Religious services were held in the county before any churches were established. Because
Shelby County was in the old circuit rider’s territory from Bellefontaine and Piqua,
it is likely that services were conducted once every month. They would be held wherever it
was convenient, probably outdoors. The first church to hold regular Sunday services
in Shelby County, Ohio, was the Hardin Methodist-Episcopal
Church. It was organized before 1819 by the Rev. Goddard at Cephas Carey’s house. This church would continue to meet in
member’s homes for the next 13 years until enough funds were collected to build a
permanent place of worship.
"The frontier
circuit rider was very courageous and determined. He carved out congregations in these
scattered settlements and did as much to bring civilization to the wilderness as the
woodsmen’s ax."
The first two churches in
Sidney were the Presbyterians (1825, Reverend Joseph Stevenson) and Methodists. (1825, Rev. Levi White). They met in
homes or under trees on the river bank. In 1829, the organizing committee paid $16 for the
lot to construct the Methodist church’s first building which was opened in 1831.
Religion played a very
strong part in many pioneer’s lives. After all, it was the religious persecution of
the Puritans that caused the English to come to America in the 1600s and the persecution
of the Mormons that resulted in their mass
exodus out west to Salt Lake City, Utah in the 1840s.
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[New Search] 'Pioneer' segment written in October, 1997 by Sherrie Casad-Lodge
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