USA > Ohio > The Church of the Brethren in northeastern Ohio > Part 7
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THE EAST NIMISHILLEN CHURCH
The Nimishillen church was organized by Bishop John Gans in 1804. From 1804 to 1856, the services were held regularly at two-week intervals in the homes and the barns
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of about twenty-five members. The following were members during that period: David Snyder, David Ebie, John Sheidler, Jacob Snyder, Joseph Schneider, George Swinehard, Daniel Brown, Michael Flory, John Hershey, John Thomas, Jacob Bauer, Daniel Markley, Joseph Showalter, Conrad Brumbaugh, William Hoover, Peter Ebie, Martin Houser, Widow Thomas, Andrew Christ, Jacob Funk, Widow Leiser, David Bixler, Jacob Replogle, John Garl, and Daniel Bowser.
John Gans, Michael Miller, Sr., Ulrich Shively, and Michael Dickey were the ministers during the early period. William Hoover, Isaac Karn, George Hoke, Joseph Showalter, Michael Miller, Jr., George Shively, and Elias Dickey followed in the order named.
In 1825 the Canton church was organized out of this territory. The organization of that church left the Nimishillen congregation with John Gans, William Hoover, Isaac Karn, and Joseph Showalter as the ministers. Brother Showalter had been called to the ministry in 1819.
In 1822 the first Annual Meeting west of the Allegheny Mountains was held in the Nimishillen church territory, eight miles northeast of Canton.
George Hoke moved from the Canton church into the Nimishillen church in 1840. Brother Karn had moved west previously, and Brethren Gans and Hoover had died. In 1850 Daniel Fry moved to Illinois. About 1852 Brother Hoke moved to Ashland County, and in 1858 Brother Showalter moved out of the congregation. The oversight of the church was left to Joseph Mishler, but he became infirm in body and mind soon afterward and died in 1867.
In 1858 David Young and John B. Mishler were elected to the ministry. Menno Stouffer was elected in 1860, but moved to Indiana in 1866.
The first district meeting of Northeastern Ohio was held within the Nimishillen boundaries in the barn of Jacob Brumbaugh, one and one-half miles southwest of Hartville, in 1864.
The congregation continued to meet in the homes of the members until 1856, when a brick church was built three miles south of Hartville. In 1868 the Nimishillen territory was divided into East Nimishillen, West Nimishillen, and Spring- field. The ministers at this time were Henry Browant, Henry
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Brumbaugh, David Young, and John B. Mishler. The deacons were John Culler, Henry Young, Abraham Kurtz, Jacob Mishler, Isaac Mohler, Thomas Hill, Manasseh Holl, and Cyrus Witmer.
At the time of the organization of the East Nimishillen church, 1868, Henry Brumbaugh was the only minister living in its territory and John Culler was the only deacon. John Kurtz and Samuel Markley were elected to the deaconship and David Bowers and Joseph Hoover to the ministry in 1869.
By 1874 the congregation had grown so rapidly that it
The East Nimishillen Church
was decided to build a second church house. This building, erected near Congress Lake, was named the Lake church. Services were held in it every other week.
In 1875 John Kurtz was elected to the ministry. Charles Kinsley, John Blair, and Daniel F. Ebie were chosen as deacons in 1876. In 1880 Charles Kinsley was called to the ministry. John Kurtz was ordained to the ministry in 1890. In 1892 Elder Noah Longanecker moved into the congregation. Joseph Kimmel, a minister from Oregon, moved into the congregation in 1896.
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The Sunday school was organized in 1890, with Daniel F. Ebie as the first superintendent.
The brick church built in 1856 was torn down and replaced, some of the old materials being used, in 1899. The original bricks were used for the inside wall of the present church, but new bricks were used for the outside walls. John Wolf, Andrew Carper, Isaac Brumbaugh, Samuel Markley, and Josiah Kurtz constituted the building committee.
Soon after the rebuilding of the church, five of the congre- gation's deacons died. They were Andrew Carper, Henry Hubley, Andrew Brumbaugh, Samuel Markley, and Samuel Young. Andrew Brumbaugh was replaced as church clerk by Solomon Shoemaker. Church Treasurer Andrew Carper was succeeded by Lundy Miller.
Michael Gehman, an influential, agéd deacon of the East Nimishillen church, moved into the territory of the Canton church about this time. In 1902, Henry Kinsley, Edwin Steffy, and William Eshelman were elected to the deaconship. Solomon Shoemaker was called to the ministry the same year, advanced to the second degree in 1907, and ordained to the eldership in 1912. George Goughnour and Uriah Kurtz became deacons in August 1904.
The Christian workers society of the church was organized in 1911 and the women's work in 1912. It was not until 1920 that a B.Y.P.D. was formed.
Solomon Shoemaker was succeeded as church clerk in 1910 by Edson W. Wolf.
The Lake church was closed in 1914 and a new church was built in Hartville. The Hartville church soon became a separate congregation.
A parsonage, built in 1927, was remodeled in 1960. The first floor was rearranged and an oil furnace was installed at a total cost of three thousand dollars.
Walter Keller became pastor in 1929 and remained with the congregation until 1934. In July of that year Elden Petry became our pastor. He terminated his work here in 1947. Arthur Hess began his ministry in 1948 and remained until April 1955, when he accepted an invitation to start the new mission church at Painesville. Dale Young was secured for the summer months of 1955. Merlin G. Shull has been with us since September of that year.
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Other ministers who have held their membership in the congregation have been Andrew W. Cordier, who for fifteen years was the executive assistant to the Secretary General of the United Nations and is now the head of the Department of International Relations at Columbia University; Rolland Wolfe, now Harkness Professor of Biblical Literature at Western Re- serve University; Lewis Brumbaugh, from Adrian College, Michigan; Warren Shoemaker, now the pastor of the Prices Creek church in Southern Ohio.
Under the direction of Wilbur D. Shoemaker, a tower was built onto the church in 1946 and the interior was extensively remodeled.
A second women's group, the Friendship Circle, was organized in 1950.
Grace Eshelman served as a missionary in China from 1947 to 1949 and in India from 1951 to 1954.
Edison Snyder was elected to the ministry in July 1961. Willard E. Dulabaum was ordained to the ministry on July 29, 1962, and began his service as associate pastor of the Man- chester church, North Manchester, Indiana, in August 1962. In addition to S. S. Shoemaker, ministers who have worked in the free ministry alongside our employed pastor are Henry Brumbaugh, David Bowser, Joseph Hoover, John Kurtz, Charles Kinsley, and Noah Longanecker.
The first written records of the congregation were kept in 1871. The story of the East Nimishillen church was related by Elder Shoemaker before his death on December 13, 1952, and checked in consultation with other members of the congregation.
THE EDEN CHURCH
The Tuscarawas church was organized between 1836 and 1840, Abram Yant, a pioneer from Pennsylvania, being instrumental in organizing it. For many years services were held in private homes, in schoolhouses, and in Brother Yant's large barn two miles north of Bolivar. The deep interest taken in these services resulted in the building of places of worship.
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The Zion house was built in 1865, and, in 1873, the Eden house.
Four of the elders who followed Brother Yant in the care of this church were Samuel Sprankel, Reuben Shroyer, M. M. Taylor, and A. H. Miller - the latter two being our contem- poraries.
For more than sixty years the work at both Eden and Zion was so closely connected that the history of one was the history of the other. The earliest records of the membership seem to have been lost. Records of deacons can be traced back only to 1855.
Some of the ministers who served the church, and whose contributions of zeal and earnestness left indelible impressions upon the memories of the flock, were Brother and Sister Henry Bender, noted for their zeal and liberality; Brother and Sister Conrad Kahler, for their fatherly and motherly care; Brother and Sister Martin Reely, who remembered the church finan- cially by bequeathing a sizable sum of money to it; Brother and Sister George Helman, for their fruitful presence at all services.
Conrad Kahler and his wife contributed much to the early growth of this church. Coming to Bolivar from Germany when he was eleven years old, he learned the doctrines as taught by the Brethren while working as a farmhand for Abram Yant. In 1844 he married Elizabeth Arnold, whose parents had moved to Ohio from Virginia. In 1846 they united with the Church of the Brethren. He was chosen to the ministry in 1849. In 1865, the same year the Zion house was built, he was ordained to the eldership; for nearly twenty years he held the oversight of the church.
The first Sunday school here was organized in 1879 despite considerable opposition. A few years later a Sunday school was organized at the Eden house with twenty-five members.
In the fall of 1889, when the Eden house had to be reroofed, the metal roofing was bought from the fund bequeathed to the church by Brother and Sister Reely.
Sometime during 1918, the attendance at the Eden house dwindled to such a low point that services were discontinued. But after a period of two or three years, through the efforts of Brethren A. W. Yutzey, Eli Brumbaugh, and Eli Gerber, the doors were reopened. For many years evangelistic meetings held in the Eden house were culminated by love feasts held in
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The Old Eden Church
the Zion house. The first on record to be held at Eden was on August 1, 1936.
At a time in the early 1920's, when spirits were at a low ebb, Brother and Sister Elmer Frick from Louisville, Ohio, began serving the church as pastors. Their services were con- tinued for more than fifteen years. During this time a number of renovations were made: carpet was purchased for the floor in front of the pulpit, rubber matting was placed in the aisles, and curtains were hung for the separation of classes. The inside walls and the ceiling were repainted; an eight-inch elevation was made in the pulpit platform and the pulpit itself was cut down to a length of three feet; a piano was bought; a well was drilled; shutters were removed from the windows; horse sheds were torn down; a tool house was built; and electric lights to replace the gasoline lamps which had hung on wires suspended from the ceiling were installed.
The two-year tenure of Brother and Sister C. C. Louder, from 1941 to 1943, was like an oasis in the period of several years of short-term pastors and nonresident ministers, when progress was slow. During Brother Louder's time a floodlight
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was placed on the yard and the original plastered walls and ceiling of the church were covered with wallboard, this being put on to form an arched effect over the pulpit platform. He drove each Sunday from Ashland, where he was the caretaker of the grounds at Ashland College. Near the end of this time he received and accepted a call to a church closer home.
In 1947, the almost-disheartened flock enlisted the help of our district mission board in the hope of securing a resident full-time minister. In September 1948 we were able to secure Brother and Sister George H. Sheets for full-time service. Their untiring efforts, along with an inspirational evangelistic meeting at the outset of his pastoral term, resulted in the addition of fifty-two members through the rite of baptism. Attendance at Sunday services increased so much that our crowded quarters demanded an expansion. The remaining part of the fund bequeathed to the church by the Reelys has now been used in the building of a twelve-foot extension on the front and the construction of a full basement with a modern kitchen and sanitary toilets under the structure now known as the Eden church, which is seventy-six years old. Dedicatory services for the newly remodeled church building were held October 23, 1949. During the early part of 1950, Brother Sheets resigned the Eden pastorate because of ill-health.
The New Eden Church
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By October 1950, Eden had secured Brother Louder again, this time as full-time pastor, and he and his wife moved into a house in Canton owned by the district mission board.
During the early part of 1951 the basement of the re- modeled church building was ceiled. In the February council of 1952, plans and arrangements were completed for the beginning of the erection of a parsonage on ground adjacent to the Eden cemetery, donated to the Eden church by a nonmember landowner, Mr. Bauker. Following the ground- breaking on Easter Sunday, 1952, the work, carried on largely by local members, progressed so well that at our November council of 1952 a committee for the preparation of a dedicatory service was chosen. The dedication took place on Sunday, May 3, 1953. Brother and Sister Louder moved in on Wednesday, May 20, 1953.
After a few months the junior high class of the church school undertook the task of providing funds for the landscap- ing of both parsonage and church grounds. Portable partitions in the basement of the church to provide facilities for additional classrooms, the remodeling of the baptistry, and the instal- lation of a soundproof window in the nursery were the result of improvement efforts in 1954. The laying of a hardwood floor to cover the old six-inch pine boards, the building of a rostrum the full width of the sanctuary and the providing of curtains for the same, the remodeling of the old benches to make for more comfortable pews, the covering of the basement floor with asphalt tile blocks, and the building of additional cupboards in our kitchen were the projects of note in 1955.
During the next few years the educational facilities of the church became so inadequate that vacation church school sessions, especially, were held with considerable difficulty. Knowing the need and attempting to plan accordingly, in July 1960 the church purchased adjacent land necessary for addi- tional parking. At about the same time, after several years of supervision by the district mission board, Eden assumed all of her financial obligations and started out once more on her own. In July 1961 the council appointed a board to start actual findings for a new church building. On December 31, 1961, the congregation in open church session voted by an over- whelming majority to build a new church.
On June 17, 1962, under the excellent leadership of Brother
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Louder, a very impressive groundbreaking ceremony was held when, at the close of the morning service, the entire congre- gation participated in pulling an old-fashioned walking plow to open a furrow the full width of the present sanctuary, at the north end of the building. By July 11, council-meeting night, the basement had been dug. Progress has been steadily going on since that time. The sanctuary-level floor was poured in mid-August, and basement floors in late August. The Aakes Construction Company did the work.
The old sanctuary was slightly remodeled on the outside and bricked up along with the construction of the new sanctu- ary and the full basement underneath. When the sanctuary is completed near the end of 1962, so that we can move into it, the local men will remodel the inside of the old sanctuary for educational purposes.
THE FREEBURG CHURCH
The following excerpt from the minutes of a church council meeting tells succinctly how one renowned and historic congregation came to an end and two sister churches came into being.
To whom this may concern in the future, this is to certify that we, the German Baptist Brethren Church, called the "Sandy" Church of Northeastern Ohio, in council assembled on the 19th day of May, 1900, deem it best to divide the congregation for the best interest of the church, and on motion the following line was established by a unanimous voice of the churches as follows: "All of the aforesaid congregation west of the Stark and Columbiana County line to be called the 'Freeburg' congregation. Furthermore, be it resolved that since the division has been made, that we, the members of the Freeburg congregation, do this 17th day of August, 1901, in council assembled, release and convey all of our right and title of all real estate and church property east of aforesaid line, to the Reading congregation. And we furthermore agree that this resolution be signed by the old trustees of the Sandy congregation, and by them so doing, and a copy of these resolutions to be placed on each church record, shall stand as a record that there is no more a Sandy congregation."
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The history of the Freeburg church begins with the purchase of a Methodist property and a triangular two-acre section adjoining it on the north. In 1882 a substantial forty-two by eighty-six-foot building, bearing the name "German Baptist Church" carved in a limestone slab on the west gable, was erected. The building committee was made up of John Coyle, Samuel Shidler, and Edward Reese.
Beside the church is the graveyard. One of the earliest tombstones bears the inscription: "Mary, wife of John Quinter, died November 7, 1881, in the 98th year of her age." Mrs. Quinter, mother of James Quinter, who was associated with Henry Kurtz in the publishing of the Gospel Visitor, came to this area from her home in Pennsylvania to visit a daughter and James, became ill, and passed away.
The first elder of the Freeburg church as a separate congregation was F. B. Weimer, who was given the oversight of it on November 24, 1900. Samuel Sprankel was elected as elder on November 26, 1904.
Elders living in the Freeburg congregation at the time of its organization were Simon B. Stuckey, David Byers, and Joseph J. Hoover. Elder Byers attained some renown in the latter part of the last century for being the only elder read out of the church upon several occasions for going foxhunting. Mathias W. Hahn, who was advanced to the second degree November 24, 1900, was the only minister. Deacons were Joseph Shidler and Samuel Stoffer. David F. Stuckey was elected to the ministry May 25, 1901, and advanced May 14, 1904. On May 25, 1901, Ellard Hoppes, C. T. Swallen, Tobias Stuckey, and Jesse Minser were elected to the deaconship.
Samuel Sprankel was the elder of the church until 1918. Pastor David F. Stuckey was ordained to the eldership September 9, 1916. He lived on a farm for many years and later moved to a small fruit farm and taught school.
Otis V. Bowman and Elda C. Royer were elected to the deaconship November 18, 1916. On December 7, 1918, Frank Culler and Leroy Minser were elected to the deaconship and Adam Miller became elder of the church.
David F. Stuckey became elder of the Freeburg church on May 21, 1921. On August 20, 1921, Emery Shidler, Homer Stoffer, and John Hoffman were elected to the deaconship.
Elder Stuckey was both elder and pastor for a number
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of years, resigning as elder August 21, 1933, and as pastor April 19, 1937. On June 4 of that year, steps were taken by the council meeting to find a new pastor and put him on partial support. A canvass of the membership was taken to learn how much financial support could be secured. During the interim Ora DeLauter served as supply minister. On August 23, 1937, Harvey Lehman, then with the Reading church, was secured as part-time pastor. Brother Lehman taught school and ministered to two churches until April 22, 1946, when he resigned. G. S. Strausbaugh acted as supply pastor and elder during the summer of 1946.
Brother Stuckey was succeeded as elder by Wilmer Petry, who served until April 25, 1938. J. C. Inman was the elder from April 17, 1939, to November 18, 1940, when Harvey Lehman succeeded him in this office.
On May 23, 1932, Elmer Bruner was elected to the deaconship.
The first steps toward securing a parsonage were taken on November 25, 1946. There was a great deal of consideration given to buying a house suitable for use as a parsonage, but as none was available it was decided to build one on the east end of the church property. By the close of the year, five hundred fifty dollars had been placed in a building fund. The men's work and women's work organizations made large donations from time to time.
The Freeburg Church
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I. R. Beery of Bellefontaine began serving both the Freeburg and the Reading church late in 1946. He pastored the Freeburg church until August 31, 1949, and was the elder from April 21, 1947, to April 19, 1948, when J. D. Zigler succeeded him. Brother Zigler continued as our elder until April 18, 1949, being then followed by G. S. Strausbaugh.
Not until June 1949 was any solicitation of funds made for the new parsonage. Late in 1949 work began on it. Mrs. Etta Winger, then ninety-seven and the oldest member of the congregation, turned the first shovelful of earth. She had helped make bricks for the church in 1882.
The men of the church cut down trees, dug ditches, and built and painted the house. The building committee was made up of Donald Wallace, Grant Wartluft, Wilbur Stuckey, Erma Culler, and Arthur Grimes. The township trustees cooperated in hauling in a thousand truckloads of fill for use around the grounds. The total donation of the women's work group came to $3,370.21. The men's work organization donated one thousand dollars in addition to doing the labor. The house was dedicated on June 4, 1950. The incoming pastor, Dale E. Gibboney, and his family took possession of the home.
G. K. Beach was the elder-in-charge from April 17, 1950, to November 1956. Curtis Dubble was in charge from 1956 to 1960 and John H. Blough from 1960 to the present.
Numerous evangelistic meetings have been held in the Freeburg church. Evangelists who have preached here are William Bixler, 1908; George L. Studebaker, 1909; Aaron Heestand, 1916; G. S. Strausbaugh, 1918; Adam H. Miller, 1919; D. I. Pepple, 1936 and 1940; Walter Heisey, 1937; Oliver H. Austin, 1939; Howard Keim, 1945; I. R. Beery, 1947; C. C. Ellis, 1948; and Dale Gibboney, 1950.
On April 19, 1948, Wilbur Stuckey and James Rummell were elected deacons; Grant Wartluft, on August 16, 1954; Marion Rummell and Lloyd Wartluft, on August 17, 1959.
Brother Gibboney terminated his work with the church on September 1, 1952, and the first full-time pastor, John W. Johnson, assumed his responsibilities. When Brother Johnson closed his pastorate here in 1961, John A. McCormick succeeded him.
The Freeburg church has always been generous in giving to missions. The church supported Mrs. Walter Heisey when
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she was in China with her husband, helped to support Corda Wertz Krieger in China, and is helping to support Evelyn Horn in Africa and Kathryn Kiracofe in India.
When the original church building was erected in 1882 our fathers built a substantial place of worship, and though a few alterations were made during the years, it remained essentially the same until it was remodeled in 1959-1960. This remodeling has been one of the major undertakings of our congregation in the past few decades, and though interest in this project was manifested as early as 1954 it was not until five years later that a decision to proceed was reached. The plans drawn up by our Brotherhood church building counselor, C. H. Deardorff, called for construction of a basement with a large fellowship room, a kitchen, a furnace room, a new sanctuary with a baptistry, classrooms, lavatories, and a balcony. The work began in September under the direction of our contractor, W. D. Shoemaker of North Canton, and the building committee composed of Marion Rummell as chairman, Elmer Bruner, Donald Wallace, and Grant Wartluft. The cost of the project, excluding labor and materials donated by the members, came to about sixty thousand dollars.
Dedication services for our remodeled church and a new organ were held on September 25, 1960, with Curtis Dubble bringing the dedication sermon.
THE HARTVILLE CHURCH
In 1804, when John Gans moved into Ohio and founded the Nimishillen church, the territory included that of the present-day Center, Maple Avenue, Canton First, East Nimishillen, West Nimishillen, Hartville, and Springfield churches. Over the years the old congregation was divided, subdivided, and divided again.
The Hartville church was one of the last to be organized. Brethren who had moved into the town desired to build a church there. Many of the more ruralized members objected to this proposal, but at a business meeting held in the East Nimishillen house on February 5, 1910, Hiram Carper, Uriah
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