurtz had begun publishing the first church paper, the Gospel Visitor, in 1851. In June 1857, the office of the Gospel Visitor was moved from the Kurtz farm to Columbiana. With it went the Kurtz and Quinter families.
A new church house was built at Zion Hill in 1872. The present Bethel building was built in 1873 on land donated to the church by the Summer family in 1849.
Henry Kurtz died on January 12, 1874. A son, Jacob H. Kurtz, elected to the ministry in 1861 and ordained as an elder in 1881, was given the oversight of the church in 1883. He died at his home near Bethel on February 10, 1912.
Edwin Ruhlman was elected to the ministry in 1879.
On August 15, 1915, the Mahoning church was divided into two congregations, Zion Hill and Bethel Mahoning. There were twenty-seven charter members of the Bethel church. The officers elected were: elder, John Kohler; trustees, William Kohler, Levi Longanecker, and Levi Good; treasurer, Henry Kohler; clerk, Joseph H. Snyder, Sr.
At a meeting held in April 1916, a committee was appointed to secure an evangelist. J. L. Mahon was secured and conducted a two-week series of meetings in the summer of 1917. An excerpt from the report of this series of meetings as found in the church record book is of interest.
Brother Jos. L. Mahon of Van Buren, Indiana, began services Sunday, June 10, 1917, and closed them June 25, 1917. He preached 21 sermons which spurred Christians on
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to greater efforts and brought conviction to the hearts of the sinners. Twenty-three stepped out for Christ and one was reclaimed. Many others were brought closer to the kingdom.
These meetings were so successful that Brother Mahon returned the next summer for a six-week series. During the six weeks, in which he preached forty-five sermons, sixty-five accepted Christ.
Some of these converts lived near Woodworth, where meetings were now being held regularly in the old Woodworth schoolhouse. After the group had attained a membership sufficient to form a new congregation, a petition was presented by John Byler to the Bethel council meeting held August 10, 1918, asking that Bethel recognize Woodworth as a separate congregation. The petition was granted and the action was approved on May 1, 1919, by a committee appointed by the district meeting.
The first full-time pastor, J. L. Mahon, was elected at a council meeting held in August 1920. He took up the pastoral work in January 1920. However, the work was hampered because some members failed to pay the money they had pledged for his support. Brother Mahon resigned on January 1, 1922. Edgar G. Diehm served as pastor the next year and was then succeeded by Albert W. Harrold of Columbiana, who remained as pastor and elder from 1923 until his death in 1935.
In 1932, Herschel Burkey was licensed to the ministry; he continued to preach at Bethel until his resignation in 1936.
Many improvements were made to the church building during the next few years. Included among them were a new metal ceiling, an electrical system, a new chimney, and new cement steps in front of the church.
G. S. Strausbaugh was both pastor and elder from 1937 to 1942. During his pastorate a number of new members were added to the congregation.
E. A. Edwards, of Kent, became pastor and elder in 1942. When Brother Edwards, who was in poor health, became too sick to carry on the work in 1945, James Ward of Struthers was secured as his assistant. After Brother Edwards' death in 1946, Brother Ward was elected pastor.
In 1947 a church constitution was adopted. Early in the summer of the same year, negotiations were opened by the Ohio Water Service Company for the purchase of the lot on
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which the church had stood for seventy-four years. As the site of the church would be covered by the waters of Evans Lake, the company moved the building to a new location two miles east of the old site. Dedication ceremonies were held in August 1948. This move gave the church a larger lot and a better location. The company paid all expenses in connection with the moving and the reconditioning of the building and
The Bethel Church
in addition gave the congregation a cash payment of seventeen hundred dollars.
James Ward continued as pastor until March 1, 1954. During his pastorate the church made commendable progress.
In 1954 Mr. and Mrs. Cleo O'Dell donated a half-acre of land near the church as a site on which to build a parsonage.
E. W. Reed, a student in the Cleveland Bible School, served as pastor from the spring of 1954 to April 1, 1955. At this time the church, unable to secure the services of a nonresident elder, selected one of its own members, Joseph H. Snyder, Sr., as moderator, a position which he held for several years.
A finance committee, headed by Esther Snyder, appointed to raise money to build a parsonage, succeeded in its efforts.
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The building committee, with Reuben E. Coy as chairman, then purchased a modern home in the spring of 1955 from Peter Wolfe, a farmer, whose land had been stripped for coal, and moved the house onto the parsonage lot. Much of the work needed to prepare the house for occupancy was done by the building committee and other members of the church. By the summer of 1956 the building committee reported the parsonage ready for occupancy.
Wayne Ickes, of Salem, who became our pastor in 1955, was the first one to live in the parsonage. After Brother Ickes resigned on June 1, 1958, the services of Harold I. Deeter were secured on July 1; he has been the pastor since then.
A vacation church school was held for the first time in the summer of 1956 with an average attendance of fifty-six. Each summer since then a school has been held, an average attendance of ninety-seven being reached in 1962. Sister Ida Coy has been in charge of the school for the last five years.
In February 1962 a milestone in the life of Brother Joseph H. Snyder, Sr., and his wife, Irene, was achieved. This date marks fifty years of membership in the Bethel church. During these years they were elected to many of the church offices and have given much time and effort to the work. [Editor's note: The credit for saving the Bethel church house and the congregation belongs to Brother and Sister Snyder.] Many members contributed much to the success of Bethel under the leadership of the Snyders.
Many persons have given their hearts to the Lord within the walls of the Bethel church. We believe that it is God's will that Bethel should have an important role in the future in the building of His Kingdom.
Since 1914 the following have been pastors of the congregation: Jonas Horst, 1915-1919; J. L. Mahon, 1921-1922; E. G. Diehm, 1922-1923; A. W. Harrold, 1923-1932; Herschel Burkey, 1932-1936; G. S. Strausbaugh, 1936-1942; E. A. Edwards, 1942-1946; James F. Ward, 1946-1954; E. W. Reed, 1954-1955; Wayne Ickes, 1955 to June 1958; Harold Deeter, 1958 to the present (1962).
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THE BLACK RIVER CHURCH
The Black River church began when Ephraim and Joseph Swinehart and their families located near Black River, Chatham Township, Medina County, in 1846. Other adherents to the Brethren faith, among them John White in 1849 and Jo- seph Rittenhouse in 1850, migrated to Black River soon after the arrival of the Swineharts. The territory was at that time in- cluded within the boundaries of the Mohican congregation of Wayne County, of which Jacob Garver was then the presiding elder. But as the Mohican church was distant the need for a separate church house was felt. Before the organization of the Black River church the following ministers served the group: Jacob Garver, John Shoemaker, John Martin, George Flack, and Emanuel Bughley of the Mohican church; Elias Dickey, Isaac Smucker, and Moses Weaver of the Ashland church; John Shoemaker, Sr., of the Chippewa church; and Jacob Kurtz of Stark County.
The new congregation was organized at the home of Joseph Rittenhouse on September 30, 1845. Brother Rittenhouse was elected to the ministry and Ephraim Provant and John White were elected deacons. Elders Elias Dickey of Ashland and Joseph Showalter of Stark County conducted the organization.
Among the charter members of the church were Joseph Rittenhouse, John White, George Heestand, John Robinson, Jacob Provant, Ephraim Provant, Ephraim Swinehart, Gideon Bollinger, Samuel Garver, Frederick Dague, John Werts, the wives of these men, Mary Pittenger, and Nathaniel Ritten- house. Samuel Garver, John Werts, and Frederick Dague, along with their wives, and Nathaniel Rittenhouse were baptized the day of the organization.
During the early years, meetings were held in the homes of the members, the families taking turns in entertaining the meetings. When a home was too small, the barn was used.
Jacob Garver was the pastor of the Black River congregation until 1867, when Joseph Rittenhouse was ordained to the eldership and installed as pastor. Jacob Shook and J. D. Myers were elected to the deacon's office. A few years after the organization, Samuel Garver, son of Jacob Garver, was elected to the ministry. In 1870, Gideon Bollinger was called. He served the Black River congregation until 1880,
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when he moved to Missouri. Tobias Hoover and John Pittinger were called to the ministry May 3, 1873, and advanced August 8, 1874. At about this time Samuel Garver was ordained to the eldership and placed in charge of the church, Joseph Rittenhouse having moved to Maryland. Elder Ritten- house returned in 1876; he died at the age of eighty-two on New Year's Day, 1892. Brother Garver remained as pastor until 1904, when Tobias Hoover was placed in charge. Brother Hoover, ordained to the eldership in 1893, was the presiding elder from February 4, 1904, until his death from cancer on January 26, 1907.
The membership of the church grew rapidly, being the largest just prior to the division of the church in 1882, when there were one hundred thirty-two members. By 1896 the membership had dropped to fewer than fifty.
William Shoemaker and Tobias Prowand were elected to the deaconship April 7, 1883. Charles Woods was called to the ministry November 7, 1887. On November 5, 1892, Isaac Myers and George Hart were elected deacons; Brother Hart was killed accidentally two years later. Henry Kilmer was elected deacon May 1, 1897. Levi Dague and Henry Heestand were elected deacons and A. B. Horst was elected to the ministry on October 14, 1899. Brother Horst and John Yoder, who had moved into the district, were advanced the next year. M. Clyde Horst and S. M. Friend were elected to the ministry September 24, 1904, during the eldership of T. S. Moherman. A. B. Horst was ordained in the fall of 1905, and S. M. Friend in 1908.
The first meetinghouse was built in Homer Township in 1867. In 1882 this structure was transferred to the Progressive Brethren. A second house was built in 1868 in Chatham Township on the farm then owned by Joseph Rittenhouse. In 1900 it was remodeled and enlarged.
The Sunday school, one of the first to be organized in Northeastern Ohio, was started in 1868 with Joseph Rittenhouse as the first superintendent. Other superintendents have been W. F. England, Henry Homan, John Dague, J. B. Wine, Tobias Hoover, John Pittinger, Charles M. Woods, Simon Garver, S. M. Friend, and Henry Kilmer.
In October 1902, a missionary reading circle was organized with Mary R. Hoover as the local secretary. This circle was
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soon merged with the Christian workers society, which is still an active unit in the church.
From 1912 to 1918, A. B. Horst, S. M. Friend, John Yoder, and C. H. Murray served the church in the free ministry. Ira Krieger was elected to the deaconship about 1917. About this time the congregation began to see that some financial support for the ministry was necessary. A committee composed of D. B. Garner, F. L. Findley, and Isaac Meyers was appointed to solicit funds to help compensate the ministers for their services. This system continued until 1923, when a group of
**** KF
The Black River Church
members purchased the John Yoder farm and presented it to the church for a parsonage. In this year D. E. Sower took up residence on the farm; he pastored the congregation until September 1929.
Two missionaries went out from the Black River church about this time: Beulah Woods to India in 1922 and Corda Wertz to China in 1932. In 1924 a group of young people organized a B.Y.P.D. In 1925 F. L. Findley became a deacon; Dean Bowman in 1931; Aaron Browand and Glenn Garver in 1940.
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Stanley Noffsinger served the church between D. E. Sower's departure and Arthur L. Dodge's arrival in 1931. Brother Dodge operated the farm and served the church until 1941. During his pastorate, a men's work organization was formed in 1938. The farm has not been operated since Brother Dodge left. George Sheets and Donald Keifer filled the pulpit until C. C. Louder became the full-time pastor in 1943. He was followed by Jesse Whitacre.
Herman Reinke was elected to the ministry in September 1943 and ordained July 1, 1945. Walter Bowman was ordained April 26, 1944.
Brother Whitacre terminated his pastorate with the church in 1953, at which time Harold I. Deeter was called. Brother Deeter was with us until 1956. On August 2 of that year C. Kenneth Fisher came to be our pastor; he continues in that capacity at the present time.
THE BRISTOLVILLE CHURCH
The history of the Bristolville church dates back to 1837, when Henry Kagy with his family came from the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, to a farm in Bristolville Township, Trumbull County. Elizabeth Kagy, daughter of this pioneer family, had united with the Church of the Brethren in Virginia. She remained true to her profession and was an important factor in the work and the organization of the Bristolville congregation.
The Kagys encouraged their friends in Virginia to follow them to the new country. Soon they were joined by the Barb and Hoffman families. Elizabeth Kagy, who subsequently married Isaac Barb, was instrumental in securing Brethren to come and hold meetings as early as 1860. Brethren Conrad Kahler and Lewis Glass and others came to preach the gospel. These meetings were held in the members' homes.
In 1868 John Strom, of sturdy Swiss ancestry, with his family moved from Columbiana to Bristolville. This family had attended services at the old Sandy church and longed for a place of worship in the community. Brother Strom, who was a carpenter, directed the building of the first church house
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in 1868. This building remained the place of worship for the congregation until it was decided to move the structure to a new foundation.
The first church organization was effected in 1879. Then there were nineteen members. Services were conducted by ministers from the Sandy, Canton, and Mahoning churches. The church grew and reported twenty-six members in 1881. John Nicholson moved into the congregation and took charge of the work. The membership increased to the probable number of thirty-five in 1882, when the division in the Brotherhood occurred. Only ten members remained in 1900. But a Sunday school was maintained and the church was kept alive by visiting ministers.
Among those who were workers in the church during this early period were the following elders and ministers: Conrad Kahler, Lewis Glass, Solomon S. Shoemaker, David Byers, P. J. Brown, John Nicholson, D. N. Workman, Samuel Sprankel, Noah Longanecker, Edward Loomis, J. F. Kahler, J. Weirick, J. J. Hoover, William Murray, John Clement, D. M. Irvin, and A. W. Harrold.
Bristolville, probably the first mission church of the district, received financial aid and encouragement from the district mission board as early as 1884. It was in 1936 that the mission board reported to the district conference that the mission had become a self-supporting congregation. During the church year 1941-1942 Bristolville again became a mission point under the direction of the district.
The following members of the district mission board have a long record of service to the Bristolville church: D. F. Stuckey, Edward Shepfer, M. M. Taylor, S. S. Shoemaker, G. A. Cassel, G. S. Strausbaugh, D. E. Sower, Martin Krieger, A. B. Replogle, L. B. Oaks, and J. D. Zigler.
In 1922, Theodore Brumbaugh began preaching at Bristolville every other Sunday afternoon. He was followed by Jonas Horst as part-time pastor in 1926. Edgar G. Diehm filled the appointment on each Sunday afternoon during 1927. In 1928, the Kent and Bristolville churches were put under one pastor, with A. H. Miller in charge. It was during Brother Miller's pastorate that the Bristolville congregation became self-supporting in the church year 1935-1936. Brother Miller labored faithfully and the church prospered. In 1937, John
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Sass was licensed to preach. During the same year Brother Miller left to become the pastor of the New Philadelphia church.
The district mission board again rendered aid to the church in 1941. Phillip Griffith, who taught school at Champion, filled the pulpit in 1942-1943. He remained with the work until the church house burned in 1943. As early as 1937, the congregation had decided to construct a new foundation on land acquired near the old church. The old structure was moved onto the new foundation, and services were conducted in the building while it was being remodeled. During the Sunday-school hour one morning in 1943, the congregation noticed smoke pouring into the room. In a short time the whole structure was aflame and by the time the fire department answered the call the building had been completely destroyed. A large crowd of onlookers gathered. To many of them it meant only the loss of a long-remembered landmark, but to the members of the congregation it meant the loss of their church home. Their hearts were heavy as they watched the church go up in flames.
But the spirit of the people was undaunted. Under the sponsorship of the district mission board, the basement was cleared of rubble, a roof was put on, and services were renewed in the basement. John Wagner, of Cleveland, served the church for a time during 1943-1944. After he terminated his services, visiting ministers supplied the pulpit.
The mission board studied the situation very carefully with a view to ascertaining the advisability of continuing the work at Bristolville. In the 1946 district conference, D. E. Sower, a member of the mission board, delivered a challenging missionary address on the subject, The Need for a Larger Vision. In the course of his address, Brother Sower said, "If I were a younger man, I would go to Bristolville myself." From that hour things moved rapidly. The district conference approved the mission board's proposal to supply a full-time pastor. Elder Sower volunteered to move into the congregation for a period of one year, and, with his wife, came in September 1936. His work was very effective; by August 1937 the average attendance was fifty-four.
At the district conference of 1937, L. B. Oaks, chairman of the mission board, presented a specific plan to rebuild the
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church. The men's work organization accepted the challenge to do the work. Wilbur Shoemaker, a building contractor, proposed that if the men would support his crew with plenty of help, he would put the building under roof in one day. For this purpose the district was divided into two sections. Ninety-nine men from the first section went into action on Saturday morning, September 13, 1947; as the shadows of evening fell, the building was under roof and the sides were enclosed. On the following Saturday, the second section had
The Bristolville Church
fifty-five men present. They erected the entrance, the stairway tower, and the chimney, and did some interior work.
The dedication service was held on June 6, 1948. President V. F. Schwalm of Manchester College gave the dedication address to an audience of about three hundred.
On Christmas Day, 1950, D. E. Sower, who had given unstintingly of his time and labor, died suddenly. J. W. Fyock filled the pulpit until May 1, 1951, when H. P. Garner came to us. He retired from the pastorate on May 25, 1953. The mission board then secured the services of Walter E. Coldren,
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who took up his pastoral duties here on June 7, 1953.
On June 6, 1954, a special service was held to observe the church's recently attained freedom from debt. G. S. Strausbaugh, a member of the home mission board for many years, was the guest speaker.
Through years of struggle and faithfulness the church has prospered. A fund has been started, and is growing, for a parsonage which is to be erected on a donated site north of the church. At the fall council meeting in 1959 it was voted that the church relieve the mission board of granting it further support and assume all its own financial obligations. In recognition of this action, a plaque was presented to our delegates at the district conference that year.
After Brother Coldren resigned, in 1959, L. H. Higelmire, a retired United Brethren minister who had become a member of the Church of the Brethren at Woodworth, was secured to fill the pulpit. Since that time, Brother Higelmire has continued in the ministry at Bristolville.
At the present time, there are seventy-five members on the roll. We have an active church-school program and each year a very successful vacation church school is held. Since October 1959, the congregation has more than doubled its giving to outreach. During the past year, the interior of the church has been completely renovated. Plans for the future include a parsonage. At the present time, there is six thousand, five hundred dollars in the parsonage fund and the congregation owns a large lot next to the church which will be the site of the parsonage. A new oil furnace and an electric organ have been recent purchases. Our church at the present time is free of all debt.
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