USA > Ohio > Highland County > The County of Highland : a history of Highland County, Ohio, from the earliest days, with special chapters on the bench and bar, medical profession educational development, industry and agriculture and biographical sketches > Part 19
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Greenfield, Lynchburg, New Lexington, Leesburgh, New Vienna, Rainsboro, Petersburg, Boston, New Market, Belfast, Berrysville, Mowrystown, Princetown, Marshall, Sinking Springs, Carmel, Cen- terville, East Monroe, Sugar Tree Ridge, Samantha, Russell Station, Fairfax, Danville, Buford, and quite a number of country places remote from town and village have church houses and settled pastors of the Methodist denomination.
The Greenfield Methodist church had its origin in the meetings of Charles White, Thomas Stewart and others. A society was organized in 1822, and a brick church was built, that gave way to a stone edifice in 1833. A larger church was destroyed by the storm of 1860 before completion, but after that a new and commodious building was
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finished. The German Methodist Episcopal church of Greenfield was organized in 1854, and a brick church was built in 1873.
The pioneer Methodist in Hamer township was David Sullivan. A church was built at Danville in 1842, and a new one in 1859. Harwood chapel, in Salem township, was founded in 1859. The Methodists at Buford built a log church in 1840, and a brick building in 1860. Another organization, Protestant Methodists, built a brick church in 1843, which afterward went into the hands of a struggling Presbyterian organization, and after they disbanded became the Buford schoolhouse. The Sugartree Ridge Methodist church was organized at the home of Rachel Wilkin soon after the year 1811, and the first church was built before 1840. The Marshall church traces its origin to the preaching by Rev. David Young at the home of Bigger Head in 1802. Peter Moore, Lemuel Scott and Mr. Beit- man afterward entertained the preachers, until a building was erected at Marshall in 1840. This has been replaced by a more modern church edifice. The beginning of the Newmarket church has been noticed. The first church was built in 1833-34, and a new one in 1850. The Samantha church was organized in 1835 and a log church built. Auburn church, at Fallsville, had its beginning in 1830. Dunn's chapel, a Methodist church in Union township, had its be- ginning in 1825, and the first church was built in 1834. The Rus- sell Station church was organized in 1830, and reorganized in 1855,, when a church was built. Brush Creek was visited by the pioneer Methodist preachers, and the Sinking Creek society was organized early in the century, and first church at Sinking Spring was built of logs about 1820. This was followed by the organization of Pisgah church and Carmel church. The Belfast church was organized at the home of Samuel Clark about 1815. The Pleasant Hill Methodist church, in Fairfield township, was founded through the efforts of the pioneer preacher, Isaac Pavey, and a log church was built on his land in 1832. In 1852 the place of meeting was changed to Leesburg, where a handsome building was erected in 1852. The New Lexing- ton Methodist church was founded by the Woodmansees, and the first church built in 1837. It was destroyed by the great storm of 1860. The East Monroe church was organized in 1841, and the Zion Hill, or Centerfield, church in 1840.
In the year 1806 the Rev. James Hoge, who held an interest in a large tract of land near and including the mouth of Hardin's creek, visited Highland to look after his land, and as a matter sure to fol- low made the acquaintance of the Rogers settlement, which was com- posed principally of Presbyterians, who about the time of the arrival of Hoge had been looking about for a minister to serve them as pas- tor. While Hoge remained he preached for these people. Having no house in which to hold services, they erected a stand in a beautiful grove, near a very fine spring on Rattlesnake creek, on Hoge's own
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land. At this spot was preached the first gospel sermon in the pres- ent township of Madison. From this beginning a church was organ- ized which took the name of Rocky Spring, in memory, says one, of Rocky Spring in Pennsylvania, from which John Wilson came who named it. This was the first Presbyterian church in Highland county and embraced at first all the Greenfield and Fall Creek set- tlements. The first pastor of this church was Rev. Nichols Pit- tinger, who came from Pennsylvania on a visit to the county with a view to a permanent settlement, in 1809, and in 1810 moved into the county and took charge of the work. His labors were very suc- cessful and at one time in the history of this Rocky Spring church it had some three hundred communicants. An aged elder of that church said of him: "This eminent servant of God was a workman who was neither ashamed or afraid to preach the truth and the whole truth, not fearing the consequences, and but few were ever more blessed in their labors." The first elders elected and ordained in this church were James Watts, Samuel Strain, George Adair, Sam- uel McConnel and William Garrett. Rev. Pittenger continued as pastor for some fifteen years, then left them for a few years, but returned and remained until death claimed his worn-out body in 1833, and he was laid to rest in the Rocky Spring grave yard, among the friends of his much loved church, many of whom sleep softly by his side in that consecrated "God's acre."
Colonel Keys tells of a Presbyterian church which was organized on Clear Creek in 1806, whose pastor for one year was the Rev. Rob- ert Dobbins. Finally the organization became the nucleus of the Presbyterian church of Hillsboro. The first place of preaching was the cabin schoolhouse on the farm of Samuel Evans. The elders elected and ordained were David Jolly and William Keys. The membership was composed of five persons, three of whom were women. Women seemed to be in the majority in church work then as they are now, but greatly restricted in the character and quality of their work, being then, as Josiah Allen's wife puts it, "Not per- mitted to sit on the meeting house." This congregation while located in the country was called "Nazareth." The first meeting house built by them was of hewn logs and was located upon the lands of Richard Evans, near the after site of the old mill owned by Mr. Worley. The increase and interest of the congregation soon made it necessary to remove the locality to Hillsboro. It was feared by the pious people of Clear Creek that if the county seat remained long without a church it would fill up with "dens of revelry and dis- sipation." The "Presbytery to which this church Nazareth belonged included members residing in Kentucky, and all belonged to Wash- ington Presbytery, chiefly, if not all, in Kentucky." Colonel Keys tells the story of one Rev. Joshua L. Wilson who set out to find Nazareth church where he desired to unite himself with the Pres-
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bytery which happened to meet at that church. The Rev. Joshua L. Wilson had recently moved to Cincinnati and feeling anxious to meet the presbytery, set out to find the church with the Bible name. He came on the road then recently cut through Williamsburg, inquir- ing at every clearing for Nazareth church, but none of the settlers had ever heard of such a place, outside of the Holy Land, and as the preacher traveled on and on without hearing or finding anyone who knew anything about such a church, he concluded at last that he would be compelled to go to Canaan to find it. But persisting in his journey he found it at last at a little round-log schoolhouse in the forest wild. Everything was primitive and as the places of wor- ship were too small to accommodate the congregations, the deep dark woods, "God's first temples" were used as spots of worship. The roof above them was the deep blue sky, and the carpet beneath their feet, the fallen leaves of autumn or the grass and flowers of the sum- mer time, while the feathered songsters joined their piping notes to the solemn chant of those early worshippers.
Following close on these events come the Associate Reform Pres- byterians, who organized a congregation on Fall Creek on the land of William Morrow. The Rev. Samuel Crothers preached for them at times, the preaching place being the home of Mr. Morrow. This congregation some time afterward built a meeting house, which with many improvements and rebuilding is still a place of worship, to the worthy descendants of those pioneer Presbyterians on Fall Creek. But these early days have gone. The Presbyterians of today, while retaining in a great degree the doctrine and traditions of the church are an intellectual and progressive people, keeping abreast of all the modern improvements in church service and work. For long years Dr. Samuel Steel was their settled pastor, a man of fine culture and pure hearted in every undertaking of his life. His kindly smile and loving words cheered all classes and was wonder- fully successful in building up his church and keeping in training the large body of Christian workers that formed the great body of his church. Following Dr. Steel in the pastorate of the Presby- terian church of Hillsboro was Dr. McSurely, who for more than a quarter of a century was the polished and cultured pastor. Dr. McSurely was a scholar, in the highest sense of that term, and under his intelligent direction the church prospered as never before in its history. It was under his pastorate that the magnificent structure was erected which now serves as their place of worship, at a cost of some thirty thousand dollars. This building is as fine a piece of artistic workmanship as can be found in any place.
The Presbyterians have church buildings in Hillsboro, Greenfield, Fall Creek, Marshall, Belfast, New Market, and at Bethel. The First Presbyterian church of Greenfield was organized January 24, 1820, by Rev. Samuel Crothers, with about sixty communicants, and
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Elijah Kirkpatrick, Wilson Stewart and Hugh Ghormley, elders. Dr. Crothers was one of the most notable men connected with the religious history of the county. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1783, son of a soldier of the Revolution, of Scotch-Irish descent, and from 1787 was reared in Kentucky, and educated there and in a. Presbyterian theological seminary at New York. After being licensed to preach in 1809 he traveled as a minister of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian church in Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky and Ten- nessee, and in 1811, settled as a preacher at Chillicothe, also caring for the Buckskin congregation of Ross and Highland counties. In 1813 he made his home at Greenfield and gave all his attention to the Hop Run church until 1818, when he returned to Kentucky. Afterward he joined the Presbyterian church, and he came back to Greenfield to organize the church there in 1820, and there he con- tinued as pastor until he died, in 1856. He was one of the most eloquent preachers of his time; was also a frequent contributor to the press, on the subjects of temperance reform and slavery, and published books, the most important of which were "The Gospel of Jubilee," and "The Life of Abraham." The Life and Writings of Rev. Samuel Crothers, D. D., by Rev. Andrew Ritchie, was pub- lished in 1857.
Rev. Samuel Crothers was succeeded by Rev. Mr. Wiseman, and he by Rev. S. D. Crothers, son of the elder pastor, and the three sup- plied the church for more than seventy-five years.
The Hop Run church, above mentioned, included the Presbyterian society, the first religious organization in Greenfield, and the meet- ing house, built in 1809, was on Hop run, a mile southeast of town, in Ross county. After 1835 the meeting house was at Greenfield. In 1857 a modern brick church was built by a branch of this society, which became known as the Second Presbyterian church, but since the disbanding of the latter, the United Presbyterian church, the direct descendant of the Hop Run church, has owned this building.
The Free Presbyterian church with 21 members, was organized in 1848 by the famous anti-slavery agitator, Rev. John Rankin, and a building was erected in 1849, which descended after slavery was abolished and the followers of Ramkin returned to the fold of the old church, to a colored congregation. Rankin at Greenfield is one of the items of Ohio history of which much of great interest might be written.
About 1820 the Bethel Presbyterian church was organized in Paint, and a church was built at which such families as the Karnes, Cowgills, Redkeys and Forakers worshipped. A little before the year 1840 a Presbyterian church was organized among the French settlers of White Oak, at the house of Frederick Grandgirard, whose son, Rev. E. Grandgirard, was pastor after 1846. A good church building was erected at Mowrystown. The Presbyterian church in
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Concord township was organized about 1830, with the Lyle family as the main membership. In Marshall the first preaching was at the homes of Thomas Dick and others. In 1836 a small church was erected, and in 1851 an organization was effected with Rev. E. Grandgirard as pastor. The Templins, Newells, Amens, Robin- sons, Grabills, Delaplanes and other early families were in this society. At Newmarket the church worshipped many years in the schoolhouse, and the first building of a church was in 1840. At Sinking Spring a society was organized about 1842 and a church built but abandoned in 1859. At Belfast the church was organized by the Storers and their neighbors about 1835.
St. Mary's Protestant Episcopal church was organized in 1853, with Isaac Sams, J. Milton Boyd, B. H. Johnson, Nelson Barrere, J. W. Price, William H. Woodrow, William H. Bayard, C. H. Smith, J. W. Lawrence and John Dawson as the first vestry. The beautiful stone church, ivy-covered and massive, was erected in 1856. While the church was building services were held in the court house. The first rector was Rev. Noah Hunt Schenck, who remained until 1858, and afterward attained national prominence. At the time of his death he was rector of St. Anne's church in Brooklyn. The church building in Hillsboro was consecrated by Bishop McIlvaine. It is a splendid work of architecture, grand and imposing. Among the attractions of the interior is a magnificent pipe organ, whose rich deep notes fill the audience room with perfect melody. There are two memorial windows of beautiful design, given by Mrs. William H. Trimble, one in honor of her daughter Catharine, and the other to the memory of the founders of the church, whose names appear upon the glass.
The Baptist church has been prominent in the county from very early days. Rev. Mr. Leamons, a pioneer Baptist preacher, preached at the home of Job Haigh, in Jackson, as early as 1804, and from this effort grew the Baptist church, which built on Rock lick about 1833. About 1837 there was a division on the slavery question ; the East Fork church was formed, which built on the Belfast pike in 1853. As early as 1812 a Baptist church was founded in Union township, with the Hart, Richardson and Marsh families prominent in its support.
The first Baptist church at Greenfield was organized at the home of the Vanmeters in about 1815. The church at Greenfield was organized permanently in 1829, and the first building erected in 1833, supplanted by a stone building in 1840. Shiloh Baptist church, near Greenfield, was organized in 1866.
At New Market a Baptist church was organized in 1824, but it afterward gave way to the one originally known as the Little Rocky Fork church, organized at the home of Oliver Harris in 1838. Its leading spirits were the Vance, McConnaughey, Harris, Arnett, and
-
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Ross families. They put up a brick church that was blown down by a tornado in 1839, and in 1877 a handsome edifice was erected in the town.
Over fifty years ago the Baptists of Hillsboro, few in number and poor financially, worshipped in the court house. In 1843 they were organized into a regular Baptist church of twenty members. Great struggles confronted this little band of Christian men and women, but the work was warmly encouraged and supported by such men as General McDowel, Colonel Miller and Governor Trimble; Judge J. H. Thompson kindly donated the brick, and a house of worship was built. In 1853 the church record showed a flattering advance: Baptisms, 43; letters, 47; restoration, 1, and $2,800 added to church improvement. Such has been the record up to the present time of the First Baptist church. The present pastor, Rev. J. P. Currin, is a graduate of Bucknell university, and of the The- ological Seminary of Rochester, N. Y. While the church is an ornament to the town and the pride of the congregation, it in no sense obscures the earnest simplicity and generous Christian charac- ter that during all the years has been the spirit manifested by this worthy branch of the great Christian vine.
The Berryville Baptist church was organized about 1856 by the Wests, Shaws, Taneyhills and Shannons, and a church was erected about 1860. New Sugartree Ridge, a New Light church, was organ- ized as early as 1840, and a building erected. This took the name of Miller's chapel. A French Baptist church was organized in White Oak township in 1861, and a church erected.
The founding of the Society of Friends in the county has been noted in the account of the early settlement. The pioneer Quakers of Fairfield began to hold meetings as soon as two or three could gather. Mrs. Bathsheba Lupton is credited with founding the Fair- field meeting. It is told that she rode about among the settlers, when the young men were in the habit of visiting the Indian camps on Sunday, exhorting them to godliness and discreet living. Fairfield meeting house, a frame structure at first, was built about 1805, and Fairfield monthly meeting was established in 1807 by authority of the Redstone quarterly meeting, in Pennsylvania. Jacob Jackson, a settler near Lexington, was the first preacher, and was succeeded by Mildred Ratcliffe, a famous Quakeress, who went to Pensylvania in 1816. The Fairfield meeting at an early day had a thousand mem- bers, but it was afterward divided, and meeting houses built on Hardin's creek, on Lee's creek, at Oak Grove, and at Lexington.
The Clear Creek meeting of Friends was organized about 1808, and by consolidation with the Vienna meeting in Clinton county the Clear Creek monthly meeting was founded. A meeting house was built in 1830. Meanwhile, in the old meeting house near the site of Samantha there had been much dissension over the questions that gave
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rise to the Hicksite branch, which was organized in 1829. They also built a meeting house in 1830. In these organizations the Timber- lake, Bailey, Kenworthy, Williams, Sanders, Pike, Lewis, Baker, Saunders, Chalfant, and Woodrow families were prominent.
At the site of an old cemetery on the Spargur Mill road, a log meeting house was built in 1807-08. The Overman, Cowgill, Tom- linson, Barrett and Sumner families were its main support. The Hicksite branch came into control, and the Orthodox members built another house near by, from which in 1876 they removed to a larger edifice on the Anderson road.
The Catholic church at Hillsboro has a neat and serviceable building, with seating capacity for about four hundred. As it now stands, it represents seventy years of Catholicity in Hillsboro. James Hughes was probably the first Catholic who came to the vicinity of Hillsboro, in 1801. The Hughes descendants are numerous and well known all over the county. John Fallow is the oldest living Catholic, and has been a positive quantity in the history of the church since he came here in 1849. The first masses known to have been said here were by two French priests, Father Cheymol and Father Gacon, who visited here from Ursuline convent in Brown county. In 1859 there were only ten Catholic families here and they were attended by Father Butler, who came once a month from Fayetteville. During this time and up to the time the church was built mass was said in the house of Mr. Fallon. The next priest who visited here was Father Daily, who came in 1850 and continued his visits until 1854. He- began the erection of a church in the fall of 1851, and a year later the corner stone was laid and the church was dedicated by Archbishop Purcell the following spring. In 1854, Father Daily was succeeded by Father John B. O'Donaghue, the first resident priest, who during his stay built the neat pastoral residence adjoining the church. In 1858 he was succeeded by Father Marion, a French priest from New Orleans, and he by Father Perry. In 1861 Father Michael O'Don- ague came and remained for twenty years. In 1880 he was suc- ceeded by Father Michael Hayes who remained for five years. He was succeeded by Father William B. Miggell, and in 1887 Father Lawrence Sullivan became the pastor. He was followed in 1892 by Father M. P. O'Brien, and Father Thomas Walsh ministered from August 29, 1893, until ill health caused his resignation in Septem- ber, 1900. Rev. George J. Mayerhoefer took charge as resident pas- tor, April 26, 1901. St. Mary's Catholic church on South High street has been entirely remodeled. The plans for the improvement put in execution by the efficient and earnest pastor have resulted in an almost new building.
The history of the Catholic church in Greenfield covers a period of forty-four years. Before the year 1854 the town had never been visited by a Catholic priest. In the early fall of this year Miss
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Bridget McCormick, now the wife of Lawrence Cribbins, went to Cincinnati to confession and Archbishop Purcell learned from her that there were several Catholics in that locality and consequently Rev. John B. O'Donaghue was sent from Fayetteville to visit Greenfield. His coming was so unexpected that only two persons assisted in the first mass, Owen McClain and his sister, Bridget. Father Donaghue arranged to come once in each month, and on the Sundays of his visits the home of Mr. McClain was crowded with from thirty-five to fifty Catholics. After Father Donaghue was stationed at Hillsboro he visited Greenfield regularly, and undertook the building of a church. The ground was purchased and the corner stone laid in 1856, and St. Benignus was dedicated by Archbishop Purcell in the spring of 1858.
Patrick Toohey was probably the first Catholic with his family who came to New Vienna in the winter of 1854. The first mass celebrated was at the home of Mr. Toohey in the spring of 1855, by visiting priests from Fayetteville. After Hillsboro had a resident pastor, New Vienna was attended by the priests from that place, their names having been mentioned in the sketch of St. Mary's. In 1874 the old school house property was bought of the school directors for five hundred dollars, and for the next two years mass was celebrated in this school house. In the summer of 1876 Rev. John B. O'Donaghue was then resident pastor at Hillsboro and began the construction of St. Michael's church upon the schoolhouse property, and the same year the corner stone was laid and the church dedicated by Arch- bishop Purcell.
The Church of Christ, which originated with the preaching of Alexander Campbell, in the Ohio valley, after 1810, has prosperous organizations at Mount Olivet, Lynchburg, Fairview, Pricetown, Buford, Sugartree Ridge, Smarts and Rocky Fork. Salem chapel, at Fairview, had its origin about 1820, in a Dunker organization. Mount Olivet church was organized in 1833, and the first church built in 1845. Near Belfast a church was organized about fifty years ago and a house built about 1854.
An organization of the Church of Christ was made and a church built near Danville in 1835, with the Faris, Pulliam, Barker and Custer families and others as members. Later the church was dis- banded.
At Lynchburg the church was organized in 1838. Milligan Clark and Abraham Gibler were prominent in its councils. In 1841 the first church was erected.
The church at Pricetown was organized in 1856, with John M. Smith as one of the leading members, and it has ever since had a prom- inent place in religious annals.
At Buford the church was organized about 1835, and another at Sicily in 1837. The Buford society built in 1850, and began a pros-
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perous career. The society at Sugartree Ridge was organized in 1868, and ten years later the first church building was completed.
The Christian Union, a divergence from the Methodist church originally, obtained a foothold in the county about the time of the civil war and later and now has organizations and meeting houses at Marshall, Allensburg, Hoagland's, New Market, Berrysville, Pleasant View, and Rainsboro (Rev. J. W. Klise, moderator).
The Marshall society was formed in 1864, the families of Cunning- ham, Dunlap, Cravens, Carlisle, Ferneau, Hughes, Milburn, Burnett, Lucas, being represented in the membership. Their first church building was in 1866. The New Market society was organized in 1869, and a church built at that time. The organization in Wash- ington township was made about 1869-70.
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