Pleasant Run Primitive Baptist Church

Pleasant Run Church Welcomes You and Your Family!

History

 "For You, O God, have heard my vows; You have given me the heritage of those who fear Your name." --Psalm 61:5

Historical Background of Pleasant Run Primitive Baptist Church

A New Beginning

Pleasant Run Church, in Pleasant township, was originally organized in Rockingham County, Virginia, by members of German descent (or High Dutch), who came out of the White House church in the Shenandoah Valley (now Page County), in 1790. Six families, among who were fifteen church members, settled near the Scioto River, in Ohio, in 1801, and began holding worship services there.

 Home, fort, and meeting house of pioneer Martin Kauffman II, minister to a small Mennonite congregation. A ferry, the White House Ferry, and the White House Bridge across the South Fork of the Shenandoah River took their name from this house. The house and bridge played a critical role during the Civil War during the Valley Campaign of 1862. Confederates burned the bridge on June 2nd, just an hour before the arrival of Union forces attempting to overtake Stonewall Jackson's army, allowing Jackson to engage and defeat Generals Freemont and then General Shields at Cross Keys, and Port Republic June 8th and 9th. Built in 1760, it is constructed of stone covered with lime-and-sand mortar. A vaulted cellar is the fort, reached through a trap door in the floor. Portholes on all sides of the cellar allow the besieged settlers to shoot at attackers.

In the year 1805 there was a disagreement in the practice of slavery that resulted in Martin Kaufman, Lewis Seits, and Samuel Comer separating from the Mill Creek Church with a group of followers that moved to Fairfield County, Ohio. The church there was called Pleasant Run and in 1806 the Ohio Association of which Pleasant Run was a member stated the following “We do not wish to correspond with any association or church that does in principle or practice hold involuntary slavery.”

The Mauck Meeting House (Mill Creek Church) in the village of Hamburg, Page County, Shenandoah Valley, Va., built by Daniel Mauck in 1798, consisted of Mennonites and Baptists.

 Martin Coffman and John Koontz were pastors of the Mill Creek Baptist Church located west of Luray, Va., in the village of Hamburg. lt is still standing and is now dubbed "the Mauck Meeting House," after Daniel Mauck, who donated the land for the building. Philadelphia Woodman's will reflects the split in the congregation, many of whom had been converted from the Mennonite faith, at the time of the Revolution. Some held to "the old ways" of the Mennonites and thought it an article of faith that the church should not hold with slavery, the bearing of arms or the taking of legal oaths. They split off under Elder Martin Coffman. They held services both at Coffman's "White House" which stands west of Hamburg on the Shenandoah River and also at Mill Creek. The Elder John Koontz held that these things were matters for individual conscience and should not be a part of church doctrine. After Martin Coffman's death ca.1805, many members of his group moved to Fairfield County, Ohio, where they formed Pleasant Run Baptist Church, named after the nearby stream, in a region soon to be part of the Pleasant Township settlement.

A log meeting house was erected in the northeast part of Pleasant township shortly after the organization of the church, and later replaced with a neat frame edifice, which still stands and continues to serve as a Primitive Baptist Church. There is a cemetery near the site, which is called "Baptist Corners."

In October 1805, Pleasant Run Church, with three other churches, organized the Scioto Association, of which it remained a member thereafter.

Today the intersection of Coonpath and Lake Roads is still often referred to as Baptist Corners. Since the 1820’s, this intersection has also been called Strickler’s Corners because of the stonecutters who operated their business on the southeast corner:

Located in various early small cemeteries around Fairfield County are several tombstones, dating from 1825-1841, cut and signed by John Strickler. An advertisement appears on some of these which reads: “John Strickler, Stone Cutter is living One Mile west of the Babtist Meting house at Plesant Run.” (Source: Heritage of Architecture and Arts Fairfield County, Ohio by Ruth Wolfley Drinkle, second edition, p. 93.) One foundation stone of the church building reads: Erected Oct. 8, 1823 by John Strickler and Son.

Baptist Corners Cemetery at Strickler’s Crossing contains the graves of the early pioneers and revolutionary war veterans.

In 1806, the Pleasant Run Baptist Church was organized on this land that Andrew Hite and his wife Anna donated. The lot for the burying ground was granted July 16, 1808. In this graveyard are buried many of the pioneers. The present day frame building is the third house built on the same spot: the first and likely the second being log meetinghouses.

Settlers Immigrate to the Wilderness

The following is from David Benedict’s book, “A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America...” pp. 261-262:

“The German or High Dutch church at Pleasant Run, in the county

of Fairfield, and near the town of New-Lancaster, is

the most distinguished on some accounts of any one in

this Association, and is remarkable for having emigrated

from Virginia, to its present situation, in a church capacity.

In 1801, six families, among whom were fifteen

church members, removed from Virginia, and in the

wilderness of Ohio began the settlement, which is now

pleasant and flourishing. A number of others have since-

followed; some English people have also united with

them; so that their church in 1809 contained upwards

of seventy members. The German brethren, who took

the lead in forming this church, came principally from

Rockingham county, and the church, which they transported

to Ohio, was constituted in Virginia about 1790.

It came out from what was called the White-House

church in the county of Shenandoah. The members of

this church, in Kentucky, would be called rigid Emancipators;

they were constituted on their present principles

in Virginia, and carried their opposition to slavery

so far as to resolve, that they would hold no slaves themselves,

nor have any communion or visible fellowship-

with their brethren who did. On account of these principles,

they were subjected to many inconveniences in

their native State, which led them to seek an asylum in

the wilderness, where they might enjoy unembarrassed

and unreproached the free exercise of principles which

they held most dear. They settled on a very fertile

tract of land, and are an industrious and happy community.

The church is supplied by three preachers, whose

names are Lewis Sites, Samuel Comer, and Martin Cof-

man, who preach both in German and English. When

the congregation is mostly made up of German people,

they preach in the German language, and in the English

when it is otherwise; and besides supplying their own

church, these respectable preachers travel and labour

much in the surrounding settlements, and with the young

and destitute churches. This account of the German

church was made out when I visited it in 1809. What

alterations have taken place in it since, I have not heard.”

Pleasant Run Primitive Baptist Meeting House in the early 1900’s.

The following is from Harry Strickler's Book, A Short History of Page

County, VA, p. 274-275:

"In Fairfield County, Ohio, there is a primitive Baptist congregation

called Pleasant Run, which has a well-kept meeting house and cemetery in

which are buried many who first saw the light of day in Page County,

Virginia. It belongs to the Scioto Association. This Church, the Ohio

history says, was constituted in Virginia about 1790, and came out of what

was called the White House Church in Shenandoah County, Virginia. This new

church or congregation, later called Pleasant Run, was transported to Ohio

in a body, by its founders on account of its anti-slavery principles. Three

ministers went to Ohio with the congregation, Lewis Seits, Samuel Comer and

Martin Kauffman. It is a substantial church yet. Until the division in

1837, it was the largest and most influential in the Association. In 1837

was the beginning of the terms "Old" and "New School" Baptists in Ohio. The

Pleasant Run Church was one of the first Baptist Churches in Ohio and one

of the first of any denomination. At Granville, Licking County, adjoining

Fairfield County, is located Dennison University, a Baptist sponsored

institution. Not far away from Granville is a small place called Luray

after Luray, Virginia. There is also a Luray in Fayette County, Ohio. Many

from Virginia followed these Baptist brethren to Ohio. These Baptists can

point to old Mill Creek as their mother church. Pleasant Run Church is

located at a cross-roads sometimes called Strickler's Cross Roads, probably

named for a Page County emigrant. The congregation left Virginia in about

1805"

Testimonies of Devotion

(Excerpt From: History of Perry County, Surnames Beginning with “S”, pg. 560, 1883)

“STITH, JOHN, farmer, post office Rushville; born in 1813; is the

eldest son of the late Rev. Elder Jesse Stith, of the Baptist Church, and

his wife, Polly Graham. The Rev. Elder was born in North Carolina,

and was only in his nineteenth year when his son John was born, on a

farm bordering on the Reservoir in Walnut township. Elder Stith and

his wife became Baptists when quite young, and their devotion to the

church often impelled them to travel on foot from Walnut township to

the Pleasant Run Church, and carry their children, then too small to be

left at home.   Their sons were John, Henry, James, Jesse and William

Baker Stith; the daughters were Amy Trovinger, now a widow,

and Nancy Grey, now dead. The sons are all living except Jesse, who

volunteered in the army and fell a sacrifice on the bloody field of the

Wilderness while a member of the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth

Regiment, and the Sixth Corps, whose gallantry won unfading laurels.

Grandfather Stith began to preach before he could read his

text, but he soon not only could read, but rose to the front rank as a

speaker in his church, while his sons and daughters all grew to be men

and women, noted for their success in life and for the generous

hospitality, which kindles happiness around the old Baptist hearthstone.”

Excerpt From the Autobiography, “Labor in Ohio Churches, A Revival”, by Wilson Thompson: Chapter 16, 2nd paragraph:

(Elder Wilson Thompson, (1788-1866), was one of the most devoted and highly influential early Baptists in America and a native of Hillsborough, Ky.)

“One year I visited a church called Pleasant Run, in the Sciota Association, about seven miles toward Zanesville from New Lancaster. The day I started it rained in torrents, and before I got one mile on my way I was as wet as I could be. On coming to Mill Creek I had to swim it. I went on to Lebanon, in Warren County, and there learned that the Little Miami was overflowing its banks, and the logs and drift were floating down so that no craft could cross. I stopped for the night, and in the morning went on to the river. The drift was not so thick but that a small craft, easily managed, could cross. I rode my horse into the water among the trees and timber, and sometimes he came near swimming. After working through the trees, brush, and floating logs for about half a mile up the river above the road, I approached the main channel of the river. Here the small boat came to me and I entered it and swam my horse by its side, and so reached the other shore. Going eastward I had to swim all the large creeks, such as Todd’s Fork, Paint Creek, and Rattlesnake, until I came to Old Town, Ross County. Passing this, I went to a ferry on the Sciota River below the mouth of Deer Creek, after crossing which I traveled through Piqua plains, Circleville, and New Lancaster, and reached the association. I had been wet most of the time, for the rain continued every day, and swimming the waters kept me wet.

We had a very pleasant season, and though this was the first time I had ever attended this association, or ever been in this part of country, I formed many agreeable acquaintances among the elders and brethren, many of whom were Germans…”

From Autobiography: More Labor in the Ohio Churches-Lebanon Church, Written by Wilson Thompson, Chapter 18, 1^st paragraph:

“I continued preaching for these three churches, and the work of grace still progressed at Brown’s Run, until the church had increased to about sixty members. Most of these were new converts, although many had also joined Elk Creek and Tapscott’s Churches. During the progress of that gracious work of Divine power, a similar work was going on at Pleasant Run Church, where my wife and I held our membership. This revival was preceded by a general travailing in the minds of the members of the church, and seemed to spread gradually its influence, until sinners were awakened generally, so that I was compelled (as on a former occasion) to resort to the grove, as our place of worship would not accommodate the people. This work was one that was truly deep and solemn, adding many valuable members, who in after years became its pillars…my time was all engaged: the first Saturday and Sunday in each month at Mill Creek; the second at Pleasant Run; the third at Springfield; and the fourth I divided among the three; thus giving to each church two Sundays in every three months…”

Prosperity and Peace: An Early Association

The Pleasant Run Baptist Church was in 1809 one

of the most prosperous, both numerically and financially, of any of the

country Baptist Churches in Ohio. It is situated in the northeast part

of Pleasant township, the society having continued its place of worship

in the same locality of its first organization, down to the present time.

Not one of the many members living in 1809 are alive at this date,

1882. Rev. D. G. Barker, who officiated as pastor of this church for

several years past, died in January, 1882, and the society is without a

pastor at this date, 1882. About one hundred members are in full

connection at this time.”

Pleasant Run Church belonged to the Scioto Association at its inception in Ohio in 1805.

The Scioto Association was organized at a meeting held at Old Chillicothe Church on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, October 12, 13, and 14, 1805. The introductory sermon was delivered by Elder Cyrus Paulk, from Zech. 4:11,12. Four churches were represented - Ames, 49 members; Pleasant Run, 36 members; Old Chillicothe, 14 members; and Salt Creek, 33 members. Elder Nathan Cory was elected as moderator, and Peter Jackson as clerk. The second session, in 1806, and third session, in 1807, were held with Pleasant Run church.

Until divisions occurred among old line Baptists during the years 1832-1837, Pleasant Run was the largest and the most influential church in the Scioto Association.

(From: History of Fairfield County, chap. XXXVII, Pleasant Twp. 1883)

“The Pleasant Run Baptist Church, was probably the first regular

church organization in this township, having been organized as early

as 1806, by Rev. Lewis Sites, Sr., who was also the first pastor of this

society, continuing in that relation for several years. A short time after

its organization, a log structure was erected in which the society held

its meetings for many years. Some years since a neat frame edifice

was built, in which the congregation now worship. This church was a

prosperous one from its commencement.

Early Members

The first members, as appear from the records of 1809, still preserved, were:

William Hopwood, Abraham Hite, Magdalen Ruftner, Elizabeth Warner, Adam Geiger,

Conrod Hite, Aaron Powell, Sister Powell, Martin Coffman, Ann

Coffman, Magdalen Wise, Ann Miller, Elizabeth Histand. Frank Bibler,

Mary Bibler, Andrew Hite, Ann, Samuel, John and Ann Hite, Christian

Hover, Susan Musselman, Barbary Hite, Samuel and Elizabeth

Comer, Sister Hannah, Sister Bibler, Christian and Mary Cagy, John

Hite, Sister Cussman, Jacob Bibler, Jacob Bibier, Jr., Katy Bibler,

David, John and Barbary Bibler, Lewis and Ann Sites, Christiana

Woolf, Emanuel Ruffner, Ann Spitler, Jacob Spitler, Timothy and

Phebe Collins, Barbary Beaver, Magdalen Taylor, Joseph Stider, John

Moorhead, Christian Coffman, Mary Coffman, Smith Goodens, Aaron

Ashbrook, Eli and Katy Ashbrook, Neeley Bibler, Magdalene Spitler,

Magdalena Hite, George White, Jacob and Susan Spitler, Jacob Mus-

selman, Peter Spitler, John Hite, Betsy Bibler, Mady Hopwood,

Abraham Hite, John Bibler, Abraham Bibler, Sister Keller, Cissa Miller,

Joseph Hite, James Davis, Thomas Warner, Susanna Spitler, Martin

Histand, Sissy Studer, Jacob Studer, Sister Brumlang, Mary, Jacob and

Barbary Bibler.

From a book by Hervey Scott, entitled: “Complete History of Fairfield County, Ohio”, (Columbus: Siebert and Lilley, 1877), pp. 129-131.

“Alfred Mesnard has kindly furnished me the original and continuous books of record of the Pleasant Run Regular Baptist Church, of which he is the present Secretary. It will be seen by the following extract from the first page, that the church was first constituted in the year 1806:

April the 19th, 1806, then met according to appointment and opened our meeting with prayer and praise. Second - proceeded to business, with. choosing our Moderator, Martin Coffman.19 Third - we also chose Samuel Comer for our Clerk; so ending our meeting with praise and thanksgiving.

Martin Coffman, Moderator.

Samuel Comer, Clerk.

Then follows the minutes of succeeding business meetings, occurring in May, June, July, August, September, October, and so on, at which Lewis Sites acted mostly as Moderator, and Samuel Comer as Clerk, with occasionally Martin Coffman as Moderator, on up to August, 1809, at which time the church had a membership of ninety, whose names here follow precisely in the order of the record. Rev. Lewis Sites [Sietz], Sr., was the first pastor of the Pleasant Run Church. The names of the members are copied literally as they stand on the twenty-first page of the first church book of records, which leaves it difficult to understand why the interruption occurs at the number 50:

Names of the Members of Pleasant Run Church:

Baptized since our last:
 

The omission of number 33 in the list, reduces the number to 89, by supplying the numbers 72, 76, 77 and 78 with names, which we are allowed to think were not remembered. The record literally quoted, is a relic as well as history, and on that account valuable.

So far as is known, not one of the above persons is living today. Pleasant Run Church is a living church at this time, with a few less than one hundred members. The congregation has continued its place of worship from the first, viz.: in April, 1806, up to the present spring of 1877, on the same spot where it began, which is a short distance north of Strickler's Crossroads, in the northeast corner of Pleasant Township. They have a commodious church edifice, sometimes spoken of as Strickler's Church, and sometimes as the Baptist Church, though the title they assume is that of the Pleasant Run Church.

It is a melancholy thought, that the ninety persons once composing that body, so full of life, and love, and Christian zeal, and filling their places in all of life's affairs, are no more. Their voices are all silent, and their forms have disappeared. They have passed to their reward in the better land. The present pastors of the church are: Revs. Schofield and Barker.”

We Thank the Lord for 200 Years of Grace

From 1805-1809, Elders Lewis Seitz Sr., Samuel Comer, and Martin Coffman (Kauffman) were the ministers, who could officiate both in German and English. Later pastors and ministers who served this church (some of whom were ordained here) included Elders Thomas Snelson, Daniel Schofield, Lewis Seitz Jr., Ephraim Barker, Jesse Stith, John Johnson, David G. Barker, J. J. Vanhorn, Louis Kagy, Benjamin Lampton, W. L. Lines, Thomas C. Williams, J. Harvey Daily (serving in 1921), F. A. Bradley, J. H. Keaton, Daily Hite, Elza Hite, Walter Morrow (until 2005), and presently John J. Funk (since 2007).

Additional Notes and Sources

1. Presented 13 Oct. 1996 at the Mauck/Mock Family Historian Worship Service at Hamburg, Va. Mr. Mauck is a descendant of Daniel Mauch, two of whose daughters married sons of Henry Pence (Sr.). Our thanks to Jake for permission to print this history. These sources were cited by Mr. Mauck for his presentation:

Harry M. Strickler, Massanutten, Settled by the Pennsylvania Pilgrim, 1726 (The First White Settlement in the Shenandoah Valley) (Knightstown, Ind.: The Bookmark, reprinted 1979).

Harry Anthony Brunk, History of the Mennonites in Virsginia, 1727-1900, Vol I (Saunton, Va.: McClure Printing Company, 1959).

Page News and Courier, Luray, Va., Thursday, Sep. 24, 1959 and Aug. 8, 1957.

Daily News-Record, Harrisonburg, Va., Saturday, Aug. 5, 1972: 8.

Mennonite Year Book and Almanac For The Year Of Our Lord 1911 (Quakertown, Pa.: Published by the Eastern Mennonite Conference), 18.

Richard K. MacMaster, Land, Piety, Peoplehood: The Establishment of Mennonite Communities in America, 1683-1790 (Kitchener, Ont.: Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1985).

2. From a letter to the author from Mr. Brunk, Harrisonburg, Va., 15 July 1977. At that time, Mr. Brunk was one of the officials of the Mennonite congregation that maintained the Mill Church. He was also associate professor of history at Eastern Mennonite College at Harrisonburg.

3. This Martin died about then in Shenandoah Co.; it was his son, also Martin, who went to Fairfield Co.

4. B. C. Holtzclaw, Ancestry and Descendants of the Nassau-Siegen Immigrants to Virginia, 1714-1750, Chapter 6, "The Coons-Koontz Family," 109-111.

5. Shenandoah Co., Va., Order Book, 1784-1786, 233.

6. Shen. Co. Deed Book P, 201.

7. Shen. Co. DB F, 31 Aug. 1786, 239.

8. Strickler, op. cit., 281 and 371-372.

9. Page Co. WB A, p. 26-27.

10. Shen. Co. DB B, 426.

11. Shen. Co. DB E, 49.

12. Shen. Co. DB F, 16.

13. Shen. Co. DB F, 239.

14. Shen Co. DB H, 271.

15. Charles F. Kaufman, A Genealogy and History of the Kaufman-Coffman Families :York, Pa.: 1940), 516-517.

16. Philadelphia Woodman's will was proved 31 Jan. 1788 (Shen. Co. WB B, 421); no reference to the name Woodman can be found in the Shenandoah County deed books from 1772-1820 or in the marriage records up to 1850, so the identify of this woman with close ties to the Mill Creek families cannot be determined.

17. Shen. Co. WB F, 324, written 5 Feb. 1805, proved 9 Apr. 1805; the will also says his wife, Maria, is to get Taylor's place.

18. Hervey Scott, Complete History of Fairfield County, Ohio, (Columbus: Siebert and Lilley, 1877), 129-131.

19. This was apparently the son of Rev. Martin Coffman.

20. She was the daughter of Adam Pence (Sr.) and the wife of Francis (Frank) Bibler.

 For Further Research…Available Association Meetings at Pleasant Run:

Author: Scioto Baptist Association.

Title: Minutes of the Scioto Association Held at Pleasant Run Meeting-House, Fairfield County, State of Ohio, on Saturday, the 30th of September, 1809; and the Two Following Days.

Imprint: Chillicothe: Printed by Joseph S. Collins & Co., 1809.

Description: 7 p. ; 24 cm.

Library Locations:

Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, OH

Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, WI

Call numbers:

References

OI 85. Rusk II: 56. SS 16931. Wilkie 150. Morgan, R.P. Ohio, 705.

Author: Scioto Baptist Association.

Title: Minutes of the Scioto Baptist Association, Held at Pleasant Run, County of Fairfield, State of Ohio, on Saturday the 8th of October, 1814, and the Two Following Days.

Imprint: [Chillicothe: s.n., 1814]

Description: 4 p. ; 21.5 cm.

Notes:

Caption title; no imprint.

Library Locations:

American Baptist Historical Society, Rochester, NY

Saint Louis Mercantile Library Association, St. Louis, MO

Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, OH

Call numbers:

References

OI 203. SS 30775. Morgan, R.P. Ohio, 834.

Author: Scioto Baptist Association.

Title: Minutes of the Scioto Baptist Association, Baptist Meeting House, Pleasant Run, Fairfield County.

Imprint: Chillicothe: [No Publisher], 1825

Library Locations:

American Baptist Historical Society, Rochester, NY

Saint Louis Mercantile Library Association, St. Louis, MO

Call numbers:

References

AI 0. Morgan, R.P. Ohio, 9360.

[ Home ]

Send mail to info@theloveofchrist.net with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2007 Pleasant Run Church
Last modified: 03/09/08