Dry Fork District

Dry Fork District

Flanagan Hill Church

Bright's Chapel

Bright's Chapel (from Parsons Advocate, 5 Apr 2000)

Bright's Chapel has a fascinating history with its original minister, Thomas Bright 1797-1873) carrying his mother's maiden Name, Bright. His father's name was Liptrap, but his arrival in America in 1772 was not a future he chose for himself or his family.

Records show that Thomas's parents, Isaac Liptrap and his wife, Mary Bright Liptrap, came to America aboard the ship Tayloe, after he had been reprieved from a prison in England. He had been indicted for breaking and entering the dwellinghouse of Eliezar Pigot and stealing numerous items including silver spoons, Iron spurs, leather boots and shoes, a woolen coat, a gown and a "powder-proof piece."
He was released and "... his sentence commuted to transportation to America (considered by many a worse fate than hanging) in July 1772," according to The Liptrap Fmaily in America, 1785-1985, a 1985 publication that was printed in Houston, TX.

Thier son, then using his father's last name, Thomas Liptrap, served as a private in Captain John Dickson's Company from Rockbridge county, VA, during the war of 1812.

It was this Thomas, later known as Thomas Bright, who was the first minister of the Bright's Chapel Church and ancestor of many local residents.

Thomas and his second wife, the former Margaret Cox (1795-1879), raised a large family in what is now Tucker County. They had been married more than 50 years at the time of his death.

Bright's Chapel was built along the north side of state route 72 about three and one-half miles north west of Red Creek. The original building was constructed of logs, built on a one-acre plot of ground deeded to the church by Bright's son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. James Carr.

The original trustees of the church, then Methodist Episcopal, were George Washington Bright, John W. Bright, his nephew, Hanson Bright, his brother-in-law Joab Carr and nephew Enos G. Carr.

A second section of land was donated, for use as additional cemetery, was given by Walter Hershberger.

A second church building was constructed in 1914, but was destroyed by fire.

Over a period of years, the church was rebuilt, mostly with volunteer labor of members. Until 1996, Ed Carpenter served as pastor.

Services were re-instituted last month with the Rev. Lonnie Daniels of Huttonsville, representing Union Mission Conference, serving as pastor for Sunday school, and both morning and evening worship services.

From the Parsons Advocate: 5 Apr. 2000. Used with permission of the Parsons Advocate.

Fireplace of Columbus Wolford, Intersection of Highways 32 and 72.

 

Jenningston, WV: History Of Jenningston, WV, by Keith Allen, II

Jenningston, West Virginia

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2001, Janet Cooper

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