History
There is no record of regular meetings during the early years,
but tradition has it that there was preaching in the home of Colonel
Paxton near Loveland, Ohio. The first record of any movement
to secure a regular ministerial supply appears in the minutes of the
Washington Presbytery which met in Chillicothe, Ohio on April 12,
1812. At this meeting the people of Hamilton Township drew up
a petition asking that they be known to Presbytery as "Bethel
Congregation", and that they be supplied with a Preacher.
The Church was finally
organized on September 9, 1814, with a charter membership of 12
people.
In 1823 a house of
worship was built from logs from the surrounding forest. In
1825 the congregation was transferred into the Miami Presbytery for
the sake of convenience. In 1830 the church requested to be
transferred into the Presbytery of Cincinnati, where it remains to
this day.
In 1833 the church
had grown in membership to 151. On May 20, 1838 a group of 65
were dismissed to form a mission church at Goshen, Ohio. On
July 4, 1839 the congregation dedicated a new brick worship building
40 ft. by 50 ft. It was at this time that a Samuel B. Walker
transferred the land on which the church was built to the Trustees
of the Bethel Congregation. Also at this time there was felt
the need for a manse, and in 1849 the manse still standing was
completed. In 1869 plans were started to build a new church
building. The new church was completed and dedicated on the
fourth Sunday of November in 1872.
In September, 1914
the church celebrated its 100th anniversary, with over 300 people in
attendance from district communities and states, many having been
former members. The same thing happened in 1964 at the 150th
anniversary.
from Bicentennial
Biographies: Congregational Histories of the Presbytery of
Cincinnati 1790-1990 |
