, OH
Founded in 1842, Salem Lutheran Church is Toledo’s first and oldest Lutheran congregation. Located in Toledo’s oldest neighborhood, Vistula, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the church was originally composed of German immigrants and incorporated as “Evangelical Lutheran and Reformed Congregation” under the guidance of Reverend George Cronenwett. The first sanctuary was erected in 1844. Ten years later, a Lutheran constitution was accepted and the name “Salem” was chosen. The current church structure was built in 1871at a total cost of $12,000. Major renovations occurred in 1889, 1916, and the mid 1960s. A Wicks pipe organ was installed in 1967. (continued on other side)
, OH
Born in Richmond, Virginia, Powhatan Beaty moved to Cincinnati in 1849, where he spent the majority of his life. Beaty enlisted as a private in the Union Army in June 1863, and two days later was promoted to first sergeant, Company G, 5th United States Colored Troops (USCT). All the officers of Company G were killed or wounded during an attack on Confederate forces at New Market Heights, Virginia, in September 1864. Beaty took command of his company, and for his valor received the Congressional Medal of Honor. Beaty was one of two African-Americans buried in Ohio to receive the Medal of Honor for service in the Civil War. He died on December 6, 1916, leaving two sons, attorney and state representative A. Lee Beaty and John W. Beaty. He is buried in Union Baptist Cemetery along with nearly 150 USCT veterans.
, OH
On January 9, 1919, a group of eight men and three women, being led by the Holy Spirit, met at a house on Wallace Street to form a new black Missionary Baptist Church in Hamilton, Ohio. The group quickly raised $150 to make the down payment on a two-story brick building at 333 Chestnut Street being sold for $1,850. The building was occupied on March 25, 1919, and the name Pilgrim Baptist Church was suggested and accepted. On May 11, 1919, a special council requested admittance into the Western Union Baptist Association, a district association now affiliated with the Ohio Baptist General Convention. Requirements for admission were met and Pilgrim Baptist Church was recognized as a Missionary Baptist Church. In 2019, Pilgrim Baptist Church celebrated a centennial of faithfulness in Hamilton.
, OH
George Washington Williams was born in 1849 in Bedford, Pennsylvania. At age 14, he enlisted in the Union Army to fight in the Civil War and received a medical discharge in 1868. In 1874, he became the first African American to graduate from the Newton Theological Institution in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and shortly after married Sarah. A. Sterrett. He became pastor of the Twelfth Baptist Church in Boston before moving to Washington, D.C. to serve as editor of a newspaper called The Commoner. He then moved to Cincinnati to become pastor of the Union Baptist Church and while there served as the first black member of the Ohio Legislature from 1879-1881. Williams went to the Belgian Congo in 1890 where he criticized King Leopold II in an Open Letter for his inhumane policies in the Congo. He died in 1891 in England.
, OH
Japanese-American Buddhists, who resettled in the Cleveland area in 1943-44 after being released from World War II internment camps, established the oldest continually meeting Buddhist organization in Ohio. The organization was originally known as the Cleveland Young Buddhist Association and is now known as the Cleveland Buddhist Temple. Services were held in members’ homes until a building on East 81st Street was purchased in 1955. After extensive damage to the building during the Hough riots in 1966, the Temple’s current residence was acquired in 1968. Affiliated with the Buddhist Churches of America, the Temple serves the Jodo Shinshu Tradition of Buddhism. In 1979, the Temple under the direction of Sensei Koshin Ogui introduced the Zen Shin meditation practice in response to public wishes. The Temple welcomes all those wishing to study the teachings of the Buddha.
, OH
In October of 1803, members of The Scioto Company, led by James Kilbourne, came from Connecticut and founded Worthington. On February 6, 1804, the Articles of Agreement establishing St. John’s Church of Worthington were executed. St. John’s, which had been planned in Connecticut prior to the Company’s departure, became the first Episcopal church established in the Northwest Territory and served as the founding church for several Episcopal churches in Ohio. James Kilbourne served as the church’s first Deacon. Reverend Philander Chase, the first Rector of St. John’s, became the first Episcopal Bishop of Ohio and founded Kenyon College. St. John’s Church and graveyard are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
, OH
The Lanes, Baptist merchants from New Orleans, and the Kempers, a Presbyterian family from Cincinnati, gave money and land respectively for Cincinnati’s first manual labor theological seminary and high school, which opened in suburban Walnut Hills in 1829. The Reverend Lyman Beecher came from Boston as its first president. The president’s house, now known as the Stowe House after Beecher’s daughter Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, still remains at Gilbert and Foraker. Lane Theological Seminary, bound by present day Gilbert, Chapel, Park, and Yale streets, continued to educate Presbyterian ministers until 1932, when it was merged with McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.
, OH
John Malvin (1795-1880) was an operative on the Underground Railroad and an ardent member of anti-slavery and abolitionist causes. Born in Dumfries, Virginia of a free mother and enslaved father, Malvin was apprenticed at an early age to learn carpentry and taught himself to read and write. In 1827, he moved to Cincinnati where he became an ordained preacher and an activist in the cause of freedom. In 1831, with his wife Harriet, he moved to Cleveland where he became a charter member of the First Baptist Church, a sawmill operator, and captain and owner of the canal boat Auburn. (continued on other side)
614.297.2300
Contact Us
