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West
Salem Township |
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West
Salem Baptist Church |
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 West Salem Baptist Church
may be said to have had its inception in 1807, when Rev.
Thomas Jones, of the Sharon charge, organized a Baptist society
in this township. It was connected with Sharon until a separate
organization was effected, nearly twenty years afterward. During this
period the principal place of worship was a small log building on the
site of the Baptist cemetery, where the first burial occurred in 1803.
Revs. Joshua Wood, Samuel McMillen, Sidney Rigdon
and George McCleery were the consecutive
successors of Mr. Jones. This church was
regularly organized September 16, 1826, at the house of John
Loutzenhiser, Joseph Nelson acting
as moderator, and Elders Henry Frazer and Jesse
Brown conducting the exercises. The following members signed the
covenant on the day referred to: Richard Morford,
Patrick McLaughlin, John Gravat, George Burns,
continued
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 Some two miles southeast of the present site of what remains of
Maysville, a Baptist Church stood, in 1803 or '04. Its
walls were of logs, hewed upon the inside, and the floors were of
puncheons, and it had been rotted down sixty years.
Mrs. McNeilly, who has lived in the township all her life, and is now
72 years of age, states that it was an old building at the time of her
earliest recollection. An old grave-yard stands near its former
site, and beneath its turf many of the early pioneers rest.
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History of Mercer County,
1877, p. 85.
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