Happy Birthday High Street UMC!
We are 171 years old this month!Click here for a brief history of our founding, by our historian,
Dan Walter. |
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A brief history of our founding, by our historian, Dan Walter.
Now as to the actual founding and formation of our church known originally as High Street Methodist Episcopal Church, there are several encapsulated histories listed in the bibliography of this publication. On one thing they all agree and that is that our church came into being the first Sunday in April, 1849.
What led up to our founding was the expansion to the point of overcrowding of the Columbia M.E. Church situated at the southeast corner of Columbia and Market (Fountain) Streets. In 1848, the population of Springfield was approximately 3000, and the membership of Columbia M.E. Church, 486. The Rev. Charles Elliott, DD, LL.D, had been appointed to the Columbia pastorate in the fall of 1848. An early description of Rev. Elliott, one later edited and re-edited by others, comes from George Dial, the son of original member E. G. Dial.
Dr. Elliott was a man of great vigor…. In point of scholarship he had few equals in the country. As theologian he stood among the first… stalwart and ‘always pushing onward’….. He soon took in condition of Springfield and announced that the only relief of crowded condition of Columbia St. M.E. Church was to swarm, as he said, and find another hive. On this he talked, preached, and prayed for months.
All subsequent accounts agree that at the close of his sermon that first Sunday in April, 1849, Rev. Elliot asked for volunteers to “swarm” and thus found a new church. Some say he asked for a “colony” to be formed; others claim he asked for a “hive.” Interestingly, the first Sunday in April that year was April 1. So which term he used may never be known for certain, but in any case the “bee” metaphor prevailed, and in response some 85 persons (though at least one account suggests 120) including men, women, and children rose in their places, gave their names, and agreed to unite (“swarm”) in the organization of a second M.E. church.
It was the Rev. Elliott who then immediately took it upon himself to appoint from that group a board of trustees, which included Levi Rinehart, Edmund Ogden, Christopher Thompson, L. H. Olds, Rev. John W. Young, S. G. Moler, and Saul S. Henkle, the son of the Rev. Saul Henkle, who first preached in Springfield in 1809. Rev. Elliott assumed double duty as pastor of both Columbia M.E. and High Street M.E. until such time as the Ohio Conference would appoint a pastor for High Street.
In addition to the trustees, the following heads of households were among the first members or “colonists,” later referred to as the “Forty-Niners.”
John Bacon
W. N. Schaeffer
Charles Hotsenpillar
William Smallwood
David Hayward
Mrs. Fister
Henry Hedrick
E. G. Dial
M. M. Fisher
Reuben Miller
Mrs. Clarinda Henkle
George Ostot
William Green
Milton Harrison
What led up to our founding was the expansion to the point of overcrowding of the Columbia M.E. Church situated at the southeast corner of Columbia and Market (Fountain) Streets. In 1848, the population of Springfield was approximately 3000, and the membership of Columbia M.E. Church, 486. The Rev. Charles Elliott, DD, LL.D, had been appointed to the Columbia pastorate in the fall of 1848. An early description of Rev. Elliott, one later edited and re-edited by others, comes from George Dial, the son of original member E. G. Dial.
Dr. Elliott was a man of great vigor…. In point of scholarship he had few equals in the country. As theologian he stood among the first… stalwart and ‘always pushing onward’….. He soon took in condition of Springfield and announced that the only relief of crowded condition of Columbia St. M.E. Church was to swarm, as he said, and find another hive. On this he talked, preached, and prayed for months.
All subsequent accounts agree that at the close of his sermon that first Sunday in April, 1849, Rev. Elliot asked for volunteers to “swarm” and thus found a new church. Some say he asked for a “colony” to be formed; others claim he asked for a “hive.” Interestingly, the first Sunday in April that year was April 1. So which term he used may never be known for certain, but in any case the “bee” metaphor prevailed, and in response some 85 persons (though at least one account suggests 120) including men, women, and children rose in their places, gave their names, and agreed to unite (“swarm”) in the organization of a second M.E. church.
It was the Rev. Elliott who then immediately took it upon himself to appoint from that group a board of trustees, which included Levi Rinehart, Edmund Ogden, Christopher Thompson, L. H. Olds, Rev. John W. Young, S. G. Moler, and Saul S. Henkle, the son of the Rev. Saul Henkle, who first preached in Springfield in 1809. Rev. Elliott assumed double duty as pastor of both Columbia M.E. and High Street M.E. until such time as the Ohio Conference would appoint a pastor for High Street.
In addition to the trustees, the following heads of households were among the first members or “colonists,” later referred to as the “Forty-Niners.”
John Bacon
W. N. Schaeffer
Charles Hotsenpillar
William Smallwood
David Hayward
Mrs. Fister
Henry Hedrick
E. G. Dial
M. M. Fisher
Reuben Miller
Mrs. Clarinda Henkle
George Ostot
William Green
Milton Harrison
