History of The Big White Church of Berlin Heights
The first settlers arrived in the township in 1808.
At the time, the township and town were named Eldridge.
They were named after Mr. Eldridge who owned most of the land in
the area.
The first religious group in the area to meet was the
Methodists who held classes in homes as early as 1812.
Then the Baptists started a church in 1818.
The Congregational Church was started on February 25, 1823 in the
log schoolhouse that stood near the corner of what is now Main Street and
Bellamy Road. The log
building was 16x20 feet with a stone fireplace that occupied the entire
end of the building.
A group of people me with Rev. Alfred H Betts and
Rev. Lot B. Sullivan on February 25, 1823 to organize the Congregational
Church. The church remained
Congregational for one year and then it became Presbyterian.
This was due to the strength and aid that they received from the
district Presbytery. I 1865,
it again became Congregational.
Rev. Betts was pastor until 1829. In 1830, nine men of the church organized the Congregational
Society. It was largely due
to the energy of this group that a church building was erected in 1832
where the Methodist Church currently stands.
It is recorded that the entire lot including where both the
Congregational and Methodist churches stand today was purchased for $9.00.
The nine men were Noah Hill, Amos Hine, Moses
Burnham, John Fuller, Charles Kellogg, Jared Hine, Simon C. Stimpson,
Joseph Otis and Sheldon Hine. It
is noted that it was 1878 before women were considered worthy of
membership in the select organization.
In 1832 the name of the town was changed from
Eldridge to Berlin and later to Berlin Heights because of another Berlin
in Ohio.
In 1847 work was started on building a new church and
the old church was moved to West Main Street where it was used as a
“Free Discussion Hall”.
The church was built with a porch on the front which
was later enclosed making the interior somewhat larger. Another change was that a steeple was added a number of years
later. There is no written
record of this, but you can see in the attic where the original roof and
shingles were cut away to build the steeple.
The remaining shingles show a number of years of wear.
The original pews had doors on them and at the time
of the building members paid from $15.00 to $60.00 for their pew.
Some time before the township library was started
there was a library in what is not the “cry” room.
It was open to the public. There
was an entrance on the west side of the church where the outside door to
the Bird’s Nest is now.
In 1849, several members contributed $500.00 for the
creation of Western Reserve University, now known as Case Western Reserve
University. In recognition of
their generosity, the University Trustees granted a “charity”
scholarship to any male student, living in Berlin Heights or the township
that is pursuing a liberal arts degree.
The scholarship will continue as long as the church is in
existence. Six young men from our community have used it to date.
Around 1900, a basement was dug and the dining room
and kitchen were built. About
the same time, the church at Ceylon was built under the Congregational
Church’s sponsorship. The
ministers from this church preached in the Ceylon Church for a number of
years until it was taken over by the Huron Evangelical Church in 1914.
The church building has suffered a couple of
disasters in its lifetime. In
April 1918 the church was struck by lightning.
The roof was badly damaged and the sanctuary ceiling partly
destroyed. Even so this day
anyone going into the attic over the sanctuary can see the charred beams.
Church services were held in the church basement until the church
was repaired.
One Sunday afternoon in June 1944, a wind and thunder
storm hit the area. A large
maple tree on the west side of the church blew over taking out the middle
sanctuary window and damaging some of the siding on the west side.
The branches of the tree reached the middle aisle.
In 1940 four Sunday school rooms were built on the
back of the church. These
were given by Winfield and Mildred Lippus.
A new Hammond organ was given by Mrs. Linnie Hassenflue in memory
of her husband. We are still
using this organ.
1956 saw the building of a new social hall, more
Sunday school rooms, restrooms, kitchen and a church office complex.
The old basement was partitioned off for Sunday school rooms.
The cost of the social hall and kitchen was paid for by Mr. &
Mrs. George Ritter and named for Mrs. Ritter’s parents Fred and Maud
Fowler who were active in the church in the early 1900’s.
There are a few things that happened during the
lifetime of the church that seem strange to us today.
One of these was the church and township ordering of a certain
“Rachel Taylor” to depart from the township of Eldridge. Where she went or where in the wilderness she was expected to
go is not recorded. It is not
told what her crime was.
In 1890 there was a bank robbery at the bank which
was west of what is now the basket shop.
Some of the town’s people were standing on the west side of the
church shooting at the robbers. In
turn the robbers were shooting back.
One of the shots hit one of the windows over the front church door.
The hole is still there in the red glass for all to see.
The “Bird’s Nest” had been a balcony until it
was enclosed and used as a Sunday school room.
It was also used by the school for a classroom.
In 1957 after the Fowler Room addition was built the large square
room (Lippus Room) above the Fowler room was used by the school as a
classroom.
Since the church was started back in 1823 we have had
44 pastors. One pastor Milton
J. Norton served from 1903-1907. He
was a native son of the church. He
was born on what is now Bellamy Road on the farm where Pauline Malone now
lives.
Two of our pastors Rev. Raymond W. Steiner and Rev.
Harvey A Parker died while serving our church.
Rev. Steiner died in 1936 from appendicitis at the age of 43.
Rev. Parker died at the age of 33 from Leukemia in 1960.
The 44 pastors and the dates of their service are as
follows:
1823-1829
Alfred H. Betts
1900-1903
W.H. Hannaford
1829-1832
Everton Judson
1903-1907
Milton J. Norton
1832-1833
Erastus Curtiss
1908-1911
A.J. Burnett
1833-1834
Eldrad Barker
1911-1912
G.E.E. Lindquist
1836-1838
I.B. Parlin
1912-1913
Allen L. Eddy
1838-1839
James Crawford
1913-1926
William Cady
1840-1851
John C. Sherwin
1926-1929
Franklin L. Graff
1851-1852
James Scott
1930-1936
Raymond W. Steiner
1852-1853
G.C. Judson
1936-1945
Joseph H. Dudley
1853-1860
F.S. Deming
1945-1948
John W. Townsend
1860-1863
E.M. Cravath
1948-1952
Grafton M. Thomas
1864-1865
T.B. Penfield
1952-1955
Clarence A. Colwell
1865-1869
George Candee
1956-1960
Harvey A. Parker
1871-1874
Levi Loring
1961-1964
Charles A. Trautman
1874-1878
A.D. Hale
1965-1972
W. Osborne Hoover, Jr.
1878-1879
Alfred C. Wright
1973-1981
Alex E. Dandar
1880- 1881
A.M. Pipes
1982-1983
Roy Howell
1882-1886
Wm M. Jones
1984-1988
Jeffery Hammond
1890-1892
D.R. James
1988-1994
Stephen Evans
1893-1896
George Hill
1995-1997
John Ferguson
1896-1900
B.R. Chaney
1999-present Joyce
Schroer
Prepared by Lawrence Johns
February 2008
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