History of the Church of God at Smithville, Ohio

    "One Hundredth Anniversary, The First Church of God Sanctuary and the One Hundred and Thirty-Fourth Year of the Oldest Church in Smithville and the Oldest Church of God in Ohio, December 10, 1967"  History of the Church of God at Smithville, Ohio

• • Church history has two sides, a divine and human. The divine is God's revelation of His wisdom, justice, mercy, love, and plan of well-being for mankind. The human side is largely the biography of the moral and spiritual development of those who have come under the saving power of the gospel.

    The human side of the history of this church goes back to John Winebrenner, the founder of the Church of God. Winebrenner began the building of scriptural organizations by adopting the apostolic plan as taught in the New Testament, and establishing spiritual, free, and independent churches, consisting of believers or Christians only. Each local church would accept no human name, creed, or ordinances; but would adopt the divine name, creed, and ordinances. His work started in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1825 but it soon began to reach to neighboring towns.

    The one town of special interest in connection with the history of the Smithville church is Church-town. From this place, a number of people converted under Winebrenner emigrated to Smithville and formed this organization. 

    As the history of the early organization of the church at Smithville is more or less shrouded with darkness for want of definite knowledge, and as reports of the oldest citizens of the neighborhood do not exactly tally because they can only give from memory as it has been handed down to them; we will be enlightened upon this part from the History of the Churches of God. "As glorious reports reached the East of the fertility of the soil, the cheapness of farm land, and the prosperity of citizens generally, the families of the church became early infected with the western fever and emigrated in considerable numbers to the 'new land flowing with milk and honey' and even 'like the Garden of Eden'."

    They settled in Wayne County, and by 1833 had associated themselves together in different localities for public religious services. Joseph Adams was their first minister. In 1883 J. Greeger was appointed second minister to work with Joseph Adams. In 1834 Thomas Hickernell and Jacob Keller were appointed to the "Ohio Circuit." When Keller and Hickernell went to Ohio, they "took up twelve appointments to commence with."  By the end of two years "our appointments had swelled to forty." Wayne County was the principal part of their work, and was divided into two circuits, the Eastern and Western, and two ministers were appointed to each.

    The families of a church are its surest seed. They commend or discredit the faith which they receive. The families that migrated from Churchtown to Smithville proved to be both sure and good seed and they began earnestly to contend for the faith of the Churches of God by forming an organization and adopting the following convenant:
 "We, the undersigned, do hereby mutually covenant and agree to form ourselves into a church of God on the New Testament plan.
 "We further agree to take the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as the only authoritative rule of our Christian faith and practice.
 "And moreover, we promise cheerfully and quietly to submit to the order of God's house, and to obey the office-bearers who are or at any time may be placed over us in the Lord."

    Under the leadership of Thomas Hickernell and Jack Keller the church began to prosper and in the spring of 1838 a house of worship was built at which time Thomas Hickernell and William Adams were the ministers, This is the second church house in Smithville (the Presbyterians having the first house and first organization.) The Bethel was built of logs, and today is known as the Blough home, standing just a little way from the place where it was dedicated to God. John Winebrenner had charge of the dedication and the following were in the offices of elders and deacons: Peter Eberly, Jacob Beelman, Prof Benj. Musser, mr. Heikes, and John Bricker. Hugh Norris was the first sexton and prior to the building of the Bethel, Mrs. Norris' 12 by 20 kitchen served as the place of worship for the church.

    The first Sunday School in Smithville was started in this Bethel under the direction of Rev. Adams. The school started with the Lutherans co-operating but with services being held only during summer months. During the winter months the wife of Rev. Adams taught school in private homes before the public school was started. 

    Another of the special activities of this church was their annual camp meeting. The first camp began in 1840 and was located east of Smithville. In later years the camp was held west of Smithville in Blattenburg's woods.

    The church enjoyed prosperity in every way and during their stay in the log Bethel they entertained the 12th, 19th, and 28th Ohio Elderships. As a self evident fact that this church was a strong, influential and progressive organization, the Eldership in the fall of 1862 "advised the church at Smithville to build a meeting house on a large plan, with an upper story for a school." This advise was taken into consideration and resulted in the building of the present brick bethel for church purposes and the Willaman Block with the second and third stories for a school.

    The building of the present edifice was first started by John Zimmerman and wife, Mary, giving the ground and also a subscription. The work was further encouraged by John Willaman giving $1,000.00 and a bell that would weight as many pounds. The exact weight of the bell upon arrival was 999 pounds. The great feature of this project was the erection by Daniel Keifer of the tower which stood 117 feet high. Different mans worked on the building but the bricks were made in Smithville by Jacob Paul. The cost of the house was $5,000.00. The members contributed as the Lord has prospered them, and on December 16, 1867, the house was dedicated to God by A.A. Shumaker of Chicago, Ill. J. H. Basore was pastor during the building, and D. Blakely became pastor the fall the building was dedicated.