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Established in 1898 as the Russian Orthodox Church of the Dormition, Holy Assumption was founded by Carpatho-Russian immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Constructed in 1905-1906, it is considered to be the oldest Orthodox church building in Ohio. Archbishop Tikhon, head of the Russian Orthodox Church in North America, consecrated the church and celebrated the first Liturgy. Tsar Nicholas II of Russian personally donated the four icons on the iconostas, or icon screen, as well as liturgical items. Both the Tsar and, by then Patriarch, Tikhon were murdered by the Bolsheviks during the 1917 Russian Revolution and were glorified as Saints of the Orthodox Church. Holy Assumption Orthodox Church continues to be a beacon of the Orthodox Faith on the Marblehead peninsula.
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In spite of small numbers and being welcomed by the mostly white congregation of First Methodist Episcopal Church, African Americans in Findlay in the 1880s wanted to express their faith in ways that best reflected their freedoms and traditions. By the mid-1880s, the congregation was meeting in members’ homes and the Odd Fellows Hall, but began fund raising to build their own church in 1885. The congregation was admitted to the North Ohio Conference of the Third Episcopal District of the African Methodist Church in 1885, one of the first churches to be so admitted. The building on Liberty Street was well underway by the end of 1887 on a lot donated by Judge D. J. Cory. The original twenty foot by forty foot building cost $2,000 and immediately became a focal point for religion and social events for Findlay’s African American community. (Continued on other side)
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Designed by their leader, Joseph M. Bimeler, the Meeting House is the second house of worship used by the Society of Separatists of Zoar. Men and women entered through separate front doors: men used the right door and women the left. Bimeler and his successors gave “discourses” (not sermons) from a table located between the doors. The Meeting House has been in continuous use since it was built in 1853 and as of 2011 houses the Zoar United Church of Christ.
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On July 30, 1816, the year before the establishment of Butler Township, a group of farmers of German background founded the Stillwater Church. The log structure with adjoining cemetery was located on three acres between Dog Leg Road and Frederick Pike. In 1842, the congregation replaced the log building with a brick one. In 1873, they moved the building to the northeast corner of Dog Leg and Little York Roads and renamed it St. Paul Lutheran Church. With a fruitful history of sharing God’s love, St. Paul celebrated it’s 200th anniversary on Sunday, July 31, 2016.
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In the early years of the nineteenth century, a religious unrest known as the Second Great Awakening spread across much of the American frontier. Among the most influential of the evolving religious organizations were the Campbellites, or Disciples of Christ, founded in the 1820s by Thomas and Alexander Campbell. The Campbellite movement sought to “restore” New Testament Christianity by calling for a return to the primitive church revealed in the gospels. Campbellites denied creeds and oath-taking and rejected sectarianism. They believed in baptism by immersion and communion on Sundays. Followers also dealt with problems and transgressions of members within the church and did not use civil courts. They held a millennial view that professed human happiness and the belief that Christ would reign on earth for a thousand years. Believers spread this word to the pioneers of the Doty Settlement and elsewhere. By 1850, there were ninety Campbellite Churches in Ohio.
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In 1804 a group of neighbors in Granville, Massachusetts and Granby, Connecticut formed The Licking Company for the purpose of moving to “Newlands” in Ohio. Inspired and informed by the settlement of Worthington in 1803, the Company purchased 29,040 acres in the U.S. Military District. Advance parties surveyed and mapped a site, established a mill, and planted grain. The Company planned a public square, a school, library, quarry, burying ground, and property for the support of churches. In November and December 1805, some 150 emigrants in ox-drawn wagons arrived in their new home and built temporary shelters on the designated public square. On December 9 through 12 1805, Company members selected their Granville lots in an auction that was described as peaceable and honest.
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Marysville, Ohio. On August 10, 1819, Samuel W. Culbertson (1780-1840), a Zanesville lawyer, established Marysville at the convergence of Mill Creek and the road connecting Delaware to Urbana. Culbertson purchased 450 acres of land on July 10, 1817 and authorized Charles Roberts to survey the village, which originally contained 96 lots. Culbertson named the village in honor of his daughter, Mary Ellen (1810-1853), who later married US Congressman, Joshua Mathiot (1800-1849). The village was originally in Delaware County, located in part of the Virginia Military District. It was land given as bounties to soldiers from Virginia after the Revolutionary War. Union County, which included Marysville, was created in 1820, and Marysville became the county seat in 1822. (Continued on other side)
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St. Mary Church was dedicated in 1868 in response to the spiritual needs of the growing German-Catholic population of Columbus’ South Side. The original schoolhouse, which stands behind the church, was erected in 1865 under the direction of Rev. Francis X. Specht, St. Mary’s first pastor. It served as a temporary house of worship until the Gothic-style church was completed. St. Mary’s distinctive spire – soaring 197 feet into the Columbus sky – was added in 1893. By 1865, Columbus’ population was one-third German, and the South Side had become a thriving working-class community. The new immigrants built homes and churches and established schools. Local German businesses, organizations, and newspapers prospered. German Village is one of the premier historic restorations in the world, and is the largest privately funded historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. More than 1,600 buildings have been restored since 1960.