Worthington
Township
Church History
The religious sentiment of this
township is well developed; the larger portion of its
people being connected with some church. It is found here as
elsewhere, that, long before the people were able to erect
churches, they had preaching at private houses and the old log
schoolhouses that began to spring up here and there in the woods,
as the settlements grew. Among the earliest ministers were
the Rev. James Johnson, of Mansfield; William
Hughes, George Leiter, Shadrick
Rhuark, George Hiskey and others.
One of the earliest church buildings was the old Union, or United
Presbyterian, located on Section 8; erected, and the society
organized, through the efforts of Rev. James Johnson,
who was its first Pastor. The first and most influential
members were the Laffertys, Halfertys,
Ramseys, John Robinson, William
Wilson, Peter Alexander and
others. The first building was of hewed log, and in after
years (about 1831), a frame addition was built. This
building and organization have long since disappeared, and
nothing remains to mark the spot but the graveyard in the
vicinity.In an early day, the Rev. William Hughes
established the church now known as the Clear Fork or Bunker Hill
Presbyterian Church, located on Section 23. Rev. Hughes
preached many years to the people of this neighborhood before the
building was erected. The first building was a
hewed-log, and the second, the present frame, was erected about
1850. To this church belonged, in an early day, the Moffats,
Prichards, Hazletts, McClellands
and (page ends)
This is a summary of a biography
found on page 631 of the book: History of Richland
County, Ohio, published in 1880 by A. A. Graham &
Company, Mansfield, OH. This book is held by the Richland County
Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 3823, Mansfield, OH 44907-0823.
Submitted by Gayle Vickery Pritchard: e-mail: [email protected] (note by submitter: Of interest: The
cemetery located at the Bunker Hill Church site contains a
large number of Pritchard and allied family graves.)
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