West Baptist Church at Lebanon (1836-1881)

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The History of Warren County, Ohio

West Baptist Church at Lebanon (1836-1881)

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Transcription contributed by Arne H Trelvik 27 Jul 2003

Sources:
The History of Warren County Ohio
Part IV Township Histories
Turtle Creek Township
(Chicago, IL: W. H. Beers Co, 1882; reprint, Mt. Vernon, IN: Windmill Publications, 1992)
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The first minute of this church is: “Saturday before the fourth Lord’s Day in November, 1836, the church met after worship and proceeded to business by appointing Benjamin Bundy, Moderator, and Zepheniah Hart, Clerk.” At this meeting, articles of faith, seven in number, were adopted. The following is the fifth article: “We believe that Christ bore the sins of all the elect and those only, in his own body on the tree, and that the redemption obtained by the blood of Christ is special and particular, viz., it was only intended for the elect of God and sheep of Christ, as they only share the special benefits thereof.” One of the original rules adopted by the church was: “Members are to be received by a unanimous vote, and all other business to be determined by a majority.”

At the first meeting, a committee, consisting of Benjamin Bundy, John Bonham and Thompson Lam, was appointed to make a division of the property belonging to the original church between the two branches into which it was divided. This committee afterward recommended that the Western Church retain the old church and all the property appertaining thereto, except the communion ware, and pay to the Eastern Church $750; and that the Eastern Church have the use of the meeting-house one-half of the time until it could erect a new house of worship , this time, however, not to extend beyond January 1, 1838.

On the Saturday before the fourth Lord’s Day, in July, 1837, a council met for the purpose of regularly constituting and organizing the church. There were present from Bethel, Hezekiah Stites, Nathan Clark and Josias Lambert; from Clear Creek, David Williams; from Muddy Creek, D. Laymon, R. Witham and D. Manning; from Elk Creek, Joseph Kelly and S. M. Potter; from Tapscott, James Barkalow, Thomas Shinn and John Cox; from Fairfield, Elder Thomas Childers. After mature deliberation, the council constituted the church on the articles of faith adopted by the congregation in November, 1836. On the same day, the church elected its first officers: Zepheniah Hart and Thomas Lamb, Deacons; J. B. Drake, Treasurer, and Samuel Drake, Clerk. The church has had but two clerks in its whole history. Samuel Drake was the

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church clerk from 1837 until his death, June 16, 1865; E. S. Culy, from 1865 until the present time.

Rune R. Coon preached for the church for more than a year and was succeeded by Elders Hezekiah Stites and Samuel Williams, who were joint pastors for about twenty years. Elder Williams was pastor for about thirty years. The pastors have generally been men of little education, but some of them have had good natural abilities.

The church occupied the old house of worship until 1860, when a new brick church was built, sixty feet long and forty-five feet wide – a plain and substantial edifice, erected at a cost of $4,031. It was first occupied in October, 1860, and is the present place of worship.

In 1837, the church had seventy-two members. Its membership is now small, and there is regular preaching but one Sunday each month. The whole number of members received from the organization to September, 1881, was 163, of which number more than one-half were received during the first ten years of its existence. Nine persons have been received into the church during the last ten years. Although they are few in numbers, the members show no disposition to falter in their rigid adherence to their original articles of faith. They claim to be the original and regular Baptists. They look with disfavor on Sunday schools, missionary, temperance and tract societies, and regard the doctrine of a general atonement as the heresy which first made the gulf between the schools of Baptists and which still keeps the gulf open.

The following are the names of the pastors of the church. In its early history, there were generally two pastors in charge of the congregation at the same time: Elder Rune R. Coon, November, 1836, to April, 1838; Elder Hezekiah Stites, 1838 to 1857; Elder Samuel Williams, 1839 to 1868; Elder William Dodd, 1862 to 1864; Elder John A. Thompson, January, 1869; died August 24, 1875; Elder Daniel Hess, April, 1876, to April, 1879; Elder George Tussing, April, 1879, to November, 1879; Elder J. A. Thomas, November, 1879, to November, 1880; Elder Daniel Hess, December, 1880.


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This page created 27 Jul 2003 and last updated 25 November, 2012
© 2003-2004 Arne H Trelvik  All rights reserved

 

Warren County Ohio GenWeb

 

The History of Warren County, Ohio

PART IV. Township Histories

Turtlecreek Township


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Transcription contributed by

Sources:
The History of Warren County Ohio
(Chicago, IL: W. H. Beers Co, 1882; reprint, Mt. Vernon, IN: Windmill Publications, 1992)
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Related Links:
 

West Baptist Church at Lebanon

 

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Churches

 

 

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This page created 27 July 2003 and last updated 25-Nov-2012
© 2003  Arne H Trelvik  All rights reserved