Churches of Ohio: Difference between revisions

Religion has always been important to people of Ohio. Beginning with the native inhabitant’s religious activities that are evident by the earthworks that they left behind. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moravian_Church Moravian missionaries]<ref>[https://roots.moravianchurcharchives.org/ Moravian Church Genealogy Links]</ref> are thought to be among the first whites that sought to bring Christianity to the [http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=584 Delaware Indians].  

==== '''Advent Christian''' ====

*[http://www.digitalshoebox.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/steubenbks&CISOPTR=18697&REC=0&CISOBOX=amish&CISOSHOW=18769 Advent Christian] was organized by the Rev. Horace L. Hastings and the Rev.Miles Grant. <ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

==== '''Seventh-day Adventist''' ====

*[http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=2092 Seventh-day Adventist] was originally called the [http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=2092 Millerites] after their founder William Miller, the name was later changed to [http://www.digitalshoebox.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/steubenbks&CISOPTR=18697&REC=0&CISOBOX=amish&CISOSHOW=18769 Seventh-day Adventist] in 1848. <ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

*In the 1700's Ohio, there were several orders of the [http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=573&nm=Amish Amish] faith found in Ohio. They are the Old Order, New Order, Swartzentruber, Beachy, Andy Weaver, and the conservative Mennonites and the [http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/amishhome/ Amish Mennonites]. Most of the orders held church services in their homes. The Mennonites usually have service in church buildings. In the 1700's between 50 and 100 Amish families arrived in America, settling mostly in [http://www.mb-soft.com/believe/text/mennonit.htm Pennsylvania]. Many others followed in the 19th century. Over the years, various orders of Amish spread into Ohio. <ref>[http://www.ohioamishcountry.com/whoare.html Who are the Amish?]</ref> <ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

*In 1905 [http://www.ag.org/enrichmentjournal/199904/006_facts.cfm T. K. Leonard], a pastor in Findlay, received the Pentecostal message and the experience, and became a pioneer for the movement in Ohio.<ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" /> The [http://enrichmentjournal.ag.org/199904/006_facts.cfm Assemblies of God]has always considered itself a “voluntary, cooperative fellowship” rather than a denomination.

*"In January of 1790 in a block house near what is now Cincinnati, nine earnest men and women organized this [http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=576 Baptist Church]. The land was given by one Major Sites and he united with the church the next day after the gift.The Rev. John Gano was the first pastor to be followed later by the [http://columbia-baptist.org/ Rev. John Smith].

*[http://www.oll.state.oh.us/your_state/remarkable_ohio/marker_details.cfm?marker_id=1094 Campbellites], or Disciples of Christ, founded in the 1820s by Thomas and Alexander Campbell.

*[http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=577 History of the Campbellites]

*Christian Union was officially organized on the third day of February 3, 1864, in Columbus, Ohio. Rev. J. F. Given,The publisher of the Christian Union Witness, Rev. J. F. Given and Dr. J. V. B. Flack of Illinois, were two of the most influential men of the Christian Union movement..<ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

*Central Community Church of Columbus was organized in the Old Canal Hotel on February 6, 1843. On December 17 1843 the congregation was please to announce the dedication of a new church building. The congregation took action to give women an equal voice in church management. <ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

*The Rev. Joseph Doddridge, a visiting minister, made trips across the river to Ohio from what is now West Virginia, to the village that was at the site of the old Fort Steuben. In 1796 he was holding regular monthly meetings there and was ordained a priest in 1800. The parish was organized in Steubenville, in 1819. <ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

*Mennonites had migrated to the United States and Canada in search for religious freedom. The actual founding of the movement was originally spearheaded by a body of Zwinglian dissenters in Zurich, Switzerland. Jacob Rupp of Archbold, and later Abraham Steiner of Bluffton, became leaders of Evangelical Mennonite Church in Ohio. This movement began in the years 1864-66. <ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

*Preaching in Montgomery, Preble and Warren Counties, Rev. John Jacob La Rose came to Ohio from North Carolina. His preaching began in 1805, then in 1809 he organized St. John Church at Germantown. Rev. Thomas Winters became the pastor in Germantown in 1815, and organized congregations in Miami Valley were he also served as Pastor. <ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

*Rev. B. L. Leonard and Robert Cossum established the first congregation of the Church of God Pentecostal in Findlay, Ohio, early in 1907. Rev. Efford Haynes set the church in order in 1909 after arriving in Chillicothe from Cleveland, Tennessee. <ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

*Cincinnati had the largest Jewish community in Ohio in 1849, numbering an estimated 4,000 our of a population of 155,00.<ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

*Most of the [http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=602&nm=Lutheran-Church Lutheran's] in early Ohio, spoke only German so most of their early services were conducted in German. They gravitated toward Germantown and Germantown's many townships. <ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />  

*Among the first [http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=604 Mennonites] to settle in Ohio were Christian Stehman (Stemen) and his family, who came to Fairfield County, Ohio, from Red Stone, Penn., Brennemans from Virginia, the Beerys, the Hubers, the Goods, the Shanks, the Funks, the Gingeriches and more. They began to settle in the Northwest territory in 1803. Henry Stemen, the son of Christian, was ordained to the ministry in 1809.

*Francis M'Cormick, John Kobler, Lewis Hunt, Henry Smith, and Colonel Joseph Moore, were all instrumental in establishing the Methodist Faith in Ohio. The first Methodist Church in the Northwest Territory was built on land beside the Scioto Brush Creek in 1800-1801. <ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

*August 28, 1830, was the date the Western Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church was organized at Hillsboro, Ohio. There were 15 ministers and 1,194 members that covered the territory west of the Allegheny Mountains. <ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

*The A. M. E. Zion Church is an offshoot church organized by Bishop J.W. Hood in September of 1891. <ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

*[http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=2454 Wesleyan Methodist Church], the predecessor of the Wesleyan Church of America left the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1843. Strong opposition to slavery was a primary reason for this break-away. <ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

*Christian Frederick Post and John Heckewelder had been sent by the [http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=609 Moravians] to Ohio in 1764 . They made their first attempt establish a mission near what is now Bolivar, on the Tuscarawas River. David Zeisberger preached to the Delaware Indians.<ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

*1908 brought an organization of a central district of the church, comprised from Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. <ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

*The Church of the New Jerusalem was formally organized in 1811, and in 1818 the church was incorporated. Thomas Newport organized the Western Association of the New Jerusalem Church in 1818. Newport's farm held this congregation's first annual meeting, hosting approximately 300 people. <ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

*In October of 1792, the members of Transylvania Presbytery came into Ohio to meet in the first Protestant church. Columbus, Cincinnati, Marietta and most of the other towns in Ohio had [http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=620 Presbyterian churches] by the early 1820's. <ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

*Frenchman set up the first Catholic white settlement in 1790 at Gallipolis near Marietta. Cincinnati hand another group of Irish origin in 1811. <ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

*The Salvation Army, which came from England, was in organized in Cleveland, Ohio by 1872. <ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

==== The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ====

*During the autumn of 1830, four missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints introduced the restored gospel to the communities of northeastern Ohio as they made their way to preach to the Indians west of Missouri. The Elders were Ziba Peterson, [http://www.mormonwiki.com/Oliver_Cowdery Oliver Cowdery] and [http://www.mormonwiki.com/Peter_Whitmer_Home Peter Whitmer], they called upon [http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=611 Sidney Rigdon], pastor of a congregation of the Disciples of Christ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbellites (Campbelliltes)] at Kirtland, Ohio. [http://www.mormonwiki.com/Sidney_Rigdon Sidney Rigdon], along with a part of his congregation became converted and thus started the beginning of the [https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/#FlashPluginDetected%20Church%20of%20Jesus%20Christ%20of%20Latter-day%20Saints'%20episode%20in%20Ohio's%20early%20history].<ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />

*Belpre and Marietta organized [http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=641&nm=Universalist-Church Universalist] congregations at the same time in 1818. <ref name="Churches in the Buckeye Country" />