The Lebanon Presbyterian Church
The Lebanon Presbyterian Church
Lebanon, Warren, Ohio
History, Baptisms, Communicants
submitted by Shirlene
L Jensen
Reprinted here from the Marie Dickore
Research Collection
and with the permission of Alma Ryan, Director of the Family History
Center
in Norwood, Ohio, holder of said collection.
Go to:
Baptisms, Lebanon
Presbyterian
Church
Register of CommunicantsRegister of
Communicants
There is no record of any Presbyterian
congregation in
the village of Lebanon before 1806, although an application for pulpit
administration submitted to Washington Presbytery in October 1797,
indicates
that there were three in the area at that time.
The Lebanon Church was organized only
after the collapse
of Turtle Creek congregation at Bedle’s Station in 1805. Turtle Creek
Church
had been established soon after Wayne’s treaty with the Indians in
1795.
As soon as it seemed safe many Cincinnati families moved onto the rich
lands of the Miami Valley. The settlement at Bedle’s Station and at
Turtle
Creek, the present site of Lebanon, formed a single neighborhood for
all
practical purposes. Those who settled in the are of Bedle’s Station
were
predominately Presbyterian and included the Reeders, Seerings,
Ticheners
and Morrises who were among the founders of the Cincinnati Presbyterian
Church. With such a substantial beginning the church became important
and
attracted Cincinnati’s James Kemper as minister for a short
time.
Kemper was followed by Richard McNemar, one of the leaders of
the
Kentucky Revival, whose congregation overran the church building and
outdoor
meetings became the rule. When McNemar was converted to Shakerism in
1805
most of his congregation followed him and Turtle Creek Church ceased to
exist.
The few faithful Presbyterians there
joined with those
north and east of the village and established the First Presbyterian
Church
of Lebanon. The met in the old court house on the corner of Broadway
and
Main until 1817 when a church was built. The early records of this
congregation
was consumed by fire when the store of Daniel Voorhis was
burned
in 1814. The first court record of these Presbyterians is a deed for
land
for a burial ground, which was recorded in 1806. John Shaw sold
one acre to Jonathan Tichener and Abner Smith, as
trustees.
Josiah Morrow wrote that this site had been used for burials as
early as 1799.
When the first church was built in 1817 it
was erected
in the center of the lot on the corner of Warren and East Street where
the second church building was dedicated February 11, 1859, by Reverend
Thomas E Thomas.
In 1836 a Cumberland Presbyterian Church
was established,
largely from the members of this church and in 1931 became The Lebanon
Presbyterian Church.
Baptisms,
Lebanon Presbyterian
Church
Register of Communicants