{"id":5342,"date":"2025-10-30T09:49:40","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T13:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/?p=5342"},"modified":"2025-10-30T09:50:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T13:50:01","slug":"exploring-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/2025\/10\/30\/exploring-churches\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the Churches of Southeastern Ohio: Processing the Ohio Historical Records Survey on Churches"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

By Anne Scarberry, English Literature, Culture, and Writing \u201926, Fall 2025 Manuscripts Intern<\/em> (working with Greta Suiter, Manuscripts Archivist)<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Introduction and Processing the Collection<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Pile of discarded staples and paperclips on a piece of scrap paper. Photo by Anne Scarberry.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Over the past eight weeks I have had the privilege of processing series two of the Ohio Historical Records Survey collection<\/a> which focuses on Churches as an intern in the Mahn Center.\u00a0In the second week, I was handed a staple remover that I had no clue how to use and five boxes of manuscripts that had not been processed since the 1970s.\u00a0 While the process was daunting at first, I quickly fell into an easy routine as I became fully engrossed in the collection.\u00a0 Processing the collection included removing hundreds of staples, reorganizing and labeling folders, and putting everything into new boxes.\u00a0Once the collection was more orderly, I filled out an Excel spreadsheet to document every piece in the collection.\u00a0This spreadsheet was then used to create a finding aid<\/a> for researchers interested in the collection.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Historical Background<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Map of Ohio counties created by the Historical Records Survey.\u00a0The state is divided into 6 labeled Districts.\u00a0Photo by Anne Scarberry.\u00a0<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Ohio Historical Records Survey collection is broken into two sections, or series: municipal records and church surveys.\u00a0These surveys range from the late 1930s into the early 1940s and were conducted by the Works Progress Administration or WPA.\u00a0In 1935, The WPA was founded by Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of his New Deal program which provided unemployed Americans with temporary work.\u00a0On November 15, 1935, the Historical Records Survey was created as a branch of the WPA to task workers with documenting and surveying local records and churches.\u00a0The Historical Records Survey divided the state of Ohio into 6 distinct districts, with District 3 covering Southeastern Ohio.\u00a0 The following counties were included in District 3: Athens, Belmont, Carroll, Coshocton, Gallia, Guernsey, Harrison, Hocking, Holmes, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Perry, Tuscarawas, Vinton, and Washington.\u00a0The Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections at Ohio University houses duplicate copies of the surveys conducted in District 3.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As one can imagine, there were hundreds of churches across these 20 Ohio counties during the 1930s and 1940s.\u00a0In total, I spent six weeks leafing through five boxes piece by piece.\u00a0The collection contains not only individual surveys, but also numerous supplementary pieces.\u00a0These supplementary pieces included church lists, church pamphlets, event programs, newspaper clippings, minute books, and lengthy notes on the churches.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Interesting Finds<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In a collection as large as this, there are bound to be interesting finds that stick out or provide a thought-provoking glimpse into the churches of Ohio.\u00a0Half the fun of processing the collection was searching the names of churches and researching what they are like now.\u00a0It was particularly fun to challenge myself and see if I could find now defunct and abandoned churches through the information on the survey and Google Maps.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Frontside of the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church survey.\u00a0Photo by Anne Scarberry.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Backside of the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church survey with the supplementary information sheet.\u00a0Photo by Anne Scarberry.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Burlington, Ohio<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

My favorite piece from the collection was the survey done on the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Burlington, Ohio.\u00a0The supplementary sheet for this church said that it had been a part of the Underground Railroad, and that the survey had taken over a month to complete across two workers. So, I did a quick Google search to learn more. This church is now defunct and abandoned, but it is listed as an Ohio Historical Site<\/a>. According to AppalachianOhio.org<\/a>, it was the first Black church west of the Appalachian Mountains, the first Black church in Ohio, and the last Black church from the Antebellum era still standing in Ohio. Unfortunately, due to lack of funding and severe structural damage, the church is now listed as one of Ohio\u2019s Most Endangered Historical Sites and is at risk of being torn down. I found the church on Google Maps, and it is thankfully still standing as of November 2024.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Image of the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church.\u00a0Screenshot taken from Google Maps by Anne Scarberry.\u00a0<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

St. Mary\u2019s Catholic Church<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Frontside of two of the St. Mary\u2019s Catholic Church survey. Photo by Anne Scarberry.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Backside of two of the St. Mary\u2019s Catholic Church surveys.\u00a0Photo by Anne Scarberry.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

St. Mary\u2019s Catholic Church<\/a> is another favorite piece of mine in the collection.\u00a0Located in Marietta, Ohio and organized in 1837, St. Mary\u2019s is one of the oldest Catholic churches in the state of Ohio.\u00a0However, the name of the church has been changed since the survey was conducted on May 12, 1939. On June 13, 2013, Pope Francis declared this church a minor basilica for the parish\u2019s historical and architectural significance, and the name was changed to the Basilica of St. Mary of the Assumption.\u00a0A Basilica is a high honor granted by the Pope to churches deemed of significance.\u00a0This honor grants them special privilege and marks them as a place of spiritual importance to the Catholic Faith.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Antioch Christian Church<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Another interesting piece in the collection is the floor plan of the Antioch Christian Church or \u201cThe Church on the Hill\u201d in Antioch, Ohio.\u00a0This floor plan sticks out in the collection for three important reasons.\u00a0 Firstly, in the entire collection, this is the only floor plan of a church included, and secondly, it is hand drawn by the surveyor.\u00a0But most interestingly, this is a floor plan of a church that no longer exists.\u00a0I could not find any information about this church during my research and the survey lacked a specific street address to search for on Google Maps.\u00a0After numerous failed explorations of Antioch, Ohio on Google Maps street view, I\u2019ve been left to assume that the church is now defunct and that the building has been torn down.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Hand drawn floor plan of the Antioch Christian Church.\u00a0Photo by Anne Scarberry.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Frontside of the Antioch Christian Church survey.\u00a0 Photo by Anne Scarberry.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Newspaper Clippings, Maps, and Programs<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Two clippings from newspapers about the Rescue Mission Tabernacle Church. Photo by Anne Scarberry.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In a collection primarily filled with surveys and notes, newspaper clippings and other additional pieces tend to stick out.\u00a0So, I was excited to find not one but two newspaper clippings for one of the churches. The Rescue Mission Tabernacle Church in Newcomerstown, Ohio had an article featured on the front page of the Newcomerstown News and Index<\/em> on November 17, 1938.\u00a0The article asks the public for help funding the church so that they will not be forced to sell the building.\u00a0After reading the article, I turned to Google to find out what happened to the church.\u00a0As of now, the building is still standing but is now the Cornerstone-North Full Gospel Church.\u00a0However, I am unsure if the two churches have any relation.\u00a0The second clipping does not list where the paper came from, but the paper is dated April 29, 1939.\u00a0The clipping discusses the life of the church\u2019s Pastor, Fulbert Urich, and his contributions at length for the church\u2019s 10th<\/sup> anniversary.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Frontside of two of the Rescue Mission Tabernacle Church surveys.\u00a0Photo by Anne Scarberry.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Other pieces that stick out amongst the surveys are maps, particularly hand drawn ones.\u00a0The maps depict Perry Township, Hamilton Township, Fayette Township, and Elizabeth Township with impressive detail and accuracy.\u00a0For the churches of Southeastern Ohio that lack street numbers or are labeled with ambiguous locations on the surveys, the maps provide a very easy way to pinpoint their locations.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Four hand drawn maps of Fayette Township, Elizabeth Township, Hamilton Township, and Perry Township, Ohio.\u00a0Photo by Anne Scarberry.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Throughout the collection, there are programs, bulletins, and journals from the surveyed churches.\u00a0One of my favorite programs is from a Mother\u2019s Day service at the First Methodist Church of Ironton, Ohio because it is full of poetry written by members of the church. These pieces provide an interesting look into what was going on in a church at the time the survey was completed, such as events that were held, lists of members, and mass schedules. These pieces are also important because they often contain photos or drawings of the churches from the 1930s and 1940s.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

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  • \"\"
    Two 1939 programs and a Methodist Weekly News newsletter from the First Methodist Church in Ironton, Ohio.\u00a0<\/span>Photo by Anne Scarberry. <\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
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    One program and a 1940 newsletter \"Thoburn News\" from the Thoburn Methodist Church in St. Clairsville, Ohio.\u00a0<\/span>Photo by Anne Scarberry.<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
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    Church program from September 18, 1938 for the Church of the Nazarene in Bellaire, Ohio.\u00a0<\/span>Photo by Anne Scarberry. <\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
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    Frontside of the First Methodist Church in Ironton, Ohio survey and the first page of the \u201cHistory of the Methodist Episcopal Church\u201d essay.\u00a0<\/span>Photo by Anne Scarberry.<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
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    Frontside of the Thoburn Methodist church survey and one page of handwritten supplementary information. <\/span>Photo by Anne Scarberry.<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
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    Frontside of the Church of the Nazarene in Bellaire, Ohio and one page of handwritten supplementary information.\u00a0<\/span>Photo by Anne Scarberry.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    Moving Forward<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    Processing the Ohio Historical Records Survey on churches was overall an enriching and satisfying experience.\u00a0It provided me the chance to engage in a niche topic that I am interested in and work with the collection in a meaningful way to provide an organized collection for future researchers.\u00a0Collections like this provide us with pieces of history that are otherwise inaccessible, such as floor plans of torn down churches, photos of churches from the 1930s and 1940s, surveys about defunct churches, narratives from the surveyors themselves, and church histories that otherwise may not have been documented.\u00a0This experience was a perfect way for me to become familiar with the processing and handling of manuscripts in an archival setting, which I will be able to utilize throughout the rest of my experience as an intern at the Mahn Center and my future.\u00a0I\u2019m incredibly grateful to the Mahn Center for providing me with this opportunity and I will cherish this experience forever.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Anne Scarberry, English Literature, Culture, and Writing \u201926, Fall 2025 Manuscripts Intern (working with Greta Suiter, Manuscripts Archivist) Introduction and Processing the Collection Over the past eight weeks I have had the privilege of processing series two of the Ohio Historical Records Survey collection which focuses on Churches as an intern in the Mahn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5359,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,6],"tags":[257,20,90,259,141,258,256,260],"class_list":["post-5342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internships","category-manuscript-collections","tag-churches","tag-internship","tag-local-history","tag-manuscript-collections","tag-processing","tag-religion","tag-southeastern-ohio","tag-wpa"],"modified_by":"Greta Suiter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5342"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5406,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5342\/revisions\/5406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}