Headed west on the old Cumberland road, in 1826, lumbered the covered wagon of the Basil Longsworth family. His wife, Elizabeth, his five children, his widowed mother, Lucy, and all their worldly possessions were drawn by the tired horses through forest and over mountains mile by mile and day by day. Their journey came to an end in the eastern Ohio hills of Washington Township in Guernsey County.
Six years later Basil’s brother Solomon, and his wife, Catherine, [Elizabeth’s sister] and their eight children followed the same road and settled on Will’s Creek on the northern edge of Valley Township. This family remained in Guernsey County only a few years. By 1836 they were living in Richland County and about 1845 they moved on to the “prairie” lands of Van Wert County. Solomon and Catherine were my great-great-grandparents which fact explains my residence in western Ohio and also my interest in the church records of the eastern Ohio branch of the family.
One Saturday in May, 1953, we three, my husband, my son and I, were in Columbus, Ohio and in the afternoon we decided to drive on to Guernsey County and find this old Longsworth home. We knew that it was near Freeport and that Lyle Longsworth, a great-grandson of the first owner, lived on the farm. Stopping in Freeport, we obtained written directions from the mail carrier for we were “flat-landers”. We found Lyle and Doris late in the afternoon and it was, with no doubt, inherited Maryland hospitality that they took us three strangers in for the night.
Before dark Lyle took us around over the hills and to the church that Lucy, Basil and Elizabeth helped to organize in 1828 and to the adjoining cemetery where Lucy and succeeding generations of the family are buried. Then he obtained the “old church book” and after supper we looked over the records. Lyle wished he had a typed copy of the story of the location of the church so I offered to take the book home and make one for him.
After typing the account of old Father Ripley’s dream, I felt that every page of the book was so outstanding and valuable from a historical and genealogical view that I found I couldn’t stop with only the story of the founding of the church.
I also wished to preserve and keep alive the story of its founders and those, who through the succeeding years, have perpetuated the work and the spirit of its earliest members.
Thus I embarked on a task that has taken many hours of my spare time in evenings and on holidays of the past year. I have kept the spelling and punctuation as in the original. Along the way I decided to add the map, the photographs and the index.
Record Book of the Pleasant Hill Methodist Church in Washington Township, Guernsey County, Ohio
This is a copy of a record book of the Pleasant Hill Methodist Church in Washington Township, Guernsey County, Ohio. The front portion of this manuscript contains the history of Pleasant Hill Methodist Church and biographies of their pastors up to 1953. Starting on page 18 you will find the Membership Record for the church beginning in 1829 and through January of 1894. Also included are death records form the church records, obituaries of some members, and a full pastor roster through 1953.
Table of Contents:
- History of the Location of Pleasant Hill Methodist Protestant Church and Congregation, p. 1
- A Brief Biographical Sketch Of The Pastors Which Have Served Pleasant Hill Church, p. 9
- Membership Record, 1829-1894, p. 18
- Death Records, 1829-1905, p. 40
- Obituaries, p. 53
- Pastor’s Register, p. 55
- Index