History
of the Methodist Church
The pioneer church in Bainbridge and in Paxton was
the Methodist. Almost as early as 1800 there was
preaching in private houses and in school houses in
various parts of the township. It was in 1818,
however that John Meek and John Collins, who had
been among these early preachers, formed the first
church organization in Bainbridge. During that year
a class was instituted, consisting of James Gaskill
and wife *Sarah McCollum, Rebecca Turner, John Baird
and Magdalen Gilmore, and placed under the
leadership of Mr. Gaskill. The class met at
Gaskill's house, which became and for some time
continued to be, a regular "preaching
place" of the denomination. In 1820 Mr. Gaskill
gave to the church permission to build a
meeting-house on his land and a small brick church
was built there 24 by 30 feet in size. Mr. Gaskill
used the adjacent land as a tan-yard. Afterward the
tanning business together with the real estate,
passed into the proprietorship of e. Rockhold and
son, and the old meeting-house was turned into a
slaughter house. There the members of the
congregation continued to meet until 1834, when they
erected the frame structure, occupied by them until
the year 1868. At that date a fine lot was purchased
by the society on the south side of main street of
the village, and a church building erected at an
expense of nearly $ 10,000- a severs strain upon an
organization of only about eighty members. On the
second day of April, 1876, this building took fire,
and the roof and woodwork were completely destroyed.
Not to be discouraged by this however, repairs were
at once begun, and in September of that year the
congregation occupied the rebuilt edifice. In 1868,
when the church erected its third house of worship,
the frame building which had been constructed in
1834 was transferred to the African Methodist
Episcopal Church, which is still alive.
In
the early days of the Methodist Episcopal church at
Bainbridge it was a part of the Hillsboro circuit,
which embraced 23 appointments, all of which was
attended by two clergymen. Each of these ministers
had to traverse a territory 30 miles square in 20
days and preach 29 times during that period. Among
the early preachers of the circuit were Revs. Robert
W. Finley, James B. Finley, James Havens, G. W.
Walker, George Maley and James Quinn. Later pastors
were Revs. John Power, Henry Turner, W. P.
Strickland, Joseph Brunner, Joseph Reeder, Mark
Bonner, Thomas Lee, Leroy Swormstedt, Zachariah
Wharton, Edward Estell, B. A. Cassett, I. W. Smith,
henry Wharton, B. L. Jefferson, I. W. Stone, John
Stewart, Alexander Mehaney, Phillip Nation, John W.
Locke, J. A. Brown, David Reed, J. S. Brown, B.
Mark, A. Morrow, A. Kite, J. W. Steele, James B.
Austin, Joseph S. Morris, D. C. Howard, Samuel
Bateman, Nathan Westerman, Eskridge H. Dixon, David
H. Moore, now a bishop retired; I. B. Braddick, F.
A. Timmons, W. H. McClintock, Richard Pitzer,
William Morris, T. G. Wakefield, Ed T. Lane, J. P.
A. Dickey, David mann, R. I. DeSelm, Frank Gillilan,
M. W. Acton, Isaac Mackey, C. B. Longman, Carl G.
Doney, at present head of Williamette University, on
the Pacific coast; T. B. White, t. W. Locke, F. M.
Swinehart, C. W. Sowers, W. E. Prior. W. L. Hickey,
G. D. Clifford and the present incumbent, Rev. John
M. Chandler. The church now numbers over 400
members. Altogether it has occupied five houses of
worship- erected in 1820, 1834, 1868, 1897, and
1903.
* Should be Mary McCollum, Sarah was her sister.
