The oldest house of worship in continuous use by the same congregation in the state of Ohio is that of the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church. It sets on a hilltop above Poasttown. But its congregation is older than the brick building.

The Mt. Pleasant group was a direct offspring of that first church in the Miami Valley founded at Columbia, now part of Cincinnati, on Jan. 20, 1790. The church site was located on a knoll just off Turkey Bottom Road, opposite the present Lunken Airport. Rev. Daniel Clark was the first minister. One group from the church founded a church at Trenton, and the log structure erected housed the first Baptist congregation in Butler County. It was built on Michael Pearce's land, who also donated additional land for a cemetery. Elder Stephen Gard was the leader, and married one of Pearce's daughters. In 1995 the City of Trenton acquired this site, and established a small founder's park there at the intersection of State Street and Hamilton Ave.

The first Conference of Baptist churches was held in 1799. The Elk Creek Church was admitted in 1800. A few of its charter members had come from the Browns Run area, but it was a long way to travel in pioneer times. Around 1815 those Baptist living northeast of Trenton began to worship at the homes fellow churchmen, holding special open air camp meetings in the summer at the burying ground site on a hilltop, now north of Thomas Road. Land was given the congregation adjacent to the cemetery by the Lucas family, which had a land grant awarded for service in the Revolutionary War. The first person baptized was Samuel Lucas. The church used the mouth of Browns Run for this ritual.

In 1819 the congregation decided to build a log church, typical of that of the day. Members scouted out tall trees with a diameter of 12 to 14 inches to produce logs the size needed for a 20 by 30 foot meeting house. After rolling in the logs to the site. the men gathered with their tools--broad axe, adze, frow, auger and saws-- and raised a building, Using no nails in construction, its being pegged together. A puncheon ceiling was laid on the pole rafters above to form an attic. Here brothers who came from a distance to worship on the week-end slept overnight, while the women were guests in the homes of nearby Baptists. Services were usually beld once a month, when the circuit rider came around.

Elder Wilson Thompson, who left his autobiography, was called as pastor. This noted minister of the frontier was known to preach to crowds of 400 to 500 people at camp meetings. The Baptist Association admitted the Mt. Pleasant Church at its convention at Springfield in 1819. At the time it listed 37 members; messengers: David Stephens and Samuel Lewis. Elder Thompson guided the Mt. Pleasant group's rapid growth and by 1836 a new building was needed. With bricks burned on the site, the new church was erected. Some of the church furniture. including its pulpit was built by a local cabinet maker Thomas Wilson, whose name is still remembered in that of Middletown's oldest memorial home.

Mt. Pleasant church served as host to the Miami Baptist Association for the years 184 1, 1856, 1872, and 1879. The church is still active, but it became best known for its hosting of an old-fashioned Decoration Day service each year since 1888.

The oldest known burial ground in Madison Township is likely the one at Mt. Pleasant, a hilltop overlooking the valley in which old Poasttown is located. From time immemorial, the spirits of the honored dead have dwelt there. Archeologists have discovered ancient ashes from campfires and human bones of ages past, indicating people once used the hilltop for religious ceremonies and burial of their dead. All the names are gone, except the generic ones of Mound Builder and Indian, save one. Pioneers recalled Chief Tom Killbuck who lived along Elk Creek and befriended the early settlers, as being buried at Mt. Pleasant, but his simple creek-bed memorial flatstone rock is gone. In this cemetery also rests those early families such as Lucas, Selby, Banker, Hinkle, Barcalow, Gephart, Mills and others.

Dr. Eldon A. Huchison. whose pastorate began at Mt. Pleasant in 1914, and ended with his death in 1981 once recalled that he had conducted services in the church with interment in the cemetery for soldiers of the Mexican War, The Civil War, the western Indian wars, the Spanish-America War, the Philippine insurrection, both World Wars, the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Only a Communion Cup is a museum in left as a reminder of the old church that was first known as the "German Church" that stood overlooking Elk Creek at the Zion Cemetery. Its location was at the site at Elk Creek Cemetery where there is a small mausoleum.

The church had acquired an acre of ground from James Doer for $18. Two congregations joined in a cooperative effort of erecting one building, shared for separate worship services-- the Lutheran Church and the Evangelical Reformed Church. However, according to mutual agreement, all services were to be conducted in "High German" forever.

The first church building, likely a log structure, was dedicated Aug. 31, 1817, with four clergymen present-- the Reverends Diehl, Becker, Winders, and Simons. Henry Hoffmen and John Weichel were trustees. Among the later pastors was Levi Rike, who lived in the toll house at West Middletown, acting also as a toll collector.

Sometime during the 1840's the original log church was replaced with a brick structure. Finally the two congregations merged into the Zion Reformed Church. In the early 1900's the church was still holding services. According to one account, its last minister rode a bicycle from Hamiliton each Sunday to conduct services, still German. But one Sunday, the pastor stopped at Trenton where he went into a tavern to drink a glass of beer. Hearing of this the congregation fired him, but were never able to find a replacement.

South of Trenton in the Amish settlement two churches were founded. One on the Christian Sloneker farm, was the original Augspurger Church whose congregation practiced the old Amish customs, while a more modern group was headed by Rev. Peter Naffzinger, pastor of the new congregation, which also built a church, to be known as the Hessian Church. The two congregations were referred to as the "hook and eye church" with the newer one being the "Button Church" due to the ways members fastened their clothing. Eventually the two churches merged in 1897 forming a congregation of 250 and in 1907 built a new church in Trenton.

The United Brethren Church, which had begun as a German Religious sect was among the first in Ohio. When the lands west of the Great Miami River were opened for sale in 1800, immigrants began to arrive. Among the families was that of the Kemps. Jacob Kemp bought a section of land and a portion of another in what would become Madison Township, near the West Middletown of today. Two brothers, John and Daniel Kemp a few years later purchased other sections of land in the township. near their brother's holdings.

Eighteen year-old Jacob Kemp and his wife settled in the township in 1806. He cleared his own land for cultivation of crops and encouraged other men whom he had known in Berks County, Pennsylvania to move to Madison. He was one of the leaders in the movement to create a new township out of Lemon and at his home the first township elections were held in 1810.

Kemp assisted in the organization of the old Miami Circuit of the United Brethern Church, in which in 1818 he had become an elder, after serving as a circuit minister since 1811. Kemp would be the prime force behind the organization of three United Brethren churches in the township, as well as others along the Miami Circuit. In 1811 Kemp had organized the first group, known in church language as Classes, at Miltonville, with members meeting in each others homes. In a deed recorded May 1823 is the note that a site was sold in Miltonville 'for consideration of the sum of $6 ... for the promotion of religion." It was stated that the trustees would construct a "Methodist and United Brethren meeting house" with land around it "for a burying ground to be free to any person... wishing to bury their deceased friend in the same." Here cooperation is shown between the United Brethren and Methodist churches.

But a merger wouldn't take place until 1968. An old Atlas locates a
Methodist Church at Jacktown (Astoria). It was on land donated by the Walter family as was the old cemetery, which is still in use along Elk Creek Road. The church once stood at the Southwest edge of the cemetery.

A log church was built on the ground at Poasttown. Rev. Jacob Kemp was its first minister. Miami Conference records of the United Brethren Church note that a church was built there in 1853, closed in 1859, reopened in 1924 and closed in 1927. The building was to have an unusual history. For a time after closing it became the church home of a Baptist congregation that had split off from Mt. Pleasant Baptist due to a controversy over the use of musical instruments in church services. The building still stands and has been converted into a comfortable home. It is along the Frankin-Trenton Road adjacent to Poasttown School.

One of Rev. Kemp's churches would survive to become known as the Pleasant Ridge United Brethern Church and lovingly as "The Little White Church on the Hill". It had begun as the "Kemp Class", as these early religious groups were known, organized in 1822 for those living in the immediate West Middletown neighborhood. According to an old record, the meetings were held in Rev. Kemp's home or barn or other homes of members. In 1849 the group decided to erect a brick Chapel in which to worship. John H. Kemp and Jacob Bake obtained from Jacob Emerick's farm and acre of ground "in consideration of $48.60."

The Church was erected the following year as noted in the "Religious Telescope" a publication of the U.B. Church. It read: "Dedication of the Church at Kemp's and Emerick's to be Nov. 9, 1850 at I o'clock." At the annual Conference in 1850 the new church known as Pleasant Ridge was placed on the Germantown circuit. Early services were in German and very simple.

The Civil War was a difficult one for members of the church. Some were very strong antislavery advocates, while others felt the church should not become involved in the issue Rev. Jacob Emerick was a very outspoken opponent of slavery, even travelling for the Anti-Salvery Society. He eventually left Pleasant Ridge to join the Christian Union Church, after the conflict ended, a revival brought 60 new members in the church - all of whom were baptized in Elk Creek.

During the post-war period the Church reached out to become a community church. The church grew so much during the following decades that by 1889 it proposed that It open a mission in Middletown and the Conference of that year meeting in Miamisburg accepted a motion to open such a mission. In 1891 a Chapel was erected at the corner of Philadelphia and Baltimore in Middletown, to be replaced by an ediface in 1900. It would become Faith Methodist.

Although the basic 1850 Chapel remains as the Sanctuary at Pleasant Ridge, the building has grown along with the congregation. In 1939 a basement was dug under the structure to provide Sunday School Rooms. In 1960 plans were drawn to add a new fellowship unit by extending eastward. At the same time the Chapel was remodeled. The pulpit was returned to its original location and the chapel restored to its early American appearance. The project was completed in 1962.

The United Brethren Church had merged with the Evangelical in 1945 and in 1968 united with the Methodist Church. This union was completed in June 1970 when the church became Pleasant Ridge United Methodist Church. Rev. Jacob Kemp, one of the founders of the old Miami Circuit, undoubtedly assisted in the organization of a United Brethren worship group north of Poasttown, where he had established a church. Unfortunately the early records of the Union Chapel United Methodist Church, now at 8284 Keister Road, has been lost. It is known, however, that Union Chapel was originally on the same circuit as Miltonville, Pleasant Ridge and Poasttown, later being placed on other circuits. This church group was organized around 1825.

At the time it was placed on the circuit and was visited by United Brethren Clergy. These were dedicated preachers, traveled on horseback, carrying a change of clothes, medicine and sermons in their saddlebags. In the early years they held services in a farmer's grove or barn belonging to a member. People came from miles around, traveling corduroy or mud roads by horseback or wagon. Sometimes meetings were held over the week-end and church members nearby would house and feed those from a distance. These Christian pioneers always had a dream in mind--their own chapel in which to worship.

For this church the dream grew into reality. On March 21, 1861, the Board of Trustees, Peter Hetzler, Conrad Frey and John Carney Jr. purchased a half acre of ground from Lewis and Elizabeth Shuey for $50. Then they proceeded to erect a chapel for $450, made from brick burned near the site. In an old "Minute Book" kept by Henry Carney is noted and attendance of 51 persons at one meeting. To Indicate their support of the Union cause, just as the Civil War was beginning, the church was named Union Chapel. Several of its members volunteered for duty, and a few never returned. In August 1864 Union Chapel hosted the Miami Conference.

The first major renovation came in 1887 when pews replaced the simple wooden benches donated by Conrad Frey at the buildings construction. At the same time the simple wall lamps were replaced by a chandelier and a new carpet laid. The next change came in 1905 when and addition was made to the original building and a new belfrey erected to hold a 350 pound bell. In 1933 Armco Steel Corporation of Middletown donated a galvanized metal roof, as it had also done for Pleasant Ridge. This was followed by the installation of electricity in 1938.

In 1943 Union Chapel became a full-time pastorate. The year 1950 brought an addition to the rear of the building. In 1957 a new sanctuary was erected to the east of the old structure and in 1960 came a new parsonage and another addition and remodeling. Major damage was inflicted by a fire set by an arsonist in 1977, but the church recovered from the damage and since has continued to progress into one of the major churches in the township. Included among its many community services are activities
for senior citizens. (Union Chapel historical highlights were provided by church historian. Ruth Brown).

In West Middletown on Sycamore Street stood another place of worship. It was first known as the West Middletown Chapel, a mission of the First Baptist Church of Middletown. It was organized in 1889 and the Chapel was soon erected through the efforts of the people of the village. Those who made major contributions were John R. Shafor, L.D. Doty, Frank McFall, and Mrs. Donelly. Sunday School was held each Sunday morning through the efforts of devoted teachers, while church services were conducted either on Friday evening or Sunday afternoon by the pastor of First Baptist.

The Chapel became self-supporting through the efforts of such families as the Shartles. Kemps, Faries and McFalls. The young people even presented plays to help pay the bills. The Chapel was also the scene of the annual Eighth Grade Graduation ceremonies of Madison Township Schools. Every election day the women of the church served lunch. A Ladies Aid Society was active in both church and community affairs. The historic building is still in use. It is now here that the West Middletown Church of God, 5350 Vine St.. worships.

In addition to the churches meeting in their historic buildings, during the past generation with the great influx of new residents, several beautiful, modern church edifaces have been erected throughout the township housing new congregations. Among them are the Christian Assembly of God, 6830 Trenton-Franklin Road according to Joyce Kings research this church was started in 1966 as an Independent church called New Life Temple with Pastor Dean Sheets. Services had been held in Lincoln School at Middletown until the building was constructed, with a first addition being in 1968. In 1972 it became an Assembly of God Church under Pastor Kenny Henderson. H.O. Rosenberg was the first Assembly of God Pastor. In 1983 the present sanctuary was built under Pastor Rick Ross, and in 1988 the Youth Sanctuary was erected under Pastor Don Dohm, the current senior pastor. The Poasttown First Church of God at 6376 Germantown Road, despite a humble beginning, has prospered and grown becoming a major force for good in the community. Several ministers have served the group since its founding in 1957, in order, the list reads: the Reverends Nelson, Mathis, O'Hair, Neal, Williamson, Hutchison, E. Wallace, Thornbery, Newell, Miller, and at present, Randy Wallace.

While the Baptists were the first to form a church in Madison Township, first at Trenton in 1801 and then at Mt. Pleasant above Poasttown, other congregations have since been organized. Pastor Eric Brazelton guides the Miltonville Baptist Church located at 4475 Elk Creek Road. Pastor Carvin Bryant is spiritual leader of the Elk Creek Baptist Church at 7175 Elk Creek Road--an affiliate of the Southern Baptist group. The Western Hills Baptist Church, 57 10 West Alexandria Road, is led by the Rev. Shelby Howard. The Trinity Baptist Church is located along the Trenton-Franklin Road just north of West Middletown. The Church of God in Jesus has its fine modern home at 5604 West Alexandria Road, where the pastor is Arnold Brewer.

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