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| Ohio United Methodist church began with pioneers and logs |
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DARRTOWN, Ohio — The United Methodist Church at Walnut and Oxford streets in Darrtown was founded in 1810. This milestone calls for a big bicentennial celebration for every month of 2010.
Spread over this year-long period, former pastors and regional and state church dignitaries have spoken, or will be speaking. Government officials have also been asked to visit. Talented music soloists and groups are performing. Potluck socials are scheduled.
Special accounts of the church’s fascinating 200-year history will be shared in speech, print and pictures. The theme of the celebration is: His Story is Our Story.
But let’s start at the beginning. Ohio became a state in 1803. Gen. Anthony Wayne had previously driven most of the hostile Indians out of the territory. Land was offered at the Cincinnati land office for $2 an acre. People east of the Alleghenies heard about the bargain price for fertile land in Ohio, and many decided to head this way.
Every day hundreds of pioneers arrived in the Ohio wilderness, using horseback, teams of oxen, Conestoga wagons or their own feet. They forded streams as they traveled muddy or dusty paths once used by deer, buffalo, or Indians. They hacked their way through dense underbrush and they often dealt with harsh weather conditions as they traveled.
The members of our ancestral church made their way to the Beeler Settlement in Oxford Township, where they built their log cabins near Four Mile Creek. An itinerant Methodist circuit rider, Moses Crume, often came with Bible in hand to spread his message of “Jesus saves.”
In 1810, a log church was erected in the settlement with burial grounds nearby. No one today knows the exact spot, but it is here that our church was born. History tells the names of the people who started the church and that some 40 settlers were buried in the cemetery.
But the church and all the graves disappeared – likely after three or four decades. It is a mystery today to tell if fire or floodwaters destroyed what the Methodists had built.
The small congregation was not defeated by their loss. Instead they headed to the recently laid-out village of Darrtown and had services in the Town Hall and other temporary buildings. In 1871, with great financial effort, they built the present United Methodist Church.
In 1907, the church was heavily damaged by a tornado. The congregation rebuilt within a year. In 1955 and 1962, social rooms and modern conveniences were added to make the beautiful church we have today. The 2010 congregation is ready to take on the next 100 years.
To paraphrase a song in our Hymnal: “The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple, the church is not wood and stone, the church is the people.”
-Marna Evans |
| 7/21/2010 |
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