Worthington Township Church History

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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