By Flossie Coggeshall.
Methodism was founded in Indiana in 1802 in Clark's grant. Whitewater circuit was the first, belonging to the Ohio district, old Western conference, extending from the Ohio river as far north as there were settlements.
Rev. Holman, of Louisville, Ky., preached the first sermon in Randolph county in the Ephriam Bowen cabin near Crete, in 1814, to thirty people. The text was taken from Jeremiah 8:22.
Rev. William Kennedy, A Methodist itinerant, preached the first sermon in Ward Township in 1820.
Religious services were first brought to the early settlers by these itinerant preachers, riding horseback with their Bibles and a scant supply of religious literature in their saddlebags. As the news of their arrival spread, the people came together for a service of Bible reading, exhortation, hymn singing, and a period of social exchange. The travelers carried the news from place to place. The home selected for this purpose was indeed favored.
These gatherings led later to camp meetings, where thousands came and camped for one or two weeks, and in many instances a month for continued religious services.
Those who attended the religious services were serious, earnest folk, meeting for the purpose of worship and the study of God's Word. The movement was the source of a great spiritual awakening at this period of our local history.
Some of the places where these meetings were held were: Union Chapel, in West River township, Mt. Zion, at Spartanburg, Union City and at the Winchester fairgrounds, Arba, in Greensfork township, Windsor, in Stoney Creek township, Shiloh, north of Farmland, Chenoweth grove, at Bartonia, the Ritenhour home near Deerfield.
Later some of these points were dropped, and in 1871 the circuit consisted of four churches. Because of better facilities for a pastor's home, Ridgeville was made head of the circuit, and the building of a parsonage was begun, but because of a depression was finished until 1874. Rev. H.N. Herrick was assigned as pastor to the church which was Ridgeville, Deerfield and Prospect.
In 1874, Saratoga built a brick church and this replaced the Prospect church, thus the Saratoga Methodist church was formed. Zoar of the Portland circuit was added to the circuit again, and in 1895 New Dayton was included but this adding and dividing ended with the division of the four main churches into two circuits: Ridgeville-New Dayton, and Saratoga-Deerfield.
As the services of the pastor had to be divided among the various points, class leaders were appointed by the membership to continue services when the pastor was not present. Among the names of these in the early records were Abraham Renbarger, W.L. Bundy, W.A. Davis, Jos. Kemp, and later in our own class, J.W. Owens and Luther Crumb served faithfully many years.
The Saratoga Methodist church had it's beginning in 1826 in the home of Samuel Helms on a farm north of Saratoga, on what is now highway 28, now owned by the Fraziers. Here a few neighbors met with the Helms and organized for regular religious study and worship, holding the meetings in the different homes in turn. Some of these were Judge Daniel Miller and wife, Riley Marshall and wife, Phillip Hess and wife, Allan Wall and wife.
Riley Marshall was the grandfather of Ex-Vice President Marshall and his cabin was located on the W.E. Coggeshall farm as of now. He settled here in 1821.
This method served until the members were able to erect a church, which was 1841, under the direction of Rev. Boyden. It was named Prospect, and a cemetery was laid out near. It was a frame building with two entrances, each opening on a tier of seats divided by a partition about three feet high. The men were seated on one side, the women on the other. All that remains to mark the site is the cemetery where many of those who worshipped there lie buried beneath the sunken and broken stones.
In 1878 a brick church was erected on the Main street of Saratoga where the I.O.O.F. building now stands. The bell was purchased by my grandmother Ann Warren, and it rang for the first time at her funeral. which was held in the church before it was dedicated.
This is the same bell that hangs in the belfry of the church on Pearl street. The ground for this church was broken and the cornerstone laid in the spring of 1902, and dedicated June 7, 1903, Rev. Parr, presiding Elder and Rev. Solomon Harter, pastor, officiating. The Board of Trustees at that time were as follows: President C. Allen Sipe, treasurer, W.R. Warren, secretary, J.W. Owens, Joseph Warren, Fletcher Warren and Anthony Almonrode and Ervin Girton served as Sunday School Superintendents for many years.
My earliest memories of church attendance is sitting in the old brick church as a member of the infant class, in the "Amen Corner." The name was not a nick name, but a definite name of a place, the same as pulpit or choir loft. No one seemed to know how it originated but every church seemed to have one.
The teacher was Uncle Dave Pogue, who had snow white hair and beard, and gentle blue eyes, and as he was very deaf he spoke quite loudly, and acted out the Bible stories as he told them to the children. Needless to say, none of the other teachers in the one room church received much attention.
This sketch tells very little of the struggles against great odds to bring to bring to us the heritage we possess today. These old pioneers kindled the flame that still burns. May we, who now have the responsibility of keeping the embers glowing, be as steadfast as they and keep the covenant they made with God of their Fathers over a century ago.
The early pastors who served the Deerfield circuit in the early days: Thomas Sells 1867-70, M.G. Metts 1871, A.M. Kerwood 1872, H.N. Herrick 1873-74, G.P. Work 1875-76, Milton Wayman 1877, J.W. McDaniels 1878, James Leonard 1879, T.E. Madden 1880, D.S. Harrison 1880-83, J.W. Lowery 1884-85, J.D. Bills 1886-88, Charles Harvey 1889-90, J.W. Gambel & S.F. Harter 1891, Albert Cone 1892-93, A.C. Gerald 1894, J.W. Bowen 1895-96, Henry Lacy 1897-99, H.H. Compton 1900-01.
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