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Aurora’s first church was established on December 31, 1809 under the guidance of the Connecticut Missionary Society. The congregation called the Rev. John Seward of Granby, Massachusetts to be the first minister in 1812. Built on land donated by Samuel Forward and dedicated in 1824, the original brick church was replaced by a wood-frame building in 1872. The First Congregational Church and the Aurora Disciples of Christ formed an association called the Federated Church in Aurora in 1913. These three entities merged to form The Church in Aurora in 1933, serving the community as more than a landmark.
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The comingling of faiths in an area settled predominantly by Quakers helps explain the origins of Jonah’s Run Baptist Church. Ministered to by a Baptist preacher, the children and neighbors of Daniel Collett (1752-1835), an Episcopalian and private in the Revolutionary War, and his wife Mary Haines Collett (1753-1826), a Quaker from Virginia, became Baptists and started the church in 1838. Levi Lukens (1767-1860), a Quaker from Pennsylvania by way of Virginia, purchased the land where the church stands in 1812 and sold it in 1839 to a founder of the congregation. Like local Quaker meetinghouses, the church had separate entrances for men and women and a partition between the two that divided the sanctuary. The congregation’s sons and daughters lived their faith. Howard McCune (1852-1923) was the Clinton Baptist Association’s moderator and president of the Ohio Baptist Convention’s state board. Anne Cossum (1894-1977) was a missionary in China from 1920-1927.
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The First Presbyterian Church of West Union, built in 1810, is known as the “Church of the Governors.” Although the date is uncertain, the congregation was organized circa 1800 on Thomas Kirker’s land on Eagle Creek, about three miles from West Union. Kirker, Ohio’s second governor, was influential in organizing the congregation and raising funds for the construction of the building. Stonemason, Thomas Metcalfe, Kentucky governor from 1828-1832, was awarded the contract to build the walls for $250.00; the total construction cost was $500.00. The first three regular ministers – William Williamson, Dyer Burgess, and John P. Van Dyke – all held strong anti-slavery sentiment that was felt throughout the congregation. During the Civil War, soldiers of the 70th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, a regiment of recruits from Adams County and eastern Brown County, were said to have been temporarily quartered in the church before leaving West Union in 1861.
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This frame church, architecturally typical of the rural churches built throughout Ohio in the latter nineteenth century, was constructed in 1885 during the pastorate of E.L.T. Engers. The first pastors were from the German Reformed tradition and served a German-speaking congregation. The church contains native oak hand-hewn beams, rafters, and floor joists. The stained-glass windows were added in 1902.
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In February 1819, seven individuals met in Isaac Barnes’ home to form a Congregational Church and entered into covenant. Reverend William Hanford of the Connecticut Missionary Society provided guidance and charged the new congregation to “walk worthy of their high vocation.” Prominent members led the way. In 1832, charter member Nira B. Northrup led the Wadsworth Presbytery in releasing Reverend John Shipherd from pastoral duties to help found what would become Oberlin College. Harrison Gray (H.G.) Blake was a committed abolitionist who, as a state senator, helped repeal the Ohio Black Laws and who was a principal “station master” on the Underground Railroad. (Continued on other side)
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Dr. Thomas William Burton, Springfield’s first Black physician, was born into slavery in a Kentucky log cabin on May 4, 1860. The youngest of 15 children, he was orphaned at 9, and his only education was the alphabet before age 21. Burton attended Kentucky’s Berea College and graduated from the Indianapolis Eclectic College of Physicians and Surgeons on March 24, 1892. Dr. Burton moved to Springfield and opened his medical practice on East Main Street the same year. In 1894, he established both the first Black-owned drug store and a shoe store. Additionally, he operated a newspaper, The Loyal Legion of Honor. Dr. Burton established the Ohio Mutual Medical Association (Ohio’s first Black medical society), and chaired its inaugural meeting in Xenia on August 27, 1897. (Continued on other side)
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The General at Union Station in Chattanooga, Tennessee (circa 1907). Born in Knoxville in 1840 and reared at a farm in New Somerset, William Pittenger mustered into the 2nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, under a 90-day enlistment, in 1861. He fought at the First Battle of Bull Run and was the war correspondent for the Steubenville Herald. After reenlisting, he participated in the ill-fated Andrews Raid of 1862. While attempting to disrupt enemy supply lines, the raiders stole the Confederate locomotive “The General.” After being chased north, they were captured. (Continued on other side)
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The Milford Public Library, Clermont County’s oldest continuously operating library, was founded in 1900 by a local civic organization, the Milford Village Improvement Society. It was preceded by a circulating library–one that charges patrons for renting books–that was chartered in 1822. At the time of the Milford Public Library’s founding, circulating libraries were in decline and public libraries were increasing in number as an inexpensive alternative. To obtain support for their proposed “reading room,” the Society’s Literary Committee travelled door-to-door, soliciting members and books. To become a member of the library, adults paid 25 cents and children paid 10 cents in annual dues. The library’s first–and current–home is the stone building at 19 Water Street. (Continued on other side)